The Diego Diaries: Skills (471) edited
-0-At the Industrial Park on their beat
Lon and his partner, Art-E walked through the main gates of the Industrial City where everything that the colony needed from the smallest nail to the greatest ship component was made. This was the place where the Foundry Exchange inventoried in their vast warehouses everything that the businesses of the colony needed to make their products. When an order reached them the materials were delivered. Three new businesses that made deliveries sprang up by enterprising bots to meet that need.
They moved through the vast installation walking through endless factories, foundries and workshops where thousands of bots worked. As they did they passed Gravity who was loading up with finished pallets of pig iron that were to be delivered by him three warehouses away. He waited for them to pass, then recognized Lon. He had seen the mech along with several others around. He was in a bar when he had been asked to join the Iacon Order and refused. It was a tense situation that stuck in his processor.
The two passed, then Gravity pulled out turning to drive the load to the warehouse where it would be inventoried for later use. As he did, he slowed down. "Lon."
Lon glanced up and saw a mech he had seen around but he didn't remember the bar incident because this mech wasn't the one making the fuss. Sio was. "Do I know you?"
"I'm Gravity," he replied. "I hear you don't want to join the Iacon Order."
Lon considered the mech before him, then shrugged. "I don't hang with that crowd. I have my own interests here."
"May I ask what they are?" Gravity asked.
Lon considered the mech before him, then ran his image through the data files he had been given facetiously called the daily 'look out for this slagger' list from his supervising Sargent. He hit on this one immediately. Gravity. He grinned slightly. "Art-E, could you get me a cube please? I'll meet up with you later."
Art-E paused, then nodded walking off toward the doors nearby. Gravity and Lon watched him go. Then Lon looked at Gravity. "You jerk. Don't ask about high caste stuff around the slaggers," he said with a frown. "I could get in trouble now and I don't need the attention."
Gravity considered the youngling. "So … you're working below the surface? Is that what this is?"
"I get to walk around the city and you work here. Do you really think that they would let me do that if they thought I was still interested in the System? Most of us work on the down low. Jerks like you jeopardize that. Thanks for nothing." Lon looked at him, then shook his helm in disgust.
Gravity considered that, then nodded. "Sorry. I didn't know. How do you stand it?"
Lon glanced at the doors that Art-E exited. Then he looked at Gravity with a slight smirk. "I take a good shower every orn. You?"
Gravity smirked, then relaxed. "Ditto. When do you get off? Maybe we can catch a cube."
"End of day shift. Maybe. Since the bombings, all of us are pulling extra shifts. They don't want a riot," Lon said with a grin.
Gravity smirked. "I know. We will be at Club Hoyle, me and my friends. Make it if you can."
Lon nodded. "I might try. But I don't know. The shifts are going to be really long for a while." He nodded, then turned walking out the doors after his partner.
Gravity sat watching him, then grinned. :Commotion, Kale, Default … I think I have a pair of optics into the police. Meet me at Club Hoyle after work:
They acknowledged him, then he turned and continued onward moving the raw materials of the colony to their proper places for the rest of his shift.
-0-At the schools
Genitors began to fog in waiting to get their kids. The underground was little used by the city today as the fear of what happened spread outward. It would take a few orns of bomb free living before they would get the confidence to go back. For now, they gathered to get their babies at the source. Alor and Ironhide stood in the great room of the Sparkling Day School watching as infants wandered or were carried out to their families. By the time Hero, Orion, Praxus and Kaon wandered out, they were harnessed, loaded up and ready to rumble.
"OTHER ADA!" Orion said with a big grin. "I LOVE YOU!"
Alor who was dazzled a moment reached down and picked the little banded infant up. "I love you too, Spud." He loved on Orion, then grabbed Kaon. Ironhide picked up Hero and Praxus. "We better go. There are more behind us, son."
Ironhide turned with his ada, a two-fisted load of babbling babies in his servos. With a grin, they waded back out and when they reached the street Ironhide set the babies down. Walking around the corner quickly, he transformed, then drove around pulling over to the curb. Picking up the infants, Alor put them into the bed hooking their harnesses to the clips that were added to Ironhide's format for just that possibility.
The babies babbled as they sat fastened in smiling at each other. Alor made sure that their hats were firmly on their helms, then patted Ironhide's bed. "Go, son."
Ironhide waited for an opening in the traffic, then pulled out. When he did Alor transformed and when an opening arrived took it. The ten mile drive from Terra to the City and Medical Tower would take three times the usual travel time. Ironhide would wait parked by the curb until his ada arrived, transformed and took the sparklings into the building. Only then would he transform and follow.
-0-RTR Tools, Autobot City Business Plaza, The City, Mars
They worked hard at the smelter getting the temperature right. Several thousand degrees were needed to make the tools that they made out of the hardest steel possible, cybertanium. Their inventory was rising as they made their molds and tempered their tools. The full range of implements was expanding to the phenomenal number that they were famed for.
"We have to get the infants tonight, Tie. Remember?" Ravie said as he pulled a overheated rod out of the fire where he was heating it. Turning, he walked to a forge, fitted the rod into a slot, then bent it around a form until it had the distinctive shape of a wrought iron sconce that was popular in Iacon. He would make four more, then they would be embellished. A special order, he worked as hard on it as he would anything else for anyone else.
"I remember," Tie said as he slammed his hammer down on a piece of metal that would be the hilt of a sword. A member of the Knights had asked for some to be made for his son who was going to be inducted into the group. It was his duty as an atar to provide the short blades that would be his son's primary weapon.
"We can have some games, then dinner. Then they can watch cartoons. It will be fun," Ravel said with a smile.
"You won't get an argument out of me, Ravie. The hard part will be convincing Ratchet to let them come over. He doesn't want to overtax us."
"That's because he was raised right, Tie." Ravel looked up and grinned. "I know his genitors."
Tie laughed and nodded. "So do I."
They worked together happily as the afternoon wore on.
-0-At Watch Station #6 on Temple, The City, Mars
Springer sat in his office going over things as they came in from all over the colony. The security was thick on the ground giving the citizenry a sense of calm and protection that he hoped they could maintain. On the monitor, he watched !*THE JAZZ AND BLASTER SHOW*! which was being hosted today by Revet and a trainee actor/announcer named Jay-2.
"Welcome to the show. What's on your processor?" Revet asked as he took another caller.
"Hi, Revet. I can imagine Blaster is trying to catch the fraggers that put the bomb in the subway."
"He is. Anything we have to do to make the city safe, we will."
"This is a high caste thing, doing this. They want to have the System back. We can't have it. We will fight them, Revet. We will take up arms and fight them ourselves."
"I would like you to know that the Prime has asked us to let him and the experts do this. We would be no better than them if we did the same thing. What makes us different than these mechs is that we care about our people, the law and the peace. You will only get yourself into trouble too if you do that. I would hope you won't."
"I don't want my kids killed going to school. I love the Prime and our army but they might not get these fraggers. If we can, we will."
"I hope you mean you'll tell the authorities. I hope you do. Don't be like them. I hope you understand how much the Prime's prestige is on the line here. Don't dishonor him by doing things on your own."
It was silent a moment, then the voice spoke. "I hope he gets them soon, Revet. I truly hope he does."
'He will," Revet said. "Look around the city. All of this was his idea. How can we lose with a Prime like that?"
"I hope you are right. Thanks, Revet." The caller hung up and more called in. They were worried but firm that the Prime needed to be supported. It would be a long afternoon for Revet and Jay-2.
-0-Springer's office
A rap on the door caught his attention. Glancing up, he met the troubled optics of Lon. "Come on in. Have a seat."
Drift who was sitting on a chair with his peds up reading through half of Springer's reports for him grinned. "You look like your best friend got caught stealing."
Lon sat, then looked at the others. Then he rose and closed the door. Sitting again, he leaned forward talking in a low voice. "I was on patrol in the Industrial Park when a forklift operator called to me. I checked him against the list from the sergeant this morning and it was Gravity."
Springer and Drift exchanged a glance, then Springer sat back. "What happened? Every word and all of it, youngling. Nothing is too small."
Lon nodded, then began to recite the event earnestly. "He called to me from a forklift so I stopped. He asked me why I didn't want to be in the Iacon Order. I asked my partner, Art-E to get me a cube and wait outside. Then we were able to talk together better."
"Good move, Lon," Springer said unaware how much the youngling mech would treasure his words forever. Drift who did grinned slightly. "Nice move, Lonny," he said.
Lon looked at Drift, then Springer. "I remember everything you told me about stealth and getting intel."
"We can see that," Springer said catching on. "What happened then?"
"I told him that I was working on the down low, that being in the Watch let me wander around. I told him that it was better than having to slog in the mills and foundries."
"I think so," Drift said with a chuckle.
"He asked me how I could stand being around low castes," Lon said, then paused. "I had to lie to him."
"We know," Drift said gently.
"I told him ..." He paused a moment, a shameful expression forming on his handsome face. "I told him I take a shower every orn."
Drift grinned. "That's what I tell folks who ask me about the bond."
Springer snorted, then grinned. "I'm the mid caste, slagger." He looked at Lon. "You did great. What happened next?"
"He agree with me. Then he told me that they would be at Club Hoyle and I should come by." Lon looked at both of them who sat silently, their internal discussion unavailable to the youngling. He leaned forward slightly. "I should go, right? I should go and find out what I can."
"It would be a step. However if they are as tight as its appearing to be, you might be in trouble without even knowing it. I doubt that they would let you in without you having to do something in return to show that you are who you say you are. Hang on a minute, youngling." Springer sat quietly in conversation off line, then he looked at Lon. "Someone is coming that will make that call."
Lon nodded and they sat shooting the shit until the door opened. When it did, Optimus Prime walked into the room.
-0-TBC October 12, 2013