The Diego Diaries: New 8 (633)
-0-At the house that night
The sun was setting as they finished dinner, putting the few mealtime implements and dishes away after washing them side-by-side. Sunspot was upstairs at the Residence playing. The infants were here and there playing tag under the table and around their legs as they shrieked and chased each other. Prowler was lying on a blanket by the window 'flying'. He raised his arms and legs, bobbing like a little float on the imaginary lake on which he was settled. It was pre-walking. Both of them knew it.
"Ironhide," Ratchet asked as he closed a cupboard and hung the dish towel up to dry. He turned to look at the big mechanism pretending not to hear who stood beside him messing with the sink. "You see the sparkling flying, right?"
Ironhide refused to look, preferring to give the sink a scrubbing that defied the need. "No."
Ratchet snorted. "Sparkling is flying. When do you intend to take him to school? When he's ready to join the Home Guard?"
"Not a bad idea. I'm glad we're on the same page, old mech," Ironhide said as he leaned closer to get a 'speck' that only he could see in the bottom of the sink.
"You're hopeless," Ratchet said with a shake of his helm.
"ADA!"
"WHAT?"
Orion smiled as Praxus bumped into him, then Hero. She stepped back rubbing her cute little pug nose. "Orion. You stopped. I bumped my nose."
Orion turned to look at his sister. "Ho-Ho, you okay?" he asked with an intense level of concern that was always sincere and sincerely comical.
"I have an owie," she said patting her nose.
Orion walked to her and leaned in kissing her nose. She looked at him blinking, then smiled brilliantly. "ADA! ORION KISSED MY NOSE!"
"I can see that. Sparkling always was a lover boy," Ratchet said with a chuckle. Beside him, Ironhide was watching them with an expression of love he reserved for only his infants, Ratchet and those moments when he was so drunk that he lurved everyone and everything. Ratchet loved it, the warmth and intense sweetness from someone he had to wage war over the merest idea of having a family.
"ADA!" Orion said, then he smiled like the sun basking in the approval of his genitors. "YOU PLAY!? WE RUNNING! YOU RUNNING TOO!? WE CAN HIDE GO YOU SEEKING! IT FUN! YOU COME!" He then reached up for Ratchet's servo. Ratchet bent down as the infant took it and walked to the couch gesturing for his ada to sit. Orion pushed his ped to sit. Then he looked at Ironhide. "ATAR! HIDE YOU! ME GO HIDING. PAX GO HIDING! HO-HO GO HIDING! ADA COMED US HERE! COMED ADA TO GO ME! OKAY!?"
It took all both had to not burst into laughter as they stared at three tiny waifs with hopeful smiles and big optics. "I comed here. You go hiding," Ratchet replied as he raised his servos to cover his optics. As he did, the commentary of 'hiding' was hilarious.
Peds running all over were heard.
Orion: (Exaggerated whisper) "Go, Ho-Ho. Hiding. HERE!"
Run, run, slide. Giggles.
Praxus: "I go hide now!" Running peds could be heard, then the sound of sliding with a muffled chuckle. "I hiding now."
"Atar … go you me? Hiding you?" -Orion
"I'll hide. You hide too," Ironhide said as he struggled not to burst into laughter. He watched as Orion looked around trying to find a place. It wasn't easy because Hero and Praxus took the easiest ones. Then Ironhide turned opening 'Ironhide's Kitchen Cabinet'. "Hide here."
Orion nodded with a brilliant smile then struggled to fit his tiny aft into the space filled will boxes, bags and bottles. When he was in Ironhide closed the cabinet door. Ironhide looked around, then saw a great hiding place. He went to it and fixed his spot. "Okay. We're ready."
"Are you all ready?" Ratchet asked. Four voices answered along with badly suppressed giggles. He stood staring around the room. He saw all three of them including Ironhide. He guessed where Orion was but decided to play. "I wonder where you are. I must look."
He did. He walked through the whole apartment giving a running commentary on where he was looking and how no one was there. When he came back to the living room Prowler had rolled over. He was chewing on his servo as he smiled at Ratchet. Ratchet rubbed his tummy, then looked at the couch by the window. An aft was sticking out. "I wonder where Praxus is?" A giggle met that, then Ratchet struck. He pinched Praxus on the bottom and the sparkling ran out the other side of the couch. "ADA! YOU FINDED ME!"
"I did. Don't tell me where anyone is. I have to finded them," Ratchet said. Praxus nodded, then followed Ratchet like a mini me with his puppet master.
The red chair looked promising so Ratchet walked to it and slipped a servo around. A shrieking laugh greeted that so Ratchet gently pulled his daughter out of the back. "ADA! YOU FOUND ME! I HID FROM YOU! YOU ARE GOOD AT THIS GAME!" she said as she sat on Ratchet's servo.
Ratchet kissed her, then set her on the ground. Turning, he rapped on the cupboard where Orion was hiding. A hysterical shriek of laughter greeted that, so Ratchet opened the door. Inside peeking out, Orion sat with a cookie in each servo. Ratchet tugged him out by a ped, then handed cookies to Hero and Praxus. "I have to find Atar. Don't tell me. It's a secret."
They nodded, then looked over at their father in spite of themselves. Hero put her servo over her mouth to muffle her chuckle. "He's hiding so good!" she said.
Ratchet snorted. "That's him. A good hider," Ratchet said. He turned to look at Ironhide hiding in plain sight. "I wonder where Atar is?" he asked as he dragged out the suspense. The infants were nearly convulsed with laughter. Walking to the lamp stand by Ironhide's chair ... that is the 'new one' since the 'old one' was on the other side of the room minus shade ... Ratchet smirked. In the place of that pretty floor lamp was a 'new one'. A big black Autobot with a lamp shade on his helm stood silently by the door. Ratchet peered underneath it. "I see you."
The infants were over the moon.
-0-Later that night
They sat in their chairs after a rousing several games of Hide and Seek, a rollicking bath time, several short stories on the couch and the usual 'go to sleep, you little slaggers' game of 'whack a mole' that was berth time. The Hourly News was on with the sound down. "When do you leave?" Ratchet asked.
"Tomorrow afternoon. We have the naming ceremony first. Slag the interruptions to the fun," Ironhide said with a sigh.
"Get your freak on early. I'll sober you up," Ratchet said squeezing Ironhide's arm. "Weird that I don't have to go."
"It won't be a large migration … perhaps 40,000 in all. The problem will be the unknowns. Sensors read a lot of unknowns. There's Cyclonus and Slacker for sure. They sort of agreed to let travelers through. But the others are worrisome. Some signatures of the acid monster aliens, some signatures of unknown groups that read as 'Cons and perhaps pirates. Some of the Cybertronians that left Cybertron didn't try to be peaceful. Some of them appear to have decided to raid and the like from the start, the fraggers. If they want a fight, we will bring one."
Ratchet nodded. "Bring the hurt, Ironhide. Then get home."
Ironhide nodded. He turned up the television as Prime appeared on the news. "This is Optimus Prime. I wish to tell you a tale." He then began to tell in brief the story of Gliese 581 g. He told of the trail of a single drone Seeker, one who had followed their programming in the lonely darkness of the galaxy. Because it had, because it had kept the covenant they had bounty here in this place. "Even though the drone is non-sentient, even though it would be classified as a mere machine anywhere else, I feel a strange affinity for it, for this lonely mechanism. Without it we would struggle to provide for this colony. Because that is so I have decided to grant it in the greatest sense of gratitude a Primal State funeral. Tomorrow, we will gather at the Medical Center and carry this mechanism through the streets of a colony his efforts made possible. It will lie in state at the Basilica for you to pay your respects. When the three orns are over, he will be interred in a sarcophagus inside the Basilica to remain in honor forever. It will be then on the steps of the Basilica that I reveal my daughter and speak her name.
"To some, it might seem a strange thing to do. But to me it is a small way to repay someone who built and programmed this mechanism and the mechanism itself some small part of my gratitude in its efforts. Without it doing this for us, seeding this planet and others we would be in very serious straits. At 0600 hours on the Terran Military Clock we will set out. I hope that if you cannot come then to honor this fidelity that you keep this figure in your thoughts. It is on the cusp of serendipity that great fortune is made or lost. Thank you. Until all are one." The screen went off.
A message, then several beeped. Ironhide opened the first. Ravel and Tie could be seen with Appa Ratchet sitting on his chair in the background. "Ratchet, will you be going to the Basilica tomorrow?"
"We will, Ada," Ratchet replied. They chatted, then agreed to go with the family together. A note from Alor and Flint confirmed the rest. Bluestreak had already touched base earlier. "Looks like we're on."
Ironhide nodded. "I agree."
-0-0545 on the Terran Military Clock
Ratchet stood in the ante room to the morgue as Wreckers placed a flag of the Primes over the carefully swaddled body of a Seeker drone. It had been a special wrapping covered in verses and prayers, each carefully hand stitched by the weavers in the Circle Weavers guild. Six members of the Elite Guard shining like the sun were delegated to carry the stretcher on their shoulders, their servos crossed in front of them. Two would lead the body and two would follow.
Prime entered with Armour and Chevron. Armour held a picture of the Seeker drone carefully taken from the battered body and touched up to conceal its injuries and wear. Chevron held the emblem of Seekerkin. "Are we ready, Ratchet?"
"We are, Optimus," Ratchet replied.
Optimus walked to the door, his armor reflected a polish he had requested from Sunstreaker and Sideswipe the night before. The priests stood behind him, then the guards, the body and more guards. Ratchet brought up the rear. They walked out and took two elevators down to the lobby. At the bottom, the rest of the honor guard waited. A Primal State funeral was solemn, even grave. The protocols were very formal and specific.
In the lobby carrying rifles slung over their shoulders, the barrels pointing to the ground, two members of every unit in the army waited. The Senior Autobots and Council members of the city waited on both sides of the lobby to follow. When the body passed, they would join behind the two Guards at the end of the stretcher. Behind them would come the military representatives, then all of those who came to do honors.
Outside the door on segways wearing black bands on their arms all of the humans of the colony waited silently. Nearby, their hair left unbraided as a sign of respect to the dead, the entire population of the Hu-An including their new infant waited solemnly. Seldom seen out of their habitat but for the Community Council meetings and their many volunteer efforts here and there, they all were present for this occasion. Without the miracle of the drone, they would still be prisoners of the Decepticons and not free to be the very great allies of the Autobots that they were. They understood respect, solidarity and obligation.
The door which was open was empty for a moment, the cameras of IntraComm trained upon it. Then it was filled as Optimus Prime appeared. He walked in measured steps followed by two priests, two guards, the stretcher and its bearers, two more guards, then the senior leadership. Prowl and Ratchet walked together behind Ironhide, Blackjack, Alor and Flint. All of the others, Seeker, grounder, civilian and military who had a hand in the city's governance walked silently. Ultra Magnus, Jetta, Arcee and Elita-1 followed along with two representatives of every military unit they fielded. Nearby, their shadows casting long on the ground, the Guardians and Aerialbots including Astrotrain stood watching. Metroplex and Fort Max flashed their lights, then raised their sirens signaling their respect to the party and its focal point.
They passed the humans silently, moving gravely along and when they passed by, the citizens of the city followed. When it was possible, the humans slipped into the crowd rolling along the side of the massive congregation to the Basilica far away. It would take a while. As they moved along flight after flight of Seeker fighters, bombers and heavy/light gunners flew overhead in salute.
-0-TBC February 23, 2014 edited 3-12-14