The Diego Diaries: Confab (614)

-0-At the conferences

"Orion is a mech that has a lot of energy. We are adding more movement opportunities for him besides dance and swimming. We are playing games like chase and hide and seek. You should seem him hide," Roto said pausing to laugh. "His little aft always sticks out."

Ironhide grinned. "Little mech is a stealth sparkling around the house. I usually find him when he laughs."

"He laughs here. I laugh," Roto said with a chuckle. "Here are his deficits which we have outlined on the sheet before you," he said sliding a metallic sheet of 'paper' toward him with the new plan. "I have him in for speech therapy. I want you to know he isn't behind, he's just lagging a little in sentence construction and other basics. He isn't behind. He just seems so with the other talkers in your family."

"Why? How does that work?" Ravel asked. "If you don't mind me asking that is."

Everyone looked at Ravel, then Ratchet squeezed Ravel's shoulders. "You can ask."

"I have never done this before, Ratchet. You were always in the illegal schools. One didn't ask things then," Ravel said looking at Roto.

Everyone nodded including Appa Ratchet. "We saved every bit of shanix that we could to get our little mech a good education. It was for him to go out into the world and be wonderful."

Everyone looked at the three mechs who sat looking at the sheet, their optics looking for anything that would let them know what THEY needed to do to help their babies. Ironhide glanced at Ratchet who looked at them with emotion. Roto paused a moment, then leaned forward. "What we will do is this," he said, then began to explain.

Orion would have double speech therapy, more time to run and burn off his high energy and pent up joie de vivre. He would have pre-reading skills courses now. They would attempt through puppets and other devices to attach sounds to shapes and symbols, the magical part of teaching. Given his almost lazer-like attention and devotion during listening, Roto considered that it would be a good thing for the little mech.

Orion who was sitting on the table top in the circle of his appa's arms listened, curious about the number of times his name came up. But he was silent as he watched, contented to be talked about but not harangued by anyone. He was still absorbing his Other Ada's stern reproach.

"All of the skills we will turn to now are pre-skills, those that lead to reading, writing and mathematics. He can count to five, group blocks into different piles as asked for up to five. He can tell me how many when I hold something up for him to see in any order of five things or less. He can tell shapes in the basic formats and he can understand place value up to five.

"All of this is solid. He's a very bright mech but he's also a pistol," Roto said. "We find very few times anymore where we have to intervene. He has so many friends and he's always giving them things he has or brings. If they want something he's the first up to get it and he helps by putting things away without being asked. He's very neat."

Ironhide felt his optics sting from emotions about his baby. Orion was excelling and showing in school the stellar things he did at home. "He's a good sparked little mech."

Roto nodded. "All of them are. We are going to continue the same things with Hero and Praxus. Praxus has a thing for mathematics. He's getting concepts quickly and likes to count. He counts everything."

"He does that at home. He likes to line things up and count them," Ratchet said.

Roto nodded. "His skill level meets and in some circumstances exceeds his age and potential at the moment. He likes to listen and he's stepping away from Orion. That infant has a very strong personality and sometimes it capsizes Praxus. Praxus is quieter. He likes to take paper and make little trucks. He plays by himself a lot but he also has a lot of friends. He's sweet, likes to hug us and is content to do anything he's asked. He's also neat and tidy.

"Hero is like them as well. But her skill levels are advanced in all areas for her age and developmental level. She's very quick to learn and is just so sweet. She is so determined to be a good girl. You might want to watch that she is a good girl by choice and not because she feels the need to please others or is some sort of ultra perfectionist."

"She likes her dollies on their shelf. She likes her toys in the box but she stacks them just so," Ironhide said as the others grinned. "Little femme is a lady and likes her things just so."

"She does," Ravel said. "She also likes to play with trucks and cars. She likes to race them."

"She does," Roto said. "All of the sparklings have lots of friends, are well liked and try hard to be a good student here. Orion has his feud with Han which is the major flaw in his behavior. He also has to work on his inside voice."

"We know," Ratchet said glancing at Ironhide with a smirk. "Optimal sparkling, he said. Top of the line sparkling."

"Can't make me feel badly, Ratchet," Ironhide said with a grin.

"Me either," Roto said with a chuckle.

They continued looking at little films of dancing, swimming, playing ball, working on art, listening to the aides read and general learning at the speed of sound. It was glorious. Almost as glorious as the new art they would take home. Everyone would get a piece of the bountry. Other Atar, Blackjack and Uncle Flint would get a copy of the entire proceeding ala Alor.

All would be great out in space when two big ferocious mechs with an intense military bearing would see their little babies doing all the things they did at school. It was good to be Other Atar and 'Dint'.

-0-At Ops Center nearby

Paragon worked at the sensor station helping develop the data that was coming in now that a partial array was available on Gliese 581 g. There were bogies out there, many of them moving together. He was concerned enough to reroute a number of dishes and independent satellites to concentrate on them. It was nearing the end of his shift. Arrow was just back from a system wide survey as part of the regular Seeker patrol. They were going to have dinner with friends at The Rookery, friends who were former Decepticon commanders he had served with here and there.

The mere notion of a normal life ala Cybertron and the graceful city of Iacon was still disconcerting. He was confirmed in his decision that he was in the right place now, doing what he needed to do. Having spent time at the Temple discussing things with Armor, he had begun to settle the disconnect between what he had sought for so many years and what he had here.

He was religious. He believed in his culture. He was educated, elegant, supportive of the way things had been done for eons in their society minus the System and dedicated. He had given his word and he would keep it. Prowl and Prime had both sought his opinion and included his suggestions in their thinking. It had been optic opening. It had been from moment one when he had come to offer his services.

Prowl was a lot like he was so they rubbed along well. They were both analysts and tacticians. It was glorious in a way he had forgotten to have an intellectual equal in his work. Arrow was as smart as they came and someone he loved more than his own life. But their focus was different off work. Having a formidable force like Prowl to strategize with was a beautiful thing.

He turned to walk to the table. Keying in the codes that lifted into view the section of local space that he required, he watched the bogies pulsing on the screen. They were still too far away but he didn't like the look of it. Experience seldom let him down. He turned to go to the communications station. Encrypting a message, he sent it out on the bullet line to Fort Apache, Fort Cybertron and Camp Gliese to stand at yellow level of alert. The fraggers were out there for a reason. They would not be caught off guard by them he considered. Not ever.

-0-Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean, Earth

They walked along the road together chatting internally about everything that youngling mechs discussed when they were passing time. It was dark, the moon overhead large but not full. Its light shimmered on the smooth dark sea beyond the ships that were in dock. They were silhouetted against the sky, their lights illuminating and shadowing in their evening configuration.

There were sailors and marines out sitting to talk, smoke and drink beer. They watched the behemoths walk past, their conversations halting as they did. Jolt and Blurr who had plenty of experience with them wandered past, their optics on each other and the sky above. Apparently, weather was a big topic out here. To rain or not to rain, that was the question. Was it better to carry an umbrella or suffer the soggings and deluges of outrageous precipitation?

Like that.

For Speedy and Smokey, the humans were intriguing and interesting. But they were also young mechs so they had little patience for some of their behavior. The humans were small, some of them fun, others not so much. Of course, they had little experience of their own to consider as they stared at groups here and there, passing them with silence and curiosity.

The humans for their part watched them silently too. It was almost too much to expect someone to easily understand and accept their presence when a reformatted formula 1 racing car walked past with a number of other concept vehicles chatting and laughing as they did. Snaps were always a part of the moment. That and comments made softly that the bots could hear anyway. That they were complimentary at the moment was a good thing.

"I love the paint jobs on these guys," a marine sitting on a crate said. The others with them nodded. "Incredibly rich colors. Really deep pigments."

"I saw a show where they made Lamborghinis. It takes a month to put the 200 coats on them and four days of rubbing with chamois cloths to get the finish. I wonder how they get the shine they get?" another asked.

"I don't know. I wonder how they decide what car they want to be?" a sailor asked.

"I don't know. I would love a ride," a marine said shaking his head. "That one … Blurr … I heard that he can drive at mach 2."

It was silent a moment, then one of them whistled. "Fucker is fast."

The bots had disappeared around the corner heading along the road that led through the dock area. Jolt glanced at Blurr. "Interesting word, fucker. I think its the human version of fragger."

"I think you're right," Blurr said nodding. He looked back at the other two who were silent. "What's up with you two? You look like you're in a funeral procession."

"This place is weird," Speedy said. "I don't know how they managed to kill Megatron. They're so small."

"Dynamite comes in small packages," Blurr said with a grin. They continued onward around the island. It would be an uneventful night.

-0-Home

"ADA! CATCH ME!"

"Slagger. Here I come." Ratchet turned to chase two little black sparklings and one red and white. They turned to run squeeing madly. Ironhide who sat on a chair with Sunspot and Prowler grinned.

"I think Ada is going to win," Sunspot said with a grin.

"I think you're right, sparkling," Ironhide said. "What do you think?" he asked glancing down at Prowler who was chewing on his digits happily. He paused, looking up at Ironhide with a giant smile. "I think Prowler agrees," Ironhide said glancing at the corridor where Ratchet was wrangling infants into their berths. It was like herding cats.

-0-Dawn on Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean, Earth

The night was uneventful. They had made their rounds and found nothing out of order. Two ships had sailed in making port. They were new to the area and their crews had lined the decks to see the bots that everyone knew were here. Shifts had changed in the command centers and offices of the base. Planes were landing and leaving as they had during the night.

Sailors, soldiers, marines and air men and women would be out soon going about their business. With the addition of vehicles, bots moving around the docks would be difficult. They passed through aware of the crews of two new ships taking pictures, calling out to them and staring at them with intensity. They continued onward with a glance or two their direction before disappearing around the bend.

"Jeez, look at that," a sailor said as he stood on the deck of his ship. He leaned on the side of a gun emplacement with two other sailors and a marine. "Unbelievable."

The others nodded as one of them called out. The bots didn't reply. Either they didn't speak their language, didn't hear them or were being rude. It was unclear. All that the crews and many others on the dock thought was how 'fucking awesome' the sight was. When they were docked and gangways in place, they lined up to go ashore. There were mess halls and some recreation. Baseball was a common game in a designated area on the other side of the base. Cricket and soccer were also played by the UK personnel.

They saluted the Officer of the Day, then walked down. Many of them went to the facilities but as many more walked toward the main road that would take them to the Autobot Embassy and the odd ball aliens that lived there.

-0-February 6, 2014