Chapter Text
I woke up to the hauntingly familiar smell of smoke wafting through the air, arid and foul. It wasn’t the first time this had happened, not by a long shot-- but to be honest, you never really get used to it, I think.
Think. My memories were hazy. How had I gotten here in the first place? The last thing I remembered, I was…
…what had I been doing? Was it a mission? This was my ship, wasn’t it? The one I’d been assigned to, anyways.
It was hard to quiet my mind. It’s hard to do this, too; hard to keep breathing when you aren’t sure If your next breath will be your last; hard to open your eyes when you know only one of them works and you never know what’s in your blind spot. For a moment, I considered just staying here. Let the smoke and fire overtake me. It’d be easier that way. No more pain. No more running.
But there’s one thing I know about me, at least, and it’s that I’ve never taken the easy path.
Assess my surroundings. I opened my eyes. I was in a cell. Green and yellow light washed over the room. Above my head, sparks flew off of the severed electrical mainline, and all around me, I could hear the sound of alarm bells shrieking and metal clanging. Our ship was going down, and it was going down quickly.
“Turquoise!” I heard someone yell. I looked up. Behind the holo-door, I saw someone fumbling with the keypad. Situated on his navel, his gem was diagonally cut, the color similar to that of a Peridot. His hair, a deep green, was slightly singed from the carnage, and his eyes were wide as he fumbled with the keypad. Something about him seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place my finger on where I knew him from. “Come on, you stupid--“
It sparked. He let out a pained yelp, but a moment later, the door successfully powered off, and he lunged forward to wrap me in a hug. His embrace was warm, but the suddenness of it caused me to flinch. I found myself at a loss for words.
“Turquoise, I was so worried! Everyone else abandoned ship when the engine went out, but I didn’t know if you were still onboard– thought you hadn’t made it–“
“I’m okay,” I said, with only a slight tremble in my voice to betray the dull panic I felt. I needed to play along, at least until I could recall who exactly he was. “A little worse for wear, but… I’m okay. We’re okay.”
“Thank the stars…”
He pulled me into a sitting position and started scanning me for wounds. Smooth hands trailed up my side; they lingered over my gemstone for just a moment too long. A jolt of adrenaline made my body tense up. This is purely tactical, I reminded myself– he's not going to shatter you. He’s just trying to make sure your gemstone isn’t damaged. Whoever he is, the fact he hasn’t shattered you yet means he’s likely an ally.
“Where are we?” I asked softly.
Without looking up, he said, “Earth. I know your memories are going to be a little mixed up, so I’m gonna debrief you again, starting with the basics. Greetings. I’m Emerald, your personal guard. We both currently serve– well, served– under Blue Diamond in the name of the Great Diamond Authority, rulers of Homeworld, and six months ago we were sent on a mission to the Moon Base orbiting the planet Earth.
“Things haven’t been so great, though. I’ve done my best to keep the systems online and running smoothly, but after the collapse of the Diamond Authority, Officer Sunstone led a mutiny against the captain and we’ve been deemed rogues ever since. No one’s gonna give safe harbor to a bunch of defectors, y'know? So we set a course for Earth instead, but…”
“What happened to everybody else?” My voice was barely above a whisper. Memories started rushing back to me, but they were all muddled, flittering away as soon as I tried to grasp them. Mutinies? Defectors? How could the Great Diamond Authority just collapse?
He swallowed, pain flashing across his face. “This morning, the main engines went offline. The whole ship was pretty much running on fumes anyway, so everyone else took the escape pods and booked it. I don’t blame them. But I had to find you. I had to make sure you were safe.”
Your life. Your identity. Collapsed. Three thousand years of service, gone.
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
“I know. It’s hard to process.” He finished his inspection, seemingly satisfied with the state of my gem. “During the mutiny, you took a hit from a Rejuvenator, and last time I saw you, you were pretty out of it. But you seem to be okay– at least, still you, that is.”
I looked down at my hands. I was still me, wasn’t I?
“What’s going to happen now?”
“Well, according to my calculations, we’re gonna crash-land on Earth soon, and I mean, within the next ten minutes."
That wasn’t good.
I stumbled to my feet. My legs felt like they were made of water, like they might give out at any moment. Emerald helped steady me, and I tried to take a shaky step forward.
“What are you doing?”
“We’ve got to–” I hissed, feeling my form destabilize for a moment as pain washed over me. “--got to steer us towards a safe landing site. Where’s the cockpit?”
“The cockpit– Turquoise, you’ve got to take it easy! Your gem is still recovering.” Then, a little louder, as I took another step and nearly tripped: “Slow down!”
Electricity sizzled. I could still smell smoke. The feeling of falling, further and further towards the ground, made my stomach tighten up in knots. It turns out fear is a hell of a motivator.
“We can focus on the ‘rest and recovery’ stuff once we’re safe. Until then, you’re still my personal guard, and protecting me means making sure we don’t crash.”
He sighed. “Fine. Let’s go.”
As we fought our way through what remained of our ship, I started to wish I was on one of those escape pods. Emerald was right when he said we were running on fumes- it was a miracle the ship was still operational. Maintenance panels were torn off of their hinges, power lines severed nearly in half, and one of the windows had a deep, splintering crack across the glass. It finally gave out moments after we passed it, exploding shards of glass outwards. Emerald pushed me behind him.
“It’s just the window,” he sighed.
Wind whipped through my hair. I saw he had a deep cut across his arm, but it didn’t seem to bother him, and we pushed forwards towards the engine room.
The door was jammed shut. “Stand back,” Emerald warned.
He summoned his weapon– a long, razor-sharp halberd– and carefully drove the blade through the cracks of the door, prying it open. It took a couple seconds, but soon we were in the cockpit.
Whoever had been here last must have left in a hurry, because the chairs were strewn about, and the display screens were still on, albeit flickering. My eyes darted around the room, trying to take in everything I could.
I saw a gemstone lying on the ground. Or, at least, what remained of a gemstone. It was broken into a dozen tiny pieces. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked like it might’ve been one of the Ruby guards.
My vision swam. “Emerald…”
“I know. I know,” he said, patting my arm. “It isn’t pretty. But you can’t give up on me now.”
Get it together, Turquoise. You’re not safe yet. Just get this ship back on course and then you can freak out.
“I’m going to divert all power from auxiliary engines to the main thrusters,” he said, already making his way towards the maintenance terminal. “I’m gonna need you to steer this thing.”
“Got it.” I took a seat behind the control panel. “I don’t think I’ve ever steered anything before.”
“Yeah, not much opportunity in the courtroom, huh?” I saw him smile. “Don’t worry. You’ve got this.”
Above me, the overhead lights went out, followed shortly by the air vents. Smoke started to build up. My eyes watered as I took the ship off of autopilot.
“There we go.” I heard Emerald’s voice strain. He never did well with smoke. “The thrusters are going to be online in just a second–”
Bright blue light illuminated the room as the thrusters got power and the control gear lit up. I glanced up at the viewport, and now that we had broken through the clouds, I got my first glimpse at where we were about to land. The view was equal parts breathtaking and horrifying. Earth was catching up to us– that is, to say, we were falling quickly. But something made my heart soar. We were heading right for a coastal settlement, which meant if I acted fast enough, I could steer us into the water.
I just had to be fast enough.
“Grab the throttle!” Emerald yelled over the deafening cacophony.
This was it, Turquoise. Time to save the day.
I followed his orders. With trembling hands, and with all the strength I could muster, I pulled the throttle to the left, praying it would be enough. The sound of metal rending itself apart, buckling against the weight of re-entry, echoed throughout the cockpit. And, to my relief, I saw our view of the beach shift just enough so that we’d land in the water– much better than the rocky cliffs that sat beyond the shore. To my right, Emerald let out a heavy sigh. I thought I saw tears welling up in his eyes.
“Are you ready?” Emerald asked. He steeled himself against the console and offered a hand out towards me.
I took one last look at the viewport, at the ocean hurtling towards us, then turned and took his hand. I nodded.
“Ready."