Fic: Tipping Point 7/?
TITLE: Tipping Point, part 7
SERIES: Imperfection Deviation
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by people with a lot more money :)
FEEDBACK: Loved
BETA: okami_myrrhibis
The plot thickens...
“What’s a space bridge?” Sam asked, intrigued.
“It’s old technology, from the Ancients. It was lost to us as we grew, like so many things,” Optimus said quietly. “The space bridge works as a portal between two places. We only know of it from the archives. In early uses of the space bridge, the dimensional portal could only remain open and stable for a maximum of eleven minutes. Travel likewise proved somewhat unstable. There were apparently immense losses. Scientists of later generations tried to copy the technology, with equally devastating effects. They tried to turn it into personal portal devices, but the energy consumption rate killed that idea, too. As well as several mechs.”
“Wow,” Sam muttered. “And now someone’s trying to build one in our solar system?”
“Near the planetoid you call Pluto,” Ratchet agreed. “From the images and the scarce data it seems the project has progressed rather far already.”
“But if it never worked… why would they try it?”
Ironhide rumbled dangerously. “There’s a plan behind it and a logical mind.”
“Soundwave?”
The blue optics flashed dangerously. “Most likely. He disappeared, but he didn’t go very far.”
“Look at the size of that thing,” Will spoke up for the first time.
His runes had grown lively now and there was a tension in his frame that spoke of his state of mind. Soundwave meant no good news for anyone, but least of all for him.
Prime’s expression was serious. “We need to stop this,” he decided. “Soundwave exploited this planet’s resources to build a space bridge, functional or not. He wouldn’t put this much effort into a project if he didn’t deem it viable.”
“You wanna blow it up?” Ironhide asked, flexing his hands. The cannons on his arms hummed ominously.
Optimus nodded slowly. “We need to find a way to get close without detection. And fast.”
“If we can’t creep up on them, we just storm the site and shoot it apart.”
“I doubt it’s that easy, Ironhide. I’m calling a meeting on this. AIDDE has to know. The humans are involved and we need their assistance to launch this mission.”
Ironhide rumbled again, but his partner only nodded sharply.
“On it,” Will answered. “I’ll talk to Morshower.”
“We can’t send up either of the Ghosts, Prime,” Ratchet argued. “The humans are too vulnerable.”
“I think that’s the decision of the crews,” Lennox told him, voice hard.
“We can’t sacrifice human lives!”
The dark eyes were even harder now. “This is our world, our solar system, Ratchet. If the military decides to man the Ghosts, you can’t keep the crews from doing their job.”
“Will…”
“Will is right,” Optimus interrupted calmly. “The humans are our allies. They have fought for us and with us already. We trained them and they are well aware of the risks.”
Lennox nodded to emphasize the words. “We’re all into this, Ratchet. All the time.”
“Conference call, fifteen minutes,” Optimus decided. “Will?”
The hybrid was already on his cell phone and nodded at Prime that he had Morshower personally. The Autobot leader strode toward his office, followed by his core officers and two humans.
* * *
-- Disconnect terminal gates --
-- Terminal gates disconnected --
* * *
Major Michael Bowman stood in his sparsely furnished apartment on base, looking around the rooms he had lived in for so many years - and acquired so little memorabilia. As a soldier he had learned early on that you could only take so much with you as you were moved from base to base, from country to country, and even to another continent altogether. He had always packed lightly and claimed that what he wanted to remember was in his head.
It was true.
Bowman had never married, his last relationship had lasted only a few months, and he had enjoyed the single life ever since. Between his assignment as liaison to the Autobots and later his involvement into so many operations there had been little time for personal life. Add WiFi to the equation and it was even harder to get a date. Of course he could have looked among those who were in on the whole alien secrecy thing, but for one there was the fraternization problem and second, when you broke up it would impact on stuff. Big stuff.
So no, he liked to keep it casual when he was off base and not get involved into anything lasting.
A soft warble drew him out of his thoughts and he smiled at his companion. “I’m done,” he announced.
There had been little to do. In a way it felt like he wouldn’t return, but this wasn’t a suicide mission. They were expected back in one piece. All of them.
WiFi scurried up his arm and drummed tiny forelegs onto his shoulder, warbling more. The Nokia would come along and Bowman hadn’t even tried to argue. He knew the mech too well. Where he went, WiFi did, too.
“Let’s go.”
He locked the door and strode over to his car. Aside from a duffel he had nothing else packed in the trunk. He didn’t need more.
An hour later he was on his way to Yuma.
* * *
It had taken Perceptor barely any time to adjust to the fact that the Constructicons were a) on Earth, b) allied with the Autobots and c) had never been working willingly for the Decepticons. The five tall mechs were imposing, but even more awe-inspiring were their minds. Perceptor had been briefed on what they had gone through; that they had actually lost some of their inner selves, but what he had encountered was still so far beyond his own capabilities as an engineer that he sometimes just wanted to weep in appreciation.
Scrapper had simply welcomed him aboard the Ark, given him a brief idea on what they had done and were still doing, then included him into the work as if Perceptor hadn’t just arrived and was still reeling from the news.
With the discovery of the space bridge at the edge of the solar system, the rather relaxed atmosphere had immediately changed. Tension filled the air and Hook especially had grown more intense. He had studied and restudied the images, tweaked them to death until he could examine every pixel, and muttered and growled to himself. Perceptor had found himself giving the architect a lot of room and it had gotten him a knowing grin from Long Haul.
“That’s Hook in a nut shell,” the massive Constructicon simply remarked. “Ignore the scary part. He’s just annoyed that he didn’t think of applying shell structure dynamics in his attempts to create a working model of a space bridge.”
“He tried to create a space bridge?” Perceptor echoed. “Why?”
“It’s a hobby. Ancient technology. He and Scavenger like to fiddle around with it when they’re bored.”
Great Cybertron! Perceptor shook his head. They call that a hobby!
Perceptor himself couldn’t wrap his mind around some concepts of Ancient technology and Scavenger and Hook saw it as a hobby!
And then the news about the launch of the Ghosts and the Autobot shuttle dubbed ‘Spook’ had come in. It had stopped all other work and Scrapper had immediately ordered all scanners on the three ships. They were tracking their movement, covering them as best as possible. The weapons of the Ark were not all fully online yet. Of course, they could be. They would work. Coordination was another matter, as was the energon required. Mixmaster had been in charge of getting that problem fixed. So far he had managed to at least keep their cannons from exploding when used repeatedly.
“Ships in range,” Scavenger said, voice level and calm.
Scrapper only nodded as they kept tracking. Perceptor wondered whether the Constructicon leader was aware how easily he had fallen into the role of base commander. He was radiating the same calm competence Prime did and it easily reflected on the ones working for him, including Perceptor.
“I don’t like the looks of that,” Hook said softly and Perceptor sidled over to the station the engineer was at.
The image on his screen showed the space bridge, resolution questionable, but the finely tuned instruments on the SI satellites relayed a fair amount of data that was very interesting.
“Energy spikes,” he clarified when Perceptor studied the readings. “Here, here and here.” His fingers tapped onto the screen and his optics flashed. “That’s a lot of energy.”
Perceptor nodded, feeling unease spread through his system. “That’s… several times the amount required for a jump.”
Hook huffed. “At least as far as we know. No one’s ever been insane enough to try and replicate the ancient bridge technology!”
Perceptor shot him a curious look. It got him a scowl.
“What?” Hook demanded.
“You are experimenting with it.”
“Experimenting theoretically. With a computer model,” was the sharp reply. “I wouldn’t dream of trying to rebuild a live model! The arrogance to even think it works, and on such a scale…!” He sounded truly outraged and probably was. “Utterly insane! Even if the uranium can be used to power the array, it’s highly theoretical that something can be moved through space to this very location - in one piece! The ancient reports tell us that even small objects like mechs were torn apart from the inside in the early stages.”
Perceptor nodded. And from the distance of the dishes this was one gigantic bridge about to go active.
Another spike of energy triggered several alarms and Long Haul hurried over, optics wide.
“Hook?” Scrapper asked firmly.
“Something’s going on,” the mech replied. “Something big and it’s still getting bigger.”
So not good, Perceptor thought to himself. Not good at all. And the moment the shuttles were close enough to relay readings as well, they would know just what it was.
tbc...
SERIES: Imperfection Deviation
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned by people with a lot more money :)
FEEDBACK: Loved
BETA: okami_myrrhibis
The plot thickens...
“What’s a space bridge?” Sam asked, intrigued.
“It’s old technology, from the Ancients. It was lost to us as we grew, like so many things,” Optimus said quietly. “The space bridge works as a portal between two places. We only know of it from the archives. In early uses of the space bridge, the dimensional portal could only remain open and stable for a maximum of eleven minutes. Travel likewise proved somewhat unstable. There were apparently immense losses. Scientists of later generations tried to copy the technology, with equally devastating effects. They tried to turn it into personal portal devices, but the energy consumption rate killed that idea, too. As well as several mechs.”
“Wow,” Sam muttered. “And now someone’s trying to build one in our solar system?”
“Near the planetoid you call Pluto,” Ratchet agreed. “From the images and the scarce data it seems the project has progressed rather far already.”
“But if it never worked… why would they try it?”
Ironhide rumbled dangerously. “There’s a plan behind it and a logical mind.”
“Soundwave?”
The blue optics flashed dangerously. “Most likely. He disappeared, but he didn’t go very far.”
“Look at the size of that thing,” Will spoke up for the first time.
His runes had grown lively now and there was a tension in his frame that spoke of his state of mind. Soundwave meant no good news for anyone, but least of all for him.
Prime’s expression was serious. “We need to stop this,” he decided. “Soundwave exploited this planet’s resources to build a space bridge, functional or not. He wouldn’t put this much effort into a project if he didn’t deem it viable.”
“You wanna blow it up?” Ironhide asked, flexing his hands. The cannons on his arms hummed ominously.
Optimus nodded slowly. “We need to find a way to get close without detection. And fast.”
“If we can’t creep up on them, we just storm the site and shoot it apart.”
“I doubt it’s that easy, Ironhide. I’m calling a meeting on this. AIDDE has to know. The humans are involved and we need their assistance to launch this mission.”
Ironhide rumbled again, but his partner only nodded sharply.
“On it,” Will answered. “I’ll talk to Morshower.”
“We can’t send up either of the Ghosts, Prime,” Ratchet argued. “The humans are too vulnerable.”
“I think that’s the decision of the crews,” Lennox told him, voice hard.
“We can’t sacrifice human lives!”
The dark eyes were even harder now. “This is our world, our solar system, Ratchet. If the military decides to man the Ghosts, you can’t keep the crews from doing their job.”
“Will…”
“Will is right,” Optimus interrupted calmly. “The humans are our allies. They have fought for us and with us already. We trained them and they are well aware of the risks.”
Lennox nodded to emphasize the words. “We’re all into this, Ratchet. All the time.”
“Conference call, fifteen minutes,” Optimus decided. “Will?”
The hybrid was already on his cell phone and nodded at Prime that he had Morshower personally. The Autobot leader strode toward his office, followed by his core officers and two humans.
* * *
-- Disconnect terminal gates --
-- Terminal gates disconnected --
* * *
Major Michael Bowman stood in his sparsely furnished apartment on base, looking around the rooms he had lived in for so many years - and acquired so little memorabilia. As a soldier he had learned early on that you could only take so much with you as you were moved from base to base, from country to country, and even to another continent altogether. He had always packed lightly and claimed that what he wanted to remember was in his head.
It was true.
Bowman had never married, his last relationship had lasted only a few months, and he had enjoyed the single life ever since. Between his assignment as liaison to the Autobots and later his involvement into so many operations there had been little time for personal life. Add WiFi to the equation and it was even harder to get a date. Of course he could have looked among those who were in on the whole alien secrecy thing, but for one there was the fraternization problem and second, when you broke up it would impact on stuff. Big stuff.
So no, he liked to keep it casual when he was off base and not get involved into anything lasting.
A soft warble drew him out of his thoughts and he smiled at his companion. “I’m done,” he announced.
There had been little to do. In a way it felt like he wouldn’t return, but this wasn’t a suicide mission. They were expected back in one piece. All of them.
WiFi scurried up his arm and drummed tiny forelegs onto his shoulder, warbling more. The Nokia would come along and Bowman hadn’t even tried to argue. He knew the mech too well. Where he went, WiFi did, too.
“Let’s go.”
He locked the door and strode over to his car. Aside from a duffel he had nothing else packed in the trunk. He didn’t need more.
An hour later he was on his way to Yuma.
* * *
It had taken Perceptor barely any time to adjust to the fact that the Constructicons were a) on Earth, b) allied with the Autobots and c) had never been working willingly for the Decepticons. The five tall mechs were imposing, but even more awe-inspiring were their minds. Perceptor had been briefed on what they had gone through; that they had actually lost some of their inner selves, but what he had encountered was still so far beyond his own capabilities as an engineer that he sometimes just wanted to weep in appreciation.
Scrapper had simply welcomed him aboard the Ark, given him a brief idea on what they had done and were still doing, then included him into the work as if Perceptor hadn’t just arrived and was still reeling from the news.
With the discovery of the space bridge at the edge of the solar system, the rather relaxed atmosphere had immediately changed. Tension filled the air and Hook especially had grown more intense. He had studied and restudied the images, tweaked them to death until he could examine every pixel, and muttered and growled to himself. Perceptor had found himself giving the architect a lot of room and it had gotten him a knowing grin from Long Haul.
“That’s Hook in a nut shell,” the massive Constructicon simply remarked. “Ignore the scary part. He’s just annoyed that he didn’t think of applying shell structure dynamics in his attempts to create a working model of a space bridge.”
“He tried to create a space bridge?” Perceptor echoed. “Why?”
“It’s a hobby. Ancient technology. He and Scavenger like to fiddle around with it when they’re bored.”
Great Cybertron! Perceptor shook his head. They call that a hobby!
Perceptor himself couldn’t wrap his mind around some concepts of Ancient technology and Scavenger and Hook saw it as a hobby!
And then the news about the launch of the Ghosts and the Autobot shuttle dubbed ‘Spook’ had come in. It had stopped all other work and Scrapper had immediately ordered all scanners on the three ships. They were tracking their movement, covering them as best as possible. The weapons of the Ark were not all fully online yet. Of course, they could be. They would work. Coordination was another matter, as was the energon required. Mixmaster had been in charge of getting that problem fixed. So far he had managed to at least keep their cannons from exploding when used repeatedly.
“Ships in range,” Scavenger said, voice level and calm.
Scrapper only nodded as they kept tracking. Perceptor wondered whether the Constructicon leader was aware how easily he had fallen into the role of base commander. He was radiating the same calm competence Prime did and it easily reflected on the ones working for him, including Perceptor.
“I don’t like the looks of that,” Hook said softly and Perceptor sidled over to the station the engineer was at.
The image on his screen showed the space bridge, resolution questionable, but the finely tuned instruments on the SI satellites relayed a fair amount of data that was very interesting.
“Energy spikes,” he clarified when Perceptor studied the readings. “Here, here and here.” His fingers tapped onto the screen and his optics flashed. “That’s a lot of energy.”
Perceptor nodded, feeling unease spread through his system. “That’s… several times the amount required for a jump.”
Hook huffed. “At least as far as we know. No one’s ever been insane enough to try and replicate the ancient bridge technology!”
Perceptor shot him a curious look. It got him a scowl.
“What?” Hook demanded.
“You are experimenting with it.”
“Experimenting theoretically. With a computer model,” was the sharp reply. “I wouldn’t dream of trying to rebuild a live model! The arrogance to even think it works, and on such a scale…!” He sounded truly outraged and probably was. “Utterly insane! Even if the uranium can be used to power the array, it’s highly theoretical that something can be moved through space to this very location - in one piece! The ancient reports tell us that even small objects like mechs were torn apart from the inside in the early stages.”
Perceptor nodded. And from the distance of the dishes this was one gigantic bridge about to go active.
Another spike of energy triggered several alarms and Long Haul hurried over, optics wide.
“Hook?” Scrapper asked firmly.
“Something’s going on,” the mech replied. “Something big and it’s still getting bigger.”
So not good, Perceptor thought to himself. Not good at all. And the moment the shuttles were close enough to relay readings as well, they would know just what it was.
tbc...