=The Diego Diaries: Chaos 10 (DD3 20)
=0=At a work site
They walked along heading toward the dirt road that ran around the rim and downward into the bowl of the quarry that was being used for the new housing projects. There were two, both near each other and around the edges of the great basins housing towers were rising.
They passed the boss shacks as well as the demolition and detonator containment vaults that had been brought to the sites as per Prime's orders. There was no way to steal explosives now.
The site was busy so they headed to a foreman to get the location of Burnoff. He wasn't at home. Sensors tuned to his transponder frequency had shown him to be working in the quarries.
Pausing to get the youngling mech's exact location, they continued onward. There were mechs standing beside a small truck shoveling gravel from a big pile into the bed. They walked forward and stopped next to Burnoff. He looked at them warily.
"Burnoff?"
The mech looked at them. "Maybe."
"We want you to come along with us. Prime wants to speak to you."
He stared at them a moment, then set down his shovel. Without expression or comment, the three of them walked back toward the city.
-0-Later in a conference room
Burnoff sat by himself having come along without comment or obstacle. The room was empty but for two chairs and a table. He felt cold waves of fear cross his circuits filling him with an unaccustomed dread. These were not the impressions he'd expected. He was scared down to his peds and sitting in this room waiting for something to happen didn't help. He worked to school his expression into something neutral.
The door finally opened as Prowl walked in with a data pad and a bland expression. The room's clear glass walls had been dialed down with pigment changing their translucency. The two inside saw beige colored walls surrounding them. The mechs standing outside the room could see through the tint but not be seen by either Prowl or Burnoff. They could watch and hear without detection.
Prowl sat as he stared at the pad which he had placed in front of him. When he glanced up at Burnoff, the cold police mechanism was looking, not the bond, ada, son and friend. The machine shown through light blue optics, the extraordinary foe of Megatron who'd been courted, then hunted for his abilities. 'Capture, not kill' was always the bounty on Prowl and as he sat silently before the youngling it was clear that he was formidable and ruthlessly cold when the occasion called for it. "I am Prowl. I'm sure you remember me."
The youngling sat quietly with nothing betrayed on his face.
Prowl considered that. "You're Burnoff. You were assigned to the construction site to work off a probationary penalty assigned to you by the Magistrate's Court concerning assault, battery and public disturbance. Correct me if I'm wrong."
The youngling just stared at him deciding that not reacting was the best and only course of action he had. Answering nothing, doing nothing, that was the best road he had to take.
"No? Then let's continue. You've had a poor adjustment to the city. Apparently you're an aficionado of the caste system which was emphatically described to you when you arrived as outlawed by order of a Prime Directive. Yet you went out of your way to make trouble bringing disrepute upon yourself in your zeal to remedy Prime's order."
The youngling shifted slightly, his second wind returning after the initial fright. He met Prowl's gaze levelly. He said nothing.
"You had a reasonably decent attendance at your employment but your attitude was abysmal. Your sentence placed you in a quarry construction site with access to explosive materials and detonators. Two orns later, an array of explosions tore open the Business Plaza and destroyed the controls of the energon substation that fed not only the Plaza but Metroplex nearby. It necessitated the evacuation of Metroplex, an action that required him to be sedentary even while the fires burned him.
"Fortunately, no one beyond Metroplex received more than minor injuries. There's been, however, an uptick in those seeking medical attention for stress, bad dreams and other emotional upsets brought about by this event." He looked up at the youngling. "Stop me if I bore you."
The youngling didn't reply.
"We were left with a severely injured mechanism in Metroplex, a heavily damaged civil and commercial building, destroyed infrastructure, five thousand individuals that had to flee their homes and stay elsewhere, five thousand individuals that are still repairing their homes since returning and lots of questions. I would like you to answer a few of them. Where were you when the bombs behind the Business Plaza detonated?"
Prowl looked at the youngling with his coldest most professional optic. He had no idea that the very image of that expression was one of Barricade's favorite things. The youngling didn't answer. "I have asked you a question."
"I know my rights. I don't have to say a word. I invoke."
The words hung between them. "You can. It's your right." Prowl stared at him without blinking.
The youngling stared ed back. "What? I invoked."
"I am aware of that."
"I want representation."
"You don't seem surprised."
"I'm not saying a word. I've invoked."
Prowl looked at him. As he did he spoke to Optimus. :He's invoked. I imagine you have counsel waiting...:
:I do. I'm sending him in: Optimus said. He turned to Blackstone. "You may go in. He invoked."
Blackstone walked around the corner to the door. Opening it, they watched him enter. "Prowl, I've been appointed counsel to Burnoff."
Prowl rose, taking his data pad into servo. "I will be outside. I have questions."
Blackstone waited until Prowl left the room before sitting. He looked at the wall for a moment.
:Blackstone, I am discontinuing the audio. You will remain on visual for security reasons: Optimus said to him internally.
Blackstone glanced toward the walls. :Thank you, sir: He looked at the youngling. "I'm Blackstone, lead attorney in the Colonial Public Defenders Office. I've been appointed counsel to you."
The youngling nodded but he said nothing.
"There have been serious accusations lodged against you. I want you to understand that anything we discuss is privileged and no one, not even Prime can ask me to disclose it. I wouldn't even if he asked. I want to ask you some questions and read the charges you'll be facing if you are indicted in the preliminary hearing that will either find or not an indictment against you based on the evidence. Do you understand?"
Burnoff nodded.
Blackstone sat a moment in thought and when there was nothing more forthcoming, he picked up the data pad that Barron had handed to him in the corridor and began. "You've been accused of placing explosive devices on the back wall of the Business Plaza in order to destroy the building and cause public harm. In the process of doing so you put into danger at least 5,000 of the inhabitants of the Metroplex District and that mechanism himself. You've been accused of disturbing the peace, reckless endangerment, willful depravity of life and limb and other charges to be made in future including the possibility of attempted murder and attempted reckless homicide. I need to know what you have to say about this."
The youngling looked at him. "Nothing. I'm saying nothing."
Blackstone looked at the silent youngster and considered his affect. He seemed oddly calm, like a person so completely shocked that they had no highs or lows left. There was a flatness in the youngling that was unnatural.
Having seen him in the courtroom getting lambasted for his past indiscretions, Blackstone knew he wasn't this way normally. He was crushed under the moment and his fear. "I'm going to be representing you. I also have access to more attorneys to help defend you. But I need you to talk to me and know that whatever you say, I can't tell anyone for any reason. The privilege between you and me is absolute. Even Prime cannot order me to tell him what you and I talk about. I'll entertain the brig before I do. Do you understand?"
He nodded silently.
"Please wait here, youngling," Blackstone said. He rose and walked to the door to exit, rounding the corner to where everyone stood. "Ratchet, can you scan my client? I think he's in some sort of shock."
Ratchet subbed a device. Calibrating it, he pointed it at the youngling. Perusing the finding, he turned to Blackstone. "He's in shock."
Blackstone looked distressed. "I was afraid of that. I may have to wait to talk to him." Turning to Prowl, he met that worthy's gaze. "I won't allow my client to speak with you or agree to be interrogated at this moment. It would be against his best interests."
Prime agreed. "Very well. We will have him taken to the brig and housed alone. Ratchet? Does the youngling need medical attention?"
Ratchet subbed his meter again. "No. Just silence and a cube. His genitors, however, may need it I can imagine."
It was silent a moment. Prime glanced at Springer and Drift who stood nearby with grim expressions. "Will you please escort Copperton to my office, Springer? Drift, please go find a priest."
The two walked out silently together.
"Ratchet, I want you in the meetings. I am going to have Turquoise called to come to the meeting but not tell him why. You might be needed."
Ratchet nodded grimly as Prime walking toward the corridor that led to his office. They watched him go. Ratchet glanced at Prowl smirking slightly. "You're one cold hombre, Prowl. I think I have ice clinging to my prong."
Prowl snorted. "I was going easy on him because he's a kid."
"Oh crap," Ironhide said with a grin. "Remind me never to truly piss you off."
"All of you might remember that," Prowl said with a self-satisfied grin. He followed after Prime.
It was silent a moment, then everyone turned back to watch as Blackstone explained to his client the new reality. By the time his genitors finally made it to Optimus Prime's office he'd be sitting in a wing of the brig by himself, an untouched cube of energon sitting on his berth bunk next to him.
-0-Moments later at the Office of the Prime
Copperton entered as Springer stood in the doorway. The older mechanism walked to Prime's desk.
Ratchet stood on one side of the room next to Ironhide and Prowl on the other.
Prime sat on his chair behind the big desk.
"Prime. What is the meaning of this?"
"Copperton, I would like you to be seated," Prime said as a priest appeared in the doorway with Drift. "Chevron, welcome. Please come in and have a seat."
The second oldest priest of the Temple nodded respectfully then took a seat on a couch.
Copperton bowed respectfully to him and turned back to Prime. "Well? I'm here."
"Please, sit," Optimus said.
Copperton looked at the chair then sat down slowly, his unease rising as he did. He looked at Prime warily. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked with a tone of wary uncertainty in his voice.
"We asked you here to discuss the matter of the bombing of the Business Plaza and the resulting chaos and injury that followed."
"Are you accusing me of that?" he asked with surprise.
"No. We are accusing your son Burnoff of doing it," Prime answered quietly.
Copperton stared at him for a moment, then sat back with an incredulous expression on his face. "You can't be serious."
"I am very serious. Your son has been arrested and is in the brig. We have appointed counsel for him... Blackstone who is a remarkably good and honorable advocate."
Copperton stood slowly as he looked around the room in incredulity. "My son. He wouldn't do such a terrible inexcusable thing. How can you arrest my son? This is about the system isn't it. You're targeting my son because of the system."
"Your son is in the brig because he placed bombs on a building and caused all the resulting chaos. He is in the brig because of his belief that the system needed restored," Prime said quietly. His tone was firm, his resolve steely.
Everyone in the room felt it including Copperton.
"My son wouldn't do this to our own people," Copperton said. "We're Cybertronian. He wouldn't hurt Metroplex or anyone else."
"The evidence is pointing to him, Copperton," Prime said. "There is no one else."
"You chose him to be the one," Copperton said.
Prime looked at Prowl. "You gave the file to Blackstone including the images?"
Prowl nodded.
"I have reserved the secondary conference room for you to discuss this matter with Blackstone. I have asked Chevron to come to attend to you and Turquoise. I asked Smokescreen to take Turquoise to that room when he arrives here. Ratchet is here also to assist you through this. He is on call day and night for you and Turquoise."
Copperton looked at Prime with an expression of complete lack of understanding. He was rooted to the floor with flags of confusion blooming all over his processor. He looked around himself pausing on Chevron.
That worthy was staring at him with deep concern on his face. Reaching out, he took Copperton's servo. "Copperton, I think it would be good for us to go to that room and wait for Turquoise. We can help you there, right Ratchet?"
Ratchet nodded solemnly. "Yes."
Chevron rose and gently pulled Copperton toward the door. That bot looked shocked and near to tears. Chevron put his arm around Copperton's shoulders. "If someone would be so kind as to show us where to go, I think it would be helpful to go speak with Blackstone and get more information."
Ratchet complied "Follow me, Chevron," Ratchet said as he walked to the door and out.
When they were gone, Prime leaned back in his chair. "I feel sick."
Prowl agreed. "I don't think you're the only one."
No one else said a word. Their grim expressions said it all.
-0-TBC 2012 (9) 4-24-2022