Subspace Pockets Need Zippers

Laboratory -- Autobot City ''Lab equipment fills this room: equipment hanging from the ceiling, sitting on the benches lining the walls, and on the table in the middle. Also on the table in the middle is a terminal connecting to the main computer of Autobot City. Assorted projects lie scattered about amongst tools and other miscellaneous objects that you can't identify.'' ''Over in the North East corner of the lab sits a large security coded vault, where all the discoveries deemed too dangerous or too sensitive for general release are stored. While to the North West corner resides one of the Lab's more recent additions. The experimental Cold Fusion Reactor that drives Metroplex's faster than light systems. A number of monitors and display readouts are connected around the reactor, technicians constantly checking the experimental device.''

Dee-Kal slips in back, finds a seat, takes out a notepad from subspace (somewhat ironically) and finds a pencil Pong hasn't chewed to bits (yet).

The labs of Autobot City were a hubbub of activity as usual, as gumbie techs work on various projects for the other scientists that have multiple projects to attend to... Wait was that Wheeljack?.. no, just someone with the same body shape in yellow. See, he doesn't have the funny ear-lights either!

But one section of the labs had been cleared up of its technogeek clutter, replaced with several chairs and a table or two. The setting was fairly informal despite the serious topic, but when it comes to dealing with the crazy villainous hijinks of the Decepticons, sometimes a less rigid train of thought is the best way to go.

Jetfire himself was standing at the front (notibly without his 'backpack' and extra armor, as those were still in repair), going over a few notes of his own while waiting for everyone to gather. He gives the Junkette a brief nod in greeting when she sits.

Arcee looks in, knocking on the doorframe. "Jetfire, you wanted to see us?"

Andi Lassiter is already here and seated, conveniently on top of one of the tables in the 'meeting area'. She's sitting cross-legged and has her portable computer set up and ready for notes or anything else that comes up.

Markdown stomps in a few moments later, taking up a seat at the table, though his bulky frame makes it hard for him to squeeze between the seats. "Hello guys," he says as he squeezes himself. "Thought I'd stop by, see what you guys need to do whatever you're gonna do."

Nightbeat doesn't really want to be seen right now, but... but... temporospatial hijinks! So it is revealed that... Nightbeat is currently made out of five different cars, none of them German. This is Rodimus Prime's fault.

Arcee seats herself so that Markdown's bulk is between herself and the horribly reconstructed Nightbeat. "Thank you, Jetfire! I'm sure we'll all do whatever we can to help."

James Bailey steps in late, apparently having received word that the Autobots would be discussing proprietary Cybertronian technology - and as before, members of the EDC were invited to listen in.

Jetfire ... just raises an optic ridge a bit at Nightbeat, and lets out a soft sigh. This is what happens when he gets himself blown up and can't do more of the repair work himself, apparently. Gives a brief shake of his head and shrugs it off though, as there's work to be done. Nods to Arcee and Markdown as well as they find seats. "Alright the. First off, I thank you all for coming. More that one insight into a matter has always been a benefit, as our ability to work together is one of the things that sets us apart from the Decepticons... But I'm not a Prime so I won't attempt to bore you all with a big wordy speech on the matter." He achems and smirks a bit, before settling back into scientific business demeanor.

"As you all know by now, the Decepticons have stolen an experimental device that has allowed them to break into the subspace pockets of other Transformers. So far, only deceased ones, as they've been seen in combat with the weapons of several of our past colleauges..." There's a loud clank as he smacks his fist in the metal palm of the other hand. "And I'd like to figure out how to put an end to this -before- they find a way to use it on the living as well."

Andi Lassiter waves at James when she notices his arrival, gesturing for him to join her up on the table. Someone seated nearby should be more than happy to give him a lift. As Jetfire starts to speak she raises her eyebrows. Apparently at least some of this is news to her. She taps a few notes into her comptuer.

Markdown frowns. Oh, that's right, the Decepticons DID do that, didn't they? And to think, Markdown kept the records of his financial dealings in subspace under the assumption that it was the safest place he could possibly put them--but now that's not even true! Wearing a worried expression, the Autobot makes a mental note to pull his stuff out of there after the meeting.

Nightbeat sees that Arcee is avoiding him. Smart dame, that one. Nightbeat doesn't even want to be seen with himself, right now! When Jetfire says he's not here to bore then with a speech, Nigthbeat claps, clang clang clang. "The problem, as I see, is it's like... you got an encrypted file. If you don't change the encryption, someone will break the code EVENTUALLY, if only by brute force."

Pong scampers under tables, chairs and feet, looking for a good place to watch the proceedings. Sitting up on his hind legs, the purple tape-critter looks remarkably like a squirrel. That isn't. "Squeak?" he says between his teeth. A fabric zipper is in his mouth.

Arcee scowls at the thought of some scuzzy Decepticon running around with Optimus' trailer! "Do we know what they're using to get into our loved ones' subspace pockets? Is it that device they stole from the human tech expo?"

James Bailey joins Andi at the big table. He turns to watch Nightbeat thoughtfully. Then he turns to Jetfire to hear the response. His EDC comm unit may or may not be set to 'transmit' and 'record'.

Not his trailer, but Catechism did ascond with Roller. "Ultimately, retrieving the device itself to prevent this would be optimal, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't take precautions beforeha--" Jetfire pauses to look down at the squeaking, and points over towards Dee-Kal. "She's over there, Pong. Just be sure not to eat anything, there's delicate equipment in here." Achems as he turns his attention back to the others. "Yes Arcee, it is. To some extent. I'm not entirely sure -how-, the inventor's notes were.... erratic, at best. Like they were written while somewhat intoxicated." Oi. Nods a bit to Nightbeat. "Our systems have a natural cycling sequence that does just that to keep our pockets personal. For the time being, the changing pattern is the only thing that's keeping them to dead transformers... but the potential of them getting past that eventually is still a very real threat."

Arcee raises her hand again. "Have they infiltrated our Mausoleum, then, or are they accessing it remotely somehow? If this is something we could just take back from them..."

Dee-Kal watches her pet with some curiousity. The she looks to Jetfire. "We need better zippers on our pockets," she notes. "I posted a note based on advice Master Pak-Gor gave me once. Up to date anti hacking and more frequent rescrambling of our access code sequences on a regular basis. I am not familiar with such types of theft off-hand. But... the effect on ourselves... can such interference smurf subspace implosions... err, 'cause'..?"

Markdown scratches his head. Most of the science talk is way over his head, but he knows that he doesn't like what he's hearing thus far. "How could we possibly keep them out of subspace if they can find a way in? I mean..." He grimaces. "We should just pull everything out, now, right? It would be the only way to keep our stuff safe, I'd think!" "That's not as hard as you might think," James Bailey mentions. "Humans like me have never had access to subspace technology. We have to wear our gear, but we manage." He puts a hand on a holstered revolver to demonstrate. "I'd say it's better to suffer the iconvenience of wearing your weapons than to have some Decepticon steal it away right when you need it - or worse, to use it for themselves."

Nightbeat points out, "Some of us use subspace to transform at all. Heck, you could maybe snuff some of us if you pulled the wrong parts outta the great nether..." The detective looks pensive.

Arcee points out gently, "We keep a lot more than just guns and tools in subspace. Broadside, for instance, keeps almost all of his body in subspace and only uses it when he transforms into his aircraft carrier mode."

Nightbeat is completely weirded out that /Arcee/ is apparently thinking along the same lines as him. Gross. He thinks he needs to wash his CPU now.

... Jetfire resists the urge to facepalm when the zipper clue is pointed out. Even the smartest people have trouble understanding Junkions (and their pets). "Right, taking stricter preventive steps is a good step. And no, at least, not yet. They're only taken out of subspace, not shown any capacity of putting anything harmful in. But that's another potential reason we don't want this disregard of personal space remaining int heir hands for long... If it makes you feel safer Markdown, but don't take it to a point that you cripple yourself if confronted. That could be just as hazardous." Then shakes his head a bit to Arcee. "This allowed them to do it without raiding the actual Maloseum.. which is a small bright side, I suppose... Also," he adds as James reminds him. "So far its only been weapons that are seperate equipment. Not ones 'built into' yourself, as it were... Which would include Broadside's 'size' hardware. Hopefully. We don't need another SIZE problem again." .. That's WEIRD that those two thought of the same thing at the same time, though.

Markdown nods at James Bailey. "Hey, trust me, this isn't the first time I've had to deal with the fact that technology isn't always everything it's cracked up to be. Hm. Now where do I keep my gun..." He looks at Bailey's holster. "Hm, nah, would get in the way when I transform..."

Arcee leans forward in her chair to eye Nightbeat suspiciously from around Markdown.

Pong settles down under the table and begins to chew the zipper to pieces. Dee-Kal ponders. "Which would be easier? To find a way to protect our pockets, or blow up the subspace microscope weapon?"

Markdown raises a hand. "The latter would probably be less expensive! I mean, I can't imagine how much it took to come up with all this subpsace tech in the first place!"

Jetfire folds his arms over his chestplate as he leans back against the wall slightly. "The latter would be a preferable final outcome; the former is to protect ourselves until then." He grunts a bit. "The thought had crossed my mind to lay a trapped device in a fallen's subspace, but that would involve duplicating the tech which would be more trouble than its worth... and for another, the idea of using one of our war heros as -bait- is somewhat apalling."

Dee-Kal h'ms. "Then it would have to be live bait." She pulls a slight face. "Somebody who is known to have many weapons of the highest standard, recently upgraded, the latest tech. A worthy prize... but a worrying notion."

Nightbeat blurts out, "Roadbuster!"

Arcee shakes her head somberly. "I think you were right to cross that idea off the board, Jetfire. Making our own machine that lets us sneak into a dead hero's subspace pocket to plant a trap that we can only hope the Decepticons find... that's not like us. We don't need it. We can find and recover or destroy this thing the same way we always have- intelligence, stealth, ingenuity and teamwork."

Arcee points out, "But the Decepticons can't access the pockets of live people. All this talk of live bait is predicated on the idea that they might learn to do so at some later date. It certainly doesn't do anything about what they're doing now."

Jetfire grins a little briefly when Arcee comes to the same conclusion as he did on the matter. But it doesn't last long before it's back to business. "At least, for the time being, they seem content on emotionally tormenting us with weapons of the fallen heros. A live target doesn't do us much good unless they -do- find a way to get into our subspace. That potential, while good to be aware of and take preventive action against, isn't the actual problem so far." Then lets out a sigh, though it's really just a gesture since he doesn't actually breath you know. "The problem with retrieving or destroying the device is getting it into the open..."

Andi Lassiter has been busily tapping away on her computer this whole time, listening and noting things instead of tossing out ideas. "Jetfire, what kinds of force fields have been proven effective at blocking access to subspace pockets?"

Nightbeat snaps his fingers, "The kind we use in the brig!"

Markdown sighs, leaning back in his chair. "Probably a downside of being programmed to be this or that upon creation. Still... we can come up with a few surprises now and then! Anyway... uh... I guess we maybe we could try and draw them into trying to access a living guy's subspace pocket, just to see if they can do it?..."

Arcee nods at Jetfire, and adds, "So we'd be waiting for them to decide to rob live pockets, and then waiting for them to figure out how to do so, assuming it's even possible, and then waiting for them to pickpocket the trap from whoever's carrying it around. Those are a lot of ifs and whens and maybes. If only one of those things doesn't happen, we never get them, and in the meantime they plunder our graves while we sit around hoping they'll do what we want. They only have so many bases. Whatever they're using to do this has to be in one of them."

"Eh?" Jetfire turns his attention as Nightbeat comes up with something, turning his head to eye the mismatched detective. "Explain, Nightbeat?" Security detainment is something he's not as familiar with.

Andi Lassiter keeps typing away. "Nightbeat, would it be possible to make a portable generator for that type of force field? Say, to put one around the masoleum?"

Nightbeat spreads his hands and explains, "Well, when you got a prisoner on your hands, you got three options." He holds up three fingers. "One, you can just knock him slaggin' offline. Two, you can manually cut his subspace access. An' three, you can jam his access, kinda like jamming his radio. I dunno about making a portable generator - the security systems are pretty big and bulky. Jetfire, your boys up to the job, y'think?" He adds, "But I think you're looking at this wrong."

Andi Lassiter ahs and nods slightly, most of her attention on her computer. She finally looks up at Nightbeat and Jetfire. "Then what about temporarily moving everyone from the masoleum into the brig area where the force fields there can prevent any further access to their subspace pockets?"

Pong sits back up, a chewed soggy mass on the floor in front of him. Dee-Kal also sits up, with interest. "How does that work, onegashimasu?" she inquires of Nightbeat. "Manually cutting subspace access?"

Nightbeat rubs his chin and points out, "You're /assuming/ that subspace maps to the real world. That poor ol' dead Wheeljack's subspace pocket is right next to his body, and more, that you gotta be close to said corpse to get into said pocket. I dunno if that's the kinda assumption you can make." Then, he explains to Dee-Kal, "Manually cutting is what it sounds like - you cut the wires, snip snip." He makes a pair of scissors out of his fingers and grimaces.

Markdown throws up his hands. "Great, so what do we do, Arcee? Blow up all the Decepticons' bases? We HAVE been trying to do that for a few million years, you know! And you know, this thing they're using might not be in a base at all. What if it's in a ship? Or they put it in a Decepticon?"

Jetfire lifts one hand to rub his temples with his digits as Nightbeat explains. "Now I see why subspace, despite how extensively we use it, is such a little known field. Trying to make sense of much of this is making -my- processors twitch, and I'm a scientist." But people are trying to come up with ideas and options, and that's certainly a step in the right direction. "Looking into shielding the masoleum against farther intrusions would be a good idea.. but adapting the technology will take time and effort. Over all a long term precaution, but still leaves us with an exploitable opening in the here and now." Cocks his head a bit at the discussion of manual cutoffs. "Ah, but that's dealing with a functional target still, Nightbeat. Being dead kind of shuts that off already to isolate the pocket, doesn't it? That's the lock they're already getting by..." He's not saying its a bad idea mind you! But rather, coaxing it to be thought through farther.

Dee-Kal sits back, unconvinced with Nightbeat's explaination. "Apologies. It sounds too simple. If this is so, the Septics must also be able to do this. How come your wars today do not involve each side cutting off access to each other's subspace?"

Andi Lassiter looks up at Jetfire with her head tilted slightly to one side. "So we change the locks. What makes the brig's force fields different from others? Maybe that will give us an idea about what encoding we need to be looking at to protect everyone's subspace pockets."

Pong lazily pads over to Arcee and plunks down there instead, lying on her feet and snoozing. Presumably she's quieter than the Junkion at the moment.

Markdown rubs his forehead after his outburst, takes out a datapad, and says, "Well, I can look at what we used to build the security forcefields in the brig. I guess we can start there."

Jetfire must of wandered off into his thoughts for a few moments there. He eventually snaps back to the discussion at hand though, probably just trailed off into a different mental tagent there for a few, it tends to be a normal occurance for scientists. He nods to Markdown. "That would be a good idea. Even if its not the solution to the immeadiate problem, I would like to look into shielding the maloseum from potential future misuses such as this."

James Bailey says, "If you need some engineering and technical help, the EDC can send a few specialists to help," James offers (maybe a touch too eagerly). He thinks about how that may have sounded and then adds casually, "After all, if the Decepticons take you guys out they'll probably be looking to roll over us next."

"We gather some intelligence so that we know what we're dealing with before we take action," Arcee explains patiently. "We send our scouts to infiltrate the most likely Decepticon base or bases, find out where the device is being kept, destroy it if they can, and if not, report back to us so we can figure out how we can destroy it. That's something we can do that would actually accomplish something."

Much to Dee-Kal's annoyance, Pong remains securely in Arcee's camp. He may not talk, but the young Junkette knows his ways and the tape=critter tends to hang around when people are RIGHT.

Andi Lassiter nods to Markdown, then looks at James with a raised eyebrow. Transparent much? Anyway. She looks at Nightbeat et al again. "I still think for the meantime we should consider moving everyone from the masoleum to the brig. If the force fields there are good enough to keep someone alive from getting into their /own/ pockets, shouldn't they be good enough to keep whatever links a deceased person to their subspace pocket from being accessed remotely?"

Nightbeat points out, having gotten lost in thought for a bit, "That only works if subspace maps to real space. But we'll see."

Andi Lassiter says, "Can't hurt, right?"

Arcee gets up and goes over to the chalkboard that the scientists use for working out formulae on. "Here's what we know: the Decepticons can salvage weapons and certain other items, like Roller, from the leftover subspace pockets that used to belong to our deceased. That doesn't require any interaction between the deceased and the subspace dimension, since after all, they're no longer with us. So it's something the Decepticons are doing on their own. We also know they needed, and might still need, the human subspace microscope in order to do it." She draws a cloud and draws Roller and a laser gun in it, then draws a box which she labels "sub.micro," then draws Wheeljack's face with Xs in the eyes. A line connects the cloud to the subspace microscope. "It's this we need to do something about. The Decepticons and the subspace dimension. We know very little about subspace except that it's dangerous, and we're not very good at dealing with it. But we know a lot about Decepticons, and we're experts at dealing with them." She circles the box representing the subspace microscope. "This is the weak point."

Markdown looks at his datapad with a raised brow. "Wait... Unobtainium? You've got to be kidding me. *That's* the secret ingredient? Oh, Primus..." Then he thinks about James Bailey said, and replies, "Yeah, I suppose. If we've learned anything on Earth, it's not to underestimate its brightest minds." He doesn't comment on James's eagerness, but he does have a brief vision of humans storing nuclear arsenals in subspace, and makes a face.

Dee-Kal grumbles to herself and checks her datapad on force fields and subspace. It's there in the Wikipedia Galactica. Some force fields produce subspace distortions. The right knowledge of the right physics can create a force field that serves TWO purposes in one; to incarcerate and to jigger access to the prisoner's own subspace. So much for paying attention in class...

"Better to try and fail and pass up a viable option." Jetfire nods a bit. "And Arcee's right. We need to find out just where they have the thing, or how we can get them to put it into the open, before we actually try for it. But that's Intelligence's department." He gives Nightbeat a bit of a look as he says that. "But we've got several options to look into now, so this has certainly provided some productive insight regardless of the outcomes."

"... I think she just explained it better than I ever could of without devulging into complicated technical terminology," he adds as Arcee puts it all out in diagrams on the board.

Andi Lassiter says, "But locating that microscope is going to be the challenge in that equation. Unless... James, which company built that thing?"

Jetfire shakes his head a bit. "I'm not sure if the inventor was accociated with a specific company. It was on demonstration at a science exo in London."

Andi Lassiter says, "Then we contact the inventor. He designed it, he should know how he managed to access subspace with it."

James Bailey nods grimly. "Consider it done."

Dee-Kal is about to remind Andi what Jetfire said initially about badly scribbled notes and the inventor apparently being half intoxicated at the time of inventing, but says nothing instead.

Arcee nods and writes down the place names on the chalkboard. "Mexico, Sharktown, Darkmount. Our sensors on Cybertron haven't picked up much activity around their old base at Nightsiege lately, and they hardly ever go out to Charr. So we've got two places to scout here on Earth, and one to scout on Cybertron. It's possible they'd put it somewhere else, but everywhere else is less stable, less safe, further away from where they live and work. I'd bet it's in one of these spots." Arcee gives Nightbeat an expectant look- after all, he's the Intel guy here.

"I've dealt with Mr. Antonio Clark before," Markdown says. "Whenever I negotiate with him, I make a point of having an attractive woman in the room to keep him off-guard." He looks around at the other Autobots and shrugs. "Well, it works."

Andi Lassiter hms, typing something into her computer, then speaking quietly aside to James. "We may need to ask for Jennifer to accompany us to speak with this Mr. Clark."

Jetfire grunts a bit. He still doesn't get how some people can get so out of wack around females. Species regardless. Oh well. "We've certainly got assorted leads to follow now, at least ... I hope you guys have better luck with trying to talk to the guy. Trying to read his notes makes my optics want to cross."

Andi Lassiter says, "May I get a copy of his notes? Perhaps I can decipher them."

Jetfire nods a bit. "If you want to try, Andi, feel free. I'm willing to admit I may just be too logically minded on scientific matters, prehaps a human would have better chances at understanding another human's output."

Pong has been taking lessons from Foxfire. He yawns cutely, content to be among people, even if they are debating matters. WHich is fair enough. Nobody would want to go anywhere near anything he owns.

Arcee agrees, "Asking the inventor would be a very good idea. If we can find out how this machine works, we can figure out other things about it, like how much power it would take to operate, whether it would have to be in any particular location, possible ways of disrupting it remotely, things like that."

Markdown looks at his datapad again, and taps away at it. "Uh... I got his number. Could send him a text now if you guys want, set something up."

Andi Lassiter smiles up at Markdown. "That would be great, actually. Thanks."

Jetfire clasps his hands together. "Alright then people, we've got several leads to work on then, lets get started on them. There's still quite a bit we don't know entirely what we're dealing with, but thanks to all the imput we've made pogress all the same... Do that Markdown, prehaps it'll go better if someone who knows his ways better speaks to him this time. Meanwhile Intel can start looking for locations, and I'll get people on examining the security forcefields. Even if using them proves impractical, better understanding of how they can lock out subspace may certainly help us in the long run."

Markdown nods and taps his datapad a few times. "Okay, message is sent, should hear from him before long--" His datapad blares a segment from a rap song rather loudly. "--er, heheh, woops, that's my ringtone. Ahem. Uh..." He reads his datapad for a moment. "Yeah, he agreed to meet with the EDC, so we're a go on that."

Jetfire winces a bit at the choice of ringtones. "You're almost as bad as Blaster!", he retorts, snickering a bit.

Andi Lassiter startles and stares at Markdown wide-eyed for a moment, then shakes her head slightly and looks back at her computer. "Thank you. Did he say when we could speak with him? I'd like to get this done as soon as possible."

Nightbeat fades off into the background, and good riddance, because he doesn't match anything at all, right now.

"I can't make much sense of the guy; but do let me know if you find anything out." Jetfire hehs softly. "Consider yourselves excused at your leisure." Leaving the others to chat as it is, the air guardian turns to head back into his personal lab, probably to start looking up schematics for the security shielding. Or work more on repairing his busted weapons.