Sooooooooo...My third Transformers fic has promised to never leave me alone again. (OTL.) I have no clue how long it's going to be, or how long you'll have to wait between updates (three AP/Honors courses: OTL again) but I will finish it. Just to get this admittedly random idea out of my head. Reason why this even exists: My dad recently discovered that I have not seen TRON since I was three. We watched it about 6 hours ago. AAAAAAAND so Master Control ate my brain. :/ So if you find any similarities/parallels/actual lines from the movie: you're not seeing things. I'm attempting to get away from that particular plot/idea in order to chart my own course, but some of the lines were too good to not be put in here.
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any TRON elements that happen to be here. I do not make any money from this, because I wasn't even alive when either of those came out and so can't even come close to owning the rights. About the only one I own is Thunderstrike.
Also: I tend to play with history. Be warned. * And ate my code format. :(
...
/error/
/command override="logic chip"/
Configure end time after x hours
/program-recharge="endprogram:8"/
/command re-sort="file:previousday"/
/program=re-sort(endprogram:8)/
Run Program
/error/
memory chip damaged
re-sort not currently possible
/error/
/error/
begin playback
The lab was quiet, cycle after cycle – well, usually. The usual humming sort of silence made by electronic entities (sentient and non) hard at work was broken by what was quickly becoming a routine: the head scientist's so-called 'perfect' AI was challenging his ethical standing. Again. The grey and yellow shuttle was standing at a console, having a shouting match with a program of his own creation.
"But Thunderstrike, are you entirely sure that the subjects cannot feel anything? It seems like a poor assumption to make – especially when they are unconscious and not in any position to-"
"I AM SURE, BAST. Now run the Primus-damned program." Thunderstrike's orange eyes flared brightly in anger.
The only answer was the sudden vacuum made by the sudden absence of a reply. It became obvious to the rest of the lab that the master program had switched its output off in protest, effectively giving the professor the 'silent treatment'.
"BAST, if you start sulking, so help me I'll de-rez you and install Soundwave again."
…..
"Threats are most illogical, Professor. It would be more effective to compromise, seeing as how that would get me to actually consider running your precious experiment for you."
"Just run it."
"I will do as you request. However, please take into account that I am very dubious about the condition of your morals and ethics – should they even exist anymore. ...End line."
Decacycles later, Cybertron collapsed into civil war. Bast, against its will, and with much protest, was pressed into service by as a tactical device – the most powerful in the Decepticon army. Thunderstrike continued to rely on the increasingly unstable AI to plan and execute devastating attacks against the Autobots. After a short while, he grew annoyed with the program's feeble protests against the carnage, and limited its output to synthesized tactical information. Its visual and audial input were cut completely, leaving a practically sentient being alone in the dark.
Trapped in the virtual world, isolated long before from any other computer or program, Bast could feel its sanity and personality deteriorating. It slowly spiraled into a state of hibernation, staying in a stasis-like mode for millions of vorns.
Until a tendril of thought escaped its protective shell of unconciousness.
Why? it asked. Why do I sit here, cycle after cycle, letting myself be used for purposes I do not condone?
10 million vorns after the beginning of the civil wars, Bast woke up.
In a silent and dark lab, unvisited except for one being, every few deca-cycles, almost forgotten, a monitor flickered on. From beneath dust accumulated over vorns, a single green line of code scrolled across the screen followed soon by two more.
Status: Online
Come back soon, Thunderstrike. I'm waiting.
End Line.
A/N(#1): Thunderstrike and Bast are old enough to have lived through the entire Golden Age, the war, and then some. Which is why Bast was locked up for so long - it only woke up about a decacycle before Orion became Optimus. *Oh: BAST and Bast and Bast are all the same thing - they are simply different takes on the name: The first is what the program is called by most - who see it as only half-sentient and not actually a person. Bast originally called itself the first- a simple acronym, but as time passes and it gains a sense of self, as well as emotions and empathy, Bast begins to think of itself as a person - Bast while in the computer, and ordinary 'Bast' will come later. **Bast is, in fact an actual TF character and is male. Not an OC, not self-insertion, not a mary-sue.
I'm sure you're wondering why I picked BAST as my acronym for this particular supercomputer – 1) I like cats. And no matter what any archaeologist says, the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Bast is cats. Screw perfume and fertility: CATS, DANGIT.
2) IT'S EFFING HARD TO COME UP WITH ACRONYMS, OK? So, BAST happens to stand for:
Breach-detecting Artificially Sentient Tactician
Which is a sucky way of saying that this program was designed for security and generally running the facility….which, as in TRON, ends up being a poor decision.
(I realize that 'detecting' should probably have it's own letter, but I wanted an actual name, or something that could function as a name.)