The Diego Diaries: Santa Ho-Ho 7
-0-On the air field, Autobot City, Mars
They stood together on the air field reluctant to leave and end the feeling of joy that suffused everyone in the enormous crowd. Over 422,000 bots had shown up to watch the school presentation. It had been new to most of them and completely wonderful to all of them. The atmosphere was sparkling as they stood talking, soaking up the unity of the moment.
-0-Nearby
"That was great," Wheeljack said with a grin.
Perceptor nodded. "I think it went rather well." He looked down and noted a small rocket in a box. "What is this, 'Jack?"
Wheeljack turned to look down at the dull gray missile that lay in the bottom of the box by itself. A glance around shown that there were no more fireworks but that one. "What does it do?"
"I don't know," Perceptor said looking at the technicians who stood at the launchers. They shrugged as well.
"Well," Wheeljack said lifting the missile out. "Let's find out."
"What if its a dud or inappropriate, Wheeljack?" Perceptor asked with concern.
"What if it isn't?" Wheeljack said loading it himself. "Boys, let 'er rip."
They did.
-0-Around the vast crowd
Ratchet stood next to Ironhide grinning madly as he listened to the excited commentary of the group around him. Hero was topside lying in his arms, staring at everyone who chatted so excitedly.
"He nearly fell off the stage," Miler said with a laugh.
Prowl nodded with a big smile on his handsome face. "He did. But he was so good. I remember seeing him do this sort of thing around the apartment but I thought he was just playing."
"It was a miracle he didn't fall off," Ratchet said to general hooting and groaning.
"Pip and Dart along with Flit would do something like this but I also thought it was only play," Thundercracker said with a chuckle. "They were practicing."
"Homework," Optimus said. He felt as elated as possible, the muck of Shockwave washed away at the sight of his children showing their skills.
Just then the sound of a missile launch froze everyone and they looked upward, two soldiers reflexively bringing their guns online. The missile went straight up and exploded showing the sky with silver sparkling light. Then the light coalesced into glyphs which made their meaning clear immediately. The crowd murmured for a moment, then a cheer gathered reaching up to the compelling life affirming message spelled out overhead.
:What does it mean?: Devon asked.
Jessie who had learned rudimentary glyphs to handle some of the business between the Embassy and the base smiled. :I KNOW! IT SAYS 'UNTIL ALL ARE ONE'!:
The chant started low, then built until it seemed to fill the sky. The glyphs shimmered, very slowly slipping away like drops of water on a pane of glass. They faded out about the time the chant reached its zenith, then it was quiet once more. The sky overhead was velvet with slowly flashing lights signaling devices in orbit. Then a soft melody began to play. Everyone turned to monitors to see what was happening at the stage.
Alor sat with his arm around Rambler. He was playing a quiet tune, his digits touching the keys lightly. Alor leaned in and whispered softly, Rambler nodding as he watched his fingers. The tune was famous. It was known by everyone in the audience including the children. Then voices picked it up singing it here and there. More joined and soon everyone was singing, a solemn sound of music and voices singing in a language that was unheard of in this part of space until shortly ago.
Prowl stood with his arm around Prime who looked at the stage, at his son, his good friend and extraordinary musician, Alor who were together reminding them of who they were. The tune amplified as more voices joined and it rose upward to the sky, to the last twinkling glyph before it finally faded away.
General Morshower stood listening to the oddly compelling sound of a language no human probably would ever be able to duplicate but he heard words that he had learned through osmosis with the bots.
Cybertron.
Home.
Primus.
They were singing the song that identified their species and their world, their own national anthem. He listened, his wife standing behind, her arms around him. He wished he could sing too and join in the anthem with his newly won fellow citizens. He wished at that time that he could speak their language so he could salute his Cybertron too.
Sarah Lennox stood beside Will watching the crowd before her. She would be one of them now. Her daughter, husband and her would be newly minted citizens of a world far away, one she would most likely never see herself. That these people would suffer the same fate weighed on her as she listened. She listened and loved them, just like all the humans here.
Warren Roberts and his wife, Wendy listened as well standing hand in hand on the platform made for them. Children had danced. Children had poured their sparks out saying what they were thankful for as they celebrated their version of his holiday. The women who were responsible had done a great thing making nine orphans feel happiness and hope once more. He loved them, all of them as he stood in this privileged spot. He wished he could sing too but he couldn't. So he watched with as much love for them as was possible for him to possess.
It was a lot.
They stood in a group, aides, teachers and therapists holding sparklings. All of them were still wearing their antler hats, their belts removed so they wouldn't be so noisy. They sat in the arms of their teachers, thirteen little 'reindeer' who had dazzled their city with their great learning and group cohesion. They looked at the sky, pointed at things, chatted and grinned as they too waited for their genitors to come.
They would never know how much they had helped their people with their efforts this night.
-0-At the launcher
Wheeljack grinned and glanced at Perceptor. "Now that is a rocket."
Perceptor merely nodded with a small smile.
-0-Nearby at the Autobot City Maximum Security Prison
They stood at the bars watching the fireworks, the singing and the cheering going on nearby. They were a mile away and the monitors that played content at the site over the citywide channels played content here. They could see what they were missing. They heard the stories of the younglings and saw the babies dancing. They saw an astonishing thing and some of them were smart and alert enough to understand it.
The city was an oasis where their people were gathering to reclaim themselves. Through a holiday most of them didn't understand, they had a chance to show each other that they were united, that they were rising, that they were one.
Until all are one.
It resonated in the processors of all of them including Barricade, Scorponok and Stiletto. Even if they saw it from another angle, they understood the power of those four words. They appeared in the velvet sky, shining shimmering glyphs floating for a moment as the anthem of their world began to rise up in the voices of nearly half a million citizens.
Some of them felt homesick, the nausea of displacement flashing through their sparks. Some felt as lonely as they could possibly feel as the tide of life and the rising future flowed away from them, the detritus of a terrible past. They were anachronisms, the dust bin leftovers after the sale. They were the things no one wanted or needed. All that was good and shiny was over there singing, feeling a solidarity to the state and to each other that was never attained on Cybertron.
Sentinel watched the celebrations, the feed from IntraComm transferred to his internals. He saw the cameras panning over the crowd. He saw mechs and a femme or two that he knew. He saw the hardest of the hardliners, Neo of the Council of the Ancients leading a line of shiny little sparklings across a stage, playing what the humans would call the 'Hokey Pokey' with the little ones. That was a breathtaking sight for him. He shifted, noting that Decimus and Proteus had walked to stand by him. He didn't speak, his interest focused at the air field but they spoke for him.
"This is an enlightening event, Sentinel. All manner of castes together celebrating their children and our culture." Proteus shook his helm. "I would never have believed it. Seekers, grounders … Starscream and Prime together, united. It would never have happened on Cybertron."
Decimus nodded. "No, it would not."
Sentinel glanced at them. "Did we ever try it?" he asked curtly.
They looked at him, then the air field. No one answered.
-0-Barricade, Scorponok and Stiletto
They stood together, held together next to Omega Supreme and Silverbolt. They were watching with their siblings, all of them dazzled by the beauty of their city's children. The Guardians all had the three miscreants on their sensors, their guard detachments aware and more relaxed. Three of them had infants in the program.
:What do you think?:
Barricade looked at Stiletto. :About what?:
:This: Stiletto said nodding to the crowd. :I've never seen so many younglings in one place in my life:
Barricade nodded. :I know. There are supposed to be 2,500 of them in this city:
No one say anything more. They just stood and watched, emotionally outside of the loop as always.
-0-In the crowd
Payload stood with his bond and sang, his spark filling with emotion as he considered the path his life had taken. He was a marauder, a ship boarding killer and now he was a bond, a father and a city asset. He felt his spark nearly burst as emotion filled him, emotion for his family and his long lost world. He had been a part of that, abetting a monster who had broken them and their planet, scattering their people all over the universe to fend as best they could. How many sparklings like his son, Mars were out there in jeopardy? The thought was never held long before being banished. It was a bullet straight to the spark to even think about it. That he might be responsible was a burden he exorcised every orn with every ped fall and positive effort he made.
He would not be the only former Decepticon in the crowd that felt that too.
Blackjack stood beside his son, their arms linked as they sang. He thought about how Alor had slipped through the space bridge to come here to practice with the students and sparklings. His joy was infectious as he related the latest step forward in the sparkling dancing and the youngling musicianship that was made that orn. He thought about their lonely existence in the Expansion protecting and collecting the suffering and lost of their people. At no point did he ever expect to see his beloved only child again. At no point did he ever believe that Ironhide would be lost to the war. He knew his son was somewhere in the universe bringing the hurt. His greatest longing was to be by his side when he did.
The night was extraordinary, then the song faded as the last chords of the music were solicited by Rambler's digits. It settled, a hush across the crowd, a hesitation to leave or make a sound gripping them. Then they slowly and with great reluctance began to move, their voices softly speaking as they walked toward the city and their lives once more.
Ratchet handed Hero to Ironhide who looked luminous in his pride for his children. Sunstreaker slipped his arms around Ratchet and hugged him. "Did you see the sparklings, Ada? Didn't they look slagging awesome?"
Ratchet chuckled and turned, an arm sliding around the chassis of the bigger bot. They began to walk forward slowly with the crowd. "They were high end on the awesome scale. Kaon looked like a champ with his little hat and bells."
"I'm going to get that and mount it on the shelf in his room. I want a picture of him too to put with it. He gave a performance for a half million of us and I want him to know that forever," Sunstreaker said as they moved forward, stopped, then moved forward again.
"You and me both," Ratchet said. Bluestreak who was behind them carried Uraya, the little waif wrapped in a Hello Kitty blanket that Sunstreaker thought matched her happy personality. She also wore a tiny Hello Kitty knit hat with room for her finials. "Doesn't my Uraya look like a sweetheart," Ratchet cooed, slipping into grandada mode almost unconsciously.
"She looks cute," Bluestreak said. Glancing back at Sideswipe who was walking beside Ravel who had taken Iacon from him, he grinned. "She is wearing Miss Piggy, whoever that is."
Ratchet glanced back and grinned. "Sunstreaker," he said glancing up at his oldest youngling. "You never disappoint."
Sunstreaker grinned and squeezed Ratchet's shoulders. They continued onward in the river of Cybertronians that were flowing back to their city and the night festivities at home.
Presents were to be had by almost all.
=0=TBC
2012 (12)