The Diego Diaries: PsyOps 14
-0-A little later
They walked back to the Ops Center, Orion in arms. They had spent a moment with Roto and then purloined the sparkling. Roto had been informed after watching the interview at the central desk with a number of teachers on break, aides and clerical staff as well as two parents dropping stuff off. It was unanimous. Everyone was thoroughly pissed.
"It would be good for all of you to keep him with you today, Ironhide," Roto had said nodding. "It will be comforting. I want you to know that I have done a short internet search on the world wide web of Earth. There are hundreds of millions of search hits for the babies. Their pictures are highly popular and they have incredibly good press and public reception. Orion in particular, I would say. He's the most well known and popular little baby on the web."
Ironhide nodded and kissed his son. "As well it should be. This is a slagging fine sparkling. He's as handsome and good as they get. I want him with me today."
Roto nodded. "Good idea," he said glancing at Ratchet who looked relieved. "Bring him back when you are okay again."
Ironhide nodded and turned for the elevators followed by Ratchet and the concerned optics of everyone on the floor. The ride down was quiet and the walk back to Ops Center punctuated by outraged citizens who happened to be passing by. Apparently, the story had flashed through the city in jig time.
Crossing the courtyard, entering the rec room, they were greeted and commiserated with by a number of soldiers, civilians and genitors. It was the same in Ops Center. Orion who was unaware of why he was the center of so much attention sat on his atar's arm basting himself in it, offering his dollie freely and grinning broadly. They entered the conference room and sat in their seats.
Orion looked around the room and smiled. "ADA!"
Alor smiled and held out his servos. Orion leaned forward and was enfolded into the love of his grandgenitors. Prowl who had retrieved 'Baby' from his carryhold stared at Ratchet, nodding toward Ironhide. :Is he okay?:
:He is. Mostly: Ratchet replied as he leaned into Ironhide and slid his arm around the back of his chair. :How are you?:
:Middling: Prowl replied. :Fraggers:
:Applying sparkling therapy I can see: Ratchet said with a smirk.
:Always: Prowl said with the slightest of smiles.
"What's the word then, Optimus?" Ratchet asked at last as he watched his son being passed around the group. Orion applied dollie conditions and everyone kissed it dutifully before getting their own kiss back.
"We soldier onward. I can assume that images will be all over the place. The 'mystique' will be gone," Optimus said.
"Not if you apply it differently. Everyone has an image of you in their minds that may or not be true. Perhaps if this needs addressing, you can appear in all your messianic glory and do servos-on like say at the General Assembly of the United Nations. Imagine you walking in all gigantic and shiny, speaking in your sexy voice and making all the haters look small. Consider that. I am most worried about the impression they created about us being the source of trouble at Diego and not the mercs and Daniels."
Optimus nodded. "I am in agreement with you about that. That is why I want you to work with Warren to make it clear who was what there. If you have to speak to the Congress, I am in agreement. As for the shiny and the sexy, that will be filed under hoo-hah to be talked about later."
Ratchet snorted and the tension eased.
In everyone but Ironhide whose optics never left his son.
That one.
"I do my best. I would also say, Optimus, that we were greeted all the way back here by incensed individuals both military and civilian. The offense is deep in the city and everyone appears to know about this. Slagging us is one thing but slagging the infants, that is not playing well."
"Blaster, I will need to address the city this afternoon," Optimus said.
Blaster nodded. "When you need it, Optimus, you will get it."
Optimus nodded. He looked at Ironhide. "That infant is a special being. He was the first reminder of who we were and what had been lost for a very long time. He was the trailblazer and the first glimmer of a notion that we would not become extinct the way we all feared. He's special in all ways and I am honored everyday to know he bears my name, Ironhide. You are my brother," Optimus said pausing a moment. "You are the brother I never had. We will stand together against this and all other threats. This infant is part of our future and all of them are precious. I am sorry for your pain but know that all of us feel it."
Ironhide looked at the table a moment, then turned to Optimus. "You're my brother too. It was my honor to name my son after you. It is my hope he becomes the bot you are. It is going to be hard to defeat the ignorance but I'm with you."
"You still want to slag them to the Pit," Alor said looking at his son with a critical optic.
"I do," he said looking at his ada. "I want to do it for my infants, for Prowl, for Bluestreak and all of us. We are on the way back. We were doomed until this place. I like the soldiers and I'm trying to figure out the humans. I will fight for them but I don't pretend to like them right now. Maybe it will change. But right now, no."
"It will pass, Ironhide," Ratchet said squeezing his shoulders. "I get letters all the time from Warren by people from everywhere who tell us thank you for being here. I also get letters about how wonderful the babies are, all the babies. They are glad for us to be here. Don't hold them all hostage to these fools. The Family and these guys will go down. They're a barrier to peace and understanding. We'll defeat them like we've defeated every threat we've faced so far. We'll do it through unity, skill and the leadership of Optimus. They can't win."
Ironhide looked at Ratchet. "I know. Right now, I don't care. Tomorrow, Ratchet. Maybe tomorrow." He turned and looked at Orion who was standing on the table, his dollie in servo. He was grinning at Optimus who was grinning at him. "O-MUS!"
Everyone snorted and chuckled.
Orion looked around at them and smiled, nearly shivering under the attention of everyone around him. "O-MUS! ORION LOVE O-MUS! O-MUS GOOD! ORION, ME!"
For a moment, their emotions churned again as the innocent oblivious little sparkling shared his joy with the room. Then Optimus patted the table top. "Come here, Orion."
Without hesitation, Orion walked over pausing long enough for Optimus to kiss his dollie. Gathering the baby into his arms, Optimus hugged him. "O-Mus loves Orion."
It finally felt peaceful in the room again.
-0-On Earth
They drove through the city heading out to the hinterlands of Connecticut where Sam was living with his sister on her little farm. He had a room over the garage where he maintained a website called "Earth First" that had nearly twenty thousand members who subscribed to the forum he built. It paid his bills and would be the platform for the two to re-emerge into the world again, the darlings of the extreme right and others who held a narrow view of what America and the world should be and include.
"That was easy," he said as he turned onto the turnpike. "A nice bump up in the food chain."
Jim Johnson nodded. "We have to go to Oklahoma City pretty soon and on to Las Vegas. I have half a dozen emails asking for meet ups."
"The ones who have been contacting us for a while?" Sam asked.
Johnson nodded. "Yes."
"Good," Hedges said as they drove onward disappearing into the endless traffic leaving New York City.
-0-On the airwaves, a major cable news network
"And this morning on 'Morning with Penelope and Brian', James Johnson and Sam Hedges were interviewed. Their remarks have stirred great controversy in Washington. Derek Jones reports from the nation's capital on the reaction."
(Cut to a male reporter standing in front of the Capital Building, Washington, D. C.)
"James Johnson and Sam Hedges, two former soldiers who had sought placement in the N.E.S.T. program on Diego Garcia more than two years ago were interviewed on 'Morning with Penelope and Brian' today and brought a fire storm of controversy to Capital Hill today."
(Cut to a series of microphones culminating with the White Hosue Press Secretary in the White House Briefing Room.)
"I am just aghast at the remarks of these two men and the retelling of events that happened on Diego Garcia when the Autobot garrison was based there," Senator Andrea Hoxley of California said with much indignation. "It casts a terrible light on the two for their low comments on babies. It also is delusional for them to believe that the Decepticons would leave just because the Autobots wouldn't be here anymore.
"We have our own burden with Megatron that the Autobots leaving won't repair. We held him for 80 years and he won't forgive that. The Autobots have fought for us and incurred injury doing so. They work everyday to protect our solar system. The idea that they aren't necessary is ridiculous.
"I would also like to say that nothing either man said about the incidents that happened on Diego because of the convict Jason Daniels and the mercenaries was true. We were part of the investigation as were Pentagon lawyers and outside oversight professionals. Nothing was covered up. No one was framed. Daniels and his ilk are in prison for their actions. It brings shame on us all that these two men who were expelled from the Army for their conduct should be believed by anyone."
(CUT TO) House Speaker Brummel: "I have a number of reservations about the Autobot alliance with our planet. I would rather they weren't here. I would rather we didn't have an alien species living on Mars. I am not going to comment further."
Reporter: "Do you believe that the Autobots were the cause of the trouble on Diego?"
House Speaker Brummel: "No comment."
(Cut to White House Briefing Room)
"And the President would like to emphasize that our alliances with the Autobots are strong and unshaken. We work together for the common good and we appreciate the dedication and professionalism of the Autobots and Optimus Prime. The President deplores the comments of these two men and we reject any notion that there was a conspiracy regarding the incidents involving Jason Daniels, the mercenaries in his employ and that whole business. It was investigated by numerous agencies and all of them came to the same conclusions. James Johnson and Sam Hedges were released from the Army for their behavior and attitudes."
(Cut to the reporter)
"The controversy appears to play out in not unexpected ways along party lines, Cari. Our attempts to reach Johnson and Hedges were unsuccessful so far. No one expects this circumstance to be resolved any time soon especially with reports of violence in San Francisco."
"Thank you, Derek. A programming note. Both James Johnson and Sam Hedges will appear on 'Sunday With Bob Barnes' this weekend." Then she turned to another story.
Glenn Morshower muted the television as he sat in his office pondering the turn of events. He was scheduled to leave for Diego Garcia shortly, catching a ride on Cosmos before that bot headed back to Mars. He was pulling in to take Glenn there. Morshower would overnight and come back on Cosmos the next day.
He looked at the files for Johnson and Hedges that lay on his desk. Everything about them as soldiers was there in black and white. Both were skilled, had the possibility to be N.E.S.T soldiers but failed psychologically to fit in. Their offense was large enough to get them booted to their former placements. Bad behavior there following Diego had led to their separation from service.
He picked up a file and scanned it again. James Harvey Johnson III was a young man from a military family. Born and raised here and there all over the south of America and on bases in Germany and Italy, he had entered to follow the family business. He was big, capable and a bigot.
Hedges on the other hand was the first in his family to join the military since World War II. He was a military buff, quieter but smarter than Johnson. Both of them wanted the warrior life. Comments from boot camp comrades even mentioned a fascination with the French Foreign Legion. They were extremely strong, conditioned and a pain in the ass from the beginning.
Tossing the files down, he rose and grabbed his jacket. Picking up his briefcase, he walked through his office, told his secretary goodnight and left with his aide-de-camp for the airport and Diego beyond.
-0-That afternoon on Mars
They walked through the armory looking at the bombs, bullets and rockets. Ironhide explained them to his attentive little mech-let. Orion listened, pointing and offering a comment or two, half of which almost made sense. It was a glorious moment for an old pa to wander in wonderland with his little mech. They would wander around all orn.
-0-Ratchet
He sat on his desk chair, Hero in arms. Looking at her, he vented a soft sigh. "Your old dad is one emotional mess, femme. You have to make him feel better. I don't suppose that will be hard,"he said grinning at her sweet little face. "I feel better already myself." They sat together chatting for a long while.
-0-Prime and Prowl
"Are you alright?"
"Yes."
"That doesn't sound comforting."
"I'm sorry, Optimus. I just ... I'm pissed."
(Grin) "You and me both." Pause. "No one knows you like I do. I am always amazed that they would confuse your professionalism, your elegant dignity with anything else. Frag them."
(Grin) "You're good for moral."
(Grin) "That's my job."
"Is that it?"
(Grin) "Count on it."
"I do."
"Good."
"I'm still pissed."
(Grin) "That's alright, Prowl. On you it looks good."
(Grin)
=0=TBC
2012 (11)