Chapter Text
“Aaaaand that’s the essence stabilizer done! Stars, finally!”, Dot cheered excitedly, her voice echoing off of the cliff sides of the Prime kindergarten, snapping White Sapphire from her self-reflection.
“So what was giving you all the trouble earlier?”, Chrysoberyl asked, looking up for her side of the giant machine.
“Well, I’m no certified Kindergartener, and Stars, after this mess it shows…”, Dot chuckled to herself, still underneath the machine laying on a hovering platform, “But the pressure for these injectors was way too high! If we were dealing with the raw unrefined Diamond essence this wouldn’t be that big of an issue, since the strain rates of that fluid is proportional to the applied shear stress that we are putting on it with the injection process. However, we aren’t dealing with that at all!”, Dot ranted, before pulling her head out from under the machine, and displaying an equation on her screen, with a line graph next to it and a depiction of the reusable cut, “We’re using essence that has already been refined by an injector before, as we’re harvesting this essence from the shattered gems that make up the cluster! And the strain-rates for this fluid are all out-of-wack! If we used the pressure values for regular injectors, the essence is dispersed unevenly through the host cut, because as soon as the essence leaves its injector nozzle its flow becomes turbulent - I mean look at those eddies!”, Dot screeched in exasperation, the depiction of the cut on her screen being filled with colorful spirals, “At best, this thing would have just been churning out off-colored gems! So, after a ton of math I adjusted the pressure to a value that creates a clean, laminar flow.”.
“That’s great Dot!”, White Sapphire praised, “So what did you learn from your efforts?”.
“That I need to brush up on my Rheology?”, Dot guessed, as she pushed herself back under the machine.
“No…”, White chuckled, “It means you need to learn when to ask for help. I could have determined the right values for you if you just asked.”.
“Oh…”, Dot replied meekly, before retorting, “Well, I did requisition help from the Yellow Court almost thirty cycles ago, and they still haven’t gotten back to me?”.
“You put in an aid requisition for the Yellow Court?”, Amethyst piped up, turning away from their communications and informational terminal, now interested in the conversation.
“Yeah, it’s okay, I already approved it after checking with White Sapphire.”, Chrysoberyl replied, now engrossed with soldering a panel on the opposite side of the machine.
“Don’t worry Amethyst, I only approved of it because I knew that the requisition would get lost in the delegation process.”, White Sapphire smiled.
“Wait, what!?”, Dot screeched again, “You mean help isn’t coming!?”.
“No, you already completed the hardest part all by yourself! Solving the pressure issue was the only significant aid a Kindergarten-certified Peridot would have offered you, and you managed splendidly on your own!”, Sapphire replied.
“Well we still-“, Dot began, only to be cut off by the central terminal whirring to life, a transmission request appearing on its screen.
“Uhh, White? You sure that the request didn’t go through?”, Amethyst asked, staring at the identification data on the screen before her, “It’s a Kindergarten-certified Peridot.”.
“Well, answer it!”, Dot stood up from her creeper hover seat and made her way over to the terminal.
At once, the image of an Era Two Peridot filled the screen.
“Well hello!”, Dot greeted, sarcasm filling her tone, “It’s about time someone answered my requisition! It’s been twenty-nine. whole. cycles!”.
“Wait, there are still Homeworld gems here!? I thought that creature said that there were only humans, and whatever those crystal clods were…”, the Peridot replied, confused at the gems before her.
“Yes, we’re here in the service of the Yellow Court, on the express orders of her Radiance Yellow Diamond.”, Chrysoberyl supplied.
“O-oh… then maybe my orders are tangential to your work here then! Should I give you the report of what I saw on the Prime Kindergarten’s main terminal?”, the gem replied, seemingly relieved to finally be getting somewhere.
“That would be wonderful.”, Chrysoberyl replied, her expression slightly more tense than before, “I will see to it that the report gets to the higher ups.”.
“It says on your id sheet that you’re part of the Yellow Court as well?”, Amethyst asked.
“Yes, I am Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-5XG!”, she replied.
“And are you calling to answer our requisition request?”, Dot replied impatiently, “I’ve needed the aid of a Kindergarten-certified Peridot for some time now!”.
“I- I’m sorry.”, 5XG stuttered, “But I already have orders, I can’t just abandon my work to help you all out without permission from my supervisor. I’ll forward you the report though.”.
“Alright then, thank you 5XG.”, Chrysoberyl finished, before closing the communications line.
“Auugh! Now it’ll be at least two-hundred cycles before we get the Kindergarten finished!”, Dot screamed.
“It’s okay Dot.”, White Sapphire soothed, “Remember, you’re already past the hardest part.”.
“Yeah, yeah…”, Dot grumbled, before hopping back on her hovering creeper chair and pushing herself back under the machine.
“So, that was the call you were talking about right?”, Chrysoberyl turned to White Sapphire, “The report that 5XG sent is what we use to start off 2-1?”.
“Correct.”, White Sapphire smiled, “Things are progressing along just as planned.”