A Tight Test

Cavernous Foyer

''The large cavernous room seems untouched from the Debris overhaul. Whether running out of supplies or time, this room is mainly still as is with minor additions such as the intimidating blast doors south to the Command Center or the Communications Hub's doorway to the east. A rocky tunnel leads west to another room of catacombs, containing the railcar transportation system to Iahex.''

Rodimus Prime exits from the Debris Communications Hub, peering around curiously. "Jetfire, you down here?" A moment's pause, but not enough for an answer. "I don't mean to be rushing, but we really do need that spacebridge built, well... last week."

To his credit, Jetfire wasn't one to be standing around and just giving orders. He was down on hands and knees (in his case it was pretty much a necessity at times like this) at work trying to get done as soon as possible right along with any other technicians working on it. Really, accompanying the Steelhaven out to Dyson to get operations situationed out there was the only break he ever really took from the project to be honest.

He does look up when he hears Rodimus calling his name, though. "Be glad Scattershot remembered the moons, or it would of been a lot longer."

Fairway stands ready to help, having selected pieces from his several toolkits into something of a super kit, which he is wearing around his shoulder in black messenger bag. He gives Rodimus a wave and a light bow as he bends to help Jetfire, producing a hand-designed tool. "Apologies, Prime," Fairway says. "Delayed though it may have been, you may rest assured that the project shall be completed shortly." He wanders over to start installing control modules.

"Oh, believe me, I am," Rodimus answers, walking into the room completely and leaning casually against one of the more complete segments of the spacebridge. "but that doesn't make our need any less pressing." He frowns, crossing his arms and looking slightly down before looking around. "Well, looks like you've made good progress, at least."

"Hard work and perseverence will always pay off in the end." Jetfire shifts position as Fairway moves to the control modules, picking up the panel and putting it into place and fastening it down. "She may not be all that pretty on the outside, but she'll get the job done. The hard part was figuring out how to fire it without giving our position away."

Fairway tests nodes, setting faulties aside to be recycled for nickel and palladium. "Wee said," he remarks to Jetfire. His rather absorbed in this current task; a whole array of cells sparks and smokes when he installs it into a panel with a short in it. He grumbles and sets about repairing. "Function over form, yes. I've always had an eye for utilitarian design anyway."

"Yeah? How'd you manage that, anyway?" Rodimus asks, then he hesitates and holds up his right hand, holding his index finger and thumb near each other in the universal gesture to indicate something small. "Give the abreviated explanation," he adds, smiling. Then, glancing over at Fairway, who did just say it's almost complete, he adds, "And by 'shortly,' can you give me about how short? I mean, how long? I mean, when?"

Jetfire frowns a bit at the sparking, but Fairway has getting those faulty parts replaced under control. Best to let the one with comparitively smaller hands take care of it. He starts to open his mouth to explain, but pauses as he catchs Rodimus' jesture and requesting an short answer, and chuckles a bit. "You know me too well." Achem. "It's not -that- hard, really. The actual spacial distortion isn't open for very long, it's the energy to power it that produces anything noticable. So it's more a matter of shielding so those wavelenghts can't be detected, and making sure its not overused."

Fairway hems and haws. "Hmmm, well if I must estimate, I'd say it'll be a matter of...days? What do you think, Jetfire." He listens, rapt, as Jetfire seaks of thing that have fascinated him for a long while but which has never had the courage to experiment with - not the clearance, in all probability. He works quickly, concerning himself with simple mechanics for now, installing and rewiring and pushing a large touchboard up to rest beneath the control panel.

Patchwork has arrived. Smokescreen has arrived.

Rodimus Prime nods as he listens to Jetffire's explanation. He's still leaning casually against a completed section of the spacebridge. "Well, we'll ask people to try to combine trips and keep it to the necessities, but as our only practical way on and off the planet, I'm not sure how much we'll be able to avoid using it." His optics flash at Fairway's answer, and he winces, then hisses softly. "Hnh. I had hoped it would be sooner than that."

"That's pretty much what I meant, yes. I know we can't restrict it too much since it'll be our main means of transit between the two worlds.. but on the other hand, we need to be precautious." Jetfire moves over a bit and kneels back down, reaching inside another open section to examine some of the wires to the spacial projectors and make sure they're not kinked of frayed. Unplugs a couple and plugs back into the proper sockets. "Well that's projecting for full usability. I'd like to get a test run myself sooner if at all possible."

Fairway makes a noise. He's said the wrong thing, as he feared, which is precisely why he used a vague descriptor to begin with. "Well," he nearly stammers, "I do like to be thorough...perhaps too thorough at times." He drops his combat visor, tints it to maroon, and starts carefully welding the touchboard in place. "As Jetfire says, a test should be possible soon. Within hours perhaps, if not within /this/ hour. I...simply tend to overestimate."

Rodimus Prime brightens up at Fairway's statement and straightens. "Great!" he answers, then peers over at the spacebridge. "Do we still need, uhm, sapient test subjects for the first run these days?" he asks. Once upon a time, they needed a guiding mind, but that's pretty dangerous!

Jetfire chuckles a little at Fairway. "Better to be a little too cautious than not at all. Especially with something as critical as this... Looks like all the projectors and power couplings are in place." He sets the panel back in place and stands up. "Even if we don't activate it fully, a test to make sure all the subsystems are syncronizing fully in the immeadiate future would not be out of the question." On one hand, he wants to be cautious himself. On the other, he knows the Autobots are rather anxious to not be cut off from their support for much longer. It's somewhat of an internal conflict at the moment. He starts a moment at Rodimus' comment. "Oh goodness no! I'd rather be sure we -can- connect with Earth before anyone actually tries going through it... unless someone really -is- that daring."

Or crazy. But Jetfire is nice and not actually says crazy.

Patchwork has shown up for some reason or another, from somewhere. And just in time for the show, too! Humming quietly to herself, Patchwork is more than a little surprised to see so many people, and only hears the tail end of the comment from Jetfire. "Who's going where? Will it be fun? Can I go?" Well, crazy is a vaguely suitable description for the medic. "Well, I'm willing to try, if it's necessary," Rodimus answers cheerfully. This /is/ the boy who used to be Hot Rod, after all. Then he looks up and back at Patchwork. "Looks like I wouldn't have to go alone, either!"

Fairway crawls out from under his section of the control panel and wipes his hands on his white rag. "A preliminary test is advisable yes," Fairway says, still seeming a little hesitant to proceed without being comepltely finished with all of the mechanisms that are to make the spacebridge function. "Though sending an inanimate object first might be a good idea, just to see what happens without a guiding influence." It's at this point that Patchwork walks in. Fairway gives her a wave and a grin. Of course, there's no arguing with Prime. Such is unthinkable for Fairway. "We are discussing sending a sapient subject over the new space bridge," he explain to Patchwork, "would you be interested in volunteering?"

Smokescreen is leaning agains a wall, trying to stay as much out of the way as possible. Why is he here? Why not?! He shakes his head at Patchwork and Rodimus's comments. "Wouldn't be my first choice of fun things to do. You two can have at."

Jetfire ... was not expecting someone to actually volunteer, leaving him rubbing the back of his head for a moment or two. "The guidance system -should- accomidate for the 'guiding mind' aspect... though, with the bridge being moved from its previous location and being cobbled together from two different versions, there -is- the potential chance that previous connection between the two terminals will be off until a proper pathway is reconstructed." In the end, he just sort of shrugs his broad shoulders. "A lot of -how- a spacebridge works is still not fully known, other than it -does-."

"I think I just did, even though I didn't know I did...and Rodimus will need someone who can put his arm back on if it falls off during the test, so...sure"! Patchwork agrees cheerfully as she comes up, hand lifting to return Fairway's wave with one of her own, accompnaying it with a large grin. "Right, Rodimus?"

"I thought you liked gambling, Smokescreen!" Rodimus grins back at the diversion specialist. Then he looks over at Fairway and Jetfire. "Of course, if these two say we can run the first test /without/ a guiding mind, maybe we should do just that." He looks down at Patchwork and grins. "Not that I don't appreciate the offer!" He then calms down, a bit more serious, "Is there anything I can do to get us to the point of that first test?" Then a quirky smile slips into the right corner of his lips and he adds, "Or should I just step out of the way?"

"I like gambling just fine," Smokescren says, "but that's a tad more risk then even I'm comfortable with." He grins. "I prefer odds that I can stack a bit better."

Fairway makes a disapproving face, but he keeps his opinions to himself. The imprecise nature of this test irks him. "A probe perhaps...something that could relay its position once it arrives." He turns to the console and activates the spacebridge - well, what parts of it are functioning, anyway. "It's still bare bones, as the humans say, but..." he looks at a bank of monitors. "It looks to be in satisfactory condition to perform a test now, Prime. The only question that remains to be answered is whether any live volunteers will step forward or whether we should send an automatic device."

Patchwork ohs before nodding, looking back to Fairway a moment later. "Oh. Yeah, a probe. That's a great idea. Much better than having to reattach an arm because a test went wrong."

"A probe would be best. Something that can give a feedback." It's starting up. That's a good sign at least. For as much precision and calculation that science is, sometimes you need to just push that aside and jump forward. Jetfire grunts a bit and rummages through a pile of hardware, looking for something acceptable. "Don't tell me they sent -all- the survey relays to Dyson..."

As Fairway does the partial activation, the spacebridge starts to hum. At first, it sounds perfectly normal, but then there's something... off key about the noise. The center of the device starts to glow, at first faintly, but getting bright very quickly. Then there is a flash and all those, even those OUTSIDE the spacebridge are elsewhere!


 * THEN*

Human Lounge

This small lounge is for human visitors to Autobot City. The room is big enough to fit a large Cybertronian, and furniture here is sized to fit both humans and Autobots. Pictures on the walls show events commemorating great moments in Autobot-Earth relations and a door to the east leads to the Autobot's greatest human friend, Spike Witwicky.

The light vanishes, and the Autobots find themselves in very... familiar surroundings, if a bit cramped. Rodimus's optics flash as he looks around. His eyes are wide in shock at first, and then he barks out a laugh. "Well, uhm... I'd say your guys' aim needs work."

Fairway realizes that something is off a nanosecond too late. In blast of yellow light, he finds himself in comepletely different surroundings! He stares, dazed, and it doesn't take long for him to realize where he is. "It...it worked," he says, "after a fashion. The field must have been configured incorrectly. We must have input some coefficient in the positive instead of the negative..." He struggles a bit to find room to stand in the lounge.

Jetfire, having his back to the terminal while he looked for a scanner, missed the flash of spacial displacement. "Aha, found one." He turns and starts to stand up again. *CLANG* "GAH!" Only to smack his head on the suddenly much lower ceiling. With a yelp the air guardian thuds down on his aft, knocking over various pieces of human-sized furniture as he does so, dropping the probe and holding his head with both hands. "Dangit, who lowered the overhead clearance?"

Patchwork finds herslf squished in with the others, smaller and thus squeezed into a rather more uncomfortable leftover space than some of the others. "And how do we get out?" she wonders, shoulders hunching over slightly to try and give the others a little more room as she peers at each in turn.

Smokescreen Looks around at the suddent change in scenery and scratches the back of his helm. "Hmm, I didn't know just watching the table meant an automatic buy in." He presses himself against the wall to try and avoid Jetfire. "Guess it's a good thing I've been on a lucky streak lately."

Rodimus Prime is the largest one in the room besides Jetfire, so he's rather cramped in as well. He's also no where near the exit, but he's currently eying it. "Whoever's the nearest one leave first?" He chuckles. "Normally, if our guests want to talk to more than a couple of us at a time, they leave the lounge, so we didn't think to make it that much bigger."

Jetfire's optics blink a few times as he looks up. "... Well, at least we got Metroplex?", he comments, somewhat haplessly. "The field that keeps the spacial flux inside the terminal must not of fully activated." A pause. "Somewhat amusingly, the distance from this longue and the location of the Metroplex terminal is within a few meters of the same distance between where the spacebridge was located in Iahex, and where it is now located." Realizing he's taking up the most room, he hunches down more, folding his wings down and shunting his backpack into subspace temporarily. It helps... a little. He can at least scrunch into a corner to try and give the others room at least. ".. Yeah, I think the rest of you are going to need to get out before me."

"Who's closest to the door? Smokescreen? Fairway?" Patchwork inquires of the others who are on that side of the room, vaguely. "And yeah, better here than the middle of 'Con territory. That would have been bad!"

Fairway is among those nearest the exit, and he tries to make his way toward the door. He is quite small enough to fit inside the lounge under normal circumstances, but now he finds him self pressing his limbs in close to his body and stepping over a human-sized couch to try and get to the door. After a moment of uncomfortable manuevering he is finally able to sept out, leaving that much more room for the others to leave. "All things considered, I think this can be considered a successful test."

Smokescreen also edges along the wall toward the door, though he has to go the long way around. He makes it outside the door eventually though. To Fairway he says, "Successful testing, and we all got a little closer acquainted!"

Rodimus Prime chuckles. "Well, as long as we have it fully functional soon, it's not too bad. I mean, that /could/ have been a lot worse, I mean." Rodimus stays rather still, letting the other's creep towards the door - he'd better wait until next to last, after all.

Patchwork watches, waiting until Fairway and Smokescreen have both successfully gotten out of the room before she, too, moves after them. She's likely got the easiest job doing so, being one of the smaller bots.

Jetfire snickers a bit at Smokescreen's crack. "Very much closer." He pulls his legs up, folding his knees to his chestplate so his foot isn't in the way for others to step over. "But safe to say with some minor tweaking and recalibrating the target coordinates, it should be good to go." He pauses a moment, and then grins. "Maybe people just wanted to be back at Autobot City that badly. Or this half of it at least." The whole mind guiding thing and all.

Fairway can't help but chuckle at that. "True," he says to Smokescreen, "All told, I'm surprised we were as fortunate as we were. I'll head back right away to try and recalibrate the field, if you so order Prime, Jetfire."

"Not me! I was thinking of the Pax!" Rodimus answers as he moves out behind the other three, now that there's more room to move. "But hey, Metroplex is all right, too." He nods at Fairway. "And yeah, I so order." He pauses and glances back at Jetfire. "Need any help getting out?"

"I think I'll be fine, now that *I* have room to move," Jetfire replies with a laugh. It takes a bit more hunking down and maneuvering, but the largest of the Autobots present manages to wiggle his way out. Really in the end its the door that he has to kinda duck and edge sideways through more than the room itself. "That would be a good idea, Fairway. Do you need me to fly you to Cybertron?"

Nightbeat is hearing noises. That is normal. But he's hearing noises from people who, last he checked, were assigned to Cybertron! Shuttles are fast, but they're not /that/ fast. The simplest explaination is that they've got a spacebridge online! But there a lot more complex explainations, too, and the easiest way to solve this case is just going to be to... mosey on over and take a look-see. Nightbeat pokes his head around the door, curious. Hmm. The human lounge. More a place for Muzzle.

Fairway nods to Jetfire and Rodimus. "I'd be glad for that, friend Jetfire. Thank you much. Perhaps there you can check my work - I think I know precisely what went wrong."

Main Lobby - First Floor

With a footprint of nearly an acre, Metroplex's first floor lobby provides ample room for Autobots and allies. The brilliant white walls of the cityformer's various ramps and subdivisions lend a crisp, minimalist boxiness to the tremendous space's periphery. Ample light shines in from the floor to ceiling gaps on all four sides, the elements and insects kept out by the invisible veneer of a forcefield. The entire floor is made of smooth, silvery, segmented panels that reflect light upward onto the gargantuan gearboxes and the recessed hydraulic cowlings that come into use when the city transforms. Everything is quite clean and well-ordered, with clearly designated exits etched in Cybertronian and Standard English bas-relief guiding the unfamiliar to where they need to go.

 Nightbeat says, "AH-HAH. So it wasn't an undead Skywarp capable of longer teleportation distances! Er... not that I would have ANY reason to suspect that kind of thing. ... Actually, just ignore me."

 Rodimus Prime says, "Hey, whatever you prefer!"

 Jetfire says, "I just wish it'd randomized a larger room, heh."

Once Rodimus Prime is out of the human lounge, he's able to stretch out more fully. "Muuuuuuch better," he says, reaching his arms towards the ceiling for a moment. He shakes himself out a little and adds, smiling, "I've been used to this size for awhile, but moments like that, I miss being smaller."

Jetfire stretchs a bit once he's out, followed by his wings shifting back into their usual upright position and his backpack reappearing. No it wasn't an animation error, he'd stuffed it into subspace to make room. Then nods to Fairway. "Not a problem, I can have us back there pretty quick. Considering how, on the relative scale, close we were, it shouldn't much of a problem to recalculate a proper solution for."

"Trust me," Patchwork offers, head turning to allow her to look up at Rodimus, "Being smaller wasn't any better just now." A grin as she rolls her shoulders back, and then Patch is shaking herself out. "I defer to you," Fairway dips a bow to Jetfire, "my knowledge of the subject is inferior." He stretches, releasing pressure in his shoulder hydraulics. "Shall we away then?"

Smokescreen wasn't as cramped as the two larger mechs, but still feels the need to stretch a bit. All and all, that was a bit too close to his fellows for comfort. "Yeah, Patchwork, I agree, though we were in less danger of getting stuck. Maybe." He waves his hand at the newcomer, "Heya Nightbeat."

Rodimus Prime grins at Nightbeat. "Hello, Nightbeat. And no, no undead Skywarp." He rubs the back of his helmet. "Just... adjusting the aim of the spacebridge." He looks back at Fairway and Jetfire and grins. "Looks like it's almost working."

Nightbeat is actually over here, since he was peeking at the other room. He waves vaguely to Smokescreen when addressed, then cups a hand to one of his audios, and he asks, "What is this I hear about about adjusting the aim of the spacebridge?" Then he points at Smokescreen, "You. When's the last time you were in a dumpster?"

Jetfire pffts as he starts walking towards the lift to go to the upper floor where the launch pad is. "There is no such thing as inferior knowledge, Fairway. Trivial or unimportant to the current topic," especially if you're talking to Rewind, "but not inferior."

"You can do it Fairway...you and Jetfire," Patchwork really should have a pompom, the way she encourages the duo before she grins to Rodimus. "Almost is so very close to working, isn't it?" Nightbeat gets a brief wave from he medic before she nods to Smoke. "Yeah, I guess so."