The Diego Diaries: Shadow Box 18 edited for boo-boos :D
-0-Diego Garcia, Earth, in the Communications Hangar
Prime nodded. "That is the story out there. We have a pair of problems and they could be explosive or we could exploit them to our mutual benefit. Soundwave is making a fall back site base and Paragon is working one out from which to exploit the refugee route."
"Which one is the most immediate threat, Optimus?" Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Morshower asked from a monitor screen overhead. The Vice President of the United States, the United Kingdom's Chief of the General Staff, Sir Aubrey Jenkins and the head of NASA's deep space project relating to the Autobots, Walter Constant listened in on other monitors as well.
"Paragon," Optimus replied. "He's the closest and he's digging in to be both offensive and defensive. I am also aware that he is recruiting free floating Decepticon units that have no home right now. Their army is fragmenting and Paragon will gather more to him."
"He has eighty-five hundred bots and three hundred Seekers with more coming. We have Seeker specialists scanning out that way along with our arrays so we can detect a lot of movement with a great deal of accuracy. We believe they are staying and digging in because they found a source of energon in the debris field around their compound."
"That's not good," the UK Chief said. "They could draw a lot of soldiers into his service just from that."
Prime nodded. "They could and probably will. But we have long vision that way and tactical advantage. Our flights are swift and able to map their progress without getting caught. We are staging flights to Paragon's base on an irregular basis to take data so we can gauge his progress. He's smart and will adapt but there is an advantage at our end due to superior numbers, technology and depth of talent to draw upon."
The Vice President nodded. "When I was at Autobot City, the population was less than half what you said it is now. That is a lot of refugees over a short period of time. What is the threat to them by all of this new activity out on the trail?"
"We have space bridges that drop us wherever we need to be almost instantly. The threat is there but as of now its only a threat. They don't have the strength or depth to take us on. What we will be doing is monitoring the refugee migrations and going out farther to take them in before they can become close enough to be pawns for Paragon or others."
"The news about space bridges is now in the public domain," Morshower said. "The opposition has gotten a lot of information that we haven't allowed to become common knowledge. You can count on the committee grilling Ratchet about that among all the other issues that appear to be on their minds."
Prime nodded. "We are anticipating a range of commentary from the committee as well as questions that we are going to either declare off limits for security reasons or offer only the most limited information. We don't intend to be abused nor do we intend to come unprepared. Ratchet is very good with situations like this which is why he is our ambassador-at-large."
"Ratchet will mow them down," Morshower said with a grin. "I intend to be there along with John Fulton. It always comes back to the combined mission and the base. So we will be able to back you up. Lennox will be there for the boots on the ground."
Optimus nodded. "Prowl will go with Ratchet to be a resource as well as to intimidate. He is rather formidable. We will send a security team and include a femme. If the issue of gender rears its ugly helm, we will have evidence of our specie's diversity available."
"Frag them, Prime," Morshower said.
"I agree, Glenn, but it is also good politics to meet every possibility in the race to win public opinion, or so says Ratchet," Optimus said with a grin.
"Well, there you go," Morshower said with a chuckle. "Who's going to argue with him?"
"Not Ironhide," Optimus said chuckling himself.
"Have you considered asking Ironhide to come along? Perhaps bring one of his famous children along for our people to see up close? We see them on the television but maybe having one of them available at the meeting will cement in the consciousness of our people what exactly is at stake for you as well," the Vice President suggested.
Optimus considered that a moment, then nodded. "I will suggest that to Ironhide and Ratchet. It would be their decision. We are very protective of our children. They are the future of our species, one that still is in doubt of survival. You can understand how important each and every infant is to our future."
"I do, sir and I would hope you would consider the possibilities. We are all bound together, all of our futures and anything that will be useful in defeating our enemies both in space and on Earth would be helpful," the Vice President said nodding.
"I will discuss it with my staff," Optimus replied. They continued on for two more hours, then Prime signed off, turning to walk to the airfield, leaving Fulton's company as he climbed the ramp into Cosmos. Boarding, they disappeared into the sky and space beyond. Diego returned to normal once more.
-0-The next orn
They sat in the staff meeting, the last one before Ratchet and his party lifted off. Prime having been in conversation with Ratchet and Springer over the past two orns, the itinerary and all the related hoo-hah had been ironed out. It was time for them to troubleshoot it with everyone now and get opinions, information and suggestions.
"So the plan will be that Ratchet will drive to the Washington Center in Washington, D. C., our usual venue and take the hearing with the House Foreign Relations Committee and Subcommittee on Autobot Relations. There will be observers from the Senate counterpart but they won't be speaking. Their hearing is being scheduled for next month. It is my hope that if we nail this one, that one won't be held.
"We have discussed the meeting with the Vice President of the United States and the UK's Chief of the General Staff. Glenn Morshower was present as well. There were a number of suggestions for handling the representatives and a number of suggestions to help influence public opinion. I am only going to tell you what they suggested. I have no opinion as yet."
They nodded, their attention on Prime complete. Ratchet lounged on the chair aware of all of them. He hadn't discussed it with Ironhide preferring to let Prime broach that himself.
"They suggested that the idea of a femme being present in the group was a good thing since they are a conservative group and still have misconceptions and ideas about who and what we are as a species. I have asked Elita to come along," he said as the tall Autobot nodded. "They have also suggested that bringing an infant along would be a way to wed public opinion to us more closely because they have become extremely popular in the press and among the general populations because of the television programming."
It was silent a moment, then Ironhide leaned forward. "Which infant?"
"It was suggested that yours would be appropriate since they are the best known. No names were mentioned. Just the possibility of having one there to show if the moment presented itself," Prime said calmly.
Ironhide sat back, his servo rubbing his chassis for a moment. Hero was playing with her dollies and tweeting softly inside. No one could hear it but Ironhide. He looked at Ratchet who had no expression on his face. "What about it, Ratchet? What is your opinion?"
"I don't know. I know that we would protect the infant and they would be taken off world at the drop of a hat. Springer will be coming along and he can transform and fly any infant away to Diego Garcia at the drop of a crowbar. As for ours … I want to know what you think."
Everyone looked at Ironhide as the thoughts in his helm played out across his face. His knee jerk reaction was a big hell no. But the father in him wanted to hold his sparklings up to the sky and say "SEE! FRAGGING AWESOME SPARKLINGS HERE!"
Sitting back, he glanced at Prime. "No kid of mine goes anywhere without me. There would have to be redundancies built into the redundancies security-wise before this would even be possible. Springer? He's on the detail?"
"Only the best looking mechs, Ironhide," Ratchet said with a grin. "Only the handsomest. That one of them has a flight alt form is icing on the cake."
Springer smirked at Ratchet and Ratchet grinned back.
"I don't know. Which sparkling? Which one would go? That is, if I ever agreed which I don't say I will," Ironhide said casting a gimlet optic at Ratchet.
"Orion? Hero? I don't know. What do you think? Praxus is very sweet and relaxed. Orion is less predictable though he would love the attention. Hero is probably the best and she's also femme," Ratchet mused.
"Let me think on it, Prime," Ironhide said sitting back on his chair.
Prime nodded. "Very well," he said. They continued for a moment, then the good of the order arrived. "Do tell me things." He sat back and grinned.
Springer smirked. "The Dinobots are settling in quite nicely. Right now, they're under the supervision of the Guardians. Xantium, I am told is having a great time intimidating them. That is, Slag and Sludge actually. Swoop and Snarl are actually minding their manners. Grimlock is overwhelmed by the city. He likes it here. 'Me, Grimlock like it here' he was known to have said a few times. Swoop would like to get back into medical work. Maybe he can be a sort of orderly at the hospital in the hangar for the flight mechanisms, being one himself. I suppose that will be for you to decide, Ratchet."
"I'll check into it. I like Swoop. He can be an arrogant doofus but he's genuinely pretty sweet all around," Ratchet said with a nod.
"What the slag are we going to do with them, Optimus?" Kup asked. "Those idiots are going to get into trouble."
"We have given that job to the Supremes. Kappa told me last night that she likes taking care of the problem. She said it gave them more to do on their down time," Optimus replied.
"Those five are going to be the death of me," Prowl said to no one in particular. "They need babysitters all the time. The first time they get into a brawl someone's going to get smashed. Do they even know to keep their proximity sensors on?"
"I put them on permanent scan. I disabled their ability to turn them off," Ratchet said with a grin. "Grimlock is just a big galoot and he's his own worst enemy, but he keeps the others in line."
"They got into a fight at Diego," Prime said. "They slugged it out, Slag and Grimlock in front of John Fulton and his adjutant. It was a very startling thing for both to hear the bots tell me that they hated me and Grimlock should be in charge of things."
Groans met that.
"If they didn't fight, they would be more trouble than they are worth," Springer said with a chuckle. "Imagine this place being run by Grimlock."
Prowl looked at Springer like he had lost his processor. "Please. I can't even hear that in jest."
Comedy rounded the table as everyone gave Prowl the scorn and derision he deserved. That bot sat almost primly. "You will find out in the long run that I am right about these bots. They are trouble with a capital T. Then laugh."
Everyone did.
Prime who was enjoying himself immensely rapped his knuckles on the table. Everyone looked his way. "I have made up my mind. I am going to Washington, DC with Ratchet. We will play it by audial if I show myself but I am leaning toward Ratchet's opinion that to keep the narrative, I will have to reveal myself."
"And what a fascinating reveal that will be," Kup said with a straight face.
"As the first Missus Optimus Prime, I can personally attest to that," Springer said with a waggle of his optical ridges.
"I thought you promised not to bring that up," Drift said with mock hurt. "After all ..."
"What? Why?" Ratchet asked zeroing in with laser focus on that off hand remark.
Drift and Springer glanced at each other, then grinned. Springer stood and looked around the room. "I want to announce that Drift and I bonded."
Ratchet looked at them with a slow beady-optic gaze. "Really. When?"
"About a zillion orns ago," Springer said sitting with great satisfaction.
"I knew that."
Everyone turned to look at Perceptor who looked up from his datapad with a mild expression. "By the way, congratulations, both of you."
"How did you know?" Ratchet asked, his umbrage rising.
"I knew too," Nova said glancing at Herling. "Remember? We knew."
"So did I," Neo replied. All around the table including Starscream and Thundercracker, everyone nodded.. "We knew. Didn't you, Ratchet?"
Ratchet looked at them, then turned a SEVERE NUCLEAR optic on Ironhide who sat with a big grin on his pug face. "When did you know?"
"I can't remember its been so long," Ironhide said with a smirk. "It would appear, old mech that I knew something you didn't know. Ha-ha, Ratchet."
Ratchet looked at Ironhide, then Springer and Drift, then everyone else, then Ironhide. "Slagger."
Ironhide snorted. "Some of us have it, some of you don't, Ratchet. Get used to it. I, IRONHIDE OF PRAXUS, I, IRONHIDE OF THE AUTOBOT ARMED FORCES KNEW SOMETHING!"
Ratchet snorted and rose, staring down at him with amusement. "Slagger. Are you declaring war?"
The air sucked out of the room as everyone stared at Ironhide with genuine fear.
Especially Perceptor.
"Uh, no." Ironhide looked up at Ratchet with optics the size of truck tires.
"Good," Ratchet said glancing at Optimus who wiped his grin off his face immediately. "I will be in my office. I will have the data you requested shortly." He looked at Ironhide a moment. "Slagger." With that, he walked to the door pausing long enough to thump Drift and Springer on the helm. When the door closed, everyone turned to Drift and Springer.
Drift and Springer turned to Perceptor. "We didn't tell you , Percy."
Wheeljack looked at Perceptor who looked back with a prim grin. "Touche, Ratchet," he said to Wheeljack's everlasting joy.
"I didn't know you were bonded," Neo said with a huge smile. "Congratulations."
"Neither did I," said everyone else in the room as they all weighed in with their congratulations too.
Ironhide merely sat and grinned.
-0-TBC
2013 (2)