The Diego Diaries: Copycat (dd8 555)
Sorry. Family stuff. :D
=0=Conference room on Tennyson
Mechs of all stature sat around, leaned upon the bulkheads or paced in the big space of the huge room. Prime, Megatronus, Hard Drive, Raptor and Ratchet took seats as Stealth and Turquoise joined them.
"What did you find out, Ratchet?" Prime asked.
Ratchet glanced at Megatronus who looked uncomfortable to be sitting that close to him. He grinned. "I don't bite. Much."
"I am sorry, Doctor. I've had … bad experiences with your counterpart. I will endeavor to work on the lingering aftermath," Megatronus said with the usual lovely manner even his counterpart in their own dimension had that made him such a curious feature to the Autobots in the room. Megatron in both dimensions was an elegant and well educated speaker.
"Its a process," Ratchet said as he glanced around the room, "for all of us. It takes time and maybe mixed missions is a step forward. I'm good either way." He looked at the datapad in his servo. "I have with the help of Turquoise and Stealth figured out how the femmes managed to move between dimensions. When we interviewed Traachon he said that 'if you can think it you can do it'. That was a strange statement but it led me to believe that we weren't dealing with strictly Jhiaxus. This is tech that is looking to be mostly alien in derivation and in all likelihood from multi-dimensional beings.
"I am unclear if it comes from aliens that Jhiaxus knew or that Crader bumped into. This level of tech is toddler stuff I'm sure to whoever gave it. It was part of research that one or the other was involved in and Traachon said it was Jhiaxus. When Jhiaxus started he started at ground zero. Getting this must have seemed a godsend. It was in our opinion the sort of thing a highly elevated individual would give to shut up an unruly child. Just enough to start what they wanted without giving away too much."
"We believe that the source of this material is from other dimensional space, perhaps a tourist passing through or a scientist checking on their projects," Stealth said.
"A scientist or tourist?" Springer asked with surprise.
"Remember that I get odd science news from Earth on my data stream?" Ratchet asked.
Springer nodded. "You share such interesting things," Springer replied with a smirk.
"I do, don't I?" Ratchet replied with a glorious smile. "I got one a while back about archaeologists or some sort of scientist of that nature working in China who excavated a metallic device from matrix rock that was a wrist watch. It was in undisturbed matrix that was about 100,000,000 years old. It would mean that either someone has time travel on Earth or a space tourist dropped their Timex. I can't verify that it kept ticking but it sure took a licking." He grinned at the reference though he was the only one apparently who knew it. "Suffice it to say, space tourism among those who dimensionally jump happens a lot. There are even fossil footprints found in rock layers that were 100-500,000,000 years old on Earth, undisturbed rock layers."
"I have seen it before," Prime said with a nod as most of the Autobots agreed. None of the alternate universe individuals had it would seem. "Please continue, Ratchet."
"Well, I removed Denita's helm plate over the sector that is stimulates creativity and imagination, a place for us rather like the old saying among humans that being right-brain dominant means you're creative and left-brain dominant makes you logical. It actually involves both sides in humans but you get the idea. I found painted on the inside a very strange substance with a couple of fuses embedded. The fuses when the plate was in place touched that part of the processor that we're discussing. That was the only items found and the only ones needed."
"How does it work, Doctor?" Megatronus asked. "Is there an alternate power source as well?"
"No. The processor alone is the device that powers the additives. It makes what the individual wants and needs happen, like a wish-fulfillment device. I imagine among those who gave it to Jhiaxus it must have seemed a toy to them, this substance. The fuses touch the imagination and thinking centers of the processor and fulfill what is desired.
"The process to do this is to relax, put yourself into a mild state of self stasis or hypnosis as the humans would call it, then wish for what you want to do. The process would begin, we don't know how yet, and they would leave their body landing in buffer space. The limited functionality of the process required a bridge to go somewhere while inside a dimension like our own. Once there they could wish for a body and it would appear. Because they were outside of their body they immediately went into a space that appears to exist between dimensions, a sort of buffering membrane that separates dimensions from each other. I would think if they touched they would, I don't know … blow the frag up."
Stealth nodded. "And it might have happened here."
"They go to their buffer space, then decide where to go in our dimension. Once that's determined they come back into it, use bridges or whatever, then go where they want. They return the same way. That they couldn't go to the next dimension up, these two femmes, was because their processors are not powerful enough to do it alone."
It was silent for a moment, then the door opened as Perceptor, Wheeljack and Shadow joined them. They''d heard it all in their work space but had come to listen here. They sat.
"Ratchet," Perceptor said, "It would be logical for the membrane space to exist. The description we received of it was that it was dark and filled with strangeness."
"Mama Fig," Ratchet said. "If some things touch, its lights out for everyone. I would think when the dimensional rift happened the barrier/buffer was ruptured. It don't know how to fix it and we don't own the kind of power it would take but its a good hypothesis."
"It would suggest that given this start, they continued to experiment," Shadow said.
Ratchet nodded. "This was baby step one. It wasn't going to yield further what he wanted so Jhiaxus shut it down. The femmes were C.N.A. enhanced to grow to be that big, tampered with, then abandoned. Traachon had no idea what he had here but they used it to their benefit as best the limitations would allow. He's very remorseful, to the point that he told us what he knew as if he were telling someone else's story."
"Crader was someone with tentacles everywhere, the worse possible places and people. Cassio Imperialis was interested in what he did and the two worked together very, very often. Jhiaxus as well. This has aliens written all over it and not just with Traachon and his daughters. There's more here, more that could not just transform Crader's size … he wasn't that big on Cybertron, but make the process more aggressive and further it this much. He was never stable nor normal acting but the behavior he has now might be a byproduct they didn't count on with continuing this on their own," Shadow said as he mused. "He likely found more and more aliens to help him on his quest." He glanced at Ratchet. "There isn't a sense that there's titan C.N.A. or tech involved here is there?"
The room's temperature ran cold as the gathered group considered that.
"I didn't check, Shadow. That line of possibility wasn't open at the moment. We do have all the data on their protoforms which we removed before they were destroyed. There's also Crader and the older members mutating their new frames. Its a continuous process that operates with or without their original frames. Its not limited to that it would seem," Ratchet replied. He glanced at Turquoise who was working on the data from the femmes and others that he had access to from their earlier work at the hospital. "What are you searching, Turquoise?"
Everyone glanced at the small mech furiously typing on his laptop.
"Give me a moment, Ratchet. I'm searching the data files from Crader and his group. You left the files open when we left," Turquoise said as he glanced up at Prime. "It's not his fault. We just knew you needed the data so we hurried." He continued, read something, then sat back with relief. "There is no titan C.N.A involved here."
The room felt like a deflated balloon with relief.
"Thank you," Ratchet said as he glanced at Prime. "We have a start. We can use Turquoise, Stealth and Shadow's expertise in codes and trans-dimensional physics to work on this. We have to find a way to denature them and prevent full advancement to whatever the frag they want to achieve. Something tells me its the ability to fly their ships to any dimensional plane they want."
"Frag that," Black Shadow said. "We take them down in this one."
"For once we agree," Springer said with a chuckle. "First we find the slaggers."
Prime nodded. "Then we need to go. I turn discretional command over to you, General Hard Drive. I understand that your counterpart in the operation is Commander Heretech."
That big mech nodded.
"Very well, you have discretion now." Prime glanced at the scientists. "Tell us what you require and we will provide it."
The scientists nodded, then rose to leave.
Ratchet watched them go, then glanced at Prime. "They're going to be frag all to manage if we get hold of them and then there's the ethical question of the semi-sentient ships. What do we do with them?"
"I do not like to kill. That being said, we have to protect this dimension and our own. I will focus on taking them alive but we cannot rule out anything with this much at stake," Prime said.
"I agree with you on all counts, my friend," Megatronus said. "I would hope that this concludes with the best possible outcomes for all of us."
=0=On the hangar deck shortly later
"Then you will go and file formation 81-B until otherwise noted," Hard Drive said to the gathered shuttles captains as Heretech listened. "Is there more you can add, Commander?"
Heretech glanced at him, then the five mechs who were going on shuttles with the Autobots. "I would like you to follow their lead. This is a situation outside of our experience no matter how hard and varied our own war turned out to be. Experience trumps bravado. I want all of you to come back alive. Any questions?"
No one had any so when Springer began to go to the elevator, Killmaster, Black Shadow, Blue Bacchus, Sixshot and Tarn followed in the group. They were gone in seconds.
Hardie turned to Raptor and Heretech. "Come. Let me show you around. I understand that you have similar mechs, very tall and powerful but not like this?"
"You understand that very well, General," Heretech said with a grin as he followed both to the elevators nearby.
It was eerie and weird to see him grin.
Heretech never grinned on their side of the divide.
=0=Down there
Black Shadow and Blue Bacchus walked to Springer's shuttle and climbed in. Tarn went with Kup, Killmaster with Hercy and Sixshot with Lissie. They entered, then the vessels powered up. Hatches closed and they broke the magnetic link that held them in place against Tennyson. All along the hull ships let go and flew out of his shadow.
Nearby, the titanic ships waited as the shuttles came around and took up station beside them like limpid fish did with whales and sharks. It would be an apt description of the moment.
=0=TBC 10-27-2022
HUGS! GUESS WHO WILL PROBABLY MISS HALLOWEEN THIS YEAR!? AGAIN?!
"WHAT THE FRAG!" -everyone who has kids on Mars
discretional command: this allows Hardie to make decisions and lead without asking Prime first.
NOTES:
The biggest problem in 'reconciling all science' or so scientists say is 'what is consciousness?'. The idea that the brain is a computer that gets and sorts information for you as you think while the actual information resides in a cloud of your consciousness outside your body is a real thing. Neurosurgeons who deal with the brain are increasingly coming to that conclusion. Consider brain damage doesn't wipe the brain unless its too much. People with major hits still remember things. If memories, ideas and the like actually reside in the brain, damage would wipe it clean and it doesn't. Also, every cell in your brain is completely replaced every six years so if the data was there it would go with dying cells. It doesn't. Isn't that great? :D:D:D
I added this to Ratchet in the segment before this to make it more clear what's happening here:
Ratchet nodded. "What's the most powerful mechanism of any individual's body? Their mind or processor. Humans have no idea how powerful their brains are or how connected beyond their bodies they are. They don't understand that the brain is a computer and amplifier and that the essence of themselves, their 'brain' and all their individuality exists outside and around their bodies in their auric field with their consciousness.
"They believe that it stays in your head inside your brain all stored up. They think its a miracle that they still have memories when they have strokes or other damage. They don't know that the important stuff exists outside the body with their consciousness or they wouldn't have those memories if the brain could be damaged like that. This substance here," he said pointing to the unnatural shine on the head plate, "its key."
