Subspace Trappings

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.''

Andi Lassiter walks into the laboratory carrying an unusually large amount of paper, books, notepads, computer...

To the unknowning observer, the workstations around the entrance to Jetfire's personal testing lab merely look like a mess of parts, scribblings and other scientific hardware scattered about the countertops and scrawled across several Transformer sized whiteboards.

To those more in the knowing of how scientists work however, the 'controlled chaos' was more clear, and for the messy appearances there's a good chance the scientist could find something he needed at an instant without having to look.

Jetfire himself alternates between typing at his datapad and jotting down more notes on one of the boards, apparently going through calculations or something of the likeness. With the capture of Rodimus and the ever increasing likelyhood that the Decepticons will find a way to tap into 'live' subspace as well, he's been redoubling his efforts on solving the problem.

".. No, no.. that's not going to work." Muttering to himself he scrubs off part of a equation and rewrites it. "The wavelength coeffcient needs to be higher or it's only going to make a predictable pattern..." As such he doesn't immeadiately notice Andi's arrival.

Andi Lassiter sees that Jetfire is in the middle of figuring something out so doens't speak up immediately. Instead she claims a small out of the way spot to spread out her own collection of controlled chaos. Once it's all set up and ready, she gets her hardcopy of the equations and things she and James gleaned from the subspace periscope's inventor a few days ago along with her own marker for the board.

Jetfire is really starting to understand why other than figuring out how to use it as storage even Cybertronians didn't delve into subspace science very much, it's a pain in the tailfins to work with. "Maybe with I.. hmmm..." He taps the edge of the padd against his chin thoughtfully, then finally hffs and sets it a side, walking back over to the main desk and picking up the canister of 'highly electrolized energon', essentially the transformer equivilent to an energy drink he's been drinking, noticing the human as he does so. "Ah, welcome back, Andi. Find out anything else interesting?", he asks, before taking a sip.

... Whoever made the drink must of had a sense of humor, as the container is decorated with an image of Kremzeek. Or maybe that's suppose to be the -warning label-...

Andi Lassiter says, "Well, yeah. Definitely interesting. The inventor of the subspace microscope -- he said it's more accurately termed a periscope -- was convinced that he had to be completely sloshed drunk to understand any of this. She offers up printouts of the images James took of their brainstorming session with the inventor."

"I'd be inclined to agree at this point. Or maybe it was just to numb the pain of thinking so much," Jetfire half-jokes, though with the overwelmingly growing odds against them on the matters at hand his core just really isn't into humor tonight. "I've been trying to overcharge my processors a bit to get a similar effect, but it's not quite the same." He sloshes the liquid in the canister around a bit before chugging the rest of it down and tossing the empty into a materials recycling bin. "Regardless, I think we may be getting somewhere."

Andi Lassiter chuckles. "well, please don't be offended if I don't join you. Caffiene just gives me headaches." She steps over to look at all of Jetfire's notes, mentally comparing his equations to the ones she'd been working on herself for the past few days.

Jetfire nods a bit. "Oh, I understand. I'm not all that interested in it myself, but sometimes.. Well, times like this I keep getting told I need to think outside the box more, and supressing my logic circuits can be a job in its own right. But I'm rambling again... Here, I'll show you." Jetfire offers her a spot to sit on his shoulder so she can see better before walking back over to one of the boards filled with formulaes and diagrams.

Andi Lassiter accepts the offer of a lift, even if it means she won't be writing on the boards directly herself. "Thanks." And now she's glad that she opted to wear jeans and sneakers. "Okay, do you see that equation there? I think it correlates to this one here," she indicates something on one of her printouts, written entirely in human mathematical terminology instead of cybertronian like Jetfire's notations. She can read some of it, but the advanced mathematical symbols sometimes don't make sense to her right away.

Sitting on his shoulder makes it easier for Jetfire too, since then he can just turn his head to look at Andi's stuff instead of having to stoop down. "Ah, yes, I believe you are correct." Likewise the earthern methods seem really simplified to him, but thanks to help from Carly and Sparkplug back in the 'old days' he's garnered a bit of appreciation for it doing some calculations more quickly because of the comparitive simplicity. "And the frequencies for subspace access," he taps at one of the other elaborate diagrams on his board, "have a similar derivitive on wavelengths, though the exact figures change every time our locks 'cycle'," he points down to a second similar but 'static' figure, "on a dead transformer they stop on the last used cipher... The problem is going to be that, with a prisoner on hand, they can experiment, and I fear they will find a way to get into live subspace much more quickly than we had hoped. However. Attempting to unlock our active suspace access also gives us a more readily accessable base of information to work upon and may actually be a blessing in disguise." There's a brief flash of pinkish-purple as he pulls his particle rifle out of subspace, then dismisses it again. "This, I can observe the process. Can't do that on the deceased. And there was something else in the notes you brought back from Clark that I noticed."

Andi Lassiter considers the equations as Jetfire talks, then fixates on something. "Wait. What's the 'cycle' interval on your lock?"

"It varies between individuals I've found, which may also be one of the things that originally hindered them to the dead," Jetfire replies. "Not -every- time I use it, because that would make every time I need to pull missiles to load my launchers a pain in the afterburners, but regularly. Partially because I keep a large amount of hardware in storage. Rodimus, and likely Optimus when he was functional, likely is even more elaborate due to having to move that trailer around, which is why having Rodimus to experiment on hightens their chances of unlocking the system." He turns his head to look to the woman. "Did you think of something?"

Andi Lassiter says, "What is the interval of variation? I mean, I know it's different for everyone, but how is it different? Does it correlate to the cycles of their energon pumps? To the frequencies of their spark casings? To their current body mass? I'm just trying to get a better mental picture here."

"Yes." Jetfire replies in a 'all of the above' tone, smirking wryly for just a moment. Seeing Andi's apt curiosity in trying to understand made the scientist feel a lot better. "Think of it in the same way how various creatures on Earth have different rates in their heart beat, depending on their size and activity levels. Subspace gateways are much the same; a Transformer with a large amount of hardware like myself, or a greater ratio of changing sizes or shapes like a Triplechanger, is going to have a greater rotational interval than, say, a minibot who doesn't change much size or have more than one external weapon, and is likely going to have a more regular change at longer intervals since the subspace access isn't used as often and is less involved in their overall ability to operate." He pauses a moment to allow her to digest all that, turning his attention back to the whiteboard and rewriting one of the formula diagrams again. ".. However, that differation is also what would make it difficult to shield others from being picked of their subspace pockets on a personal level."

Andi Lassiter says, "There's no way to externalize that interval, is there?"

Jetfire shakes his head a bit. "Though I still want to set up a protective field as a preventive measure at the Maloseum later since those ciphers no longer cycle.. trying to shield -us- is an effort in wonderful theory but non-effective futility. However," he reachs over to unhook one of the latchs on the side of the board, "The report of your meeting with Clark mentioned 'pinching off' access, and that got me to thinking. What if instead of trying to shield us," Then grabs the board and flips it in the stand, bringing around the opposite side to reveal some half-completed mechanical and electronic diagrams, "we were to isolate the source of the problem. Instead of shielding transformers so the device can't reach into them, we trap the device in an energy field that prevents it from reaching -out- in the first place."

Andi Lassiter raises her eyebrows at that. "I like the sound of that a LOT better. But doesn't that presume that we know WHERE the device is?"

Jetfire chuckles a bit. "Normally, yes. And although I had come up with the idea earlier when Nightbeat mentioned security fields, because we did not yet know where the micro-err-periscope is being kept I didn't bring it up yet. But this is why the turn of events with Rodimus being captured may have a silver lining to the fallout cloud likely to result from it."

Jetfire raps at the main illustration with a finger in the center of the board. "Notice how I've designed it to resemble a larger weapon, as that would also allow some amount of size for components and a power source." He then turns his head back to Andi, grinning a bit more. In a sly way, that almost looks out of place on an Autobot. "Remember at the discussion meeting I mentioned an idea for boobytrapping subspace with a bomb or such, but it would be too hard to replicate the process of tapping normally locked-off subspace and I disliked the idea of disgracing our fallen as bait? But live subspace access? Slag, I'd use myself as bait if necessary. I've got some nice tempting hardware and weapons myself, and I'm willing to bet that once they DO decipher tapping our active subspace, the Decepticon standards of powerhunger, greed and wanting to suppression our ability to resist would lead them to trying to steal every device from someone's storage without checking too hard other than it's potential as a weapon..."

Andi Lassiter ohs? at Jetfire admission that Rodimus's capture might be a GOOD thing. When he slyly explains his idea, she just stares for a moment before her almost trademark impish grin slowly spreads across her face. "I love it. Hey, I just also thought of something else. How would subspace affect a living being, like a human?"

Jetfire smiles broader when Andi gets the idea. "Designing the trigger to only trip when it's pulled out 'the other side' by the subspace periscope is a bit tricky, but it shouldn't be too hard for us to figure out in the end. For all we know, being cut off could cause the device to implode into subspace itself.. and if it does, the shield would be protecting us as much as stopping it... but the main point is stopping it, and letting the Decepticons' own lust for power take care of 'finding' it for us." Then he pauses, cocking his head to one side curiously at her. Resists the urge to shrug as she's sitting on his shoulder. ".... Uh, to be honest, I have no clue. We've always avoided putting organic targets into subspace because he have no idea how it would affect them. Aeryn did survive the trip inside subspace and such, -but- I'm not willing to not account that to her own titanic size change at time as she was already being affected by subspace in the first place to cause it." Trails off into muttering at Scrapper afterwards. Can't the Decepticons learn to leave something alone, especially after the -things- they saw while in subspace before?!

Andi Lassiter nods. "It might be worth exploring at some point, but not right now. Okay. Right now our first order of business is to properly shield the masoleum, yes?" She hesitates, then asks Jetfire a bit quietly, "Why did everyone so immediately dismiss my idea of moving the bodies to the brig, which we know is shielded from subspace access? I know that where they are seems to have no bearing, but if those shields can keep a mech from accessing an actively cycling pocket of subspace, wouldn't it prevent a mech from accessing a static one?"

"Much the same reason your species dislikes digging up the burial sites of your dead, I imagine... That and the Maloseum holds more than just the Autobots that died in the assault on Autobot City. It'd be a -lot- to move," Jetfire replies as he walks over to the work table where some of the device construction has been started, and lifts Andi back down from his shoulder to place her on the tabletop. "And to be honest, the damage is already done with the weapons they've already taken. Shielding the tombs is more of a precautionary measure to prevent this damage from happening again afterwards... With the change in events, stopping the device before the totally disarm the entire Autobot Army takes preceedence."

Andi Lassiter nods. That makes sense. "Okay." She looks at the partially constructed device for a moment. "Would it be feasible to put some kind of tracking device in this thing also? Just in case?"

"..." Jetfire pauses, optics blinking at the woman for a moment. And then slaps a palm to his face. "I should of thought of that for finding the device afterwards! Guess I was so wrapped up in actually making it work... thanks Andi, that's a great idea."

Andi Lassiter blinks up at Jetfire. She'd thought he neglected to mention it because he'd already weighed the options and dismissed them. "Do we have any transmitters that work on a subspace frequency? And if so, is that frequency the same as what's used for the storage pockets? Would a transmitter work from inside a pocket?" Questions questions questions. Yeesh.

Sam has arrived. Sam is, oddly enough, helping with the delivery of stuff -back- to Autobot City, since with all of the moving and size-changing and whatnot, there's plenty of materiel to move around. And so he walks in to file a delivery manifest with one of the gumbies.

Questions are good at times like this! "A transmitter can be set to activate with the trap itself when its pulled out of subspace on their end. Something giving off a weird signal inside of subspace might tip them off that something is up. I hate to admit it, but they do have a few technical types that are good at spotting that sort of thing. Shockwave or Soundwave come to mind.." Jetfire trails off on the explaination as another human walks into the labs, giving him a brief nod. "Hello there, Sam."

Andi Lassiter takes a few steps to the side to where she can see Sam past Jetfire and the partly assembled ... something on the table she's standing on. "Hi, Sam."

Sam drops off a datapad, and then approaches the others. "Hello," he greets, tilting his head as he looks up at them.

Jetfire grabs up one of the parts and looks at them, likely looking for where he can make room to place the suggested tracking device, then looks up a bit. "More material manifests? Good, good, glad that's getting sorted out with getting supplies back where they're needed. Thanks, Sam." Picks up a second part and goes back to musing.

Andi Lassiter looks at the machine briefly, then back at Sam. He's got far more material construction experience than she does, he might be able to help here. "Sam, do you have a moment to help us out with something?"

Sam answers Jetfire, "Er.. welcome, yes." He pauses, then nods to Andi. "Of course, yes."

And the Decepticons think humans aren't useful allies? HAH! Their loss! Jetfire leaves Andi to explain to Sam as he works on some of the intricate workings for the 'trap'.

Andi Lassiter goes ahead and explains to Sam, no wait, there is too much. She sums up. "Jetfire has an idea to build a booby trap disguised as a weapon that will hopefully get pickpocketed by the Decepticons. We're trying to figure out the best place to install a tracking device now. I thought you might be able to help with that." She knows Sam's spatial skills are scary-good, she saw him honestly solve a Rubik's cube in a jaw-droppingly short amount of time.

Sam raises both eyebrows. "Hmm, interesting. Okay, can examine. What ah.. is being tracked?"

Andi Lassiter says, "Come on up so you can see for yourself."

Sam looks around for a second, then starts to clamber up some makeshift handholds to the top of the table.

After all the time Spike, his father and Carly spent around the Ark, installing human access ramps and ladders has become somewhat standard in Autobot construction, at least on Earth, by this point.

Andi Lassiter sighs and steps over to help Sam clamber up the last bit of the climb. There ARE all sorts of handy human access items here and there, but Andi's spoiled on having mechs give her lifts everywhere -- the habit was started when she was much older and less able to clamber about. She's much younger than that now.

"The idea is, like Clark suggested, 'pinch off the ends'," Jetfire adds without looking up from his work. With millenium of practic he's gotten quite good at multitasking a conversation while working. "When it's pulled out on the other end, the boobytrap will activate and isolate the periscope in an energy field, preventing it from being used to farther tap subspace. Andi suggested a tracking device so we can actually find where the Cons are hiding the device and either retrieve or destroy it for good, afterwards."

Sam accepts the hand up, then just stands there to listen. "Hmm.. concept is sound. What is er.. issue with tracking device placement?"

Jetfire turns to pull the display board over to the work bench so he can doublecheck some of his wiring diagrams. "It's not so much placement, as function. It needs to be off while in storage so they don't notice it, and then activate when the trap itself does when the device is pulled out to the Decepticon's location." Finds what he was looking for, makes a small alteration to the schematic and then goes back to work. He'll probably be up all night working on this to get it done.

Andi Lassiter hms and goes to look over Jetfire's notes about how the booby trap is being tripped. "Maybe we can just wire it in parallel with the actual trap circuitry, so they both activate simultaneously. Where are the trap's power consumption notes...."

Sam ohs, then nods. "Seems okay. What is trigger for trap? Energy sensor to detect subspace frequencies?"

Andi Lassiter is still looking over Jetfire's notes regarding the device. When she finds the part about the trigger mechanism, she explains it to Sam, using very advanced technobabble at first. "Does that help?"

Sam tilts his head, listening intently to the explanation in a kind of motionless, staring sort of way. "Yes, very useful. Should be able to incorporate into trigger mechanism. Er.. difficult.. part.. will be disguising until activated."

Andi Lassiter turns to look at Sam. "What do you suggest for disguising it? Is it going to be that obvious? I mean, it's goign to be set to activate the second it's pulled from subspace. Does it need to be disguised?"

Sam shrugs. "Unknown what scans can be performed on device." Pause. "Er.. also depends heavily on who is responsible for retrieval."

Andi Lassiter says, "Yeah, I know. But I think Jetfire's hoping that it'll trigger fast enough that whoever does pull it won't have time to compensate. Or something like that."

Sam shakes his head. "Hope insufficient. Plan should include contingency."

Andi Lassiter considers. "What about a simple mercury switch? Do objects move or fall over in subspace?" She sighs as she notices that Jetfire's moved on to work on other stuff and looks very well engrossed. "Let me see if someone else is around to bounce ideas off of."

Sam hmms. "Consider subspace as.. unreliable gravity."

Andi Lassiter raises an eyebrow at that. She can't help but wonder if it's Sam or the remnants of Soundwave offering that explanation. "What do you mean by that?"

Sam tilts his head. "Extradimensional. Will not react predictably with.. accepted Terran physics."

Andi Lassiter makes a face. "Drat." She sighs, rubbing her forehead with one hand. "What CAN we rely on, then?"

Sam shakes his head. "Uncertain. Time and perhaps momentum. Radiation, energy?" He shrugs.

Andi Lassiter says, "Momentum. We can make a mercury switch that'll work on momentum, like putting the contents inside a Klein bottle. Turn it over a certain way and the mercury makes electrical contact. It's so simple a circuit there's no way that a Cybertronian will think to look for it."

Sam hmms thoughtfully, and his eyes flick left to right like he's looking at something. "Perhaps. Physical circuit could escape detection." Pause. "Yes.. very good."

Andi Lassiter says, "Now, if you were to pick up this weapon," she indicates the drawing Jetfire has up of what the bait item should look like when complete. "What motions would you do in examining it?" She's mentally picturing the mercenary aliens from the movie 'The Fifth Element', but she has no idea how realistic that is."

Sam shrugs, holding his hands out to get some idea of the scale of the thing. "Difficult to consider. Possible.. external examination.." he turns his hands as if he's holding the weapon, staring past with unfocused eyes. "Assuming disregard for dismantling.. er.. manipulation of obvious setting controls -- switches."

Andi Lassiter watches Sam for a moment, then steps over to a control panel at the back of the table. The buttons are clearly built for a Cybertronian, but she inputs some commands readily enough. One of those holographic interface things appears over the table (ala Iron Man) and as she keeps working on it, the holo-interface reconfigures for human-sized access. Then she has a scanner extrapolate a 3D model of the 'weapon' from Jetfire's drawing and resizes it to human scale. "Okay, give that a try, Sam."

Sam raises both eyebrows at the display, then nods. "Here," he notes, indicating a likely place for some control function switches. "Er.. what is presumed weapon function?"

Andi Lassiter hms and goes back over to the board, reading the Cybertronian symbols. She's not fluent, but she knows enough to get by. "I think..." she explains the supposed functions of the weapon for Sam.

Sam just says, "Oh."

Andi Lassiter looks back at Sam. "Oh?" That's it? Just 'oh'?

Sam shrugs and nods. "Was just curious."

Andi Lassiter says, "So, if there's a control function switch there..." She walks back over to the holo-model and 'picks it up' in her hands. "How would they be turning it around to see the controls? Like this?" She rolls the imaginary weapon over in her hands. "Or like this?" She tilts the weapon muzzle up. "Because we want to make it difficult to shift around while in subspace but trigger on a particular motion.""

Sam watches. "Roll er.. right.. clockwise, yaw left, examine left side."

Andi Lassiter says, "Like this?" She turns the weapon as directed.

Sam nods. "Unlikely random motion in subspace. Should only be common for examination."

Andi Lassiter nods. "Good. All right. Should we use a normal terran-sized switch, or what? I think a little switch would be even more difficult for them to spot."

Sam thinks about it, then nods. "Could be easily disguised, yes.. may not notice. Er.. until triggered."

Andi Lassiter says, "Good. Let's get started, then."