Signal to Noise

Rung meets with Rodimus after a trip to Hedonia reawakens an important memory.

Synopsis

Growing a little claustrophobic, Rung exits the elevator he is travelling in twenty floors early and carries on towards his appointment on foot. With Ultra Magnus at his side being his usual non-conversational self, Rung is left to think quietly to himself about the nature of his recently repaired body—still unchanged from its original design—and the psychological link between bodyforms and warfare. He recalls his convalescence following his accidental injuring, how the very first time he moved following his reawakening was to press a finger to Swerve's lips to silence him, and Rewind's multiple storytelling sessions. Most recently, he remembers his work with Brainstorm to create upgraded holomatter avatars that draw on their users' psyches, which they tested on Hedonia... where Rung remembered something important...

In the gift shop outside the bar on Hedonia, a short time after abandoning Swerve with a drunken Ultra Magnus, Rung, Rewind, Tailgate, and Skids are browsing the store's wares. Tailgate grows bored as Skids tries on hats but refuses to wait outside with Whirl, who is banging his head on a display case to, according to Rung, "relieve the pressure on his brain". Rung is also feeling guilty about leaving Swerve, and worries about the trouble they'll be in with Magnus, encouraging Rewind to suggest that if they're already in trouble, they might as well get into some serious trouble by searching for the "dark secret" of Hedonia (since all friendly, welcoming planets have a seamy underbelly). Rather than do that, though, they instead decide to watch Cyclonus, also browsing the aisles, out of the corners of their eyes and talk about him behind his back. Rung selects a model spaceship and takes it to the pay-port, only to be stopped by the sight of a rack of memory sticks, containing recordings of the "Hedonian experience". Rewind dissuades him from buying any, since he's recording his own, but purchasing them is not on Rung's mind: the sight of them has triggered a memory...

Ultra Magnus finally speaks up after twenty minutes of silence, warning Rung that his impending meeting with Rodimus may not be too smooth, given the various problems Rodimus is dealing with: the failure of the long-range subspace network, the loss of their only lead in their quest, and his own personal issues. Rung remarks on the succinctness of Magnus's language, which prompts Magnus to try and make a joke, only for it to come out so seriously that Rung misses its intent entirely. Rung encourages him to find a kind of humor that works for him, and Magnus tries again, only to fluff the punchline and grimly apologise. Mercifully, the pair then arrive at Rodimus's office (complete with a new plaque commemorating his residence that Rung dubs "premature"), where the ship's captain is drawing on his desk with a laser scalpel. He quizzes Rung on the psychological health of the crew following recent setbacks, and, satisfied with his answers, returns to his doodling until Magnus points out that it was Rung who asked for the appointment, not Rodimus. His attention back on Rung, Rodimus listens as the psychiatrist describes Red Alert's final sessions with him before his apparent suicide attempt and the mysterious voice he claimed to hear coming from beneath the ship. Rodimus is doubtful of the paranoid Red's claims, but Rung verifies them by bringing up the recording Red made of the voice, and Rodimus agrees to look into it—after dealing with prior appointments with Brainstorm and Perceptor. Rung is ushered out, and when Magnus, waiting outside, asks how it went, Rung invites him for a chat. After all, it would be nice for someone to listen to him for a change.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"I'm not going outside by myself—Nutjob's out there."
"So?"
"So he knows I'm easily led. He'll talk me into assassinating Rodimus or swapping my transformation cog with a hand grenade or something. And to be honest, I'm starting to think—and don't you dare tell him this—but I'm starting to think he's not stable."

—Tailgate and Skids

"When he's bored he tends to shoot someone. He's not allowed in museums because people end up dead."

—Rewind on Whirl

Rung: "You're saying the more outwardly peaceable and well-adjusted a society, the greater the likelihood-"
Rewind: "Of it having a sinister underbelly. Yup."
Skids: "Even Lovetopia, off Rigel VII?"
Rewind: "Lovetopia? Please. The Lovetopian elite were selling the lower classes to the Macerators. The 'magic ingredient' in every pint of Yum-Yum juice? An impoverished family of six."
Skids: "Cuddlex, in the Benevolon Sector?"
Rewind: "A wonderful place for a vacation—if you ignore the fact that they breed haemoslaves to fight in service to the Antigod. And don't even get me started on the living hell that is Giggleopolis."

"I've spent years weaning myself off figurative language. It clouds the facts. I occasionally resort to a simile if the situation absolutely demands it, but I remain intensely distrustful of extended metaphors."

—Ultra Magnus

"First I've got to see Brainstorm about the proton missile launchers, and then—"
"I didn't know we had any proton missile launchers."
"Yeah, we bought them from the Hedonians—turns out they're the most well-connected arms dealers in the galaxy. Can you believe it?"

—Rodimus and Rung

Notes

• The following characters are mentioned but do not appear in the story itself: Froid, Fortress Maximus, Overlord, Swerve, First Aid, Blurr, Hound, Brainstorm, Perceptor, Blaster, Red Alert

Transformers references

• Tailgate name-drops the Cosmic Carnival.

Real-life references

• Rung refers to a rival practitioner of psychology named "Froid", a reference to real-life rival practitioners Jung and Freud.

Errors

• On page one, irreparable is misspelled "irreperable". This was not fixed for the TPB.
• On page four, Rodimus says: "I said it's got the be better than Cybertron, right?" This was fixed for the trade paperback collection.
• In the very next paragraph, Rung's first sentence has "who's" misspelled as "whose". This was not fixed for the TPB.
• Also on the same page, "someone" is spelled "soneone." This was also fixed for the TPB.
• Ultra Magnus says he's "not much of a conversationist". Conversationist is not a word, but conversationalist is.
• In a cosmological context, "heatdeath" should be spelled as two words, "heat death".
• Missing spaces: "if that's what you mean.As far as I'm concerned", "information about members of the crew.As Director of Security".

Other trivia

• This story was accidentally left out of the digital copy of More than Meets the Eye #13, which had to be updated to add it back in. The framing sequence takes place after the main story in the issue, "Cybertronian Homesick Blues", but the flashback in the middle occurs between pages 12 and 14 of that story.
• Though "Signal to Noise" is usually included in collections that contain issue 13, the Hachette Definitive G1 Collection instead groups it with their "Remain in Light" volume (issues 14–21), which also includes the prose story "The Sound of Breaking Glass".

Foreign localization

Japanese

• Title: "Signal to Noise ("Lost Light" Makuai)" (シグナル・トゥ・ノイズ (『ロスト・ライト』幕間) Sigunaru tu Noizu ("Rosuto Raito" Makuai), "Signal to Noise ("Lost Light" Interlude)")

Swedish

• Title: "Bakgrundsbrus" ("Background Noise")
• This story, unlike the earlier Bullets or the later The Sound of Breaking Glass did not get illustrated for its publication in the hardcover Transformers: Kaos och Skuggor.