The Diego Diaries: Storm Clouds (dd7 289)
=0=On the decks of Paradisio
They walked through the massive ship taking various elevators and lifts up and down as well as sideways which was a real trip for the humans, the sideways thing, that is. Delving deep into the huge vessel, traveling downward to the very core of his being, they stepped off and walked down a corridor to a computer nexus that was important to the control and command functions of this individual. As they approached it, the air became noticeably hotter even for the humans through their suits.
:Why is it hot here, Ratchet? I can feel it: Niall asked as he stared down the corridor at a huge massive door that was of a very silvery color. It was sort of the type of design that a human could find on a bank vault door. Huge bolts were part of its construction and even though it looked solid, it was clear to the three humans that there was a seeming fluidity to it.
"We're in close proximity of Paradisio's spark chamber," Ratchet replied as they reached the doors he wanted. He began to input access codes.
:Is that why its hot? It's also sort of bright here: Lennox asked.
Ratchet glanced down, then toward the shiny vaulted doors down the way. He grinned at them. "See that door?"
They nodded.
"That's the first containment of his spark chamber. We have chamber doors that fold back to allow access, one door. There's two more for him and all of them have to slide back to reach his spark. You wouldn't want to do that. The spark of a mechanism this big rather resembles the corona of a star," Ratchet said as the door he wanted through slid open. He looked at them. "You grow to the size of your spark. These mechs including the titans have huge sparks. They give off a lot of heat and light as well. Ours are bright and you can feel the heat if you touch them. But they don't compare in any manner besides their function with these."
:You can touch your own spark?: Epps asked.
Ratchet nodded. "It doesn't feel hot to us because we're not organic. You would burn your hands. As for this spark?" he asked as he glanced down the hallway. "You wouldn't live part the second vaulted door." He stepped inside the doorway and the gravity cart followed.
As they entered, the room lit up. As far as the optic could see were huge data banks. They had cables a good thirty feet wide in long bundles that snaked everywhere hooking all of the data devices around them together. In the center a good mile away, there was a huge device covered in lights that was one of the dozen or so master computers located on the ship. All of them fed into this one, the master device that was where Paradisio's personality lived, his central processor.
:Wow. Who do you call when you get a glitch?: Graham asked.
Ratchet chuckled. "Me, if I'm around. They have an extremely sophisticated self repair and diagnostic system. They're almost completely self contained."
:Did you have any hand in creating these mechs? I suppose that you build the body but the Pantheon supplies the spark, then: Graham said.
Ratchet thought a moment, then nodded. "We did most of it. When the spark came from the Well, it completed the really important parts itself. There's a lot of voodoo in the process of making homes for sparks like his. Much of the hardest and most important stuff comes directly from the Pantheon when the Well grants a spark like this."
:What do we do here, Ratchet?: Lennox asked as he filmed the scene with his camera.
"Well, I have to jump start a diagnostic," Ratchet said as he continued onward to the main computer a long way down the corridor. "I have to start it with my codes, then we can go elsewhere."
They walked through the empty vastness staring at endless rows of towers that went in all directions in seemingly endless rows. When they reached the nexus, Ratchet found the console that he needed. He plugged in, then began to type. When he finished his codes, he stood in silence apparently listening to the hum of data that began with his efforts. After a couple of moments, he glanced down at the humans. "All ready to go?" he asked.
They nodded so he walked back the way he came. When he headed back to the elevator with the cart following, the three humans stared at the vast doors that were the equivalent to the sliding covers of the bot's spark chambers. Behind it was the sentient immortal soul essence of the most enormous being any of them would ever know. It was a very sobering sight.
=0=Titans
They gathered in the lower deck sub command center of the Ops Center. Metroplex and Typhoon were there with the four hunters, Sunset, Fury, Relentless, Calamity as well as Paradisio and Sunrise. Fort Max, Hammer of Primus, Dangerous and Omega Supreme were gathering to work out the plan of action that was going to be first served up to Ominous and his crew. They pulled chairs, then sat just as Xantium and Kappa walked in.
"You took your sweet time," Hammer said with a grin.
"We were occupied," Xantium said with a mild leer.
Kappa slapped the back of his helm, then sat. "Ignore him. He feels invincible. He won a spat with the Dinobots and didn't get hurt doing it."
"Only you would be injured by those little shrimps, Xee," Fort Max said with a chuckle.
"You corral them, then," Xantium said to Max.
"No thanks," Max said. "They're your spark ache. Right now, we have to divide up the plan and work out the strategy that we're going to be using in tandem with each other."
They would spend the next few joors troubleshooting and refining the plan to take their massive might to the enemy. What the enemy would do about it would be a first run of their operation. The second would be against Razorclaw.
=0=Later that evening
Prowl hurried home to get things going. He was having dinner catered given that there were so many coming and he'd been working on the operations, several of them, since morning. He entered the apartment, then hurried to the kitchen. Sitting in warming ovens, the dinner he planned was keeping. A note pinned to the cupboard was from Bon, Rampage's bond.
"Prowl, I put things into the ovens and the rest is in the refrigerator. The ingredients in the covered dishes on the counter need mixing. The yellow bowl needs to be heated. Follow the instructions. The rest is done. Have fun and give my regards to all your elders. Bon"
Prowl grinned, then texted Bon a message of gratitude. Soon the kids would be here and so would the elders a short time later. He had to get the kids fed, sorted out, then prepare for guests. Optimus would arrive shortly before they did bringing with him as much work as Prowl did when he reached home.
He hustled to the cabinet nearby and pulled out vintages that he'd accumulated for this moment when family was found and returned. It would be good food, elegant but casual and the start, he hoped, of all the elders into their new life with new friends and family to support them.
A door opened in the living room and the sound of children running in was heard. He grinned, then walked out to see them enter. They saw him, then ran with delight for hugs. It would be wonderful.
=0=At the bus stop
Ironhide, Raptor and Sun stood on the sidewalk waiting for buses to arrive. Blackjack and Jack along with Rockwell were still on Cybertron but would be home shortly. Everyone else was either still at work winding down for the orn or heading home on various devices. Alor was coming from Las Vegas and soon they would converge on Ironhide's apartment to eat dinner.
The operation would soon be go and then the children would have to be juggled. Cows, cats and dogs would be managed as well. As they chatted together about all of it, buses began to be seen trundling toward them on the now pristine streets. In the desert being saved for glass making and other refinements, massive mounds of debris carted off from the cities, highways and train tracks were accumulating.
"Here they come," Raptor said with a grin.
The bus stopped then the door opened and infants were helped down by an aide. Swaggering out with his usual pizzazz, Orion led the way. He glanced around with a giant smile, then saw his elders. "ATAR! APPA POO! APPA TATER! I LOVE YOU!"
Appa Tater aka Raptor and Appa Poo aka Sun loved him back.
They gathered infants as they came, Praxus with Orion, then Hero by cab, Prowler by Circle bus, Sunspot and Spot who waved at Bos, Reflector and Co-D along with everyone else, then three of the nine titan/dread kids by bus from Iacon. They gathered around, then walked toward the tower where all of them would go up and unload from the orn. By the time that everyone had arrived there, dinner would be nearly ready to serve. The only one who wouldn't be there was Ratchet.
=0=Saturn Shipyard
The three humans stayed a long time, then were taken back to Mars by a Home Guardian. Waving goodbye, they disappeared into one of Paradisio's many bridges.
Ratchet watched them go, then vented a sigh. He managed a good dozen messages internally to doctors, techs and medics here and there on the vast vessel, then walked to a communications room to pull up a chair to sit. Tapping in a code, he grinned as the call went through. Ironhide answered the call. "Hey."
"Hey. Where are you?" Ironhide asked as the sound of children, adults and eating could be heard.
"I'm on Paradisio. He's going to need a bunch of attention. Sunrise is coming in a couple of joors but he's less problematic."
"You eat?" Ironhide asked.
"Not yet," Ratchet replied.
"I'll bring ya something if I can," Ironhide said.
"You have to babysit until I get this in hand," Ratchet said.
"How long is that going to take, you think?" Ironhide asked.
"A good few orns," Ratchet said, grinning as he watched Ironhide frown slightly. "Can't be helped."
"I thought you trained a few more doctors in big frame medicine?" Ironhide asked as he reached down to pick up Orion.
"You need more than a few lessons for these guys," Ratchet said. "This is of a complexity that's hard to comprehend."
"ADA!"
The noise paused a moment, then the sound of chairs moving could be heard. Suddenly, an endless array of faces appeared from titanic kids to the babies they held and the mob of elders from both sides.
"Ada, when are you coming home?" Fireball asked.
"I might pop in tonight if I can," Ratchet said. "I'm with Paridisio and he's got a few things to tweak. All of them do. The Hunter group is going to be shot full of holes. You know it and so do I but I'll try to come in. Do you kids need lunches or something for tomorrow?"
"We do, Ada. We're doing that weather unit in science and the station on the TransWorld Highway at Central Point is where we have to go. We can get it ourselves," Genesis said. "You don't have to worry about it, Ada."
"I do and I will. I'll make sure you have your lunches, infants. All you have to do is study and be happy," Ratchet replied.
"That's hard to do when you aren't home," Quasar said as the others nodded.
Ratchet chuckled. "I know. I miss you, too. Are you helping your elders? They're so broken down and old, they need keepers."
"I HEARD THAT!" -a dozen or so elders
"I have to get on it if I'm coming in tonight. I'll call you later, Ironhide. I'm having things sent to the house for the kids lunches. I can tell you what you need to do for their them later," Ratchet said. "Eat something for me."
"Ratchet," Docker said as she peered at the screen. "You have to eat something, infant."
"I will. Have you ever seen the mess hall on a ship this big? Don't worry about me," Ratchet said. They chatted a moment, then signed off. Ratchet sat a moment feeling sorry for himself, then rose to do his job. As he did, he ordered food to be sent to the house later that evening.
=0=The Residence
They brought dishes into the kitchen, Prowl and Optimus. The elders were going to help but were overruled by the two.
Prowl stacked them in the sink. "We can do this later," he said as he glanced up at Optimus. "It's going very well. They seem to have common ground. I worried about that."
"You worry about things that do not matter. All of them are good and they have family in common. I think Corsair and Imaldo look well. I can say the same about Styre and Stealth."
"Vinn is a miracle worker," Prowl said as he took glasses from a tray Prime held. "All of them are getting better. I'm very relieved. Now if we could just do something about my Appa and Amma ..."
"Shadow and Zenith are set in their ways, Prowl. It might be that they never change from their current condition," Optimus said gently.
Prowl glanced up at him feeling that he was right. "Their loss, then."
They would finish stacking dishes for later, then walk out to have dessert with the group. It would be fun and happy, something that would be the start, hopefully, of more such moments.
=0=Later that night when everyone was in bed
He stood at the counter following instructions. On the monitor nearby, Ratchet was giving them. "Then you put the white condiment on the buns, Ironhide."
Ironhide stared at six buns which lay in a row in front of him , two sandwiches for each growing mech. "How much?"
"Enough to cover them," Ratchet said with a grin. He was waiting for data so he called to help Ironhide prepare decent filling lunches for Fireball, Genesis and Quasar for their field trip. "Then use the yellow one, do it the same way. Then layer it with pickles."
Ironhide would do it step by step. When sandwiches were in their containers, he glanced up with a bit of triumph. "What's next? I, Ironhide am ready for more."
Ratchet laughed. "Good. Now take out the little bowls and listen to me about how to layer the next stuff. Get the seven little containers from the box and a spoon for each of them."
"The little containers?" Ironhide said as he fumbled around for spoons and the next item.
"There. Now take a couple of spoonfuls and spread them out on the bottom of the containers," Ratchet said. He watched Ironhide do it with intense concentration. It was hysterical. "Now do the same adding a layer from each of the containers until you have seven layers in each of their bowls."
He would. It would be hilarious.
=0=TBC 5-28-2020 I heart DJB.