The Diego Diaries: Home At Last (374) edited
-0-Out there
:We want the truth:
Prime considered that, then nodded. :Megatron will kill you and your civilization when he is done with you. He has no mercy. He won't hunt you. We understand that you live for the hunt. He will come to your worlds and destroy them from space. No one will be allowed to live. Your mother ships will be hunted down and destroyed until there is no memory of you in the universe:
:The third planet from the sun … in the system where you now live … it is ours:
Prime considered that, his understanding of the species before him still sketchy. But considering their affect and aggression he came to the proper conclusion. :That planet is not yours. You will no longer be allowed to hunt humans there. We will stand with them and against you:
:We have always hunted there. We blood our young there. We will oppose you:
:And you will die. You are ineffective against us and you know it. That is why you are here: Prime countered.
Sheesh Kuk stared at Prime for a moment, then turned and with his warriors following walked to his ship without another word. They entered and lifted off disappearing into space. Prime watched, aware that a mother ship was waiting out in space for the smaller one to return. It was the way they functioned, roaming space in a mother ship that could field smaller ones for the hunt. He considered them, then turned and walked to the runabout. Ironhide followed along with Springer and Drift. They boarded and the shuttle took off.
"What do you suppose they concluded?" Ironhide asked Prime who sat contemplating the exchange while Springer and Drift flew the ship.
"There's deep disillusionment among them about their mission. Megatron didn't fill them in the way he should have to keep them on his side. They seemed to me to be reassessing. I would expect them to take a middle position in this, keeping Megatron nominally on their side while they look for a way to defeat both of us. I expect that we will be hearing from them. They used Earth as a game preserve and hunted humans there probably for trophies. We need to seek information on that. Jazz can do it discretely. I don't believe that the humans … some of them would be surprised to see them."
"Makes you wonder what else the humans haven't told us," Ironhide replied as he settled back.
Prime nodded. "We cannot let the bad judgment and machinations of their leadership hinder our vigilance for the defenseless hosts of humanity. They deserve good judgment and smart leadership for their well being. We will find out what they have not told us, then we will have a talk." Prime sat grimly as the shuttle rendezvoused with Omega. They boarded and the three ships turned heading for the boiling energy of the bridge. Once they pierced it, the spot collapsed and no one would ever tell anything of import had happened there.
-0-Hospital lab, Mars
"I'm done, Ada!"
Ratchet glanced down from the computer terminal where he was working in the little lab next to his office and grinned. Hero was smiling brilliantly up at him, the tiny sunshine of her sweetness warming his spark. Four jars were filled with their corrected contents ready to be replace in the cupboard. "Well, my, oh my." Ratchet said in his best fake southern belle accent. "Look what you did." He rose and walked over kneeling in front of his daughter and her finished product. "What a fine job, Hero. Thank you."
She beamed at him and looked at the jars. Reaching over, she tried to pick one up and struggled to hold it. "Where does this go, Ada?"
Ratchet took it gently. Putting it inside the cupboard, he looked at her. She was struggling with another. Taking it, he put all three remaining jars inside and closed the door. She looked at him with an expression of expectation. "I can help you, Ada. What do we do now?"
Ratchet considered that a moment, then smiled. "Come with me, infant." He turned and walked back to the corridor, then turned and continued onward to the elevator. Hero followed, skipping along with Ratchet into the device. They rode upward to the Emergency level and stepped out. A few doctors were working on patients, broken this and thats from the job. He walked into an empty surgery and searched for what he needed. Turning, working on the thing in his servos, he grinned. "I think things are dusty in my office. I might need a touch up of the window sills, the furniture and stuff."
She nodded. "I can help you, Ada."
Ratchet nodded. "You already have." Breakdown who was standing in the doorway stared down at the tiny bit of fluff on the floor. Ratchet grinned. "Small aren't they."
He nodded. "They are."
Ratchet looked at Hero. "Time to work?"
She nodded and smiled.
"Then let's go." He stepped past her and walked past Breakdown heading for the elevator. Hero followed skipping along as Breakdown watched them go. He stared at them until the elevator closed, then he continued on with his shift.
Ratchet stepped off the elevator and with Hero in tow walked to his office pausing. Looking down at the infant, he grinned. "I think the dust bunnies are winning. What do you think you can do, Hero?"
"I can catch them, Ada," she said staring up at him with conviction.
He grinned and knelt handing her a 'dust bunny catcher'. It was three cue tips cut in half and banded together. She took it, the little dust buster and smiled. "I will go and get them, Ada," she said glancing around. She walked to the couch and began to rub the little dust buster along the edge of it. Glancing at the device, she smiled. Holding it up, she turned to Ratchet. "See? I have some dirt, Ada."
Ratchet grinned. "You do. What a helper. When that one gets full let me know," he said holding up a handful of cue tips and metal twists. "I have many more where that came from."
She smiled and nodded turning back to the task at servo. She would regale him with tales of Atar, of school and Other Adas and Atars. It would be enormously pleasant for Ratchet as he worked on his data and thought about Ironhide. The sap.
-0-At the airfield
They touched down and landed, stepping off Omega so he could transform with his brothers. The big bots walked toward their hangars as the small group they carried walked to Ops Center and duty elsewhere. Entering the control room, they continued to the table and sat. Prowl joined them. "What do you think?" he asked.
"We think that they are testing their alliance with Megatron and finding that he has not told the whole story. We also found that they used Earth as a hunting preserve testing their young on the humans," Prime said.
Prowl looked at him, a grim expression forming on his handsome face. "Well, that can't continue. We should tell the humans."
"I want the humans to tell us," Prime said coldly. "Something tells me, Prowl, that they already know about these Hish-qu-Ten."
"Perhaps Charlotte Mearing is due a visit?" Springer asked with a smirk.
"I think that is about right. Could you please request her presence, Prowl? I want to see what she does," Prime said.
Prowl nodded. "And if she doesn't come?"
"Then we have our answer," Optimus replied grimly.
-0-Earth
John Fulton signed off with Prowl and considered the request. The new information which had been entrusted to him as super confidential was deeply disturbing. If aliens had been coming here for eons and if they were hunting humans for sport, then they had a new problem. It would perhaps supersede the bots as a menace in the minds of the radicals on Earth and would be more directly personal than having an alien species living on the next world over. Either that or they would blame the Cybertronians who had found this out. That their presence kept the others away would be lost in their paranoia.
These aliens were using them for target practice.
It was fucking personal.
He sent for Mearing, then sat waiting. When she breezed in with her much harried aide-de-camp, he remained seated and nodded her into a chair. He wasn't up for ceremony. If she knew and hadn't told them, then she was part of the problem too. "I just got a message from Prime. He wants you to come to Autobot City for consultations."
She considered that, then nodded. "Why can't he come here?"
"Because he out ranks you, he's running an entire world and he doesn't have to," Fulton said. "The consultations don't have to happen. He's extending a courtesy and given that there are seven billion people on this planet that can't go, it seems amazing that you would not jump at a chance to step onto another world with alien life."
"Maybe not everyone wants to go," Mearing said leaning back in her chair.
"Very well," Fulton said pulling up work on his desk. "You can go," he said as he began to read the stacks of papers before him.
"I can go?" Mearing asked with surprise.
"Yes. You can go," Fulton said with a nod.
She looked at him, then stood. "All right. I'm going. Who do I see?"
"Go to the NASA office here and they will set you up. Cosmos is due in shortly and you can hitch a ride. Haul ass. They don't wait for anyone. You aren't there five minutes early, they will leave you behind," Fulton said as she nodded and walked to the door. "Mearing," he said as she opened it. She paused and looked back at him. "Be nice to Cosmos. He's a good mech all the way around."
She looked at him, then left without a word. Fulton watched his door close, then grinned. "Putty in my hands."
-0-Half an hour later
She walked toward the shuttle parked nearby who had picked up and left off soldiers and cargo. The NASA rep who worked on site permanently and who had the responsibility of getting civilians ready to go to Mars when the Alpha team wasn't on base was going over it again. She nodded, then paused at the ramp. A huge bot was coming down carrying his kit and rifle. He nodded at the NASA man whom they all knew and ignored her, who they all knew. Walking onward, they both watched him. "That's Scar," the NASA man said, 'NASA Jim' as he was known among the bots. "He used to be a very ruthless and dangerous Decepticon warrior."
She stared after Scar who was doing his twice a year, five orn military service, something he helped organize for the former Decepticons who wanted to keep their skills up, then looked at NASA Jim. "Anything more?"
He shook his head and watched her walk up the ramp to go inside. "You might want to take the stick out of your ass. That might be nice," he said with a grin as the ramp slid up. Cosmos blinked his lights at NASA Jim and lifted off immediately. Jim watched it go, then turned and walked back to his job of being the luckiest man alive to work where he did with whom he did. He couldn't wait for the game. It would be the first trip he made to Mars. He was invited because he was 'one of them', something that made him happier and more proud than his multiple doctorates combined.
-0-Ironhide
He stepped out of the elevator and walked to Ratchet's office. Pausing in the doorway, he grinned. Prowler was sitting up on the floor chewing on his servo and a toy clutched in it. Nearby, bending down to poke at a spot with a cue tip, Hero was hard at work. Ratchet was bent over a terminal, but looked up when he appeared. "Hey. What's up out there?"
"Rebellion I think, by the Hish," Ironhide said as he reached down for his son. He sat and kissed Hero on the helm as she explained excitedly how she had been a helper for Ada. She chatted madly, then turned slightly self-consciously to work furiously on a spot on the window sill. Atar was watching and she wanted to show him how good and hard working she was. Ironhide's optics misted as he watched.
"That's their name? The Hish?"
"The Hish-qu-Ten," Ironhide elaborated. "They hunted humans on Earth for eons. They aren't happy that we won't allow that."
Ratchet frowned. "No. We won't allow it, the fraggers."
"Prime is calling Mearing over to find out what she knew and when she knew it," Ironhide replied as he kissed his son.
Ratchet nodded and rose. "Is she coming now?"
"Yep," Ironhide said.
"Then you watch the sparklings. I have to help Prime," Ratchet said. "This could pop out into the general population of the humans and where will we be if I don't know what's happening?"
"You would be hanging out there with your aft sticking out," Ironhide said waggling his optical ridges.
Ratchet snorted, then nodded. "Make the femme work hard, Ironhide. We can't have lazy femmes in the family. Best get her used to this if she skips school all the time. Femme won't get a job with a chair at this rate."
"She can come with me," Ironhide said with a grin. "Little femme can apprentice to me."
"Right," Ratchet said kissing the infants. "I can see that."
"So can I," Ironhide said as Ratchet left the room. He looked at his kids and grinned. "Your old ada sure carries a grudge." He settled in to watch Hero working hard to live up to her Atar's approval. She would never know just how easily she could achieve that. Even he knew better than to tell her everything.
Mostly.
-0-Mearing
She rode in the hold with several bots returning including Jolt, Hot Rod and Smokey. They looked at her with interest and she looked at them with wariness. When she was around them she felt puny and vulnerable. What they felt about her she could only guess. The suit she wore covered everything but the hands and feet didn't feel encased. They felt normal. She sat in her seat staring at them as they stared at her. She had no idea that the conversation they were having was going full bore internally.
Good for her.
TBC July 21, 2013