Stellar spanner

This article is about the Autobot-invented space gate device. For the Decepticon-invented space gate device, see Space bridge. For a list of other meanings, see Spanner (disambiguation).

A stellar spanner is a transportation device from the Shattered Glass continuity family.

Welcome to Unstable Transwarp Airlines. In the event of a crash landing, your kibble can be used as a flotation device.

A stellar spanner is a device that can transwarp space-time to instantaneously teleport a being over interstellar distances—or sometimes even between different dimensions—even through radiation that would disrupt other transportation methods. (Although there is the occasional incident of said radiation bouncing a traveler to the wrong star system. Caution is advised.)

Fiction

Shattered Glass

Alpha Trion built the first stellar spanner, which was used to exile him to Nexus 208.0 Epsilon. Blitzwing Bop Transcendent: Part 2

A long, long time later on Earth, Side Burn and Wheeljack built their own spanner, under the orders of Goldbug, who wanted one for his own plans (though he pretended to be following Rodimus' orders). Since Wheeljack thought the Plait Expanse might deflect the spanner dangerously off-course, Goldbug wanted to use Side Burn as a test subject, but was persuaded to wait for a Scrounge.

Meanwhile, Will and Blitzwing came across the device while cruising through the desert. They hid themselves and called for reinforcements, which initially came in the form of Heatwave. Heatwave explained what the device was, and that he didn't think it would work, since most Cybertronians believed that the "Old One" had been killed by Optimus Prime before he could finish his. But Blitzwing wasn't convinced, so Heatwave decided to sneak over and "talk" to the device, ignoring Blitzwing's protests to wait for more backup.

Heatwave's attempts at being sneaky failed, and the Autobots, ecstatic at their "volunteer test subject", captured him and threw him into the spanner. Blitzwing moved in and hacked into the spanner's console to stop it (since Heatwave's attempt to "talk" it into stopping was unsuccessful), but Wheeljack electrocuted him before he could finish, and Heatwave was sent into space. More Decepticons then arrived, and Goldbug destroyed the spanner to keep it from them, before ordering the Autobots to retreat.

Heatwave survived the trip to Cybertron, though it felt like he "had been converted into energy, flung light-years away within mere seconds, then re-assembled... by unskilled labor without consulting the manual."

Back on Earth, though angry at Goldbug's scheming, Rodimus still had the Autobots rebuild the spanner. Blaster eventually tried to use it to send the now death-signal-broadcasting Blitzwing to Cybertron as a weapon, but Soundwave rescued Blitzwing just in time. Blaster then dove into the spanner himself to escape, but Blitzwing destroyed the spanner's console with a tank shell it just as it activated. This caused the spanner to malfunction and strand Blaster on Earth's Moon.

The Decepticons planned on using the schematics that Blitzwing downloaded during his hacking attempt to build their own stellar spanner. Blitzwing Bop Presumably the Autobots never managed to build another spanner, and word of Heatwave's "trip" made the rounds of Cybertron, as Downshift commented to the rest of Remote Patrol Six that if the Decepticons could get a Stellar spanner working, the Autobots wouldn't need a ship to get to Earth. They could just beam in, take whatever they wanted, then beam out again. Do Over

The Decepticon stellar spanner was completed and contact made between Earth and Cybertron. Once another spanner had been constructed on Cybertron, Shockwave was able to be sent to Earth as an ambassador, though a failure in the Earth-end spanner a short time later rendered the link inoperable until it could be recalibrated. They were able to use it as a two-way communications device so that medics on Cybertron could help Professor Arkeville repair Shockwave. Transhuman

At some later point the Decepticons were able to take control of Alpha Trion's stellar spanner from his disused laboratory. Two of their new allies, Nexus Prime and Aquarius, used it to embark on a journey to another universe, and the Decepticons destroyed it soon after to ensure it stayed out of the wrong hands. Reunification: Part 6

The Autobots later used stellar spanner technology in Wheeljack's starship, allowing him to travel to other dimensions in search of Nexus Prime. Generation 2: Redux

Notes

• Cliffjumper almost accidentally calls the spanner a "space bridge" at one point in "Blitzwing Bop", and as a real-world mistake the story itself also calls it a "spacebridge" at a different point.
• The side of Wheeljack and Side Burn's initial spanner is marked "CWP274" in Autobot characters.
• The stellar spanner's name may be related to the Marvel Comics character Spanner, who was turned into a space bridge.