The Diego Diaries: Queen (dd7 285)
(I had a very long call from Florida last night. Sorry) :D
=0=Later that morning
She stood at the door of Ops Center watching the goings-on. Sitting at a table working on something while Prowl stood over a console nearby, Optimus Prime was immersed in data. She felt a feeling of love rise inside her as she watched him. She'd lived a long life but in her time, one that spanned all the Primes since Guardian, she'd never met a more worthy being.
She thought about the run up to The Fall, one that had brought them together on a number of occasions when he ascended to the Primeship. He was the one who understood her the most and was the most humane and decent Prime of her experience. She was working to save Stanix and move the people away and he was trying to hold the line against the Decepticons who were winning all over the planet. They had many discussions in terrible places and each time he had come to her aid. When the end came, he was holding off a marauding enemy while the last groups were rushed out of the burning city to ships nearby. It had been a long round the clock operation and it wouldn't have succeeded without him.
The last time she saw him then, he was fighting three Decepticons in a rubble heap against a back drop of burning buildings and exploding bombs. The violence was astounding even to her, someone who had come to life at the end of the Quintessan Oppression. She watched as he dispatched them, then turned toward her to move forward.
He froze in his tracks as he stared up the street. Standing on a pile of rubble was the Empress. She was there with a couple of mechs who were armed and guarding her. It was clear to him why she was there. She was here to say farewell. He felt emotion rise in him as they stared at each other down a pitted street filled with fire and the dead. Buildings were burning fiercely as gas jets screamed in flame. He felt the burdens of the world on his shoulders, then relief that she had made what they planned together happen.
She stared at him with wild emotions, then raised her servo in salute. She held it as she stared at the energon streaked mech with his troops behind him. It was as strained and sad a moment as she had ever felt, the fall of her world and the uncertainty facing this mech that she loved. She would go and he would stay. That was who he was.
He stared at her, this small figure who was a giant among their people, who even Primes and Senators treated with deference. He raised his sword up to his face and held it, then lowered it again. He saluted her, a fellow leader of a fallen world, then watched with some grief as she reluctantly climbed down with her mechs to disappear into the terrors beyond. He stared at that spot for a moment or two, then gathered himself. He turned to his mechs. "We have to get to Simfur and save the Allspark. Get there," he said as a huge mech transformed to land heavily behind him.
Optimus turned to the mech. "I have to get to Simfur. Take me there."
Jetfire nodded, then transformed again.
Prime clambered upon his back and they sped off, flying through munition streaked skies over a burning world to go to the sacred heart of Cybertron to save the most precious relic of their people, one that was the Home of The One when He was among them. They didn't know that then. It wouldn't make much difference if they did. They just had to keep It away from Megatron…
She glanced at her son, the Deacon, and the two mechs and two queens with her, her senior fellows. Then she began to walk into the room toward Prime.
=0=Home
He walked in and closed the door of his apartment. His son was in his carry hold. He had retrieved him from school. He walked into the berth room where Niso was putting into a bag everything that mattered to them, mostly the play things of their son. Intel stood in the doorway watching her. She was the center of his world and for both of them nothing was more important than their son. "You ready?"
She glanced at him. "Have we got the way cleared?"
He nodded. "We do. When you're ready we'll go. We have to go through the service entrance. I saw the Deacon's mechs."
She nodded. "We have to be fast, Intel. He's no one's fool." She picked up the bag and he took it from her.
Handing out their son for her to stow, he put the bag in his hold, then took her servo. "Let's go," he said grimly. With that, the two walked to the door, took stock of their sensors, then hurried to the elevator to make their escape.
They would.
=0=Ops Center
Her aura reached him before she did. It reached everyone. One by one, they glanced up then toward her, feeling her energy before they saw her themselves. Sitting back a moment to consider it, they stood up driven by impulse for her as she walked past them. Most of them didn't know who she was but they knew her energy as something important and good. Nodding to her in respect, they watched as she walked onward drawing Prime and Prowl's attention at last.
Prime glanced up and saw her approach surrounded by her crew of leadership that were her optics and audials, her worker bees in the greater world beyond. He stood as he stared at her with deep emotion. When she reached him, he bowed slightly. "I am so happy to see you again, Lady Lido."
She smiled at Prime with shining optics. "And you, Optimus Prime. It has been too long between us. I am your servant."
A gasp behind them emanated from a mech but he recovered swiftly. He'd known her all his life but never heard such a thing said to an outsider as all non-Stanixians were called.
Lido grinned at him, then looked up at Prime again. "I am aware of why you have called me to come. I am here to help you, friend."
Prime glanced at Prowl. Then he stepped around the table. "If you will come with me, Lady. We have much to discuss."
She followed, walking beside him to the big conference room nearby. The others followed including Ratchet who arrived swiftly from an aid station in Engineer Hub nearby. He entered and the door closed behind him.
=0=At the Port of Mars, Bridge Room #3
The operator sat at his station waiting for more refugees to come. They were trying to move the most they could because a mission was upcoming, or so they were told and it would shut down immigration for a little bit. It was quiet in the room as the technicians stepped out for a cuppa. He, himself was going off shift shortly and would be heading home for lunch and the games on the television.
Behind him walking with purpose, a mech entered unnoticed. The crew was in a lounge nearby eating a snack and having a hot cup so they didn't see anyone come in. He walked to the operator, then tapped his shoulder.
The operator glanced up. "Can I help you? This area is off limits to-"
A gun appeared and was pointed at his face.
=0=Conference Room
"She is the daughter of a cousin of mine, a very nice femme who is a queen of my court. She is coming along with her mech and the rest of the group with her shortly. Apparently, her group was discovered by Ironhide and Blackjack the Elders when they were surveying the far side of the Empire," Lido was saying. She was sitting at the table next to Prime while everyone else was sitting or standing around the table. The femmes sat, the mechs stood. It was like being in Lido's living room.
"She is part of a road rage gang from Cybertron. We have warrants for their arrest, she and her bond, Intel of Slaughter City as well as their fellows. We do not want to make this difficult but we have to bring them in. We were hoping, Lady, that you might know more of their activities and behaviors than we do."
She considered that. "We are having the two watched. There is a child, a very small sweet infant. They haven't broken any laws here but I am aware of the warrants on Cybertron. I am gratified that they have kept the peace here, though it mitigates nothing." She sat back in thought. "They are very much in love and the bond, though not necessarily wanted was granted because it wa so evident. Niso is a very smart and strong minded femme. She would have bonded with him anyway. He is in thrall to her, such are their feelings of love together. That part is a good thing."
Prime nodded. "I would agree."
=0=Bridge Room #3
A number of mechs and a small femme walked in then donned head coverings before they reached the edge of the security cameras. The operator who was sitting with his back to them could hear them walk to the edge of the bridge, then stop short of the platform.
The mech with the gun to his helm leaned closer. "We have a mech here who agreed to watch your family. If you don't allow us to go to Cybertron, then things could happen."
The mech tensed. "What do you want me to do?" he asked fearfully.
"Send us to Iacon. When we're through and the bridge shuts down, we will message our mech. He will find his way to us otherwise. Your family will be safe. Mess up and they won't be. Understand?"
He nodded. "Yes."
"Then get the bridge up, let me see the destination data, then we go. Don't let anyone know for a joor, then you're free. If you send us anywhere else or tag us as we go to trace us, then we'll tell our mech so. You won't know who he is but he will, you. Understand?"
The operator nodded. "Yes."
"Do it," the mech said.
The operator's servos flew over the board and a bridge flamed into life. With the femme in the middle, the group stepped up and into the bridge. The mech with the gun watched the screen and when they were through he ran for it, too. He paused on the platform, then subbed his gun. "One joor. Don't be a fool."
The operator watched as he ran through. The bridge flamed on, then died. He sat a moment staring at the platform, then glanced at the gauges. They made it through. They weren't emergency tagged for tracking. They were on Cybertron and no one would be able to find them easily. He gulped as he emotionally thrashed in his quandary, then rose from his seat to run for the door. He wouldn't stop until he reached his home to find his family safe.
He would barricade the doorway, pull out his Home Guard weapon, then send out an emergency signal to the Watch. It would take the intervention of Steiner himself before the mech would open the door to the Watch when they arrived at his house.
=0=TBC 5-21-2020
=0=Note
I was wondering if anyone had noticed the framework for the Empress and her Stanix culture. I don't believe I mentioned this before or at any length. The entire structure of the Stanix clans is based on the framework of the xenomorph aliens of Alien. They have an Empress who rules all, queens who rule their own smaller kingdoms and there was a deacon among them. I find them completely repulsive but fascinating in their organization. They actually have a home world which must be the most awful place anyone can ever hope to avoid. :D Queens often war against each other, by the way. They are just about the most 'alien' aliens I've ever seen a human create for entertainment.
Guest: Thanks for the heads up. I will hammer and chisel those things. :D Michels is on the way. :D I want a number of villains in the story and he's one of them.
Silverhornd: There will be more kids. Buzzie and Cliff are among those who will be having them now. I asked Bumblebee and he flipped. LOL! I actually sort of do that and go with what they tell me. I'm thinking a surprise might be in order but which one? Hm... ;)