Trade Secrets
Appendix
What follows are a few special sections devoted to clarifying/demystifying parts of Trade Secrets and providing hopefully useful supplementary information.
Special Thanks and Acknowledgements
Transformers copyright and trademark Hasbro-Kenner and Takara. Iron Man and The Avengers copyright and trademark Marvel Comics. Used without permission for non-profit fan appreciation.This story was written entirely by K.A. Rose. Link free, but do not repost without permission.
Thanks to my amazing beta readers, Hane Shinohara and Bitstream. Additional thanks to Bitstream for sharing some much-needed fresh music, when my current collection was getting a bit stale.
Thanks to everyone who followed the postings here on Livejournal, gave me feedback and offered suggestions. Thanks to Keelieinblack for holding onto the master file when I started worrying I'd die in a plane crash before I had the chance to post things.
Extra special flirtations directed to Simon Furman. Please make me your disciple.
Raw Stats
Final Word Count: 94,668
Date of Inception: 19 June, 2008
Date of Completion: 25 August, 2008 (57 days)Cybertronian Time Measurement
Every source of TF fiction uses them differently. I tend to lean toward Dreamwave's interpretation of 1 cycle = 1 day, but that's as far as I borrow things because in my conception of the Transformers universe, giant alien robots obviously use metric.
1 teracycle = 1000000 days, or 2739.7 years
1 gigacycle = 100000 days, or 273.97 years
1 megacycle = 10000 days, or 27.4 years
1 kilocycle = 1000 days, or 2.74 years
1 hectacycle = 100 days
1 decacycle = 10 days
1 cycle = 1 day
1 decicycle = .1 day, or 2.4 hours
1 centicycle = .01 days, or .24 hours, or 14.4 minutes
1 millicycle = .001 days, or .024 hours, or 1.44 minutes
1 microcycle = .0001 days, or .0024 hours, or .14 minutes, or 8.4 seconds
1 nanocycle = .00001 days, or .00024 hours, or .014 minutes, or .8 secondsThe thing about this time scale is that it's relative... because time is relative. You'll notice that they use metric for distances as well, and remember that our metric system is based off the total circumfrence of the Earth. So, you'll see Transformers occasionally speak in terms of "local" time and distance measurements, because spacefaring measurements are far too large to be relevant to planet-sized affairs. In theory, the spacefaring races synchronise themselves with local conditions and seamlessly adapt to local time-space continuity-- think the "always two hours" rule from Animorphs. (What, did you think my choice of initials was an accident?)
Tech Stuff
I'm not heavy into the sciences, and I know that most of my readership isn't either, so I tried to skim over tech details where possible. There are a few concepts, however, that are probably important to take with you in your understanding of the story.
Graphics
-3D modeling is tough stuff. 3D modeling in 3D space is still in its diapers, and it takes a hell of a lot of processing power, not to mention some pretty hardcore equipment.
-The terms that Stark throws around, relating to bitmaps, polycounts, and so forth all relate to 3D modeling. Keyframing, texture lag and so forth have to do with animation.
-The Uncanny Valley postulates that the closer one gets to realism, the more unrealistic --even creepy-- something looks. Consider the Heavy Rain tech demo.
-HUD (Heads-Up Display) and mapping both relate to VR systems and their ability to immerse the user realistically.Neutrinos
Neutrinos are subatomic matter so tiny, millions pass through your body every second. They are so tiny, they're virtually impossible to detect. The possibility of harnessing them to simulate matter is so far beyond human science as to be rather silly. Stanislaw Lem used them in Solaris, saying they were what the human-like apparitions were made out of, thus explaining how they were able to get aboard the ship and yet appear and feel completely real. Anyway, we don't really know what neutrinos are capable of. They might be pure evil.
Foldspace
Subspace, N-space, hammerspace, et cetera. It has a million names, and it all boils down to some sort of liminal between-space --say, the gaps between atoms-- that, if harnessed, could basically permit faster-than-light travel. Hey, don't look at me, this is TF canon. Giant alien biped robots with noses are not exactly a hallmark of hard SF.
Transhumanism
-Transhumanism, also called post-humanism, is an ongoing discussion attempting to anticipate where human evolution --either organic or technologically-assisted-- is going to lead us someday. One of the more recognisable tropes is this idea that we will someday be cyborgs or even be completely succeeded by mechanoid "descendants".
-The one major problem with this idea is that brain::computer is not a perfect analogy, not by a long shot. I chose to dramatise one such aspect in this fic, namely, that our brains are not all logic and rational assessment of a given situation. We rely on instinct and cognitive shorthand a lot, especially when we perceive ourselves to be in danger. A human without those instincts is at a major evolutionary disadvantage.
-Ray Kurzweil is a notable transhumanist, hence why Hunter knows about him.Hacking
-There was a great line in the fic that I cut out, and I can't remember if it was Wheeljack or Stark who said it, but it went: "Give me a long enough cable and a place to stand and I can hack the planet."
-Besides password-guessing, there are plenty of ways to backdoor your way into a given system, and if there is one point of connection then the whole system is potentially vulnerable. Period.
-Because Transformers are living machines, they don't have the same emergency defence options that a non-sentient computer would have, upon discovering an infection. So if you're a giant alien robot (do we have any of those reading this?), having a rogue signal in your system is more like a parasite wriggling around under your skin than having a virus on your workstation and the ethernet cable within reach. You have to isolate and shunt the signal out, or try to crush it with your own internal defences. Of course, if you're having sex this way, you might want to encourage the little signal to keep going.
-And yes, if you look at it that way, Stark and Wheeljack had sex. Hacker sex.Those Other Crazy Technologies I Made Up
-A field slip, as Wheeljack is using it, enables the user to fold matter around him, basically by exerting pressure specifically against the right set of atoms until he "slips" around them, intact. In this storyverse, it relates to foldspace.
-An optical cloak would be another term for an invisibility cloak, which exists, you know. The basic principle is scattering light waves around a cloaked object, so that the perceiver sees right through it. It's so named in this case because most Transformers (as I'm writing them) are also gifted with infrared, ultraviolet and night vision, and both sides possess advanced radar, sonar and other detection technology... so, a light wave-scattering cloak would only fool really dumb species, like ours.
-Immobiliser/paralytic darts, rather than being a poison, actually work with specific silent wave frequencies, with the dart itself being the relay. So their effect can be dialed up or down from a remote location.
-Wave transmission is also the principle behind the encephalatic disruptor Wheeljack uses to make Stark's brain hurt. Presumably, one of Marvel's trademark fictional elements, vibranium, has the right atomic structure to block the transmission.
-Noise dampener fields are real experimental technologies making use of white noise frequencies. At least, I think that's right. I swear I saw a Gizmodo article on it one time...Devils in the Details
What did I take from each source? What did I leave out? What did I change? What did I flat-out make up? It's at once more complicated and a lot simpler than you might think.
(Note: The stuff below constitutes plenty of spoilers and semi-spoilers, so don't read if you haven't finished the story.)
Source Material
Q: Which canon did you take and which parts did you discard?
A: The main canon for this story was IDW's G1 Transformers continuity and Marvel Studio's Iron Man movie continuity. So, Cold War 2: Electric Boogaloo on one side, and Stark with a chest vagina on the other. I also used the New Avengers/Transformers crossover miniseries by IDW as a launching point. However, I discarded most of Stark's comics continuity (especially Civil War) and most of the IDW continuity after Escalation. Also, I was a little pick-and-choosey with the Spotlight issues, because admittedly I've been spotty about reading them.Q: In that case, what happened to Verity and Jimmy?
A: Presumably, some form of the same death-by-orbital-bounce experienced in Devastation. They were probably likewise revived, and neither are probably mentally well put-together anymore (mental tics and some minor disabilities, necessitating medical care in the short term and some time away from robotic cold war politics). In theory, they are still under Autobot protection.Q: Say I don't know IDW G1 (or much of Transformers at all, for that matter). What's up with Hunter and Sunstreaker?
A: Once upon a time in the comics, a mysterious and nefarious organisation called the Machination saw to kidnapping Sunstreaker and, by sheer coincidence, nabbed Hunter O'Nion as well, whom Sunstreaker was transporting at the time. The Machination was interested in replicating Autobot tech, so they cloned Sunstreaker's body and used his brain as a sort of central server so that the mentally-bonded Headmaster drivers (Hunter was one such, even if he didn't want to be) could know how to control the clones effectively. The Headmasters transform into scale reproductions of Sunstreaker's head and fit atop the clones' shoulders. SPOILER: In the comics, Hunter escapes with one of the bodies, leaving Sunstreaker's original head behind. That was fucked up, and I decided not to use it.Q: Say I don't know much about Transformers/Marvel as a general rule. Where should I start?
A: The TF wiki knows all. The Marvel wiki is slightly more confused, but the original wiki's still got your back.Q: Where the hell is James Rhodes? You kept mentioning him and he kept failing to show up.
A: This is further on in Stark's timeline so Rhodey is now War Machine and has had a falling-out with his former best friend. Hopefully they'll patch things up in time for the wedding. Or the next Apocalypse.Q: Alcoholism? What?
A: Again, this is several years in the future from when the movieverse will touch upon Stark's alcoholism. By this point in the timeline, he's already sobered up.Q: This Citadel with its Proscenium and blue aliens seems strangely familiar...
A: You don't say.Stuff I Made Up
Q: Autobot command who can order Optimus Prime around? WHAT?
A: Not exactly. Pagefile says himself that Prime is executive commander-in-chief, meaning the chiefs of staff are, like Stark says, mostly pen-pushers, running votes and meetings and conducting all the tedious bureaucratic stuff that comes with managing a military. Cerebra Parvus is in charge of troop training and allocation, Starboard is in charge of spacecraft and transportation, and Pagefile mostly deals with resources and communication (including propaganda). They are part of a larger council that Prime is answerable to for polite reasons, but can still ignore if he chooses.Q: All this pre-Great War Cybertronian culture stuff is whack!
A: Are you kidding me? Ratchet running a chop shop, Wheeljack being a giant alien robot version of Tony Stark, Prowl presumably being the Fuzz to Jazz's Jimi Hendrix? That's awesome. And please, nostalgia for private enterprise is so an underplayed trope in amateur sci-fi.Q: Exclusivity contracts? Manufacturing licences?
A: "Marriage contract" and "licence to have children", respectively. I made it up. I sort of liked the idea of a tightly structured, morally conservative society that still ended up with gay-married robots having children. Or, to look at it another way, it all comes down to Cybertronian society being based around the ethics of industry and production. If you ever wanted to know how car factories would behave if the robots started making their own merger decisions...Q: Um. So what's up with their method of reproduction?
A: Some things are better left to the imagination.Q: Since when was First Aid Wheeljack and Ratchet's kid?
A: Since the Protectobots never got a canon origin story and it's already been demonstrated that Wheeljack and Ratchet like making children together.Q: Why is Arcee a murderous psychopath?
A: Don't ask me. Simon Furman thought it was a legitimate reboot of the character. Furthermore, he suggested Arcee's "feminine side" was Jhiaxus's attempt to meddle with the Cybertronian gene pool, meaning what he's REALLY trying to say is that in IDW-verse, female TFs are rapacious, murderous demons intent on stealing male Autobot essence and creating new generations of monsters. What? THIS IS ALL IMPLICIT IN THE CANON, DAMN IT. I still love you, Mr. Furman. I do. I just don't see why Transformers need genetics in the first place, much less evil women to malign them...Q: But where you do get all these other females?
A: The canon never specifies that Arcee is the only female. I took the number from the quantity of female (biped) Transformers from non-Japanese G1: Arcee, Chromia, Firestar, Moonracer, Vibes, Crasher, and the two unnamed female Autobots from "The Search for Alpha Trion". I didn't include Elita-1 because, well,Optimus is clearly keeping her sane with his magical robo-wang of healing lightI thought it would be impolite.Q: Oh god, the mental image.
A: That's what I'm here for.Q: Who is the actress Ratchet's female holomatter is based off of?
A: Do you really have to ask?Q: Wait... so the jealous actor in the restaurant...?
A: Yup.Q: ...And the avatar Wheeljack designed for Prowl...?
A: Uh-huh.Q: ...So what was Wheeljack doing marathoning X-Files in 2012-or-whatever?
A: Nerds. You can't understand them, but you gotta love them.Q: So I guess I shouldn't ask this next question, but it seems like I am... What's Ultra Magnus's avatar, since I assume he won't keep using the Pepper-doll?
A: Well, who else do you think would be driving around California in a humvee or SUV in this energy crisis?Q: Ahahaha... ha... Oh, my brain.
A: I know how you feel.Q: No, you don't. Also, I just remembered one big oversight from this section: what's all this Cold War/Galactic Interpol nonsense? That's not Transformers!
A: Actually, that's all pretty much canon. Furman went pretty heavy-metal giving G1 a serious and mature reboot for IDW continuity, so all the stuff about the cold war and Ultra Magnus's role, while played up considerably, is all there in the foundational material. The influence and organisation behind the Code is my own design, but that's only filling in the gaps, really.Okay. One last question.
Q: A blow-up doll running ELIZA?
A: It's the best damn joke in the whole fic and no-one got it. Oh well. It makes me giggle every time I picture it.Post-Partum
I always seem to do huge notes sections for my large fics, seemingly as a way to cope with the amazing sense of loss following the completion of a story. This is, after all, my fifth novel-sized fic to date, and I'm not even to my mid-20s yet. Something is clinically wrong with me. Failing medical intervention, I might as well call a spade a spade while I'm out here decompressing.
This story started as a little, innocent, pretty patently awful PWP between Stark and Ratchet. It didn't work, and Hane called me out on it. Of course, Hane and I both suffer from this strange condition where once we start brainstorming fanfic, we can't stop. Soon, the little one-shot describing the bored experimentation between a billionaire and an ancient alien robot turned into, well, Cold War 2: Electric Boogaloo.
There are three things that I need to make clear about the writing process at this point: 1) this is a rough draft, 2) my master file did not contain chapter stops and, in my estimation, this story has far fewer natural breaks than I've actually broken it into, and 3) I started posting chapters before finishing with writing, and this both helped and harmed the writing. I say it helped, because it started to turn into an impossibly difficult story and I thrived on the ongoing feedback; it harmed it because I couldn't go back and change anything after I'd posted it. So awkward and rough stuff like, oh, the Prowl/Sunstreaker parts, and a lot of Stark's posturing where it's clear that I didn't have much more of an idea what he was up to than anyone else... that would probably have been significantly touched up, given more time.
The cool thing about this being just a fanfic on a dinky little site is that I can go back and make changes later and no-one'll complain... well, probably. Or even if I don't, there's also the essential fact that this is pretty low-stakes material we're dealing with here. I don't mean to diminish the experience for anyone. But did you think I included that many sex scenes because it was artistically strategic?
When this story was on its Livejournal run, I advertised it as a screwball comedy with sex, espionage, and explosions. This is probably the only story of mine in recent memory where no-one has died and pretty much everyone gets laid, even if some of the match-ups are admittedly strange. My one real regret was that there was no good way to segue back to She-Hulk to give her a proper ending, maybe with Luke Cage as he, after all, will not break into itty bitty pieces with the strength of her orgasm. (Do I love She-Hulk? Yes, I do.)
After I became committed to the fact that this was a story that was going to go well over the minimum length of a novel, I decided I wanted to make it a story worth telling. Not as in there was some great meaning to convey (it's fanfic, for god's sake, and I'm not a pretentious 17-year-old anymore [just pretentious]), but a story you could get to the end of and feel rewarded, and secure in the knowledge that while the sex depicted so far was awesome, the sex yet to come will be even kinkier and even more awesome. Will Wheeljack and Stark nerd-bond while their code is compiling? What sort of S&M gear will Pepper deploy in the bedroom to keep her man faithful? Will Wheeljack make a Mk II avatar for Sunstreaker and, if so, will Hunter use it to act out transgender fantasies? And if this is the Citadel they're on, where's Garrus Vakarian, and isn't he scheduled for a Threesome of Justice with Prowl and Magnus?
You see, I'm not high-minded at all. I just got distracted. Courtroom drama is really exciting to write, you know.
--K.A. Rose
16 September, 2008
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