| abstract
| - While the Ark II may be a massive military space carrier, the Autobots' more magnanimous duties, including research and exploration, are well-represented in the ship's on-board facility. The laboratory is "cozy", but with enough space for the efficient-minded to get serious, hard-boiled scientific work accomplished. The science block is in fact a converted cargo chamber filled with a number of compartmentalized research capsules -- each one designed for a specific scientific pursuit, such as astronomy or exo-biology. The stellar cartography section seems to be afforded the most space, with a nest of space probes and independent launch mechanism located in the main research cluster. External ship broadcasts for this room are OFF Type +shiphelp for help Contents: Crosscheck Crosshairs' Research Station Obvious exits: Crosscheck is working on the laboratiry but that should not surprise anyone. At the moment he's working on his lasted toy, the destabilizer ray. He's trying to improve its accuracy because he would not like to hit another autobot with that kind of weapon. Nightbeat has just about had it up to here about his Nebulan partner complaining about the... uneveness in Nightbeat's visual and audiatory sensors. Blah, blah, blah, Nightbeat, why can't you hear and see as well as a car? Blah, blah, blah. Well, it's time to suck up his pride and see the doctor. Maybe that'll shut the little Nebulan up. (Probably not. Muzzle's got that killer eye for detail. He'll find some other detail to pick at.) Crosscheck is distracted from his work by the noises made by Nightbeat as he arrives in the lab. He looks over his shoulder and greets him, "Hey, Nightbeat. We don't see you around here much..." The scientist throws a blanket over his weapon not wanting to talk about it now. "What can I do for you?" Nightbeat decide to say it to Crosscheck straight, "You know, tossing a blanket over that weapon just made it a thousand times more interesting, right?" It's true the medics probably don't see Nightbeat around much. He generally has a philosophy of working alone and then walking it off. Ain't the best philosophy, given that he's walking with a pronounced limp, but only time will heal that now. "So my partner, Muzzle - he noticed that my vision and hearing ain't so good as a car. Says I oughta get that fixed." Crosscheck walks over to a console and download Nightbeat's techspec from the Pax's computer. He silently studies them for a while, "Hum he's right. Your sensors in robot mode are much more sofisticated...." He moves a few things around on the schematics, "I could help you. I would need to move a few sensors around but that's doable." Nightbeat crosses his arms and glares a bit, clearly standoffish and sensitive about the matter. He grumbles, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like it mattered, when I was rotting away as a security guard." Nightbeat seems to decide something, and he finally asks, "You could help me, doc? What's in it for you?" Crosscheck frowns as he looks back at Nightbeat, "What's in it for me? I get to help a fellow autobot.... you're funny. Muzzle must have a good influence on you. But yes, I can help you. You should know that there is very few thing I can't achieve technically." Yeah he's showing off a bit here. With a classical transformation sound, he switches into his repair station mode. "Transform and climbs onto the table. I'll swap some sensors around in no time and your senses will be just as accurate in car mode as they are in robot mode." Nightbeat looks at Crosscheck suspiciously for a long, searching moment. "Just the goodness of your core, huh? I guess that's the Autobot way. Or it was." On that cynical note, he climbs up on the table and transforms, as directed. His Nebulan partner transforms, lands on the floor, subspaces the *master armour, and tips his hat to Crosscheck, commenting, "Mighty kind of you to say so. Nightbeat's a stubborn old git, isn't he?" Nightbeat slouches down into Porsche 959 form. Time to roll. Crosscheck falls fowards and transforms into a repair station. Repair Station chuckles at Muzzle, "Yeah you're right.... I've been in the same room as him and Red Alert once... never more." As he speaks, he runs a complete medical scan of Nightbeat, highlighting some specific spots on his mental schematic. His mechanical arms then remove a couples of armor pieces to get access to Nightbeat's sensor, "You must know that there will be temporary side effects to the procedure..." Porsche 959 snaps, "Hey! The only thing bad about having Red Alert and me in the same room is that the Girl Scouts are ten times more likely to try to silence us for what we know than if we are apart." Muzzle rubs the back of his head and desperately tries to act like he doesn't know Nightbeat. Nightbeat sighs, "Side effects? Hit me. Will I come down with rust? The shakes, doc? Become a chick magnet?" Repair Station would really like to sigh and shakes his head at the moment... good thing he isn't in robot mode, "No... but your sensors will need time to get adjusted after I reconfigure them so... well... I'll have to turn them off for a terran cycle. You would basicly be deaf and blind during that cycle." Porsche 959 's engine revs, as if he's about to just drive clear out of the room, and he sounds both shocked and appalled, "Say it ain't so, doc! Anything but that! I'd rather my muffler fall off or my optics turn red or... nah, still wouldn't want to be a dame." Repair Station uses his mechanical arms to hold Nightbeat, "Sorry Detective but doing otherwise would cause an overload of your sensory processor. But if you changed your mind, I won't force that procedure on you." There is a tense moment between car and Nebulan, and the Porsche and Muzzle seem to glare at each other. Then, Nightbeat's engine dies off. "Fiiiine, fine. I'm doing it. Don't let anyone say I turned yellow and ran." Pride... a powerful motivator. "Very well. Now stop moving. You don't want me to break something sensitive while I'm working." Then, the scientist gets to work. His arms dive into Nightbeat's internal and proceed to remove 2 of his sensors. Crosscheck extracts them from the headmaster and starts to modify them so they fit into the socket where he plans to reinstall them. Porsche 959 stops moving entirely, and Muzzle sits down on the floor, since all the chairs are huge, compared to him. The detective feels so cold, so alone when those sensors are taken out, and he feverishly awaits for them to be reinstalled. Repair Station keeps working as fast as possible because he know that Nightbeat is not going to like this... all those guys with highly sensitive sensors are touchy about their senses. The scientist quickly complete his work on the two sensors and he reinstall them, but this times, he connect them in a way that will make them more efficient if car mode. Once this is done, he extracts two more sensors, "Don't worry, I'm almost done." In fact, there is not a lot of work to do to achieve Nightbeat's goal, but improving his sensors require some high technical skills. Muzzle says quietly, "Nightbeat always worries. But I appreciate the haste, all the same." Nightbeat says nothing, because he's trying to stay still, and even the sonic vibrations of speech would be moving a little, wouldn't they? If only Rodimus was able to stand still like that. It takes him a couple more minutes and then he completes the upgrades of the last two sensors. Carefully he replaced them inside Nightbeat. He connects them into the headmaster's neural system, which is not easy because of the master process, he needs to have a chat with Brainstorm about that, but it is soon complete. He radios "Ok. Now transform. But be careful, and don't freak out, your sensors are turned off." Porsche 959 is used to stakeouts. He has patience, when he needs it. Slowly, he transforms, Muzzle forming his head as usual. His optics are dim and fuzzy - he's blind, for now. Nightbeat grabs at the nearest thing he can, just to stay balanced. The puzzle pieces of Porsche 959 rearrange into the hard-boiled Autobot detective, Nightbeat! Repair Station also transforms back into his robot mode and radio Nightbeat once again, "If you want, I can install you in the medical bay until I can reactivate your sensors. It would be boring but we would be able to monitor you...and you would not risk to get lost." Crosscheck quickly shifts to his robot mode. Nightbeat radios back, "No, no! I have too much I need to get done, in... uhm... Braille." He starts to stumbles off toward a wall. Crosscheck shakes his head, now that Nightbeat's can't see him and he radio him once again, "Perhaps you should... you know...transform and let Muzzle drive you around?" Nightbeat raises one finger, though it isn't pointed anywhere near Crosscheck, and he protests over the radio, "Letting Muzzle have his way got me into this mess! But oh, all right..." Grudgingly, he transforms. Nightbeat slouches down into Porsche 959 form. Time to roll. Crosscheck looks down at Muzzle, "Take care of him...I'm sure it won't be easy, especially for him. I have an operation meeting to attend to but radio me if anything goes wrong." Muzzle, long-suffering, replies, "Uh... I'll radio you if something goes spectacularly wrong, 'kay? Because Nightbeat and I, we find all kind of wrong on an everyday basis." La la la... Nightbeat can't hear this! Though Nightbeat does share Muzzle brain and knows what Muzzle's thinking. The Porsche would glare, if he could.
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