The Diego Diaries: Sphere (dd7 237)
=0=Iacon on their way back with a sulker (not Ironhide)
"Where are you going now, Ratchet?" Ironhide asked as they all walked toward the space bridges at The Citadel to go to wherever they were going.
"I have to check Optimus, then sit in on one of the final pre-sign off meetings for the space station. This one has all the heads of departments and the like along with the reporters. We're going to show it to them at its near final stages, then discuss a lot of things that need understood," Ratchet said. He looked at Ironhide who was stowing Halo. "Where are you going with that infant, I might add?"
"I have to help Appa, then tomorrow I have to go with Amma," Ironhide said as he shot uptight optics at Turbine. "That many chapters?"
"I was thinking more," Turbine said as Ironhide slowed in dismay.
"Uh, that's alright, Amma. If you go too fast you miss the, uh, nuances," Ironhide said, then he smiled a big cheese eating smile like Orion.
"You can flash me the biggest and best smiles you have, infant, but it won't get you out of this," Turbine said as they walked into the big bridge room that transported individuals around the planet and beyond. "Though they're cute as a button."
"Frag," Ironhide said with a snivel.
Ratchet hugged him. "You want my little book?"
"I have Ada's. At least he underlined and highlighted slag for me," Ironhide said with a smirk. "Slaggers. SINCE WHEN IS THE TEMPLE USED FOR PUNISHMENT!?"
"When your baby boy turns out to be a hoodlum," Turbine said as he hugged the slag out of Ironhide. "See ya. Wouldn't want to be ya," he said as he stepped through to go to his district in Nova Cronum.
"Who wouldn't want to be me?" Ironhide asked to great derision.
Ratchet walked through his bridge into The Fortress with laughter from the others lighting his way. He grinned as he walked upward to leave the building, then headed across town to the home tower. Upward he went in the elevator, then out to the Penthouse. Rapping on the door, he peered inside. Prime was sitting on his chair working on official business and a Prowl-Prepared™ lunch as Ratchet walked in with a grin. "Well, look at you," he said before sitting in Prowl's chair. "Any owies I have to kiss?"
"I am sitting on most of those," Optimus said with a grin.
Ratchet laughed as he scanned Prime. "You're doing better. Its rather nice that you don't have to depend upon automatic repair systems for this stuff. If we hadn't done that so much in the past our hurts would heal faster now. But going off half cocked with them only healed so far, its made it harder and longer to now. You can't abuse yourself, even us without paybacks some fine orn. That's why I laugh so much at Bay's movies. He killed the medic, then expected everyone to survive the wounds he gave us in the films. Remember when Lockdown impaled you with a sword?"
"I try not to," Optimus said with a smirk.
"That's why you have me," Ratchet soothed. "There's no way you would have survived a sword below the spark chamber. In fact, I think he hit your spark core given the fire and explosions that poured out of the wound. Now we can take the time to really heal and get it done. Amirite?" he asked with a dazzling smile.
"If you say so, Mom," Optimus said.
"You're awfully smart alec today," Ratchet said. "I think that's a good look for you."
Prime grinned. "I try," he said as they both laughed. "What is the timeline, then?"
"Well, I would okay you to light duty at The Fortress tomorrow. Then a good week or so," Ratchet said. "I want the welds to set as they say. I want be sure that they can take the beating. I'm going to tell Password at the league office that I won't clear you for the game this weekend and its a call in progress for the one next decaorn. I don't want to keep putting arm and leg struts in."
"I am not against that idea either," Prime said. "They still feel tender. Is that normal?"
Ratchet scanned him, then considered the data. "Yep." He smiled. "You can't abuse yourself the way you do and not feel it. I'm very clear that you've passed millenniums with your pain receptors dialed down to zero."
"You noticed that did you?" Prime asked with a grin.
"I did." Ratchet grinned. "Speaking of pain receptors … Sun did the shock treatment with Rockwell. He's not progressing so Sun adopted him. Or was it Jack? I don't know. Both of them are so handsome I sort of lose track of myself when they're around."
Prime laughed. "That went over well, did it?"
"Like a lead balloon," Ratchet said. "What are you working on?"
"The space station, the follow ups on Nova Cronum and the planetary movements. A number of different things and budgets … I do not like doing budgets, Ratchet." Prime grinned. "Such is the life."
"And what a life it is," Ratchet said. "I think we can start towing the station to its parking site. They want to put it between Jupiter and Saturn, those who care one way or the other. Most of them aren't part of the operation though. Just commentators and jack asses on Earth in the media."
"And they will never be. Make sure, Ratchet, that they understand that I hold clear title on that station." Prime grinned. "If you need them, I have the keys."
"That's because you're the mech. By the way, if I get them expect me to joy ride. I wonder how fast that slagger can go with me behind the wheel?" Ratchet grinned. "I always wanted to drag race with space stations. It's on my bucket list."
Prime grinned. "I think I have that fantasy myself."
Ratchet snickered. "What do you need before I go and lie to the rubes?"
Prime grinned. "You can hand me that remote over there," he said pointing to the teevee remote sitting on a chair nearby.
Ratchet rose to get it, then tossed it to him. "Enjoy your down time. These are the days of your life, or so a soap opera told me once."
"You, too. I will be here watching westerns if you need me. I do believe they are doing a 'Virginian' marathon on channel 73," Prime said.
"Tape them for me. Old Ironbutt is having it out with the elders. He might need the diversion." Ratchet grinned. "He has to read and be ready to discuss the first ten or so chapters of the Chronicles with Amma Turbine tomorrow."
"I thought it was only five," Optimus said with a grin.
"He's never going to learn when to hold them and when to fold them," Ratchet said with a dazzling smile. "See what I did there? Huh? Huh?"
"I did, pardner," Optimus said with a chuckle. "Have fun."
"You, too, but not too much. You aren't cleared for that yet. Good thing you're bonded with Prowler," Ratchet said as he walked to the door and left. It closed quietly behind him. Prime's laughter, however, was anything but quiet.
Optimus stared at the door with amusement, then clicked the remote to turn on his western channel. Bonanza was still running. Hoss was chasing leprechauns. He grinned. He loved this episode. With a lighter spark, he worked on his duty while he indulged his fun side.
For once, the self denying slagger.
=0=The big conference room, The Fortress, Mars
Ratchet sat down in his chair with the remotes and a couple of data pads. Sitting on the table were about fifty humans from the habitats on world and on the massive monitor that filled the back wall, separate screens showed the faces of about two hundred more. He grinned, then punched a few buttons. "Hear ye, hear ye, this slagger is now in session. I'm Commander Ratchet, Ambassador of the whole shebang and Secretary of State for the Prime of Cybertron and we're going to go through this meeting to get a bead on the status of the station, the schedule for its occupation and the rules.
"I know that everyone knows each other, that you're aware of the rules and all of that. But it never is out of order to go over it again, especially when everyone is gathered together to hear it. There's no plausible deniability that way," he said as the group laughed from wherever they were.
Sitting on the table were the leaders of the various habitats, the four consortium reporters for the MCA who were stationed here to do reporting for all services back on Earth, local reporters from Unidad, Earth 1 and Earth2 along with leadership and top management from the same places and The Resort, NEST and the Consulate. They were all here to get the updates and ask a zillion questions. Most of them had to do with how they could network together. Given that Unidad and this station were exclusive property of the Prime and Autobot Nation, their autonomy was guaranteed in relation to the others.
"Let me update you on the station itself. All of it is finished including the levels of agriculture except for some of the electronics that manage the security of the station's plant and a few things needed to open the Teletraan nexus that you will use for your work and other research. Every habitat has a reserved sector for their programs and access to non-risk or public access information. The library system for everyone is networked with our own, the University and the museums. Part of the Archives of Cybertron and the Art Museum are available as well. The only things you can't access are those deemed secured.
"The station itself has 160 decks, all of them tall enough for us to walk around in. We build our habitats, all of them with that possibility. We need to be able to access them for all of the noted situations in the agreements and treaties. The top twenty decks are going to be reserved for agriculture. The next twenty are labs and offices. The next forty are habitations. Everyone who lives here has their own apartment.
"We're very clear that amenities are important and want any Autobot Nation employees to have a good quality of life. It will take a long time to inhabit all of the station so those floors that are in dormancy will be locked out for you. That way we can upkeep everything better by controlling the amount of space being used against that which is waiting occupation through expansion. We also will have a deck with sports facilities, trails to run, swimming and other possibilities. That will be below the habitation decks.
"There will be private as well as communal dining. It's designed to feed hundreds and hundreds at a time. There will also be the town decks, two of them that are designed to hold businesses and make a downtown for the 'city' that's created by this design. There will be an administrative plaza with the city hall, hospital, library, three schools for the children, a museum, the newspapers and broadcast studios located together as well as a big business district for individuals to make and conduct businesses to make this experience more 'normal' for you.
"The plant occupies the bottom 20 levels which will be off limits to all of you and will be manned by our people who will bridge in and out from Autobot City for shifts. Its designed inside the station to simulate the circadian cycle for you with dawn, day, evening and night, utilizing the twenty-four hour day span from Earth. Lighting will adjust as the day wears onward though outside will be the darkness of space. The station is a massive thing with floor to ceiling windows all around so that you can see outside. Its as secure as can be given that we've been doing this for zillions of years. We want both experiences available, space and the sensation of life on a planet.
"We've discussed the Resort's suggestions with Judy and the Resort Squad and have approved the station as a stopover for tourists. We also have plans to open an annex to The Resort on one of the levels for a future date to operate as a hotel and spa. The station will have a large area of restaurants, shops and the like for Cybertronian goods whose proceeds go directly into the Primal Foundation located in the 'town' decks. All of that will be finalized down the road when the station is operational and the kinks worked out. We have applications for businesses which will be discussed further down the agenda.
"There will be two levels of recreational development of environmental habitats that include and are not limited to a grassland, forests, lakes with beaches and running rivers. Those are still being created so those decks will be off limits for now. There will be a road system and places to hike and camp built in with the idea of making slopes where some skiing can be managed. We'll be creating as many different features of Earth as we can given that this is a space station and not a planet. Space can mess you up if you're not used to it so we want an area that can be used for recreation and feel like home.
"The Hu-An are in charge of that and the agricultural levels. They've done the hard work of turning soil into something useful and making sure all the plants, the water features, small animals, birds and insects are up and running. We're going to be very careful what we introduce among the bird, insect and fish population. They tell me the squirrels are having a great time in the forests.
"We're going to look at images now," Ratchet said as he activated another wall size screen that was seldom used in committee meetings but was there nonetheless when they were planning things for missions.
The screen came on with the logos of the Primes, Mars and Cybertron. The newly added icon for the Empire was there as well. The background was the ever changing screensaver for the Community Bulletin Board featuring images of Cybertron, Mars, Earth and the local group. Ratchet tapped his remote and the scene changed.
The view of space was incredible. In the distance, the lights of the Midway Array could be seen. In the foreground, the space station hung in the darkness like a jewel. It was silver in coloration with a belt of copper that ran around the middle of it with glyphs and images inlaid in it. Lights poured out of it from every level and if you looked hard enough you could see the odd person walking around or a bot. At the top and bottom of it spires extended, deep space antennas for expediting information and bearing some of the load of talk between Earth, Mars and Cybertron.
It was a glorious thing to see.
Ratchet grinned, then sat back to enjoy their amazement. "This station is nearly in place. We're putting it between Mars and Earth as you can see from the Midway Array. Jupiter and Saturn don't help us with retrieving information in a timely manner. This does. We've placed antennas to help get Seeker information from deep space patrols faster, send and receive from Cybertron more swiftly and it looks fabulous." He smiled brilliantly.
Huge laughter greeted that. Whatever else they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.
Probably.
:What's the name of the station, Ratchet, and have you settled on the director of the whole thing?: someone asked from the crowd.
Ratchet grinned. "We have. The director is going to be a mech named Cisco. He's a graduate of a number of great schools, is an economist who's taken up studies in agriculture and has a vast background in running space stations. He's a mech from Helex and has a large family. His sons are going to be helping with the station as well, working in management and communications. You'll find him a lot of fun and he's a really decent mech with a lot of experience in working with aliens. Given that the station is owned by Autobot Nation, we decided given that its actually in space, the least amenable placement for organics, that we'd pull our most senior station commander into the job."
:So they'll have command over all of the programs and the station itself?; a reporter asked.
Ratchet nodded. "This is a station in a zero error environment. Its much more dangerous a place than Mars. You might, just might survive a boo-boo on Mars but not in space. As for the name, we're going to call this The Prima Station of Cybertron and Mars."
It was silent a moment, then the reporter asked again. :I've heard that name before. Who or what is Prima?:
Ratchet smiled brilliantly. "Why, that's the name of Prowler's little brother."
They stared at him in silence.
=0=On a dimensional plane nearby
"Do you suppose they really named it for the baby?" Solus asked with amusement.
"No. I watched the meeting," Micronus said. "I find them amusing."
"It's named after Prima then," Solus asked.
Micronus nodded. "It is. I wonder when they'll name something after Me."
"Give them time, brother. Give them time." Solus grinned. "They named their daughter after Me."
Micronus smirked at Her. "Rub it in."
"I will," She said with a smile.
A bright light flashed, then two mechs walked forward, Onyx and Prima Prime. They paused beside the two. Prima stared at the scene before them, then looked at the others. "They have the station running, I take it."
"They do. They named it after Me," Micronus said with a wicked grin.
=0=TBC 3-22-2020 4-10-2020
The reference to 'hold them or fold them' was from The Gambler by Kenny Rogers who died yesterday.