Chapter Forty Two
24th December
0747hrs
Talk to any organic twin or triplet or other sibling member of a multiple birth and you will probably be told about the unique "bond" they share. Some will go as far as to say they know when the other/s is in pain or upset. Most, however will just tell you they greatly miss their other/s when they are separate, even if only for a few hours. Such bonds are reported to be found more commonly, and with more strength in those of an identical nature. Also, generally rare within the natural setting, it is now more likely to befall parents who indulge in the practice of IVF.
Within the setting of the mechanical form of life, particularly Transformers, twins and triplets are not so much bonded organically, but along a much stronger connection found within the spark, to use a "human" word, "soul". Somehow, and Autobot and Decepticon scientists alike, have still been unable to give it a proper explanation, the closet so far is that at the moment of "conception" the spark fractures into two or three or more pieces of identical size.
Within the realms of organic reproduction the genetic material, the egg and sperm which have combined, split sometime after, twins of a conjoined nature have been found that the split takes place later in the process of travelling down the fallopian tube. The resulting siblings are genetically identical, but tend to be different in personality, adding further weight to the nurture verses nature argument. With that said it is a further conundrum when those siblings are given the exact same upbringing.
Of course, it then leads into experience and how one views that experience. An event can transpire, and whereas the physical process in which genetically identical eyes view the event, the point of view and opinion of the event will be different to each of those individuals. The growth of those multiples in the womb progress along the same biological programming. The conception spawns an identical number of zygotes, the cells of which journey together combined in their tiny enclosure along one of the fallopian tubes of their mother until they find a place within her womb to nestle and grow. At 18 days their hearts start beating. Perhaps in unison within their shared placenta. At four weeks their tiny brains give off waves that can be measured, and at 8 weeks, their tiny forms are fully formed, and without interference, whether natural or unnatural, willed or unwilled, evil or benign, their lives will continue along a process of growth. And long before the quickening has taken place, when their mother notices her protruding belly or the tiny flutters of life buried within, their delicate limbs will kick and flail and connect with their sibling. A bond deeper then any other sibling will ever share with another sibling.
And they will enter into this world with the knowledge that they have walked every milestone together before that entrance. Upon their expression into the world viewed they could either go their separate ways, or begin to see the world around them through those identical eyes but with a different view. They will express their love for each other through that bond they have built or perhaps perceived and such a bond will give them a strength and an understanding of the other and a feel when the other is near or harmed, if only due to the power of their minds giving them that sensation.
But with a Transformer...
Conception and journey of course. But the manner of the journey is very different to a life that is based in the flesh and blood.
Within the womb of a Transformer there is an ability to mature a spark.
That spark draws energy and programming from its maternal host.
That spark doesn't develop with a physical form; it doesn't sprout buds which develop into limbs which give way to tapering fingers and toes. It doesn't craft a delicate stomach filled with acidic juices that churn away in the 8 week old belly of a human foetus, there is no length of intestine or tiny fluid filled lungs, instead, it's just a glowing orb of light. A spark.
And that spark will takes it programming and its energy from its maternal host.
And that spark will remain in that womb until a series of things happen.
If the maternal host discovers that she is "pregnant" and gives no desire for her womb to be used against her will, though such will is negated by the very action which gave rise to the spark in the first place, she will find a way to remove it. Either by an action she herself gives rise to, or she seeks out, the spark will be extinguished. And it is an easy enough process. One that can be practiced as easily as uttered in the privacy of one's own berth. The maternal host is at no risk of "retained foetal products" or "infection" or "perforation resulting in blood lost", oh no, for the maternal host that answers to the term "Transformer" is not as vulnerable as an organic mother who's life is taken into her hands the moment she decides she holds supremacy over an entirely separate and unique life within. The maternal host who answers to the term Transformer will thusly destroy the spark within and that spark's precious and new and individual and separate signature will be taken up by her body and processed into a burst of energy lasting all of point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero three seconds. So small as to not even matter.
And thusly, a spark who could have had a long life of millions of vorns will be destroyed by a maternal host who's life cycle function were never at risk.
The next fate the spark could fathom is continued housing.
Most femmes would find themselves in a situation where termination of spark is such a repugnant thought to them that the entertaining of such thought is never even allowed by their CPU. The spark within will never grow beyond the size intended and will never stretch metal skin or push apart abdominal plating, instead, it will sit within taking a tiny amount of energy for its own use and rest peacefully waiting until a day it can be extracted without fatal intention or willed destruction.
Most femmes would carry these sparks without ever uttering that life is within them. They would carry them into battles, into other worlds and even into a berth with a mech, whether or not he is the father is not the issue.
Or the third option, where that spark would be mature enough to be taken free and living and placed within the body crafted especially for it.
The ability of Transformers to pass on life comes in numerous ways:
The All Spark or Matrix can pass life onto an inanimate object crafted for any other intention then the Matrix desires. A human's car or blender for example can find itself alive and with awareness of self by just a simple desire of the Matrix barer or a knock against such a life giving orb.
Victor Sigma, the computer which gave us all life, is an expression used by many of his children. A shell is built and presented, and Victor in all his programming determines, with the assistance and more so really desires of the presenter, what programming it must have. Victor Sigma does not craft good or evil because he wants to, there is no intention here to balance the cosmos or due to some sick need to craft an evil being intent on evil things.
Victor Sigma just does as he is told when it comes to the direction of the spark that finds itself crafted. With this mentioned, the rest of the personality is up to the computer itself. Victor Sigma will fill a shell with hate for the Autobots and all the Autobots stand for, or he will give personality worthy of he who created me, but that's as much guidance as he will take. It is not up to he who crafted the shell to decide if that new spark will like blue over red or will prefer the taste of oil over energon crafted from wind power, Victor Sigma will even determine, whether or not the presenter desires it, what sexual preference that new spark will have.
And of course, what is noted as "pregnancy". The spark grows, and then is transferred into a shell crafted.
There are no "baby" shells, no "toddler" shells, there is no ability for metal to mimic flesh and grow. The shell is war ready, which is one of the many reasons a femme chooses to hold onto that spark within, so that it is not quickly destroyed. All the while her programming and memories are passing over into the spark deep within. Not identical of course, it will not spawn a spark identical to the maternal host; the paternal host does have some contribution. For the mech involved, it is his programming and memory up to that point will carry itself along in the fluid he has released, until it meets the femme's contribution and together they merge to craft a life that will be different and unique.
And when the optics of that shell opens, the spark from the maternal host now buried deep within, protected and granted the continuance of life, it will see the world through optics of its very own, processing what it sees with a CPU of its very own and act and interact with the world it sees with its own take on those events.
Which returns us to the point of Transformer multiples.
All of those things, all of those quirky, differentiating, unique little things that interfere with the development, placing upon those sparks its own craftiness, that that precious life, regardless of what mark will be placed upon its chest, all of those things make that life an individual, separate to its sibling/s.
However, whereas those things are so simple things are almost similar to the organic process of multiples; it is the bond they share that cannot be matched in flesh and blood.
The minds of human organics, no matter how strongly willed or wished for, or even imagined, can never be joined in such an intimate way that they are combined, where thoughts are shared and the mind, perhaps soul, is one.
But with the point of Transformer multiples, the spark is one, the soul is one, the mind, while different, are essentially one. One cannot survive without the other. Two halves, multiple parts of the one whole.
The connection between the two is where science and metallic technology and parts play their role. A communication line between them is one so special and complicated that the scientists from both factions cannot understand it. It is one where thoughts are not expressed with words or images, but with a sort of feeling, a sensation that cannot be ever given word enough to describe it.
So, this brings us to Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. Not physically identical, but even organic multiples did not share complete appearance to each other, a simple freckle or scar could divide them, and again, give rise to the purpose of differing views of the same event. But to Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, the physical difference was not a matter to either, it was the spark that they shared that gave them those desires, that irritating desire to never be separated, despite the stronger and more authoritarian desire of their superior officers, and it was that connection that served their superior officers well upon the field of battle. It gave them the ability to instinctively know that the other was in trouble, that the other needed helped to bring down an enemy to even locate the other down to the most exact mili-metre.
The fear of all multiples, regardless of the type of material that covered their frames, was the death of the other. It was an unspoken fear, but need not be spoken due to those bonds. Those instinctive understandings of the other's mindsets. That the death would cause a serving of the bond, that the feeling of being only half complete would be their lifelong reminder of the death. Organic twins who lost their half at birth or in utero would often report the feeling that they were not "complete" that they felt "empty" and as if "something was missing", even in those who were unaware of their short lived twinship. An interesting titbit, that in the realms of human science, it was believed that left handed individuals could be a surviving twin.
Sunstreaker was sitting there in the soft mud of the tunnel.
His heart, it could be said, was breaking.
To him, there was no link with Sideswipe.
That meant that something had broken that connection.
He tried to fight the logic that it was death.
Tears dribbled from his optics, streaking his face.
In the darkness, this pathetically sad and oh so tragic sight could not be viewed.
Somewhere within the same mine sat his brother, Sideswipe, the same horror deep in his spark, the same connection gone to him, the same thought of an offlining niggling at him.
There was no way at that point that either of them knew the fate of the other.
Sideswipe, a little "chirpier" then his brother, found strength to get up, pulling himself from the cold sludge and demanding his limbs to move with the purpose of search, to know for sure, the fate of his brother.
Author's NB: I felt the need to explain how I think femmes get "pregnant". Basically, I don't view the situation as her getting bigger and a foetus developing, rather a spark that has been created "conceived" is you will, and now sits dormant waiting for its chance to be implanted/transferred into an empty shell crafted for the purpose of this individual. I don't think sparks have genders, I think once the spark is in the form it takes the identity of that form's structure – ie. Femme or mech.