(no subject)

[gone_byebye]

The door opens on an alley in mid-January. "Welcome to meatspace," says Ray, hurriedly getting out of the way. "Got enough room to go alt here?"

Comments

[mendanddefend_archive]

All of the Autobots are taller than Bob. Even Bumblebee's got a few inches on him. He's coping.

"Good point. Still, it must be nice to have that extra flexibility now, right?"

[gone_byebye]

"Oh, sure. Of course, for me, this is alt mode," says Ecto. "I mean, I was incepted as a car. Having fingers and feet's still kinda funny no matter how useful they are."

[mendanddefend_archive]

"But doesn't it get boring?" asks Bob, canting his head to one side. "Just sitting in the garage doing nothing?"

[gone_byebye]

"Not really," says Ecto. "I can talk to anyone anywhere in the world as long as they're hooked into the Internet. I can read any book in electronic format that I want to. I can invest in any financial market on the planet no matter what time of day, because I don't have to sleep. I've even found other intelligences like me. There's a whole world out there running alongside the physical one. I'm good with that."

[mendanddefend_archive]

Another huff of laughter. "I can't argue with that."

[gone_byebye]

Ecto grins. "That, and I can do all kinds of simulations and models- I'm doing research and practicing all kinds of things I need to know for the scientific stuff I'm trying to do. Maybe not your thing, but you get the idea."

[mendanddefend_archive]

Bob shakes his head. "I'm a Guardian, not a scientist. It's just not my thing."

[gone_byebye]

"It's okay. It runs in my family," says Ecto amiably. "ANd it's a little selfish, too, I admit. Most of what I"m trying to study is either alternative fuel sources, so I won't have to rely on gasoline, or investigating the Net and the radio arrays of Earth for possible signs of other intelligence out there. I'd like to be able to say I was the first to know they were there."

[mendanddefend_archive]

Bob nods. "When I was younger I wanted to be the first sprite to make contact with the Users..." A beat. "Well, I guess I was, sort of, but not the way I thought I would be."

[gone_byebye]

"Yeah, popping into Milliways probably wasn't what anybody had in mind," says Ecto. "Hey, have you tried opening the door yourself? I mean, you have hands now. Dad's told me how the Milliways door works. Have you tried to open the door to your world, or would it just lead back to Mainframe?"

[mendanddefend_archive]

"No, it just leads me back to Autobase in Optimus's world. I may not belong there, but this body does."

[gone_byebye]

Ecto nods. "You probably don't want people seeing you and freaking out before you could tell them about sprites anyway," she says. "And I guess having somebody from Mainframe open the door would just translate your body into digital format instead of popping you out, huh."

[mendanddefend_archive]

"Assuming I survived it," says Bob dryly. "The first time I tried to walk into User-space it almost killed me. I'm guessing it wouldn't work that well going the other direction either."

[gone_byebye]

"Dad told me once that when my brothers Kitt and Karr used to go to Milliways, somebody followed one of them out once, only he didn't realize they visited the Bar within a virtual reality simulation, so he was walking into their VR and got turned into a vehicle himself while he was there," says Ecto. "But that's different, so... yeah."

[mendanddefend_archive]

o_O

"...how is that even physically possible??"

[gone_byebye]

"I don't know. I'd try reaching the Karr in this world, but he's never been to Milliways. If you ever meet somebody named Nick Knight, he's the one it happened to."

[mendanddefend_archive]

"I haven't met him, but I'll keep an eye out for him. Thanks." He glances toward the now-closed door. "Speaking of which, I should probably be getting back..."

[gone_byebye]

Ecto nods. "Hang on a second. Dad?"

Ray pokes his head out from the door into the back of the Firehouse. "What's up, kiddo?" Ecto nods towards Bob. "Oh- ready to go back, I take it?"

[mendanddefend_archive]

"Yeah," says Bob, shifting back to alt mode. "It was nice talking to you, Ecto."

[gone_byebye]

"Same here," says Ecto, shifting back down to a car.

Ray moves to open the Firehouse doors, and they open this time onto the Milliways garage.

[mendanddefend_archive]

"See you soon!"

And he's out.