Stupid Questions

Log Title: Stupid Questions Characters:  Ratchet, Spike, Starlock Location: Iacon Medical Center - Iacon Date: 1/15/2020 TP: None-TP Summary: Starlock asks a question about the Space Bridges As logged by: Starlock

Iacon Medical Center - Iacon
Spike walks in after a pretty long day at the office - the diplomat office.

Starlock is finally back form Harmonex, and after a long awaited shower, is milling about the medical bay, where she normally should of been, but given what work she's done in Harmonex? She's sure people could forgive her work elsewhere.... She's looking about before she notices Spike and waves. "Hey." She'd say softly.

Spike yawns and waves to Starlock. "Heyah, Starlock - how you functioning

Ratchet has had his own long day at the office - in his case, the repair bay. He scowls at the giant list of reports he needs to file from the seeming unending stream of accidents and maintenance requests he had to handle today. He looks up as Starlock and Spike return to the lab. "Welcome back, you two," he rasps grouchily. "Nice to have the help after everyone has finally gone home," he grumbles.

Spike looks at Ratchet and his shoulders slump slightly. Oh yeah. He's a medic as well. He breathes out "I'm sorry...Crosscut just had a lot of stuf I needed to do before I get back to Earth." He smiles tiredly "But now...I'm all yours. What can I help out with?"

"Tired." Starlock replies to Spike with a smile. "But happy.. considering everything that happened in Harmonex.." She'd say softly, that smile still on her face, her finials twitching upward as she looked over to Ratchet and started walking over. "Ooof, got settled with a mountain of paperwork?" She'd ask as she came over. "Yeah, I can help too." She'd smile.

Spike looks over at Starlock and grins, looking at Ratchet. "See...nothing to worry about."

Ratchet leans back in his chair and waves the two of them off. "Nah, it's fine," he says, literally venting steam. "I'm just getting old and cranky," he chuckles. He stands and takes a moment to stretch, causing several gears and servos to audibly pop. "How goes the business of peace?" he asks them both. "Working hard to put me out of a job?" he asks hopefully. "That Khamsin is on all the news," he chuckles.

Spike opens his mouth about Khamsin, but then decides to close it. He looks at Ratchet and says "Even if there were peace tomorrow, you'd still have a job, everyone still needs maintenance, right?"

Starlock Pfts. "Please there will always be a need for doctors, what you talkin' 'bout?" She'd smile, before giving a chuckle. "please you where cranky before you where old." She'd grin as she watched him. "Top that, when was the last time you'd had a maintenance check?" She'd ask, squinting at her mentor.... She then went quiet in thought. "...Guess I didn't realize what kinda gift was dropped in my lap when I asked him for help in Harmonex." She'd shrug with a light smile.

GAME: Spike PASSES an INTELLIGENCE roll of High difficulty.

Spike blinks and looks up at Ratchet. "Yeah...when WAS the last time you had a maintenance check?" He adds "I know full and well the required number is 6 every year for someone your ag...of your...unique mechanical makeup."

Ratchet chuckles. "True," he replies. "Although I've always been better at putting broken Bots back together than medical diagnostics," he admits, unable to keep from looking at his borrowed hands. He looks back up sharply, however, at questions about his maintenance habits and Spike's near crack about his age. "I'm fine, I tell you. I get enough of that from Aid and Hoist!" he grouches.

"I'd hope so." Starlock would chuckle. "I worry about you, and don't exactly wanna have ya collapsin any time soon." She'd smile softly at him. "So how have things been here? Sorry it took me so long to get back also, didn't expect that impromptu meeting of ambassadors at Harmonex..." Spike sighs and asks "No, but s'riously - when was the LAST time you were checked out?" He points to Ratchet. "You'd be grilling Hoist if you didn't know!"

Spike looks at Starlock and nods about the ambassadors.

Ratchet grumbles something about 'recently,' although a quick review of the records will reveal he's about two cyber-weeks past due. Even after his near-death at the hands of Nightbird, he's still back to his old workaholic ways. He tries to change the subject. "So, that new guy," he says, returning to the previous subject. "He seem on the up and up?" He studies Spike shrewdly.

GAME: Spike PASSES a LEADERSHIP roll of Immense difficulty.

Spike looks away from Ratchet and looks up at Starlock.

Starlock raises a brow, taking note of his attempt at diverting and smiles, shaking her helm, she does quietly check his record and huffs with a shake of her helm... Though she gives pause, having noticed him looking at his hands. "I can do your check for you later." She says simply, winking. "I uh.. been working on a gift 'for ya anyway." She'd nod. "Mean Khamsin?" She'd say on the other topic.

[Cybertron] Suppressor gasps, "Illarion is sparring Solus Prime in the arena!"

Ratchet nods in resignation of his need for maintenance, but happily stays on the other subject. "Yeah. Khamsin. Hellhound-looking fellow," he says with a wave of his hand. "He legit?" Ratchet settles heavily back down in his chair. "I've seen a lot of people come and go in my time claiming they want peace. Megatron claimed he wanted peace. Hrk!" Ratchet scoffs. "Peace through tyranny," he grumbles.

Spike nods slowly. He rubs the back of his neck, hearing Ratchet's declaration. He doesn't exactly think Khamsin is Megatron. Still. Spike says, "I'm...concerned."

"...He does seem to have experience... Mentioned being on earth for sometime." Starlock murmured before walking over to Ratchet, flipping to a specific page and held it out too him, before nodding to Spike. "Reasonably so... But all we can do is be cautious."

Spike nods, wanting to say more, but feeling like his crutc - err - Crosscut isn't here, and he's standing amongst two seasoned Autobots with vast knowledge of Cybetronian history, he merely nods. He does though go to his own mini-fridge and pulls out a beer.

Ratchet glances at Starlock's workbook and then scowls. He narrows his optics and looks away. "Uh, I'll look at that later," he demures, and then changes the subject again. "What were you working on with Solus Prime?" he asks. "What's she doing with that Space Bridge? Who's coming through it next - the cast of Cats?" What's Ratchet been watching?

Spike snorts and a small trickle of beer actually shoots out his nose as he starts coughing from Ratchet's last remark.

Starlock isn't sure that Scowl, and knits her ridges, but nods, and puts her sketchbook away. "Mmm, she is looking to get it connected to the other lose colonies, besides Camius.. So if it's Eukrais, that maybe a yes." She'd think, before looking around. "...Know I gotta stupid question about the space bridges."

"Now, now," Ratchet says, opening a drawer in his desk and rooting around for something. "There are no stupid questions," he says, glancing up. "- only stupid people." He looks back down, finally drawing out - not a bottle of engex, as one might expect, but a Cybertronian wrist brace. He wraps it around the base of one of his borrowed hands, as his use of them behind their design perimeters is evidently causing him pain. Spike smirks at Starlock. "Cats" he he... that got a lot of bad reviews.

Spike opens his mouth just as Ratchet says "no stupid questions," but when he hears "stupid people," he shuts his mouth again. Okay, that's the Ratchet he knows.

GAME: Spike FAILS an INTELLIGENCE roll of Very High difficulty.

Spike blinks at the brace. "Everything okay, Ratchet?"

Starlock couldn't help but crack a grin at the mention of stupid people, that was a mood she could relate too alright... She'd frown seeing the wrist braces she knows exactly what those are for, after all, she has her own. "Need some help?" She'd ask Softly, before thinking. "So... I was thinking about how the space bridges can reach other planets millions of billions of miles away, and was thinking, hey.. Is there a basic on planet version on that? Just like.. used for quickly popping over to some place like Harmonex all the way form Iacon?" She'd ask, looking at Ratchet.

"Everything's fine," Ratchet insists, choosing to focus instead on Starlock's Space Bridge question. He frowns deeply. "Well," he explains. "As I'm sure you saw, the way they're designed, you need a broadcast and receive point, and enough power to open a wormhole. They're not really designed for intraplanetary travel. Even if you wanted to go to, say, Harmonex, you'd have to build a receiver there and find some way to bounce the signal, unless you created some sort of point-to-point ground bridge."

GAME: Starlock FAILS an INTELLIGENCE roll of Very High difficulty.

Starlock is silent for a moment. "...And has anyone ever tried that..?" She'd ask with a raised ridge. "..I mean it seems a bit odd we gained space teleportation before we gained some kinda plantside transportation like that." She'd think. "THat and it sounds possible to do, or am I being too optimistic?" She'd ask him, watching his work with the brace.

Ratchet hms. "You have a point. I mean, once Cybertron was interconnected with a vast network of transport tubes that made high-energy teleportation unnecessary. With the war as it is and with the recent disruptions in our supply line, though, something like your idea might come in particularly handy, not to mention the ability to quickly medevac wounded..." Ratchet's optics glaze over as theoretical calculations flash across his mind.

Starlock is silent again before nodding. "It would be.. I imagine it would be used for other things.. But know, can't really let the bad, outweigh the good." She'd smile softly. "...Specially with how things are headed now.. I think." She pauses somewhat nervous. "...Everyone's been so down caste and pessimistic of late, that.. they sort of, let it come to rule them, and think nothing good will ever come, so letting that stop them from trying and having hope.. you know?" She'd rub at her neck. "...That must of sounded so silly." She'd muse as she got out her own datapad, and started running over possible design ideas a theoretical ground-bridge could look like.

GAME: Starlock PASSES a TECHNICAL roll of Very High difficulty.

"Any of these look like what you're cooking up over there?" Starlock would ask, turning the datapad over to show her quick sketches of the 'ground bridges' of varying designs, their decent, definitely quick, but one can make out what's what.

Ratchet snorts. "I'm the last person to gripe about anyone being negative, but honestly, the world needs people like you - as annoying as you can be!" he grouses in amusement. "Without the hopers and the dreamers, we might as well all be dead," he intones.

Happy to change the subject, Ratchet looks over her designs. He ratchets his chest screen up in front of his face to he can project equations up onto the heads-up display. After a long while, he allows, "You have some good ideas here. I wish Skids was still alive... this would be right up his alley."

Starlock chuckles. "Hey, I'm not exactly the best one to ask about it ether, often feel like I have imposter syndrome when I try to reignite peoples hope." She'd smile. "...I'm glad I have you tolerate me though." She'd smirk. "Need someone to help keep me grounded, an remember to have realistic expectations, definitely leads to getting hurt less... That, and having someone to talk to, is.. nice, It helps keep me going, know?" She'd add. "Probably would, never got to meet him fully, sadly.." There was a twitch of her optic as she remembered what she saw on the day the fallen fell.. She'd shake her helm and took a vent to calm herself. "Think any of 'em could work?"

"Maybe," Ratchet says about Starlock's proposed designs. "I'd show 'em to Wheeljack - or Brainstorm, if you can stand him. Although if either of them builds a prototype, do NOT volunteer to try it. You're likely to wind up in the smeggin' negative polarity universe or somethin', dealing with some young, cheery Ratchet and some snooty, over-educated Wheeljack," he chuckles.

Starlock grins. "Yeah, that sounds like them alright, never can just be a simple drone with a camera, aye?" She'd then break into a snort filled laugh. "Oh god, that is /actually/ a terrifying thought." She'd snort, "If I can find ether of the two though, I'll ask 'em, probably find Brainstorm before I'd fine Wheeljack." She'd huff. "...Had actually been trying to find Wheeljack for a while there but.. ehh." She'd move her hand side to side.

Ratchet smirks, struggling again to his feet. "I'll see if I can find him - he's probably back on Earth." He points at Starlock's designs. "You keep on that - I think you have some good ideas there." Walking over to a cabinet, he moves a few containers aside until he finds what he's looking for, and this time it IS a bottle of engex. "I'm leaving the reports for tomorrow and getting in some recharge time. Have a good night, Starlock," he says with hidden affection.

Starlock smiles. "I will." She'd nod. "You two Ratchet, and do take care of yourself, else I will find you." She'd playful threaten, before huffing and looked at the paperwork, and then the room, and took in a deep vent, relaxing herself... She'd look at her datapad and then open her Sketchbook to the schematics she'd been working on. "...Hope this goes well."