Chapter 86
-0-On the command deck
Jazz frowned. He looked at Prime who was sitting nearby in a state of mild irritation. Jazz walked to him, pulling out a chair to sit. "It would appear that they didn't go out on the internet this time, Prime. None of the usual routes were used."
"Then they might be aware that we are on to them. I want this tracked down. We need to know who is the mule or if they are utilizing some transport function to send things away. The last thing we need is for more information on the children to get out," Prime said. "What kind of activity is happening around Nast and Intel-Martin?"
"A number of messages between 'High Flyer' and Nast. He wants 'the package' and Flyer is fixin' to deliver."
Prime thought a moment. "Put Autobot City on high alert. I do not think they know where Springer and Arcee are but I do not want to take any chances. The Mole must not succeed."
Jazz nodded. "When are we goin' to pull him out of his hole?"
"Not just yet," Prime said. "He is our direct line to Starscream." He considering a few things. "I think it might be a good time to feed him some false information and see if we can hit them back."
Jazz nodded, smiling without humor as he rose to make it happen. "Sounds good to me."
-0-Autobot City, Mars
Springer walked through the hub on the way to the Ops Center. He'd gotten the word to raise the threat level to high. Obviously, Prime felt there was a potential for attack. He walked past the refugees, many of them now working at some task in the facility, 'earning their keep' as the older ones mentioned from time to time. He reassured them but they insisted on being useful. They were the salt of the Earth as the humans said, the broad shoulders upon which a world stood.
Pausing at the stairs to let a femme and sparkling pass, he took them three at a time and was in the Ops Center in no time. He had organized his defense and the crews were in place. After alerting the refugees to the upcoming drills, Springer sat down at the command console and began to direct the first drill involving live ammunition. He would test run the turret guns and other defenses that would protect them in the matter of an attack.
When they were finished, they would exceed expectations by many degrees. If your life was threatened and you were protecting your family and friends, you'd be pretty slaggin' accurate, too, he thought as he commed his teams and they began all over again.
-0-Nast
He smiled as he relaxed in his chair. He had gotten an email that his desired objects would be delivered to him at a warehouse in Oregon. The kicker of the whole thing was he was expected to show up himself and take custody. High Flyer would be there and he wished to meet Nast face-to-face. It would be a good thing to meet someone who shared his values and outlook, he thought. The possibility of accumulating greater wealth and power waved in his face like a red cape.
He'd phoned his Field Ops director, Thomas Jaspers and he would get the team and equipment together to take the 'objects' back to Texas where his techs would be waiting. He would have the femme, Arcee and the mech, Springer. High Flyer seemed especially glad to be able to deliver Springer for reasons Nast couldn't quite understand but he didn't care.
He'd have two Autobots, their weapons systems, their advanced communications and self-repair capabilities. He would have their armor and their CPUs. The potential for earning by engineering products and weapons from all of this was staggering.
He leaned back in his chair, put up his feet and lit his Columbian cigar. Picking up a whiskey and soda, he sipped it and calculated the influence on the world he would have soon. He would be the most powerful man on Earth. He smiled as he relaxed in his chair. The sun setting on the horizon cast long shadows on his office floor. All was well in his world.
-0-Ratchet
He stood in the Rec Room considering the request. It was a nice holiday for the humans but it was without counterpart in Cybertronian culture. Christmas. A Christmas tree. The presents part had resonance. Giving gifts was a way to build familial and friendship ties almost everywhere and among every species he'd ever encountered that had material culture.
As for their own religion(s) … it was a forbidden topic to discuss with the humans. It was deeply personal for everyone. Religious holidays were specific and none of them revolved around anything more complex (usually) than a salute to Primus, his defeat of Unicron and the sincere hope that it stayed that way.
Lennox, Epps and Graham had assured him that the Christmas season had as much to do with religion as a person wanted and that the 'pretty' side was what a lot of people appreciated beyond the events it grew out of. 'You have kids now, Ratchet. Everyone is going to be celebrating Christmas. Maybe we can get a tree and decorations for your kids. They can have something pretty around to look at,' he had said.
A quick chat with Optimus who having seen Christmas trees before led to his agreement for the children's sake. Ratchet had, too, when he was parked on surveillance in front of Barney's in New York on a Christmas Eve. It still seemed incomprehensible to cut down a perfectly good tree, decorate and light it, then put it in a prominent place in your domicile to shed needles before being thrown away in the trash. Odd, humans. Then he agreed with Prime to let the soldiers know that the idea for the younglings was a good thing.
It would be, Ratchet thought. They could use pretty and fun, joy and laughter. Their reticence and fearfulness was dropping a few degrees but they were still delicate and needed lots of the right attention. Watching Sideswipe and Bluestreak walk past, Blue carrying Silverbow while Sideswipe held Spirit, he smiled.
Attention the younglings would get.
/ ...Now how do you get a Christmas tree? …/ he thought. He started out toward the N.E.S.T. HQ to ask.
-0-Nast
He cleared his week, making sure that the night of December 21st was open. That would be when he would pick up his 'artifacts'. Jaspers would have a four man team ready and two trucks to carry both away. He would be there in the ubiquitous black SUV that the company had in spades.
He would meet with High Flyer, take stock of him and maybe even find out how he had an inside track with the Decepticons. Maybe the billionaire mystery man could make the introductions and both of them could share the booty of such ventures. He felt good, better than good and in a few days he would be on his way to mastery of his own universe and more money and power than he could use. Such problems were good, he thought as he walked down the hallway of his office building.
Good, indeed.
-0-At the N.E.S.T. HQ
Ratchet knocked on the door then bent down to peer into the windows. A gaggle of femmes inside looked up to see him so a lot of high pitched squeeing followed. Raising back up, stepping back as the door opened, three air force and an army woman stepped out.
"Hi, Ratchet. What can we do for you?" they asked.
He looked at them with a grin on his sweet face. "I'm looking for Captain Lennox, Sargent Epps and/or Lieutenant Graham."
They looked at each other, then back up again. "They're in meetings."
"I see," Ratchet said.
"How can we help you?" an air force woman asked.
"Well … I, uh," Ratchet began with a sense of foreboding.
-0-A couple of joors later
They had brought things in, a few boxes and an artificial Christmas tree on the back of a hummer. Ratchet followed with the feeling that things had gotten waaaay out of hand. They had swarmed, overpowering him with their zeal and willingness to assist with the project. By the time he was finished counting his digits they were on their way. The group gathered at the door of the main hangar entrance.
"Where to, Ratchet?" Sargent Jessie Landon asked with a big grin on her pretty face.
He looked down, then up, wishing he could sigh. It was such a nice reflex, he thought. So much more so than another reflex he'd seen earlier that gave him the willies.
Spitting.
"Follow me," he said as he resigned himself to his fate.
Whatever it was.
The hummer followed Ratchet as he went into the hangar, driving around the tables and down a corridor for the room that was reserved for the kids, the same ones that were displayed on half the gossip websites, television shows and newspapers of the whole fraggin' world.
-0-Autobot City, Mars
They had debugged the system and the outer relay sensor array had come on line, sending information to both Teletraan II on Earth and its sister, Teletraan III on Mars. Prime had informed Springer that the effort by Starscream to deliver Arcee and him to Nast was go again. His irritation was only exceeded by his efficiency now that The Fortress had civilian refugees, including three, soon-to-be four sparklings.
Springer would work hard and Starscream would make a mistake. He didn't intend to be the one who'd falter. Arcee, for her part was advocating for the femmes, all four of them becoming a united group. He and Arcee were to stay on Mars and hunker down. The intel was coming in slowly but the goal was not changing. Nast wanted Arcee and him on a slab with faceless sparkless technicians slicing off parts of both of them. Fraggers, he thought. It would never happen.
-0-Younglings' play room
The soldier femmes had stood in the doorway looking at the four infants, their faces filled with excitement over seeing them up close and personal.
Ratchet entered and the younglings paused to look at him, spotting the humans as they did. Silverbow and Spirit rose immediately to walk to Sideswipe and Bluestreak who had returned to the room to sit with the other two infants. They slipped their arms around Sideswipe, sitting on his lap as they looked at the humans with their little unblinking blue optics. The other two were less fearful but reticent none the less.
"We have a surprise from the humans," Ratchet said kneeling down to the kids. {"I don't know how to do this but these soldier femmes are going to do it, then show you,}" he said in their language.
The younglings looked at him, then sat back to watch with wary optics as the cheerful femmes of the United States Armed Forces began to assemble a Christmas tree in the corner. By the time the balls and lights were strung, the children were creeping closer to look at the pretty lights and ornaments with fascination.
One of the femmes, a corporal named Clarice turned to see them, then held out a handful of tinsel to Silverbow. She stared at Clarice, then the tinsel before tentatively reaching out for it at last. She took it, then ran back to stand behind Bluestreak, holding the silver tinsel close as she watched the soldiers. They waited with smiles a moment, began to put some more on the tree.
When the tree was all trimmed, the soldiers hugged, thanked and gone away, only then did Silverbow walk to the tree and very carefully, one long strand at a time place it on the lighted bows
Ratchet and the others watched as emotion diminished conversation. They watched the tiny femme place each piece of tinsel just so.
-0-Jazz, later that afternoon
He walked to the conference room for the update briefing for Senior Autobots, sitting down to slide datapads to those there that held the latest intel. The operation was go and Nast was making preparations. They would use a jet to take the 'packages' to Texas from a pick up spot in Oregon. A team of four of his 'best operatives' would be run by the Field Ops general himself, Tom Jaspers.
They discussed the intel for a joor, then broke up to follow Ratchet to the younglings' play room. Entering, they stood along the wall and watched as emotion rose in their processors. The four little infants were sitting in a circle around the Christmas tree looking with bright optics at the pretty lights and decorations in the darkened room, touching them and watching them spin colorfully. Behind them, sitting together were a dozen off duty Autobots watching the children's delight with the same emotion.
Prime reached out and squeezed Prowl's servo. Neither trusted themselves to do anything more.