A Good Scientists and Good Ideas

++ Ibex ++

Nestled to the right of the Magnanese Mountain range and occupying a wide, flat plain, the city of Ibex is host to a major portion of Cybertron's transportation centers. Used in ancient times to launch the long lost Ark-1, Ibex is still home to the Central Spaceport, which runs shuttles from Cybertron to some of its orbital stations and satellites, such as the Messatine mining station, the lunar penitentury of Garrus-1. Transportation hubs and development centers have sprung up all around the space port, along with long stretches of test roads and airfields, where bleeding-edge vehicle designs are researched and developed.

The primary colors of the area are white, silver and pale blue, with dull gray roads and black and yellow hazard stripes interdispersed among working areas. Hangars, spaceports, bullet-shaped buildings and domes are the primary forms of archtecture. The Velocitronian Embassy is naturally located here, close to the Speedia - the planet's most expansive and famous racetrack, home to the Ibex Cup competition. The Ibex Center for Athletic Medicine is here, where speeder frames are maintained, honed and developed, pit crews are trained, and specialized fuel types are developed. Cybertron's most elite club, The Circle, is located a short distance away from the Speedia.

Though the planetary races have been cancelled and space travel restrained, enterprizing (or bold) individuals have managed to gain access to locked down facilities, taking advantage of the empty tracks and abandoned crew stations for illegal races and illegal upgrading.

By now, Panacea has been working at IAA medical research for a few decacycles. So far, so good--aside from the somewhat questionable encounter she'd had earlier, but since she hadn't really pushed back or insisted on going somewhere she wasn't allowed, no one had given her any trouble.

So one cycle Cipher comes to her work area to check in with her. "Panacea, good to see you. I know you've been working diligently and am impressed with what you've managed to come up with thus far." he compliments. "Thanks to your work, we've been able to minimize the unpleasant side effects of the drug to near undetectable levels. The code blends nearly seamlessly with his personality programming now."

Panacea looks up from the work she had been doing when Cipher entered. Moving it gently aside, she clasps her hands in front of her and rests them atop the work surface. "Well, I /am/ here to help, yes?" she says, though she looks pleased. Warnings aside, no one has done anything untoward to her, and perhaps people think she's a better person than she actually is just because she's not violent or sadistic. "So have reports of his functionality improved? Things that work well in the lab don't always wear the same in cycle to cycle living."

Cipher nods. "In fact, they have." He confirms, smiling. "He's doing wonderfully. Strong and confident as he should be. And now that we have for the most part gotten to a good place with that, I would like to show you some of the -other- projects I've been working on."

Panacea looks curious now. "What sort of projects?" she asks. "And I like to think that I've improved things for him. He's a pretty good mech, but he had some behavior that was rather disturbing."

Cipher smiles and nods toward the door. "It would be easier to show you than try to explain." He starts into the hallway.

Panacea laughs softly. "Isn't that always the way with medical science?" she asks, rising to her feet to follow the mech. As much as she has been given warnings, she believes that she will be safer the more she follows along; she doesn't have any interest in being a threat to anyone, and hopefully that will reduce how much of a threat /they/ are to /her./

"Yes, yes." Cipher laughs as well, and he escorts her down to those doors that she had been turned away from before. He moves over to a security panel and starts to enter an access code. "Panacea, have you ever considered the idea of cloning? How useful it would be?"

Panacea hmmmms. "Cloning sparks? So far that's been out of my technological abilities. I was assigned miners to start with, so most of my work was practical, not theoretical," she explains. "As far as my training went, at the time, I was told it cannot be done. But," and she smiles, "a good scientist never dismisses an idea."

Cipher nods enthusiastically. "Exactly! A good scientist -never- dismisses an idea. After all, you never know what could come of it." A green light lights up the display, and the door slide open into the corridor beyond. "We've been able to duplicate bodies easily enough, right? But to clone a spark? How could that be possible? Well, what is a spark anyway? Energy of the purest form? You see, theoretically, small amounts of that energy could be siphoned off with little detriment to the source, and if that amount is supplemented properly...well, it could grow into an -exact- copy of the original spark. I don't know how much you know about organics, but...their growth mechanisms, if you will, function on a somewhat similar basis." He stops in front of a door on the right of the corridor, inputting another code to open it. Inside is a room filled with sparks mounted within rectangular glass casings.

"Studying organics wasn't really my purview, but I think it would make an interesting study," Panacea says. She's even polite enough to turn away while he inputs the security code. "Now, the exact copy, I would guess contains only the starting personality and strengths of someone, not anything that developed through time and experience?" she is curious to know. "And if placed in a form, would it develop the same outer mode?"

"Neither was it mine. I'll admit that my knowledge of their inner workings is rather limited," Cipher admits. "But I have been doing quite a bit of reading on my own time as of late. It's a very interesting topic indeed. As for developing the same outer mode, I'm not sure, I haven't gotten that far." he laughs, moving over to one of the sparks and removing the glass cover. "It's a fascinating prospect, isn't it?"

Panacea nods her head at this. "Though such things could get messy if people had rivalries with themselves; I wouldn't suggest trying it when the original donor was still around," she says thoughtfully. "Some mechs and femmes have an overwhelming sense of pride, and the notion that they have a double might be traumatizing...or just plain infuriating," she points out. "Such a project would need a great deal of supervision; it's not the kind that could be started and then left to coast." Idly she rubs the side of her helmet.

"You're likely right." Cipher chuckles, opening a drawer and pulling out a sharp-ended tool. Flipping it on, a thin laser juts out of the tip. "But at this point, we haven't gotten quite that far. We have yet to get the splicing itself to work. But if we could, just think, no more worrying about the pulsewaves disappearing!" He says excitedly and begins to prod at the spark with the tool. It crackles, and energy arcs out of it. "Everyone could have their spark spliced upon creation, and have those little pieces of themselves placed into storage in case they ever found themselves in a situation that threatened spark collapse. Incredible, isn't it?" He grins.

Panacea nods her head slowly. "Pulsewaves are very precious these days. I'm not fully sure what all the implications of that are, or how it fits with Functionism. Though, there may be a concern for those who are the dead mech or femme's co-workers, friends, and endurae," she muses. "I guess you'll just have to see how things turn out once you can get everything working." Assuming it's actually possible.

The spark crackles for a few more minutes, and Cipher starts to pull away from it. A small portion of the energy is held at the tip of the laser, and drawn away from the source. "Yes, of course. There will be a need for regulations regarding the procedure." he agrees, as he pulls the 'spliced' portion off and seals it in a chamber nearby. "You find this project interesting, do you not?"

"Of course I do." Panacea sighs. "Most of us on Cybertron has already lost someone or is going to lose someone in the war everyone says is coming." She pauses and her optics go wide. "Oh, you'll have to be careful. If people think there's a way to revive their enemies, they might come after you..."

Cipher shakes his head. "It won't revive those who are long dead. Only prevent the death of those who are still alive. It requires a live spark. But yes, we do need to be most careful." He smiles. "Which is why I need you." He says, handing her the laser 'splicer'.

Panacea takes the splicer; isn't sure what he wants her to do with it quite yet, so has the 'waiting for instruction' look on her face. "Well, I know that, but when such technology gets out and about, people would be paying, begging, or threatening you to store a spark for them. It could get ugly if you don't handle things just so." She tilts her head to the side. "And does the government know?" She's not going to rat him out, but she does sound concerned.

"Oh yes." Cipher nods confidently. "In fact, they were the ones who wanted us to do this. They were rather adamant about it being kept secret, so I would imagine they simply didn't want any of it to show up at any of their facilities. Which of course means that you are not to speak of this to anyone else. But I'm sure you alreayd know that."

"Anyway, I've already managed to split sparks, although unfortunately they didn't seem to survive for very long once I've done so. So I resorted to taking smaller sections. That allowed the source to survive, but the 'spawn' so to speak, I have not been able to keep alive for more than a few stellar cycles, much less grow into a full-fledged spark strong enough to support a full-sized body." He nods toward the spark he had just cut into. "Why don't you try your hand at it, hm? Do what I did. Don't worry if you don't get it on the first try." He smiles. "Well I'll leave you to it. If you need anything, just ask one of the other technicians."