The Diego Diaries: Impasse (593) edited
-0-Outside the Officer's Club, Diego Garcia, Indian Ocean, Earth
"Why do you think calling us fags is okay?"
No one said a word. Then an army major stepped forward. "Sideswipe, what are you talking about?"
Sideswipe glanced at him, an officer he had seen in the communications hangar from time to time when he passed it or went in to give a message to someone who was online. He didn't know the officer's name but at the moment Sideswipe didn't care.
Sunstreaker turned to watch as the other two gathered around. Smokey glanced from Sunstreaker, a mech he idolized to Sideswipe, a mech who had helped him hone skills new and old. Since Sideswipe was senior martial arts instructor for the army, he had put many a youngster through their paces. Speedy watched with a slight sense of anxiety since the humans were a total enigma to him anyway. Everyone was tense so he was too. Why, he didn't know. He just was.
Sideswipe looked at the army major. "Last night on duty, two sailors called me a fag. They didn't think I heard them but I did. This slagger," he said nodding to the officer who had broken up the exchange the night before, a Commander Barker. "He came back here and talked about it with a few other slaggers. He said that nothing the two had said was wrong so he didn't discipline them." He looked at the officer. "You thought I couldn't hear but I can hear a pin drop on the moon. How about it, slagger? Tell me to my face."
The officer looked ashen with shock and fear. "I don't know what you're talking about," he managed to say.
"Of course you do. You weren't here when the Insecticons attacked the base. You weren't here to see us stand in plain sight and get shot defending everyone. You didn't see us work together as brothers and sisters, the humans as well as us saving the base from annihilation. You weren't here. Yet you stand there, you slagger and call me names. Why do you feel that your sailors can slag us and not get disciplined? Why would you agree with them? Who the frag are you to insult us?"
He didn't speak, he was so afraid. Nothing about that made Sideswipe feel better. The humans glanced at each other, then Sideswipe with their own gathering fear. The army major turned to Sideswipe. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that they did that. We don't feel it, the army. I was here when the attack happened. I saw what everyone did and how some of you got shot along with some of us. I'm sorry for this."
Sideswipe looked at the major, then nodded. "I've heard that a lot. I've heard apologies. But it doesn't ever change. All of us can hear anyone speaking on this island that we want if we tune in to them. No one can sneeze without us knowing it but we don't listen in most of the time. Its not interesting most of the time. But when we're on duty, we listen. Its part of our professional duty to be aware and we are. We heard the two slaggers insult us and we heard him," Sideswipe said looking at the silent naval officer. "Our families are sacred to us. Our bonds are too. I wish you could know how much I want to tear this place up when I hear slag like this. Who are any of you to criticize us. We aren't you. We don't fit your concepts. Frag all of you if this keeps up. Frag all of you for insulting us, our bonds and our children. It says something about us that we keep fighting for your security when you would slag us like this anyway. What the frag does it say about all of you that you continue to slag us like this?" He stood staring down at them.
"It doesn't say much that's good, Sideswipe," Sunstreaker said, his expression filled with disgust. "Let's go."
Sideswipe stared at them, then finally turned, the four of them heading back toward the beach in the distance. The humans watched them go, then all of them turned to the naval officer. "What the hell did you do, Marcus?" the army major asked.
-0-Later on that morning
He stood alongside the water line waiting for the toss when the message came through. "Autobot Sideswipe, report to the base communications hangar immediately." He paused, then turned to go. "I have been called to the comm hangar. I guess I'm going to be on Charon for a while."
The other three looked at him, then turned to follow, Smokey stowing the football in his carry hold. They rolled past the humans who lounged around to watch them heading toward the Embassy and the comm hangar nearby.
"If you go back, Sideswipe, I'm coming too," Sunstreaker said grimly.
"Me too," Smokey said loyally as Speedy nodded in agreement.
Sideswipe looked at them and grinned. "Loyal to the bitter end?"
"Until all are one," Smokey said glancing at his instructor and all around role model.
"Until all are one with Hot Rod," Sunstreaker said with a laugh. Even Smokey grinned at that one.
They reached the hangar, then paused before the door. Prowl and Ratchet along with Blackjack and Ironhide were waiting there. Sideswipe looked at them grimly. "I see they sent the firing squad."
Prowl shook his helm. "Follow me," he said as he walked inside the building. Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Blackjack, Ironhide and Ratchet followed. Smokey and Speedy glanced at each other, then both entered too. They walked to the front where everyone was gathered. Fulton was on the stand while Morshower along with several other officers were on the monitors. Everyone looked grim.
"General, All of us are here." Prowl glanced at Sideswipe. "Come closer. We have to talk."
"So we talk before you exile me to Pluto?" Sideswipe asked as he came closer.
"That is always a possibility," Prowl said, then turned to Morshower. "This morning, I received another complaint of interaction from the Navy regarding Autobot Sideswipe and naval personnel. Apparently, there was an incident outside the base Officer's Club this morning." He turned to Sideswipe. "I think it would be instructive, Autobot Sideswipe for you to tell this entire story to all of the officers that are represented here. They are the ones with the power to act if it is established that something systemic is at fault here." He turned to look at everyone. "We reserve the right and obligation to discipline Autobot Sideswipe if such is merited as per the agreements and treaties."
All of them nodded, then all eyes turned to Sideswipe. He looked at them, then glanced at Sunstreaker. :Tell them everything, Sideswipe or I will kick your aft:
:I will too: Ratchet said with an encouraging expression on his face.
Sideswipe looked at them, then the monitors. Fulton stood before him with a look of expectation. He nodded, so Sideswipe began.
"A few days ago, I saw a femme soldier standing on the beach. Her energy field was awful so I went to see what was up. We talked, I gave her a ride. I liked her. She was sweet and she was in trouble. A slagger was abusing her." No one asked anything, so he continued. "I saw the abuser, someone named Cameron Frazer when he came to the Embassy and told her to get into the hummer with him. She changed instantly from fine to subdued, even scared."
"I hope you don't mind questions, Autobot Sideswipe," a figure on the monitor, some kind of Admiral asked.
"No," Sideswipe said with a trace of defiance. Ratchet squeezed his arm and he relaxed slightly. "Ask."
"From that small change, you deduced abuse?" the admiral asked.
"I'm older than you. I'm older than your species. I have spent more time among organics than nearly any other Cybertronian you will ever meet. I had time to go into the galaxy and find martial arts and their practitioners to learn from them. I wanted to be a perfect combat mechanism which I am. I specialize in close combat, melee combat and sword play. It put me among organics of all kinds for years. I understand their signs pretty well when they feel threatened. They are there if you want to see them. I saw hers."
"Continue, Sideswipe," Morshower said nodding.
Sideswipe glanced at him, then looked at Fulton. "I was upset. I don't like mechs hassling femmes. I like the femmes here. We don't have that many in our own species. I find the ones you have friendly and accepting. They like us and they like our bonds and children. They don't slag us, the femmes. No femme I have ever encountered here ever called me a fag. I can't say the same for mechs." He looked at Morshower. "I went to the docks to find this slagger, Frazer. On my world, low castes didn't have channels. You couldn't report injustices because no one gave a frag. The entire system was unjust so you took care of it yourself. You aligned with a gang to be protected and survive in my city-state. My femme had no channels to go to and I don't think she knew she should so I went to talk to him myself, the slagger.
"That ship captain, Cardinelli, he hid Frazer. He didn't let me talk to him. The coward was on the ship. You told Fulton and Morshower," Sideswipe said glancing at Ratchet who nodded. "I asked you to do something about this or I would. You moved the femme off base. That fragger is still here and something tells me that he won't be facing any consequences for his actions but her career is probably over because of your slagging rules about getting help for problems and being a victim of a slagger. She gets hurt, then you pile on more while he will probably get a promotion."
Sideswipe turned to Morshower. "Last night Sunstreaker and I were doing our security rounds. I passed some sailors sitting outside a barracks. Two of them called me a fag when I passed by. They don't know how we can hear slag for miles around. I told them. I was fragged. Then an officer came out and told all of them to go inside. He apologized too. I left the scene, my brother and I. When we were passing the officer's club later, that officer was inside laughing about the incident. The others with him asked if he had disciplined the fraggers who insulted me. He said no because nothing they had said seemed wrong to him. I saw him outside the base Officer's Club this morning and asked him why he would call me a fag. I don't like it, General. I don't like it personally and I don't like it for my people. He slagged me, my bond, my children, my culture, my species. I don't like it. There's no respect there, none at all. I don't like it one bit."
They were silent, all of them. Then Sunstreaker looked at the gathered array of humans both in the room and on the monitor. "We've already been through this. We aren't humans. We aren't you. We could talk all day long about what a fragging species you are but we don't. We're slagging allies. What does it take to get respect from your kind?"
"What does it take to get respect for your own kind from all of you? My femme is innocent. She's gone and that fragger is still here. The fraggers here are disrespecting us when we fight for everyone here. I don't get it. No one slags who I am and what I am without a fight, General. No one," Sideswipe said hotly.
"I agree with you, Sideswipe," Morshower said nodding. "I dropped the ball. Badly. All of the officers here are part of a commission I have established to make a plan to end this sort of thing in the military and enact not only treatment for the victims that isn't punitive but justice as well. We are instituting a zero tolerance policy as of yesterday for this manner of thing."
"Do it," Sideswipe said. "On Cybertron, we had no justice, no framework for solving things peacefully. Instead, you told your gang and they would take care of it. It was made clear that it better not happen again. You talk about equality and all that but I don't see it in practice. I will protect anyone getting slagged. If you can't do it, I will."
It was silent a moment, then Prowl turned to the four mechs standing grimly behind him. "I am part of the group that is going to be responsible for the policy changes here at Diego because of our garrison and the Embassy. We will work with the American military to make sure this doesn't happen again anywhere to anyone. Until then, I am transferring you four back to Mars to do security duty at the Tri-Cities until your tour is concluded. There are too many flash points at the moment to allow you to remain. I don't want anything to damage the alliance while we work to rectify this situation."
"Remove us and then what?" Sideswipe said glancing at Prowl angrily.
"It will make it easier to put policies and actions into place, Sideswipe without having to worry about you," Prowl said.
Sideswipe stared at him a moment, then looked at Morshower. "If I was the one you had to worry about, the USS Gonzalez would be a strewn wreck in the docks and everyone who slagged me would be dead."
"I appreciate your efforts, Sideswipe. You have brought to our attention a grievous situation that cannot continue. You have my word that this will be rectified and that the women and men who have suffered any kind of maltreatment in uniform will not only have protections in place but speedy and prompt attention brought to bear. I am sorry for what they said. That's not what the majority of us think about you and your people. We understand your service and your families. Some of us are lucky enough to know and love them ourselves. But we know not everyone is so fortunate so we will do our damnedest to ensure that this ends here and now. You have my word as an officer, a human and as a citizen of Cybertron."
Sideswipe looked at him, then nodded. "Alright. I will wait and see."
Ratchet vented a sigh. "Count me in on the path to the solution, General. If I have to come and give lessons, I will be here."
"That is a very good idea, Ambassador," one of the generals on the screen said nodding. "We could use your support in finding a path to mutual understanding and respect. As for the problems between our own soldiers, we give you our word that this is going to be addressed as effectively as we can."
Ratchet nodded. "Call me. I'm in the book," he said as everyone relaxed a bit, the light touch the right touch for the moment.
Fulton turned to Prowl and the mechs. "I hope you understand our resolve. Some of us who are Cybertronian feel the burn extra hard over the comments. You have our word."
Sideswipe looked at him, then nodded slightly. Prowl turned to the four. "Grab your gear, then take a bridge. Report to the Officer of the Orn for re-assigment. I have already cut your orders."
"No brig? No exile on Charon?" Sideswipe asked with the ghost of a grin.
"Not yet," Prowl said with his own small grin. "But the orn is young."
Sideswipe snorted, then turned rolling away. The others smirked, then followed. When they were gone, Prowl and the others turned to the generals, colonels and admirals who were watching. Ratchet grinned. "That went well," he said.
Morshower chuckled. "I'm relieved. Now we have to make things right. We will and Ratchet? We will be using your offer."
"Until all are one, General?" Ratchet asked with a slight smirk.
"Its the only way," Morshower replied grimly.
-0-The bridge
They stepped in with their gear and walked across time and space to their home 194,000,000 miles away via Diego Garcia and Luna Base. When they stepped off, they paused to look at Sideswipe. Sunstreaker grinned. "Thanks for getting us back here. I like recharging in my own berth."
"Thanks, Sideswipe," Smokey said with a grin. "It was getting tense back there."
"Speaking of tense," Sideswipe said nodding to someone standing nearby.
Smokey turned, then groaned loudly. His atar, Moda, was standing nearby waiting for him. "ATAR! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"
Moda of Praxus, only son of Smokescreen and Devcon walked the group, then paused. "I am here to get you, youngling. You are going to be late for school if you don't hustle. I am assuming that your homework is in order and you took the classes you missed online?"
"ATAR!" Smokey groaned, sagging with the whining angst of horny thwarted youth everywhere in every format, every dimension, every possibility everywhere.
"I think for the first time that I am going to enjoy Praxian customs," Sunstreaker said with a grin. "You invoked didn't you, Moda?"
"I did. This youngling believes that he can frag around behind our backs. We raised you to be a Praxian youngling. We have standards and obligations," he said looking pointedly at his wayward son.
Smokey looked fragged, then shook his helm. "I hate Praxus sometimes."
His atar frowned. "Really?"
Smokey looked up at his father, then grinned. "The football part is awesome. The rest is fragged."
His father grinned, then gripped his arm. "Come. Chemistry is awaiting."
Smokey groaned and moaned all the way out of the airport. The others watched him, then chuckled. "Its good to be home. The lunacy that we have at least I understand."
"Truer words never spoken, Sideswipe," Sunstreaker said as he began to roll to the door with his gear. The others followed stepping out into a Cybertronian world with its own set of rules, obligations and oddities. They were glad to be back. It was weird but it was their weird.
It was a world of difference to them. Literally.
-0-TBC January 19, 2014