| abstract | - Crackshot is in the back of one of the research laboratories within the medical complex. The building was practically empty these days. Except for the former astronomer as he inspects his beloved project, waiting anxiously for Ratchet and others to come, and judge if he could activate the Voyager or not. Ratchet walks into the medical bay, frowning slightly what he beholds. He heads over to where damaged satellite is being watched over by Crackshot. Giving Crackshot a look, a shake of his head, "You /really/ want to go through with this even after my caution not to?" comes the weary medic's question. Crackshot looks up at Ratchet as he enters the Building and he straightens a little bit "I'm sure it is harmless Ratchet. IF it was a living creature... do we not deserve to hear what it says? " he asks, a hand resting upon it. It was patched up, although many of the scanners and such were on longer present, condition too poor "It has no weapons, it can't even MOVE and I don’t even think it can see. What harm can it do?" Ratchet crosses his arms over his chest, "Big if there, Crackshot." the medic states, then a long pause as he looks the fellow right in the optics, then continuing, "But if you got to do it for scientific curiosity, I suppose I'll clear you activating the thing." Optimus Prime walks in not shortly after Crackshot's question to Ratchet. Though the Autobot Commander comes to say nothing, he does indeed plan to watch. There has been much talk about this device Crackshot had found.. Once he is fully into the repair bay, his optics flicker gently, "Greetings you two." He says as he speaks up. Ratchet looks over his shoulder at Prime, "Good cycle." is offered, "Just in time to watch how this works out." arms remaining crossed over his chest for the time being. He looks back to what Crackshot and his project. Crackshot pauses, then turns without a word, taking that as a 'go ahead'. He nods at Ratchet again "Thank you sir. For scientific curiosity." he promises, leaving the rest open "Sir! " he greets Prime as he starts to install the battery they had designed to fit into its' system. "This is a dumb terminal as well. It is not hooked up to any of Iacons', nor can it do anything but display on the screen, in case it is violent. But I still do not think so." he points out. Optimus watches before rubbing the chin part of his face-plate, "..What have you found out about since you had it down here, Crackshot? I heard you have been working with it for some time." Ratchet nods to Crackshot, watching on to see how the mech will handle booting the thing up. That is if it could be booted up. "Good, glad you thought about that." he notes. Crackshot smiles a little "I knew you would be reassured by it." he looks at Prime and straightens "Its designed to maneuver in space - even if it were fully repaired it's thrusters couldn’t' lift it out of a gravity well at all. It seems to have been designed for exploration - lots of different, if primitive scanners and transmitters across a wide broadband of spectrum into Infrared and radio. " "So, it is a scout and research unit." Prime says with a nod, "Interesting. It will be must fascinating to know what data it has collected and who it was suppose to send this data too." Optimus then chuckles softly as he notices Crackshot continues to stiffen up each time he speaks to Prime, "Also, please-- at ease, no reason to get so stiff geared around me, Crackshot." Ratchet nods to Crackshot, listening to what he found out about the machine. "Didn't I read something about some sort of disks it had aboard it? Might want to reinstall them, see if it would play them for us." he notes. Crackshot dips his head to Prime "Yes sir." he states, turning to nod at Ratchet. "Well, the thing is... I studied them. they were on the outside of the inner carapace. they weren’t' attached to ANY electronics." he admits "I wondered if they were a symbol of something, like our Autobrands. I looked and looked, but there's no evidence they were meant to be accessed by the machine itself." "Perhaps they were guidance maps?" Optimus Prime questions, "Or information in which the machine had instruction codes on.." "Perhaps. I'm still working to decipher them. Some of them seem to represent planets but other codes... aren't so easy. " admits "And one of them has strange grooves spiraling in, textured. A physical recording of sound it looks like." Ratchet hmms softly to this information. "And no one was able to decipher them? Interesting." then Crackshot said he has been trying, "I stand corrected." Crackshot smiles "I can get SOME of it. But other parts are beyond me. I have made copies of the disks for others to study." he notes to both. Ratchet nods a bit to that, "Well, would help if this thing could assist with that wouldn't it?" he asks, "So do you /want/ my help kick starting this thing?" Optimus Prime just stays back for now and watches. He is use the rest of his questions will be answered in a matter of time once the device is activated and running again. "Err, yes sir." admits Crackshot finally. "I didn’t know if you wanted to, thus my hesitation in just asking. You know a little more about these systems than I do. " as primitive as it was. Ratchet's lips get the barest hint of a smile, "Very well then." uncrossing his arms he moves over to the machine and checks over how Crackshot set up the battery. He hmms softly, deftly moving his fingers along the wiring. He does a minor adjustment in just moments then looks to Crackshot. "This is your project, you do the honors of hitting the on switch." Crackshot nods at that and moves to do so " come on then..." he murmurs as the old discs start to boot up, with a rather loud whirring sound. he looks at the scanners, watching the different power ups. Ratchet watches on as well, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Finally, the screen flickers, numbers and symbols flashing across the screen "Look! Its working!" Crackshot grins. Ratchet looks over at the screen, "Congratulations, Crackshot." Crackshot grins at Ratchet and nods "Yeah. Let’s see... Universal translator is on the terminal. I thought ahead for that." he taps a few buttons, the program starting to run "Its' CPU speed is incredibly slow." Optimus walks over about this time and looks over the shoulders of his two fellow Autobots to see just what is happening. Let it never be said that Prime didn't have a knack for science or medical industry, he just rather not be getting his hands in it, in fear he probably fumble something. "..Older Technology then or far more primitive technology." Ratchet nods to Prime, "Possibly both." he notes, watching on as the program attempts to access the data and decipher it on the fly. "Let's see what it has to tell us." "Yeah..." it took a long time, for the Transformers, but finally legible data appeared on the screen "Its... trying to send out a signal along a radio broadband. It’s not quite in 'speech' but the closest would be 'reporting in. Please respond, Nasa." a pause "Nasa must be a friends' name." +Roll: Ratchet rolls against his Intelligence Stat and fails by 2! The total roll was 19. Ratchet hmms, "Perhaps. But perhaps we should see what the entire message has to say before we deduce anything?" he suggests. Crackshot nods and turns to watch "Its just... repeating it. Its waiting for a response before continuing. " he finally notes. Ratchet considers, "Any record of a previous response from this Nasa? Perhaps we can copy the signal and have it recognize it so it would continue?" Crackshot nods "Let's see..." he states and types on the computer "I'm sending it basic 'response' like signals... 'go ahead', 'proceed' and 'acknowledged'. he notes +Roll: Crackshot rolls against its Inventive creativity Knowledge and succeeds by 6! The total roll was 41. Optimus continues to watch and listen. He let Ratchet and Crackshot figure this out, it was after all Crackshot's toy and if they can come to understand where this device had come from, perhaps one day they could return it to its proper owners.. maybe even send them back information on their world as well. It works, and the machine starts to send a whole plethora of data." ACK!" quickly, Crackshot hits the RECORD button to have it all tracked "... All of the data it’s collected on its' sensors until the crash... going back through the time hole it fell through. " "Time Hole?" Optimus asked canting his head gently to the side, "..Where is this.. Time Hole located at?" Ratchet nods, watching to see if it replies positively or not to what Crackshot is typing into the software to decipher it back to something it would recognize. "Look for coordinates." "Its gone. It appeared just after the asteroid storm six months ago. it opened, dropped some debris and this, and then closed up. " he nods at Ratchet "I'll see what I can find. It may be designed to 'point' at a transmitting signal instead of knowing where instinctively." "Perhaps if we can find where its transmitting too, or wants to transmit too, we could also send it back in its proper direction." Optimus states, "Back home." Ratchet hmms softly, "Would there be a home to go back to, presuming it could make it back there. We don't even know how far it's travelled." Optimus looks over to Ratchet, "It is trying to contact this Nasa, I presume this information it has is for them." The Autobot commander then comes to rest his hand on his hips. "If we can, I like to send information back, concerning our own culture. A trade of information, since we are learning what-- should have been this Nasas to learn. On top of this, if the Decepticons were to obtain this information or even track where it is trying to send this signal too. They could one day launch an attack on the world it comes from." Optimus shakes his head, "We may even have to wait for that same Time Hole to open, but I don't want the Decepticons to get their hands on this and I want to make sure it returns safely back into space on a path back toward its home point." Crackshot nods at Optimus Prime "maps perhaps on how to find Cybertron? " he states "We could simply outfit it with better equipment, and send it on its' way. If we put it through another time hole, it may not end up back home. But if we make this one able to find its' own way home..." he points out. Ratchet hmms softly to Prime's words. "We still have to assure it could even make it back home, presuming this time hole reopens. So we have time to prepare something to send along with it, though I have to question if a race that made something so primitive would have use for maps to get here should they choose to do so." "They gave us the disks... that I'm still deciphering. Perhaps they are only primitive in some ways.' notes Crackshot ponderously as he rubs his chin, the machine now going back into 'stasis' mode. "It seems its' purpose is to GATHER information. So why not do that?" Ratchet points out, "Perhaps after it's fully deciphered we can determine what information to give it." Optimus nods his head gently, "Maps, maybe even some of our own history and culture." Optimus then takes a few steps away glancing upward, "Crackshot, go ahead and refit it so it will be able to make its way back home. I leave you two to your work, I have some files to look over concerning Shark's report." He then takes a few more steps before he turns to the side a bit, looking at the two of them once more. "If there are any problems, please let me know." Prime then heads out. Crackshot watches Prime go, then his grin returns "I never got to help design a space probe before" he admits to Ratchet, quite excited for this. Ratchet looks to Prime and nods, "Good cycle." is offered in parting as he looks to Crackshot. "First time for anything." Crackshot nods "would you help me? I want to make sure that its' new body will last as long as possible in space." he asks. Ratchet hmms softly, "Would have to keep it primitive. No need to give too much technology to a primitive species that may not be able to handle it." "Not TOO primitive. Its' batteries were long dead. At least capable of more efficient recharging and a better motor system." notes Crackshot. You say, "Just best to exercise some caution, Crackshot." he straightens up and moves over to check what sort of supplies that would pass as primitive enough." Crackshot nods at Ratchet "I just want to give it a better chance. Anyways, by the time it makes its' way home, they may be more advanced than us. I'll find a balance that will improve it without going overboard." promises Crackshot. Ratchet hmms softly, "Best not to shock them, Crackshot. This thing coming back home when they probably expected never to see it again.. that'll shock them enough." Crackshot nods "I understand." a pause "perhaps instead of replacing it with our own, we can simply take what THEY made and make it better. That way its not really new technology, just a little improved Ratchet considers, "We'll have to open it up, see what needs improvements, and then do what we can not to alter it overly much." "I've taken in depth scans already of every layer there is." notes Crackshot with a smile "Everything’s' in the computer already. Ratchet hmms, "Well then, I'm sure you know exactly what needs the improvements and can share that with me?" "Well, compared to us? Everything. CPU... all the scanners are toast and will need replacements. I don’t even have remains for a few of them." Admits Crackshot. "Thrusters can be more efficient. They used just a simple pressure-system. Batteries and solar panels. Ratchet considers, tapping through some of the storage files to see what would pass for something primitive enough and could be converted over. "We can alter some older tech accordingly if we get a firm idea of how they originally looked and functioned." Crackshot nods and brings up a console "Would it be possible you think to configure the new CPU so that it can use its' new knowledge to help find its' way home?" Ratchet hmms, "Perhaps. Hard to say for sure. Meshing it's technology with our own would be just one of the issues here." "I'll see if Perceptor can reverse engineer from what's left." Crackshot decides "And we'll go from there for now?" Ratchet nods, "That would be for the best. I have a few possibilities here for tech we could downgrade that are in storage." "Wonderful. " Crackshot seemed quite pleased. "I hope he can fly again." Ratchet moves to where the storage is and pulls out the parts, including some wiring that should mesh things in all right. "I'll get these over to Perceptor if you'll make sure he has the scans you took of it?" "Sending right now Doctor. " he sighs a little "Man, just like the old days. Researching!" Ratchet nods, "Good." with that he takes the parts and heads off to Perceptor's lab to see what the scientist can do or suggest to do with them!
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