Chapter Text
The persistent hums and beeps of various devices could be heard as the ensigns stepped into Wheeljack's lab aboard the Cerritos.
"Oh guys," Wheeljack called as the lower deckers arrived, "you're just in time for my latest experiment! I've been thinking, what would happen if we combined space bridge and transporter tech!?"
"Oh boy..." Boimler muttered, his eyes already wide with pre-emptive panic.
Tendi, however, was vibrating with excitement. "A Space Bridge and Transporter?! Like, a personal, portable Space Bridge? Or a transporter that can send you across entire sectors in an instant?"
Rutherford leaned forward with a thoughtful look on his face. "The power requirements alone would be astronomical, Wheeljack. And the temporal distortion... not to mention the integrity of the spatial membrane. Are you using a localized temporal distortion field or a gravimetric lensing array?"
Mariner just grinned, a mischievous glint in her eye. "Finally! Something actually interesting. So, are we talking about instantly teleporting to a different galaxy, or just really, really far away in this one? And does it come with a 'no falling into a sun' guarantee this time?"
Ty'ln, ever stoic, simply raised an eyebrow. "The theoretical implications are... significant. What safety protocols have been implemented to prevent unintended quantum entanglement or a catastrophic temporal displacement?"
Wheeljack threw his hands up in a gesture of pure, unadulterated enthusiasm. His opticss glowed brightly. "Details, details! The point is, no one's ever attempted to utilize this level of quantum tunneling! Imagine, one moment you're on the Cerritos, the next you're... well, we're still working on the where part. But the how is glorious! I've repurposed a few phase inducers from a derelict Borg cube we found, and combined them with some residual energon from an old wartime Decepticon cache. The readings are off the charts!"
He gestured wildly towards a shimmering, unstable vortex crackling in the corner of the lab. It pulsed with a dangerous mix of familiar transporter energy and something far more alien and unpredictable. Sparks were already flying.
"Now, who wants to be first?" Wheeljack asked, his optics fixed on the group, a mad gleam in them. "I'm thinking of starting with a small object... maybe Ensign Boimler's PADD?"
Mariner's eyes lit up, a predatory grin spreading across her face. In one fluid motion, she swiped Boimler's PADD right out of his clammy hand.
"Mariner, no," Boiler shrieked. "That's my- I just organized all my commendation tracking!"
"Perfect!" Mariner declared, holding the PADD aloft like a trophy. "Let's see what Wheeljack's portal thingy does to it!" She winked at Wheeljack, already stepping towards the shimmering vortex. "Fire it up, Jackie!"
Wheeljack's optics gleamed with delight. He made a few rapid adjustments on a nearby console, and the vortex pulsed brighter, humming with a dangerous energy.
As the PADD was tossed in, the vortex hummed, growing in intensity, its colors cycling from familiar blues to alarming purples and sickly greens. For a split second, it looked like the PADD was actually transporting, vanishing from sight.
"It's working!" Tendi gasped, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
But then, with a sound like a wet cough and a sputter, the vortex violently contracted, shrinking to a mere ripple in the air. The smell of ozone and burnt circuits filled the lab, and a strange, iridescent slime began to drip from the emitters.
"Astounding!" Wheeljack declared, rushing forward. "The spatial-temporal matrix experienced significant harmonic resonance! Recalibrating the phase inducer's output! This is great data!"
From the spot where the vortex had been, there was a faint clatter. Boimler's PADD reappeared, looking normal at first glance, but then its screen flickered, displaying a chaotic mess. His meticulously organized commendations were now interleaved with Klingon opera librettos, 20th-century Earth cooking recipes, and highly classified Starfleet intelligence reports from a parallel universe where everyone wore suspenders. Some of the text was even in Cybertronian glyphs.
"My data!" Boimler wailed, snatching it up.
As he was looking it over, a tiny, glowing, three-eyed alien creature with a trumpet-like proboscis peeked out from behind the PADD, looking utterly confused. It blinked, then let out a tiny, inquisitive trumpet sound.
"A visitor!" Tendi squealed, her eyes widening. "And it's so cute!"
"Non-interference! Prime Directive!" Boimler stammered, pointing a shaking finger at the creature. "It's going to contaminate our whole timeline! Oh god, what if its trumpet-thingy is venomous?!"
Before anyone could react to the tiny alien, a loud thump came from behind Wheeljack's console. A much older, grizzled, and slightly scorched version of Mariner stumbled out, rubbing her head.
"Agh! Not again!" Older Mariner groaned, looking around wildly. "What was that, the time-displacer thingamajig? Did it work? Did I warn myself?" Her eyes locked onto the younger Mariner. "Don't toss the PADD, past-me! Whatever happens, for the love of God, don't give Boimler command of a shuttlecraft on Tuesday!"
Rutherford was utterly captivated by what he was seeing. "A bi-dimensional transit with temporal displacement and data degradation!"
Ty'ln simply stared at the scene unfolding, her only visible reaction being a single, almost imperceptible tremor in her right eyebrow.
Captain Freeman's inevitable call was already buzzing on the comms. Wheeljack and her daughter had just violated every scientific law possible…again.