Chapter 45 dd1
Note: On a number of occasions both in print and film, Autobots have discussed how good it is that they don't need to breathe air to live. Bumblebee has said it before in the cartoon. Mars has a thin atmosphere that will serve their needs reasonably well. And that is the position of the story. -The management
=0=And now back to the story in progress
The Diego Diaries: "One small step for mechs..."
=0=Late that night
They walked out quietly as if to stroll around the airfield to visit with the Aerialbots and Cosmos who were parked for the night. In ones and twos, they walked together, Wheeljack and Perceptor, Beachcomber who had come a week earlier at the request of Prime. He was part of a group on a rocky planet far out in the Oort Field where bots were gathering to await the call to come in. Ironhide, Sunstreaker and Prime himself were among the last to meander out.
They walked about the jets like it was any other night, then one by one, headed to Cosmos to duck inside. Silverbolt who was scheduled to fly around the North Pole at the request of NASA was resting between the tower and Cosmos giving him cover with his bulk. When they were all on board, Cosmos closed his hatch and lifted off, ostensibly on his way to space for a recon mission around the outer edge of the inner planetary ring.
Sitting together happily discussing the future of the new world they would be exploring for the next ten orns and the potential it could have to be the new home of their tragic people, Prime sat back and felt a delight he hadn't felt in ages.
=0=Ratchet
He sat on the bench in front of the Autobot HQ considering the future as he watched Cosmos lift off and fade away into the night sky. Above him shown the stars of the universe and some place faraway was the planet that had been his home and the location of all their memories, history and culture. He wondered upon it tonight. How was it on Cybertron? Was anyone still there? Would they ever be able to figure out a way to make the fading space bridges work again? Would someday from Mars, their New Cybertron, would they be able to go back and forth? Would Cybertron be theirs once more as well? He didn't know. He just looked at the scanner in his servo.
Nothing.
They hadn't sparked.
Coolant pooled in his optics as he thought about the moment when they both had seen that it hadn't happened.
-0-Earlier
They sat together in Ratchet's office, Ironhide watching the dejection on Ratchet's face. When the prank war began he knew Ratchet was serious and he knew that the idea of a sparkling wasn't a random thing. They had talked before. Sometimes he thought they did because it was a way of talking a future into existence that might not come otherwise. They had been so close to the brink so many times that sometimes all they had were dreams and hopes.
But now they had some leeway and even though Ironhide wasn't convinced that things were safe enough to have sparklings around, he knew as well that day might never truly come. So he was happy with the final decision. Ratchet would do the honors. All they had to do was make it happen.
And it hadn't.
He wondered what it was like to know better, to have no leeway to kid yourself. Ratchet was the best mechanical doctor Cybertron had ever produced. He could read the data and know. They had failed. He reached over and took Ratchet's hand. They sat together a long time without saying a word and when the call from Prime came he had risen. They hugged tightly. He wanted to stay but he had to go and Ratchet knew it too. They had walked together parting at the hangar door. Ironhide never looked back.
Ever.
It was too hard. He just walked forward moving toward a project that could possibly provide the first home they would have since the fall of Cybertron. And as he did he imagined sparklings playing there, his sparkling among them.
-0-Ratchet now
He drew back his disappointment as he considered his home world. Cybertron was barren and so was he. Then he gathered himself together and thought about it. First times among the younger set had not been so common. In fact, he tried to remember when he last saw or cared for a sparked genitor. Another dagger in their collective hearts, the faded memories he recalled.
It pained him that it was so long ago. It was so far into the past that the youngling couples among them weren't even that interested in sparking their own. Hound and Trailblazer should have had sparklings of their own by now in a perfect world. On some world somewhere where it was perfect, there should be a flock of sparklings ranging around in a healthy population this size. He felt his spark squeeze for his people.
Then he made up his mind that he would be the one and it would let the others see what they were missing. He would be the trailblazer, he and Ironhide. He resolved that. He looked up and wondered again. For Cybertron, for their people, for the youngling mechs surrounding him, he would spark somehow.
Even if it killed Ironhide.
He smiled, warmed at last.
=0=Far away, under the same stars
Starscream lay in recharge, the night sky above him shining with countless stars and galaxies. He was far from the skies of his home world and for a moment he let it circulate through him, the homesickness he felt. Then he pushed it aside as he the pictures he received from Diego Garcia. He smiled. Those horrendous twins were playing as if the threat wasn't still there for them. He didn't mind that they were lulled into laxness. It worked for him that they might think they could let down and relax.
He would try to ship weapons again, leaving them with an intermediary arms dealer that was going to be in Alaska. He would try again to make trouble between the humans and the Autobots. It wasn't hard. Humans were hysterical and seemed to find fear a more natural state than reason.
He had made enough contacts and spread enough human money around to find himself a hook into the paranoid world of neocon warmongers and talking heads. He was now a welcomed addition to a number of exclusive listservs and mailing lists, his growing fortune finding entrance into the world of delusional theorists and the power elites. That he had merely 'transferred' money in dormant accounts in banks and investment houses all over the world into his own with little trouble was of almost no consequence to him. He wanted what it brought, not the thing itself.
Starscream smirked as he shifted on his berth to allow more comfort to his wings. He knew that if the ones he courted had enough flattery and cash from him he could get them to embrace Unicron. Perhaps they already had. They were all weak, stupid and his.
Kent.
Daniels.
Galloway.
None of them would know who they were really dealing with until it was too late. By then he would have enough money from arms deals and drugs to make inroads into the real power, international politics. Manipulate a lackey corporate-owned media, buy enough politicians, find the appropriate public face for his machinations, and the Autobots would be without a home on their benighted mud ball. It comforted Starscream as he lay in repose watching the Milky Way turn on its axis as it floated silently through the universe.
=0=Mars
They circled the planet, Prime going over assignments with his team and Cosmos. There would be a host of things to do for the short time they would be here. They were landing on the Tharsis Volcanic Province, a place of great volcanic upheaval long, long ago and the general area of the greatest and very much dead volcanoes on the planet including Olympus Mons, a shield volcano that lay at the western edge. Olympus Mons also had the distinction of being the biggest volcano in the entire solar system
They were going to be looking for raw materials that would allow them to make structures and equipment as well as provide a source of energy for nutrition. The technology to make other forms of energy into energon they had themselves. They just needed a place with the space and raw materials to make it in the quantities they would need to support their refugee populations, all of whom waited for help in places all over the galaxy.
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with but a first step," Prime said looking at his mechs. "We have to do our best to find the best location to begin a colony. The volcanic regions are rife with raw materials. That is our goal; find the necessities of life, then work our afts off to make it happen."
They nodded as Prime rapped the bulkhead. Cosmos acknowledging began to descend toward the planet below. They sat by windows watching as the rusty red soil of Mars got closer and closer. When Cosmos settled, the door opened and they stepped out, Prime first. He stood a moment looking out at the barely hospitable plain before himself. Then he stepped down, the surface dust pillowing around his ped like talcum powder.
Sunstreaker put a ped down, then sneered with distaste. "I never thought I'd be homesick for Earth. At least you stand on ground when you walk. Usually."
"Mech up, youngling," Ironhide said stepping out to look around. "This looks promising. I can see iron laying on the surface."
Prime bent down and picked up a meteor which was laying on the surface like a big stone. He raised it, hefting it in his hand. "Good start," he said with a smile. Looking around, he shook his head. "You will have to use your imagination a little for now."
=0=TBC c2010 (11) editing 1-1-17