Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You can skip this chapter if you want to go straight to the story itself or just don't like reading about writing. That's ok.

Remastered version starts in the next chapter; original version has chapters with titles.

Changelog:

• 5k+ words of "new stuff"
• Completely rewrote the ending (I actually cut ~5k words doing this and still wound up with more material than the original)
• Clarified the "entity" at the heart of the story
• Lots of dialogue got polished and refined for better character consistency
• Character name updates (Sard --> Carnelian, to make it easier to distinguish between Jasper's sisters; Beryl --> Goethite, just 'cause)

Preface:

Why would I "remaster" a fic I finished in 2015? Especially one for a ship that is largely (you gotta admit it) dead?

I don't know if I have one best answer for that question. There's a few reasons, I guess.

For one, I've grown as a writer. Since I published the first version of this fic, I've written a couple novels, several short stories, and even a screenplay. I've also read tons of books, which I think is the second best way to become a writer (the first best way is to write a lot; see previous sentence). All told, I've developed a keener sense of characters, plot, pacing, etc. When I returned to revise the original draft, I noticed instances where character development was spotty, when scenes that just didn't work anymore, and even where there needed to be additions to round out a chapter or a plot point. Instead of being annoyed at my younger self for not seeing those things before, I recognized that this was a good thing. You should be able to return to older stories and find things to fix. No story is flawlessly, and no one is done growing as a writer. I could probably return again in another 9 years (I hope not, though!) and find more adjustments that need to be made.

For two, I wanted to revise it. It was the first big standalone story I wrote for a fandom, and in 2024 we're embracing doing things for ourselves and anyone else who wants to come along. I remember being proud of it when I finished it, and I'm still proud for myself for putting the work in. I have Word docs that are like, 2-3 pages long each of notes for this story. That's #dedication.

For three, just to say that I made it. When I was a teenager, when I wrote this fic, I didn't know if I would make it to 18. I had a lot going on. Is this the best story to stake my identity on? No, absolutely not. But I like the idea of coming back, polishing this up, and saying, yeah. We made it. Let's think about how much we've accomplished while we revise a goofy Princess Mononoke Jaspidot AU fanfic. What else can you do?

Finally, it was really fun to revisit the story and see what gems I wrote in that actually later appeared in the story. For example, Sardonyx, who made her appearance in the show literally eight days after I published the last chapter in 2015. Or Smoky Quartz, who is named as a ship pilot here. There's others, too, I'm sure; I didn't change them because I honestly couldn't be bothered with tracking down every character that has a corresponding gem in the actual show. In tracing that, I also remembered that I named a few of characters very intentionally (for ex., Chalcedony as Jasper, Sardonyx, and Carnelian's 'mom' corresponds to the real life "Quartz family" that they all belong to).

Here's a reminder and encouragement to you that if you have a silly, self-indulgent, or what-have-you story you want to write, and you're afraid to write it or put it out there, to do it anyways. Do it scared. That's what they say, right? Only you can write the stories you've got in your head. Do it no matter how you feel.

(January 2024)

Original preface from 2015 below:

This is an AU Jaspidot fic that takes inspiration and concepts from Studio Ghibli's 1997 Princess Mononoke. Although there are many similarities between these two works, Cosmic Conflict does follow its own path.

The story is primarily about Peridot, an outcast technician with a terminal and unknown disease, and Jasper, a warrior rebelling against Colony X-19 and their destructive plans. Homeworld is the overarching antagonist of the story and there are various minor conflicts throughout. Garnet and Pearl are seen in a negative light only due to the narrative of the story, being from a perspective favoring Peridot. There is also an implied relationship between Garnet and Pearl, however it is never explicitly stated they are attracted to each other. As well as most of the canon gems, many gem OCs are featured in the story, and some play more crucial roles than others.

Throughout this story I attempted to keep the characters as neutral as possible, with some falling on the darker side of the grey neutrality and others on the lighter side. No one is good, no one is bad, they are all doing what they believe is right. Canon does not entirely apply here in terms of who is against who. It was difficult at first for me to see past the canonical relationships but this is an AU fic, after all!

basbird on Tumblr made some really awesome art of Peridot, please check it out here!

Chapter Text

Technos looked like every other planet where all the brainiacs and computer jockeys liked to hang out: small, rocky, and devoid of personality. It orbited a binary star with its six siblings, all of them variations on the hue of olive green. Almost a hundred thousand people resided on Technos, crammed into its atmosphere-scraping high-rises and jammed into thin transportation tubes that rocketed from one end of the planet-spanning city to the other. Tucked on the far side of the galaxy from Homeworld, it largely avoided attention from other worlds, and its inhabitants preferred to keep it that way.

Peridot was one such inhabitant. An up-and-coming young computer engineer currently involved in the Mainframe Overhaul Project, or MOP, she was utterly committed to her job and its duties. Everything else was insubstantial. Though it bordered on zealous, her dedication earned her much respect, and rumors swirled about her inevitable ascension to Technos’ highest echelons.

Today had been a good day so far. Her team had cleared up several bugs in the program they had been building since the start of the month. Now, as the afternoon stretched into early dusk, they were beginning to wind things down.

A stocky Fluorite gem, one of Peridot’s subordinates, tapped a final command into her keyboard, then shut the monitor off. She gathered some printouts into a folder and tucked it under her arm. Then, with stiff steps, she approached Peridot’s desk and asked: “Permission for dismissal?”

“Permission granted,” Peridot responded without looking up. “Efficient work today, Fluorite.”

“Thank you, Supervisor,” Fluorite said. She bowed respectfully to Peridot, then whispered goodbyes to her colleagues as she headed out the door towards the lobby.

Peridot peered over the edge of her workstation to examine the remaining three gems, still tapping and clicking away. The curfew for end of work wasn’t for another twenty minutes. It pleased Peridot to see them still doing their job. She settled back into her seat and opened her notes on the week’s progress, ready to input the updates from that day.

There was the faint, scratchy buzz of the intercom, and one of the other gems responded, flicking on the communications switch.

“Room 14C speaking. Who is this?” she asked.

“Is Peridot there?” a gruff voice replied.

Peridot stood up and indicated the other gem should transfer the line to her desk. Despite the frown on her face, she managed to speak pleasantly. “Present, Counselor Ammolite. Is there trouble?”

“Yes. Dismiss whatever gems are left in the workroom and report to me immediately.”

The communications line went dead with a hiss. Peridot looked back over at the three workers. All of them looked equally perplexed. But, despite their confusion, orders were still orders.

“You heard the Counselor. Dismissed,” she said.

The trio saved their work, packed up their belongings, and filed past her, bowing in turn as they went past. Peridot waited for the last of them to exit, then shut down her main computer and followed. The lights went out automatically.

Counselor Ammolite’s office was located just downtown, a short trip away. Peridot slung herself onto the slim motorcycle she used for on-planet travel and shot down the street, dodging between pedestrians and other drivers. She was a careful driver, but sometimes the traffic made it difficult to be precise with her movements. The uniform office buildings melted into one another; it was impossible to tell residential units from offices from data centers. Motorcycles and other slim vehicles crowded the feet of each towering behemoth, and parking meters blinked intermittently in front of them like a thousand tiny eyes.

Minutes after departing, she turned left into a large business complex. Whirring through compact parking lots, Peridot came to the end of the lane, which rounded off into a cul-de-sac capped by a low, greenish-beige building with many windows. There were a few open spaces here, and she parked the motorcycle, its engines rumbling quieter and quieter as she slowed.

She stepped off the vehicle, smoothed back a few stray hairs, and walked up to the giant glass front doors. A sensor appeared, scanned her body, beeped to signal confirmation of identity, and then finally opened with a whoosh of artificial air. A robonoid skittered across the floor, spitting cleaning fluid out one end and scrubbing at it with its four legs. Peridot stepped over the small bot and continued.

When she found her, Ammolite was sitting in front of her computer screens, absorbed in whatever information she was recieving. The glow of the monitors reflected off her reddish green arms and face, turning them almost iridescent.

Peridot cleared her throat before proceeding any further past the doorway. In response, Ammolite gestured for her to come closer.

“What’s the matter?” Peridot asked, standing next to Ammolite. “I haven’t seen any errors today.”

“There is a rogue program,” said the Counselor. Her voice was clipped, distant, but there was a slight strain to the words. “It keeps reappearing at the same spot in every report. Something’s gone wrong in the system.”

“My team said they cleared out all the bugs.” Peridot detached her fingers on her right hand and summoned the holographic screen. “Here are their findings.”

Ammolite glanced at the data. “That’s irrelevant now. Look—” She pointed at a red-marked line of code. “I’ve highlighted it to mark every time it shows up. The rate at which it appears is increasing.”

“Do you know which computer it originated from?”

“No.”

Peridot frowned. “We should shut down the entire system or else risk losing valuable progress.”

“Whatever this is, it’s clearly malicious.”

“I will shut it down,” Peridot announced. She straightened her back. “This is my team, my project, and I’m the engineer responsible for it. I’ll go now and take care of it.”

With that, she turned and headed for the door.

“That’s true but—Peridot!” Ammolite exclaimed, jumping to her feet as Peridot walked away. “You must be careful. If you try to sync with the machine and somehow this code infects you...there is no telling what will happen. I can’t even tell what it is sitting here, let alone face to face with it.”

Peridot stopped before reaching the door and faced Ammolite. “I will be fine.”

Outside, she dropped onto the motorcycle again and stepped on the accelerator. The small vehicle responded admirably as she weaved in and out of the evening crowds, heading back the way she had originally come.

As she passed a cluster of young, off-duty gems, three of them turned to look at her. One cried: “Supervisor—the workday is over! Why are you going back?”

“Urgent business,” was all Peridot managed to say before speeding onwards.

Suddenly, the screen in her motorcycle lit up with Ammolite’s face.

“I’ve got a possible motivation for this program,” she said. Her eyes were narrowed with what Peridot guessed was a mixture of concentration and worry. “It's trying to locate the information stored on the main server.”

Peridot shifted the conversation to her holographic hand screen as she hopped off the motorcycle and entered—reentered—her office. “I’m working on it.”

The silence inside weighed on her. Blank monitors, still warm to the touch, greeted her with myriad reflections of her own self; already a chill touched the air.

Peridot ignored the uncomfortable feelings creeping up her back and booted up her personal computer with all its administrative functions. As it whirred to life, she turned on a few others for back up—their brains could help hold excess material as she sorted things through on the primary. Though Ammolite had disconnected the call, she kept her holographic screen online.

“Report of Information,” she said, turning on the recording software, “log date 7 24 9. Supervisory Engineer Peridot, performing sweep of computers to confirm for a virus. All systems are currently checking out as safe. Conditions normal.”

Sometimes, she forgot how many computers she had command over. Usually, with her team present, it was easy to distribute the volume. But alone…this was different.

With a practiced movement, she inserted her right hand in a slot on the side of the computer, syncing her systems with the computer to gain a better control of it. It was like talking directly to the computer’s mind.

Ammolite’s face flickered into view again, pushing the recording software to a smaller window. “I should’ve let you use my computer—this thing is moving fast. It’s ruining files, up and down the databanks.”

“It would have taken even longer to verify myself and gain access to your computer,” Peridot  replied matter-of-factly. “This program appears to be controlled. It’s aiming to destroy something.”

“Can you save any data from the damaged files?”

“I will need to investigate that further.” Peridot watched as the rogue program moved around, somehow evading all the safety-nets and snares Technos’ overseers had installed. She attempted to manually spring a trap on it but only managed to stall it for several seconds before it continued.

The realization crashed upon her suddenly. It wasn’t a virus. Someone was trying to hack into their systems. If they got into the private data files, there was a chance that everything—and everyone—in the city could be shut down. All computers connected to the main network, and all citizens were required to store their personal data files on that same network. The only final failsafe was an enigmatic black box that they had built long ago in a more desperate time; a saving throw that would keep their files safely contained—but with no way out once inside.

“Peridot?” Ammolite’s voice cut in and out. "Desync immediately—something’s—shut it down!”

“It is now only targeting my computer,” Peridot said calmly. She had the hacker well contained now, as if they had been locked in the room with her. “I would advise the city to shut down all computers except my own. Interference could be dangerous.”

“Good—” said Ammolite, and she disappeared.

The PA system overhead crackled with a warning broadcast that was no doubt being projected city-wide, and as the counselor droned on, Peridot began a sequence of careful attacks on the intruder. It was difficult, but she persisted, utilizing the skills and knowledge that only came with her intimate understanding of the machine world.

Then, with a snap, her quarry jumped through everything she had laid out.

Peridot suppressed a snarl from the back of her throat.

There was only way to kill it now. It would be brutal. With her free hand, she wrenched open the panel that protected the computer’s circuity. Isolated from the network as it was, she figured her logic was sound: If the computer itself was destroyed, the program would also disappear, destroyed with its host. She would just have to desync at the precise moment to avoid damaging herself.

As she steeled herself to strike, the door slammed open, and the three young gems from earlier rushed through the doorway. “Supervisor, we’re here to help you—”

“Do not interrupt me!” Peridot cried, her attention wavering.

In her moment of distraction, the attacking program reemerged. The entire screen of the computer flashed red, and a jolt of energy surged up her right arm. Her hologram spluttered and zipped out. The flashing continued, and Peridot smashed her boots against the hardware with a flurry of cracks and sparks. The computer screen went black. She tumbled over, yanking her hand from the syncing dock as she fell. It had all gone so wrong so fast.

“Supervisor!” yelped one of the workers, rushing forward.

Peridot could hardly form a sentence. The red light was blazing in her mind. Something had hit her internal systems. She struggled to rise, but her right hand short-circuited and send a volt of pain coursing up her arm, colder and more cutting than anything she had ever felt. Abruptly, the red was replaced by utter darkness.

“Peridot?”

“She’s not fully recovered—”

“I’ve fixed as many circuits as I could—”

Faces swam into perspective as Peridot’s system rebooted itself. There was a cautious, lingering moment where the system contemplated self-destruction, but it disappeared. The red light was also gone. She was gazing up at a smooth white ceiling; the smell of chemicals and ozone clung to her nose.

“Peridot?” repeated the first voice. It was Counselor Ammolite.

“Counselor,” Peridot rasped. She waited for her voice to settle before speaking again. “What has happened?”

“That wasn’t a virus,” Ammolite said.

“I knew that already.”

“It was a hacked bot—or something like that. It was seeking our most important information before you destroyed it, but…” She drifted off.

“But what?”

Ammolite took a deep breath. “Part of the bot, the program has latched onto you. Internally speaking, of course.”

Peridot sat up, slowly. Even the tiniest movement took great effort. “What does that mean? I’ve never heard of this happening before.”

Another Counselor stepped into her field of view. It was Feldspar, somehow grimmer than usual. Her jaw was clenched tightly. “You removed the program from Technos’ system, but now it resides in you. If it continues its destructive mission, blind to its new environment, you will shut down, permanently. We tried to extract it, but we…we did not succeed.”

Peridot glanced around the room at the assembled mechanics and repair technicians. Some looked distraught, others stoic, and still others were examining the floor. Not one of them offered an explanation. “Shut down? For good? This is what will happen to me? There’s no way to fix it?”

“I’m sorry, Peridot,” said Ammolite, “but…we simply do not know this technology. Its aggression and destructiveness are not part of Technos’ repertoire. There is nothing we can do for you on this planet—only offer a more peaceful death than the one that awaits you if you let this continue.”

Peridot found no words to reply with. Death! And mere hours ago the only thing the future had held was the promise of promotion and better pay. She sought some solace in Ammolite’s or Feldspar’s faces and found none.

“There may be another way,” said a third gem, stepping forward from the crowd. It was Goethite, the third Counselor. All three had come out to visit her, Peridot realized.

“We’ve already discussed that,” Feldspar said, crossing her arms. “It’s foolish.”

“We must offer every avenue available,” Goethite rebutted. She fixed Peridot with both her dark eyes. “There are rumors, Peridot, of an incredible power on a distant world. An alien, or some sort of entity, that has the power to heal even those on the verge of death.”

Feldspar shook her head, sighing.

Goethite said, “Only rumors, but there are star-maps that explorers have created. I can give them to you.”

“Peridot,” said Feldspar, “you have three options. We can shut you down now and spare you any anguish. Two, you can go about your business until you…perish or are destroyed, whatever will happen. Three, you can chase Goethite’s fanciful legend.”

“I will not be shut down,” Peridot said.

There was a pause. The Counselors exchanged a long look, then Ammolite spoke, hesitantly: “You are also under federal investigation for the destruction of a government computer.”

Anger flushed despair out of Peridot’s mind. “That is ridiculous—I had no choice!”

“That is true,” said Feldspar. She held up her broad hands, as if holding off further comments from Peridot. “But such as that stands, you are still considered a criminal of low concern and threat.”

Peridot was silent for several moments, weighing the options before her. At last, she said, “I don’t necessarily believe in legends. I don’t want to be considered a criminal for my actions. But I will do neither of the first two options you have presented me with.”

“Then you will leave?” Goethite asked.

“Yes. Tonight,” Peridot said. She was surprised at her own resolution, but it was the only option that did not immediately repulse her. “Maybe I will find this planet.”

 “As I said. I can provide star-maps to find your way there.”

“Thank you,” said Peridot.

She stepped off the table, looked around at the room one more time, and left. No one followed her.

Her footsteps were the only sounds in the deserted, off-white hallway. Her mouth was set in a thin line, and she looked straight ahead as she went. Her spacecraft was parked in dock 56A, along with several dozen other models. Hers was a sleek and green, designed for high speeds, evasion, and still tough enough to weather a battle or two. She ran her right hand over its surface and stiffened as she saw hints of something akin to a red rust spreading across her digits.

Was this an effect of the malicious bot? Was it now turning her own body against her—corroding her?

The questions gnawed at her mind as she stepped into the ship and refamiliarized herself with the cramped control room. Before much time had passed, there was a knocking from outside, muffled by the walls. She opened the hatch and looked out. One of her team members was standing there, straight at attention. Peridot recognized her as Aquamarine, one of the junior-most programmers.

“Supervisor Peridot,” she said. “I have something for you.”

“What is it?” Peridot asked. “I can’t take much on this ship.”

“Well, it’s two things. They’re both small, though,” Aquamarine. “Here’s the star-maps Goethite wanted to give you and this—here.”

She passed the star-maps to Peridot, who set the tiny datasticks on the main console. When she went back to the hatch’s opening, Aquamarine held out her hand. Inside it was a necklace.

Peridot picked it up and examined it. “This is a computer chip and wire.”

“From the first computer you built,” said Aquamarine.

“That old thing?” Peridot scoffed. “I put that in the storage closet ages ago.”

“I dug it out and made this for you last season. I was planning to give it to you when you were promoted to Counselor. But you can’t be Counselor now.” Aquamarine’s eyes dropped to the ground, and her voice turned mournful. “I’m sorry we interrupted you. This is all our fault.”

Peridot looked at the young gem, her stern expression softening. “I appreciate your gift and accept your apology. You’re a hard worker. The team is lucky to have you. I wish I could stay to see our project through.”

Aquamarine swallowed. “Thank you, Supervisor. Safe travels.” She bowed respectfully. “Permission for dismissal?”

“Dismissed,” said Peridot. As Aquamarine walked away, she added: “I really will miss you—all of you.”

The blue gem turned her head and gave a smile before continuing on. Peridot looked down at the necklace in her hand. It was beautiful, in its own odd way. She put it in the storage slot on her left arm, shut the little pocket space, and entered her ship again.

This time, she sealed the door, checked the systems, and made sure all the supplies she had stored in here were still there. A stun weapon, armor for emergencies, a few deactivated robonoids for any repairs, and extra warp cells to fuel the ship.

Peridot dropped into the pilot’s chair and started up the engine. The doors to the outside were open. She gave one last glance over her homeworld, then plugged in the star-maps from Goethite.

The course was a long one, stretching out over multiple systems. Deep down, Peridot hoped she would make it—to be healed by this legend, to live on, even as an outcast from her home world.

She guided the ship out of the dock and onto the runway. Before running the final ignition sequence, Peridot took a deep breath. This was goodbye to her homeworld, her career, and her friends and colleagues—forever.

Chapter Text

There was no concept of time in space. Gems, especially gems with a computer half, didn’t need sleep. Both of these factors combined kept Peridot at the helm of the ship for hours on end. She set the ship to follow the blue route highlighted on the screen of the computer, heading for the distant planet where she could potentially receive aid from the mysterious alien entity.

At the present, she was traveling through a foreign solar system. There were nine planets and three meteor belts she had to pass by before exiting out. Peridot adjusted the ship’s speed, bringing it down to warp three, as she approached the second meteor belt. It was becoming easier and easier to navigate through the difficulties of the galaxy. She wasn’t born a pilot like some other gems, but she still had enough technical know-how to fly her ship.

Strangely, the meteor belt seemed to continue beyond what the sensors said on the screen. She asked the computer to scan again, but it showed the same results. There were bits of scrap and metal everywhere outside the viewing windows. At increasingly frequent intervals, she could hear plinks and thuds as the detritus bounced off the ship’s hull. It looked like the result of a crash—but it would have had to been substantial to produce so much wreckage.

Peridot engaged an even lower speed and manually navigated through a dense patch of hull plating and twisted metal beams. Coming out of the thicket, she could see ships up ahead. There was a mob of them, swarming around each other and firing hails of fusion-powered bullets. A few strays whizzed uncomfortably close to her ship, and she grimaced at the thought of trying to patch that sort of puncture.

As she drew closer, the scene became clearer: the fighting was less an exchange of bullets and more a vicious assault against one side, which was struggling to defend itself. They were unmarked vessels, mostly built in the utilitarian style of freighters and cargo ships. The aggressors were much more uniform in design, bristling, angular ships with diamonds printed on one side.

Peridot gripped the arms of her chair, temporarily stunned at that sight.

The diamond was Homeworld's symbol.

As she watched, two of the Homeworld ships blasted a carrier ship to pieces and wheeled around to find new prey. Her communications panel buzzed suddenly, and she turned on the ship-to-ship communicator.

A harsh voice crackled to life. “Who are you?”

Peridot said nothing, regretting answering the call.

“You’re trespassing!” the voice snarled.

Quick as she could, Peridot reached for the communications panel and shut it off. The ship on h right began to angle its fusion cannons at her, and the one on the left darted rapidly through the remains of the carrier ship.

Peridot pushed the ship’s speed up and pressed forward her intended path, evading the rapid patter of energy bullets from the first ship. A few seared along the sides of her ship; nothing major, but still nothing good. They would continue after her unless she warned them off.

She turned on her own weapons, a simple pair of mounted rail guns, and gouged a long scorching mark in the hull of the leftmost ship. It spun outwards, crashing into one of its brethren and disappearing in a brief bloom of reds and oranges that engulfed them both. Peridot made a tch noise under her breath and looked for the other attacking ship. She directed the guns towards it and lanced a line of bullets directly through the port side. The spacecraft burst apart.

Peridot increased her speed further and shot past the civilian spaceships. The remaining Homeworld ships made no move to pursue her. She disliked killing without reason. But they had provoked her and thusly deserved what had come to them. As for the civilians, she would not stay to protect them, but she hoped they managed to flee from their pursuers during the diversion. They were, for the moment, no concern of hers.

According to the star-chart, there was a space port coming up ahead. The damage to the ship, while minimal, could potentially cause harm in the long run. As her ship drew closer to the port, her communications panel beeped. Peridot flicked the channel open.

“Unidentified spacecraft, please identify yourself,” said a dull voice.

“Peridot, of the planet Technos, requesting permission to dock for repairs and potential overnight stay,” Peridot replied.

“Thank you,” said the voice, a shade warmer. “Your docking station is A9. Please be sure to read the rules posted inside the station.”

The line went dead. Peridot maneuvered the ship into the designated station and prepared to enter the port. She put on a dark green cloak with the hood up and took her stun weapon, tucking it into her belt. While she hoped no further violence would come to pass, it never hurt to be prepared.

On the ramp that connected her airlock to the docking ring, a guard waited for her. She stopped Peridot as she stepped out, and checked the stun gun. After what seemed like a longer assessment than necessary, the guard returned the weapon, and handed Peridot a laminated card stamped PORT RULES PLEASE READ. They were, by and large, the traditional etiquette expected of space travelers:

1. Please do not hijack others’ ships.
2. Please do not carry weapons without acknowledgement from the guards.
3. Please do not start unnecessary conflicts.
4. Please do not steal from the space port. We receive specific shipments on a schedule and any deviation from that results in a significant deficiency.
5. Please refrain from gambling.
6. Under no circumstances are you allowed to put a gem in regeneration state.
7. No strip-card-games.

Well, traditional until the last one. Peridot figured she was not going to engage in any activities of that nature.

She tucked the card into a pocket, then went back inside the ship. She gathered up the robonoids, and one by one activated them and set them to repair mode. They skittered across the floor and up onto the control panel, where they sat down and began to fix the ship. A few, however, moved to the outside and started to repair the external damage.

Outside, the guard watched the proceedings with an amused expression on her face. She called to Peridot, “Are these yours?”

“Yes,” Peridot said, also observing the techbots work. “I did not program them myself, but they are in my possession.”

“They’re interesting things.”

“Yes. I enjoy watching them work. They're efficient workers. Better than gems.”

Peridot strode down the ramp and entered the space port, leaving her tiny robot workers to complete their job.

The first thing that flooded her sensory circuits was the noise. Background music collided with words overflowing from room after room. Gems of every kind and shape and size paraded through the halls. Peridot slunk down the corridor, hood tucked low over her face. She went to the socializing room down the way—or, to put it in colloquial terms, the bar. She was looking to purchase supplies for her hand. The rust-like disorder was beginning to spread across her hand, covering two digits entirely and some of her palm. If she could find someone who sold polish or green paint, she could avoid unwanted suspicion, or at the very least, unwanted questions.

Peridot settled herself in a seat at the back of the room where she could watch gems in silence. Her scanning technology was disabled for the moment, but she could still read the occupants of the bar. Money exchanged hands under countertops, drinks were pretended to be sipped, and on and on the chatter went. A lifetime of working with machines did not make her a good socializer, but she knew how to observe.

As she was absorbing all this information, someone melted away from the crowd and sat across from her. Peridot turned her head when the gem sat down and examined her new company—short, purple, with a black bandana on her head. White bangs covered one eye; the other scrutinized Peridot.

“You were the fighter from earlier,” she said. “Near those meteors.”

“I don't recall any fights recently,” answered Peridot.

The gem shook her head. “Maybe you don’t remember it as a fight, but from my perspective, it looked definitely something like a skirmish.”

“Oh. You're talking about when I had to defend myself. That fight?”

“Yes. That one. You had the little green spaceship. Tough one, isn’t it?”

“It is specialized for traveling quickly and managing a fight or two.”

The gem grinned broadly. “Yeah.” She rolled her shoulders. “So. Here you are now. Watching people instead of interacting with ‘em. What’re you looking for?”

“Someone who can help me.” Peridot did not show her hand but said: “One of my hands is mildly damaged. I am looking for a good solution to fix it.”

“Ah. Yeah. I can’t help you there.” The gem crossed her arms. “Is it really mild? You look a little too keen for just mild.”

Peridot, in a fleeting moment of trust, put her infected hand on the table. The purple gem leaned over and examined it, curiosity dancing in her eyes. When she thought more than enough time had passed, Peridot stowed her hand again under the cloak, wary of observers.

“That’s interesting,” said the gem, lounging back again. “Seems like some kind of disease.”

“I'm hoping it is not as bad as it looks.”

The other gem paused for a moment, clearly mulling something over. Then, at last, she said, “There are rumors—only whispers and fragments of what I’ve heard in my travels—of an alien healer on a distant planet. A powerful one. Maybe it could help you.” She dug into her pocket and pulled out a scrap of paper with an unfamiliar symbol drawn on it. “All of know is that the people who bear this insignia know of the alien. Here. Take it.”

“I've been hearing a lot lately about rumors,” Peridot said, but she took the paper anyways. “I am merely trying to fix my hand and find a better way of life.”

“Well, your way certainly saved me from having to do what you did.” The gem smiled again, but it did not last long. “Homeworld is brutal when it comes to hunting down station worlds that don’t fit its mold. The planet I was staying on nearly suffered destruction. Your intervention was, to say the least, timely.”

“I was provoked and fought back. I am sure others would have done the same.”

Another long pause, and then, in a low voice, the gem said, “You know, in my travels, I’ve heard many things. That alien healer. Suns that sing. Planets so close you can jump from one to the other.” She narrowed her eyes. “Some speak of another station world, a world of gems that loved computers and robots and all their technology more than other gems. They gained great power, so much so that Homeworld took notice, and when Homeworld could not convince them to give up that power, it chased those gems to the far side of the galaxy and destroyed them. But some say…some say those gems, those people lived on. You—you remind me of them.”

“I know little of those people,” lied Peridot. “Homeworld is efficient at wiping out its enemies. But they are not without flaws. Maybe those gems did live on. I don't know.”

“Yeah.” The gem stretched, extending her arms and legs out. One of her feet knocked against Peridot’s leg, a hollow metal sound ringing out. The gem quirked an eyebrow. “That you?”

“Yes,” Peridot said, rising. “I must depart now. Thank you for the conversation.”

“Maybe we’ll meet again,” said the gem, offering a half bow in farewell.

Peridot dipped her head respectfully and left the bar, avoiding touching anyone. Back at the docking ring, the robonoids had finished their job, deactivated themselves, and clustered inside the ship. The guard was standing watch over someone else’s ship now, as it was being given a thorough cleaning of various space debris it had picked up.

Peridot put the robonoids in the back of the ship again and sat down in her seat. She did not do anything for several minutes. Inside, she could almost feel the corruption spreading through her systems, a gradual progression towards the inevitable decay that would spell her doom. She looked down at her hand. The rust, as she had decided to call it, was the same. It hadn’t spread.

Although her observations at the bar might not have gotten what she wanted, she had heard additional rumors about the alien entity as well as speculation about her people. The latter was something she had no desire to discuss, but the former at least confirmed that the object of her quest was not just a figment of her world.

She keyed in the command for the doors to seal but did not add the command for the engines to start. She had, after all, added overnight leave to her request for docking. After an internal deliberation, Peridot quietly set her systems onto the mode she used rarest of all: sleep.

Chapter Text

When Peridot awoke from her programmed sleep, deep blue filled her vision. The automatic lights had given up on her and turned themselves off after twelve hours. As she stirred, the lights reactivated, casting a warm yellow light into the darkness.

Peridot ran a brief scan over the ship’s systems to check for any errors and found none. Upon that discovery she started up the engines, ready to exit. The communications line beeped, as if expecting her.

“Please stand by. Preparing to open doors for docking bay A9.”

“Standing by,” responded Peridot, watching as the aforementioned doors opened.

“Permission granted to proceed,” said the voice. “Goodbye and safe travels.”

“The same to you,” Peridot said, as was routine.

She steered the ship out through the perimeter of the station, maintaining the posted speed for safety. Once clear of the outermost structures, Peridot accelerated the ship to a brisk clip, rapidly leaving the space station behind her. There were a few adjustments to be made to the star-chart, and then she was once again on track towards her destination. Fine-tuning done, Peridot gave autopilot the helm and settled down into her seat.

The cargo ships were taking too long. Pearl stood next to Garnet on the bridge of the latter’s spaceship, arms folded and mouth pursed into her usual concerned expression. Garnet also stood, despite the chair that sat next to her. They were viewing the freight line as it passed by them, each vessel laden with both supplies and civilians.

“The rebels haven’t shown their faces yet,” said Pearl, in a tone that suggested she was trying to reassure herself. “I don’t think they’ll bother us today.”

“We can’t be certain about that,” said Garnet. She flicked on the communications line. “Fighter ships—standby on yellow alert for enemy encounters.”

As if on cue, a voice crackled back, “This is Fighter Pilot Moonstone, reporting in from your starboard side. I have a visual on rebel ships—three of them; I repeat, confirmed visual on three rebel ships.”

“Fire at will,” commanded Garnet, casting a glance at the freighters and then turning towards the bank of officers manning the ship’s functions. “Helm, take us around to starboard side. Ops, let’s have those guns online and ready to fire.”

The flagship and steward of the hauling fleet turned its bulk ponderously, but the bristling arms that adorned its flanks belied its behemoth status. As they swung round, the bridge crew saw three red ships, small and nimble, streaking towards one end of the freight line. It was an unmistakable collision course.

From the fighter pilots stationed posted along the line blazed energy weapons. All shots missed the swift trio; they swerved around, moving as one synchronous unit, and bolted off as quick as they’d arrived.

Garnet’s eyes narrowed. “That wasn’t all they had. Something else…something else must be coming.”

The comms line buzzed. “Fighter Pilot Smoky Quartz reporting in with visual on rapidly approaching rebel mothership,” a voice blurted. “Enemy’s ETA is within thirty seconds.”

“Hold your ground!,” Garnet ordered. “Ops, are we ready?”

“Aye!” came the affirmative response.

The mothership seemed to emerge right out of space itself. Maroon like its smaller fighters and no less swift, it charged into the cargo ships and turned sharply, crashing against three of them in one devastating move. Pearl stiffened and muttered under her breath.

“Fire!” said Garnet.

The flagship let loose a barrage of fire from every gun. While many bullets went wide, a good number ripped into the mothership. Splinters of metal and fused plastics bled out into the field. The mothership lurched sideways, striking another cargo ship, and scuttled off, disappearing into the folds of space again as it changed to a superlight speed.

“We appear to have warded them off,” said Pearl, putting her hands on her hips. She cast her eyes over the viewing screen, lips pursed as she took in the grisly sight of broken, gashed ships and scattered debris.

Garnet was silent for a long moment, taking in the scene as well. Then, at last, she lowered her gaze, cleared her throat, and said, “We don’t have time to rescue the fallen gems. We need to keep to the schedule.”

Pearl turned to her commander, restrained confusion drawn into the lines of her pale face. “And leave them behind?”

“Yes.” Garnet sat down in her command chair. “Ahead as normal!”

The cargo ships had halted for the duration of the brief skirmish and now pressed forward. Garnet folded her arms, exhaled slowly, and watched the proceedings. Only the faint drumming of her fingers on the console of the chair betrayed the emotions she felt. Pearl joined her after a moment, hands folded in her lap as she took the seat beside Garnet. They were quiet for a long time.

“Unusual,” Peridot muttered to herself. Ahead of her ship was the wreckage of several ships along with containers of unknown substances. She had moved far away from the space port, the recent battle with the Homeworld ships, and all meteor belts in the vicinity—there was no sign of anything that could have created this mess.

She adjusted the ship’s sensor to scan for traces of energy blasts or radiation nearby. As the sensors processed, Peridot slowed the ship to navigate with more caution. Nearly leaning out of her seat, she could just make out two colored bubbles floating amongst pieces of wrecked spaceships. Too neat, too perfectly spherical to me debris, they could only be one thing. Gems.

The scanners warbled and indicated there in fact had been recent high-energy use in this area, and radiation well within normal levels was emitting from some of the containers. Peridot nosed the ship over to the two bubbled gems and turned on the tractor beam, pulling the bubbles in close without disrupting their protective shielding.

Once they were under the bottom hull of the spacecraft, Peridot scurried down to the lower deck. She crossed through a cramped airlock, and into a small room with a large hatch in the floor. Warnings were plastered across the tiles. She had done this once before, and only once. She hoped she retained enough of the memories to perform it again with no errors—an error could be fatal.

First, she sealed off the airlock to prevent anything sneaking into the interior of the ship. Then she pulled a large, wide-mouthed tube down from the ceiling that would hold anything the hatch brought in. After setting it into position, she ran the sequence for the hatch to begin opening, maintain the tractor beam as it did so.

The two bubbled gems rose out of space, one in a grey bubble, the other dark green. They hovered inside the tube, its transparent siding allowing her to observe more closely. The grey bubble’s gem had a crack running down it, but the green bubble’s gem was smooth without blemish.

When they were sufficiently far up the tube, Peridot closed the hatch and sealed the bottom and top ends of the tube. As she prepared to remove the sealed section, the sensor at command center beeped, and she left the two gems to sprint up the stairs and see what the computer was making a fuss over.

Her spacecraft, on its autopilot route, had wandered into new territory while she was assisting the two bubbled gems. Now, four new ships were just a short distance away. She halted the ship and studied them. The biggest ship appeared to be damaged, and the three smaller ones were flitting around it. At first, it looked like they were harassing the larger ship, like scavengers on a dying animal, but Peridot realized they were escorting it.

As she looked closer, increasing the zoom on her viewscreen, she saw a large symbol painted on the escorted ship. It was familiar. Peridot flipped quickly through her memories of the last few days and placed the symbol. It matched the one on the paper that the purple gem had given her. She opened the small storage slot on the dashboard, and retrieved it.

This ship, that symbol, could be potential confirmation of the alien entity’s existence.

She reached for her comms, hesitating only briefly. It was not standard to address foreign ships so directly, but she had to know. As clearly and friendly as she could, she said, “I am Peridot from the planet Technos. You wear on the hull of your ships the symbol of an alien entity I am seeking. Are you of the planet where it resides?”

No answer. The three ships broke away from the larger one and drew towards Peridot, stopping just close enough for her to see the pilots. They were one-man ships, swift and agile. Beyond moving, though, they made neither action against her nor any friendly overtures.

“You are not welcome here,” said a voice. “The alien is no concern of yours. Leave.”

After those three sentences had been uttered, the ships swung about and returned to the larger one. As they came about, Peridot met the eyes of one of the pilots: a large orange gem, with stripes across her face. The moment seemed to catch and hang for much longer than it actually transpired. A cold, prickling sensation crawled across Peridot’s skin.

Then it was over. The ships were hustling away, out of visual range. Peridot touched her corrupted arm, feeling the roughness of the tainted striations in contrast to the smooth metal.

With the ship still parked, she returned to the lower deck, slower this time, her mind whirring over the strange encounter.

One of the gems was glowing, in a clear effort to regenerate, but could not occupy enough space to do so in the confines of the tube. Peridot unsealed the bottom and let both bubbles drift out. The grey one floated to the floor, but the green one continued to expand as it regenerated. Peridot turned away, giving the gem privacy as she reformed.

There was a slight pop, and then a thud that rocked the whole ship. It was not designed for much cargo or multiple passengers.

Peridot turned back around and regarded the newly regenerated gem. She was tall, lanky almost, with long hair and a square jaw. She blinked a few times, looked around the room, and frowned.

“Who are you?”

“I’m the owner of the spacecraft you’re currently aboard.”

“You—rescued me and Citrine?”

“Yes.” Peridot noted that bewilderment mingled with gratitude on the gem’s broad face.

“I offer my thanks to you.” She bowed her head. “I am grateful you have spared us a longer stay in cold oblivion.”

“It was no trouble of mine,” said Peridot. “What's your name?”

“I am Emerald.” The gem paused and cleared her throat. “I have a favor to ask of you, if you would not mind obliging us one last time.”

“What do you need?”

“We have lost our cargo train back home. I wish to return as soon as possible. Would you take us there?”

Peridot crossed her arms. “Where is it that you must go?”

“The Space Station X-019. It shouldn’t be far from this system, and I know the way if you do not.”

“Come with me and bring your bubbled companion. I don't want another incident like yours.” Peridot went back through the airlock and up to the main deck.

Emerald carried the bubble in front of her as she navigated upwards, occasionally bumping her head against the low ceilings. Peridot plunked herself in the command seat and began to investigate the star-maps. It appeared this station was en route to the alien world. She would drop the two wayward gems off there and get on with her mission.

“You’ve found a way to get there?” asked Emerald, looming over her shoulder.

“Yes,” Peridot said, “and I’m adjusting course now to drop you off.”

“Much appreciated.” Emerald retreated to the corridor and sat down, still holding Citrine’s bubble. “It means a lot to us.”

Peridot let the spacecraft run itself at high speed as she mulled over the four ships from the alien world. The pilot had made deliberate eye contact with her—perhaps she was the one who had spoken. She could not shake the image of the orange gem from her mind, no matter how hard she tried to concentrate on more important matters. As her thoughts wandered, she folded and unfolded the paper with the symbol, putting deeper creases into it.

“What’s that?” snapped Emerald suddenly.

Peridot turned. “What is what?”

“The scrap of paper you have. It is of our enemies,” growled the dark green gem, her stone glowing as if she was going to summon her weapon.

That was the last thing Peridot needed right now. “Enemies? I am not your enemy.” She held up the paper. “I am in search of an alien entity that can—can help me with a problem. Another gem I met gave me that scrap to guide me there.”

“That alien is not what you think it is,” Emerald began, but stopped short. More composed, but no less hostile, she added, “You are being deceived to join their cause.”

“If it is truly a matter of opposition, you have clear bias against it, as you are from the other side of…whatever your conflict is,” Peridot said. “But do not think your words have no effect on me. I am still considering the matter. It is personal to me.”

Emerald’s body remained tense for several more moments. Then, as quickly as she had been roused, she relaxed, and a bashful expression crept over her face. “Apologies if I offended. I’m in a terrible state right now.”

“It’s fine,” said Peridot, spinning her chair back around. “You just regenerated. Whatever happened—I’m sure it has put you on edge. You will be home soon.”

“Soon,” Emerald repeated, softly. “That’ll be nice.”

Quiet filled the cabin, and they did not speak again for a few hours. During that time, they entered a new solar system, and the map indicated this would be Emerald and Citrine’s stop. They passed by two small, barren planets before encountering a lush green and golden one.

Emerald glowered out the viewing screen and made a distasteful noise under her breath. “That’s the enemy’s homeworld.”

“It is magnificent,” Peridot said. “I have not seen that much greenery on any one planet in a long time.”

“It’s a death trap.”

Peridot bit back a sigh, already irritated by this conflict she had inadvertently waded into. Soon, hopefully, it would no longer be an issue. Ahead of them, coming into view as they pushed closer to the system’s sun, was a space station orbiting a large, pock-marked world. This space station was larger and more grandiose than any space station Peridot had seen or heard of, built of rings stacked on top of each other. It was squared off at its southernmost end and rose to a pointed on the other. Another spacecraft was sitting outside it, not quite docked but clearly associated with the station.

The communications panel signaled. Peridot answered.

“Unidentified spacecraft, please identify,” said a voice.

Peridot was prepared to answer, when Emerald leapt up. “Kyanite! Kya, is that you?”

“Emerald?” the voice exclaimed. “You're alive?”

“Yes! Citrine and I were rescued by this brave pilot here.”

There was a brief burst of static-saturated silence, and then Kyanite said: “Unidentified spacecraft, please prepare to be brought aboard.” She paused. “Thank you.”

The larger spacecraft appeared to engulf Peridot’s as it was pulled into the shuttlebay aboard. Emerald disembarked as soon as they were given permission to do so, quickly clambering down onto the ramp, but Peridot put on her cloak again before leaving her ship and locked the doors behind her.

Outside, Kyanite—Peridot presumed it was Kyanite, at least—had already rushed to meet Emerald and Citrine. She was a smaller gem, round-faced and dressed in a purple-black uniform. Her elated expression was quickly tempered by shock at the sight of Citrine’s bubble. “What happened? Why hasn’t she regenerated?”

“Her gem is cracked,” Emerald said, concern furrowing grooves into her forehead. “She needs medical attention from Rose Quartz as soon as possible.”

“Oh, dear. Okay. Right. I’ll arrange for that.” Kyanite said, taking it in stride. She inhaled deeply, then turned towards the large door at the far end of the shuttlebay. “Let me get the others to help.”

She whistled a sharp note, and a handful of gems hurried inside, dressed in the same purple-black uniform. Kyanite gestured towards Citrine’s bubble and murmured some instructions Peridot couldn’t pick up. Whatever was said, it resulted in a few gems taking the bubble from Emerald and carrying it gently away, out of the room. Peridot watched them leave from the top of the ramp, uncertain about continuing further.

The problem was solved, in a sense, for her. Kyanite finally addressed her, managing a smile, “Thank you again for rescuing these two. The rest of us will doubtlessly wish to praise you further. If you are comfortable, would you like to come along?”

Peridot nodded, but remained silent.

“Follow me, then,” she said.

They came out of the shuttlebay and crossed through a series of long, windowed corridors. Peridot watched the station loom closer and closer through the thick glass; the effect was not dissimilar to being swallowed, she imagined.

“I like your visor,” Kyanite remarked, suddenly. “I’ve never seen one like it before.”

Peridot blinked and tapped the visor on her face, almost reflexively. It had been there so long she had forgotten entirely about it. “Thank you,” she said at last. “I like it, too.”

Kyanite smiled again and continued leading them through the belly of the ship. Their ultimate destination was a gigantic airlock, sparsely populated with gems chatting, leaning on walls, and milling about. The sounds of the docking clamps rang out, loud and rattling, followed by the methodical thuds of anchors and umbilical chains attaching to the hull. A brief cheer went up at the conclusion of the cacophony. The lights around the exit glowed green, and the doors slid open with a hiss and whoosh.

Outside, or rather inside the station itself, a small crowd had gathered. Peridot counted some forty-six gems there, most with eager looks on their faces. They were looking for their friends or partners or whomever was disembarking. Kyanite skillfully led them through the rush, but Peridot felt tense with unease and discomfort at being so close to so many other people.

“I’m home,” Emerald said, gazing up and around them. “I thought I would never see this place again.”

The crowd seemed to be growing, as the ship’s passengers mingled with the station dwellers, and even more people approached to greet the new arrivals. Only one gem, however, was making a clear beeline for their little trio: a dark blue gem with short hair.

“Lapis!” exclaimed Emerald, running forward to greet her. “Did you miss me?”

“Sure, but you weren’t gone that long, Em,” Lapis said. Her voice was soft, melodic, like water running over smooth stones. She smiled, a hint of mischief at the corners of her mouth.

“Well, it felt like forever,” Emerald replied, sounding mildly put out.

The Lapis Lazuli gem greeted Kyanite, then shifted her attention to Peridot. “Who are you?”

“Peridot,” said Peridot.

“Not much of a talker?”

“Not with strangers, I’m afraid.” Peridot stepped a pace back to gain some distance between herself and the new gems. The tension was back in her chest, but she kept her composure, noting that neither Lapis nor any of the others seemed inclined to do much at the moment.

“What’s going on here?” asked a new voice, cutting across the hubbub. A tall white gem was pushing herself through to the center of the crowd.

At her arrival, Lapis and Emerald exchanged glances and each took a small step back. Kyanite stiffened but stayed put.

“Emerald?” the new gem asked, spying her immediately. “Are you the only survivor?”

“No, Pearl,” Emerald said, a deferential tone in her words. “Citrine survived but she cracked her gem. She was—is being taken to Rose Quartz.”

“Under whose orders?”

“Mine,” Kyanite said. “I made the call.”

“Ah,” said Pearl. She crossed her arms. “All right, then. Anyone else make it back?”

“Not that we’re aware of,” Emerald said.

Then, to Peridot’s dismay, she looked over at the only non-uniformed gem in sight. It was just for a moment, but Pearl caught it.

“You there. You’re not from this space station. Who are you?”

Peridot watched as dozens of eyes fixed on her. There was a hush, as if all the gems in the vicinity were holding their breath. “My name is Peridot,” she said.

“No rank or title?”

“I am a supervisor, where I come from,” Peridot said.

Pearl stepped forward. “And where do you come from? How did you find Emerald and Citrine? Did the rebels send you, to scout out our weaknesses?”

Each question was punctuated by another step forward, until she and Peridot were mere inches from each other.

Then, clear and calm, came another voice. “Enough, Pearl. Leave her alone. There will be time enough for questions later.”

“Garnet?” Pearl asked, turning around. She somehow blanched an even paler shade. “Oh. My apologies. I overstepped.”

“It’s all right,” said Garnet. She was a tall gem, pink and maroon with thick gloves on her hands and a pair of tinted shades over her eyes. In a mere moment, it was immediately clear that she was the commander of this place. She walked over, the crowd parting around her, and extended a hand. “Welcome to Space Station X-019, Peridot.”

Chapter Text

They let Peridot claim her own dock at the station, a small berth out of the way of prying eyes. Once back inside her sanctuary, she was reluctant to leave it again, but Garnet wanted to speak with her, and Peridot sensed that spurning the invitation would be in very poor taste. This time, though, she slipped a stun gun onto her belt before disembarking.

She met with Garnet in a lounge on the main deck. Despite its cozy appearance, the room was empty. The plush couches and fabric chairs were tidy and unrumpled. The potted plants, vibrant green against the greyish-white walls, stirred softly with the air currents from the vents.

“We don’t get many visitors,” Garnet said. She had a certain way of posing herself—hands at her sides, a resolved set to her jaw, shoulders rolled back—that Peridot was noticing. Besides good posture, it indicated a steely core. “Are you a surprise inspector from Homeworld?”

“Me?” Peridot asked, frowning. “I’m not—what would I be inspecting?”

“A joke,” she said, gently. “No, no, you wouldn’t be. They have a bad habit of parading around, even when they’re supposed to be undercover.” She indicated the door with one hand. “Let’s walk. I’ll show you around.”

Peridot followed her back into the hallway. It looped around the circumference of the station, an endless ring stacked on top of other rings that made up the whole structure. Giant windows were placed at regular intervals, offering views of the solar system. Garnet stopped at one window, seemingly at random, and gazed out.

“Do you know what this station does?” she asked.

“No,” Peridot admitted.

“We are a resource-gathering station,” explained Garnet. “We supply Homeworld with whatever it demands—usually metal, minerals, and other substances that can be used for advancing technology.”

Peridot’s rust-corroded fingers suddenly jerked with their own volition, curling into a painful fist involuntarily. She managed to hide the movement under her cloak, grimacing slightly. “I see,” she said, through gritted teeth.

“Look there. We’re currently mining that planet.” Garnet pointed towards one of the barren worlds. A burst of orange, white, and yellow exploded across its face. “It’s a tough job, but my workers are strong.” Another blast, further north along the planet’s axis.

Fingers still twitching, Peridot said, “What will happen when you strip all the planets of their resources?”

“We’re still a ways away from that. But, one day, yes, we’ll have finished here.” She sighed. “And it’ll be onto the next system after that. Homeworld’s appetite never ceases.”

A small series of explosions, just barely visible at their distance, carved a line of fire along the planet’s equator. Peridot’s pain was beginning to subside, but her fingers were still clenched, unwilling to relax.

“Homeworld has also tasked us with helping to bring some…unruly planets back into line,” Garnet continued. “Colonies gone astray or adrift in misguided ideology.”

“What can a station do to that end?” Peridot asked.

“We have our means,” she said. “It’s a tedious process. So far, we have managed to regain three planets. A fourth has eluded us so far, a distant world. Their technology has evolved in novel ways, some unknown to Homeworld. Technos was the name, I believe.”

“Ah,” said Peridot, her face inexpressive.

Garnet turned away from the view and shook her head. “It’s not much of a world, anyways. Left the Homeworld alliance years ago. I don’t understand why they want us to take it back.”

“I do not understand it either,” said Peridot, attempting again to uncurl her hand with no success. “Though I can say that I disagree with the idea of destroying other worlds for the gain of an individual planet. It is a…selfish notion.”

“I have little say in the matter, unfortunately. I am under strict orders.”

“If a planet can escape Homeworld, then a station can, too.”

“Are you suggesting we disobey Homeworld?”

“I have said no such thing. But one may take it that way.”

Garnet chuckled. “I like that idea.” She hesitated before continuing, “So, what’s your story? What brought you to wander space?”

“I left my planet,” said Peridot quietly. “To escape a shameful death.”

“Is this why you travel alone?”

“Yes.” At last, she managed to unfurl her fingers. “I do not want anyone else with me.”

“You are welcome to stay in the station as long as you wish,” said Garnet. “We will do our best to provide what you need.” After a moment, she smiled, and added, “Be careful who you speak to. Most of these gems claim this station as their home, without much love for Homeworld, but some are fiercely loyal to the Diamonds.”

“I understand,” Peridot said. Inwardly, she wondered what had compelled her to speak so directly. If it had anything to do with what had affected her hand, she would need to be more mindful. The corrosion could not take her mind as well as her body, not so quickly.

An unfamiliar gem, carrying a metal cylinder under one arm, approached them and asked to speak with Garnet.

“Duty calls,” said Garnet to Peridot. “It was a pleasure to talk to you, Peridot. If there’s anything you need, let me or one of my lieutenants know.”

“Thank you,” Peridot said.

 Garnet stepped away and the two stationers conferred inaudibly, out of Peridot’s earshot. She looked out the window one last time: there was no further activity on the planet. Then she went to find the only gems she knew on the station.

A few helpful gems pointed Peridot to where Kyanite and Emerald worked, down in the belly of the station in an ore processing facility. Though the work was largely automated by giant, unceasing machines, gems were needed to supervise and respond to emergencies. It felt more like an office than an industrial plant; the receptionist at the desk in front of the main doors asked her to put on protective slippers over her shoes and sign in. Peridot scrawled her name, put on the slippers, and stepped inside.

Kyanite was easy to spot, outfitted in what was clearly a manager’s uniform, leaning on the railing above the main floor. Her attention was fixed on some hubbub below, where a team of gems appeared to be fixing a broken pump.

“Hello,” said Peridot.

“Hm?” Kyanite glanced towards her, then straightened up with surprise. “Oh! It’s you. Hello.”

“I was told you worked down here.”

“If I’m not flying one of the ships, I’m usually down here, yeah.” Kyanite gestured for Peridot to join her. “How was your chat with the boss?”

“Pleasant enough,” Peridot said. It wasn’t a lie. “She explained more about what you do here.”

“We’re just one of Homeworld’s many fingers,” Kyanite said, shrugging. “Sticky fingers, reaching out all over the place. At least the pay’s decent and Garnet’s not so bad, as far as commanders go.”

“Do you like it here?”

“As I said. Decent pay. Decent boss.”

Peridot nodded and looked down over the railing. “What happened?”

“The automation software got its wires crossed. Might have been because of the solar flare last week. It’s one part mechanical, one part digital, or whatever. I’m not knowledgeable about all the specifics. I just have to stand here and make sure no one hurts herself.”

“Maybe I can help,” Peridot volunteered.

Kyanite looked askance at her. “This might be a little different than what you’re used to. No offense.”

“None taken. May I at least try? They don’t appear to be making much progress down there.”

“Well,” Kyanite said. She scratched her jaw. “I suppose you could give it a go. Emerald’s down there, she’ll vouch for you with the others, I’m sure.”

“Back to work so soon?”

“Hard to keep her down.”

Kyanite whistled sharply, drawing the attention of the gems below. They looked up, clearly wondering what the interruption was about. Kyanite pointed at Peridot, then the pump. The confusion only deepened, and Peridot decided to go down herself, disposing with the charades. There was a wide ladder off to the right, and she climbed to the floor.

“You think you can help with this?” asked Emerald straightaway.

“I’m familiar with Homeworld technology,” Peridot said. She stepped through the small crowd; each gem looked either skeptical or relieved about having someone else try to fix the issue.

The mechanics of the pump would be beyond her, and she wouldn’t delude herself with trying to figure that part out. Emerald indicated where the brains of the machine were, and its corresponding monitor, which was currently displaying a large error code. Peridot asked what the code meant, and someone else handed her a laminated piece of paper with all the codes written on it. The displayed error was listed as UNKNOWN – OTHER ERROR.

She put the paper aside and went to work. There was a slot on the machine for her to interface with. Before she hooked herself in, she asked for the team to give her some space—they were inquisitively clustered around her, far too close for comfort—and Emerald got them to shuffle back. From above, Kyanite encouraged them to find other things to do.

It took several minutes for her to diagnose the issue. The specialized systems that controlled how the pump made decisions and operated were unfamiliar, but she could understand the underlying processes: they were pure Homeworld, right through, and resembled what she had trained on and worked on nearly all her life. Fortunately, the issue was in those foundations, and after another stretch of minutes, she was able to untangle the snarl. Kyanite seemed to be right on target with the solar flare guess. As Peridot continued, the monitor stopped displaying the error code and instead simply stated the machine was offline—possibly ominous, but also promising.

Then it was done. Peridot shut the machine back in its housing and called Emerald over.

“Fixed?” asked Emerald.

“Yes,” Peridot said.

She watched as Emerald toggled the pump back on, and the monitor went black, then white, then displayed Homeworld’s crest and offered up the words: SYSTEM ONLINE – AWAITING INPUT.

“Nice work!” Emerald said. She grinned, hands on her hips. “Saved us quite the headache. I tell you, none of really understand the computers side of things half as well as the engineering or putting pieces together side of things. Garnet’ll be pleased, saves us the trouble of getting someone from another station out here to fix it.”

“Did it work?” shouted Kyanite.

Emerald gave her a thumbs up.

“Great!” Kyanite leaned out over the railing, almost to a dangerous degree. “If everything else is okay, let’s break for a bit, all right?”

The sound of a break inspired the rest of the team to finish their various tasks, and then everyone climbed up the ladder and filed out. They went to one of lounge rooms and the workers bought snacks from the machines and distributed them around. Lapis Lazuli joined them after a few minutes and sat with Emerald and Kyanite.

Peridot took a seat further away from the main group. She was pleased she had been able to fix the machine; it was nice to do something familiar, almost routine, after the unpredictability of the last few days. She was beginning to relax, when suddenly the alarm overhead went off.

It whooped a few times, and then a murky crimson light bathed the room. Everyone sat up, on alert.

“Station’s under attack,” said Kyanite.

A couple gems came running into the room. One of them said, “It’s those rebel ships again. Three of ‘em. They flew in real close before we spotted them.”

Peridot thought of the orange gem she had seen.

There was a distant patter like rain, but judging by the way everyone flinched or gasped, Peridot guessed the sound was gunfire or other weaponry being loosed.

“I’d like to have a second round with them,” Emerald said, flexing her hands. “This time on equal ground. Then they’ll see it’s not so easy to blow up our ships.”

“Be careful what you wish for,” Lapis replied.

There was a crashing noise above them, like heavy items falling from a high shelf.

The intercom system crackled, then announced, “Lost visual on all three ships. Repeat: negative visual on all three ships.” A pause. “Hatch Guard Selenite, please respond.”

No response. The silence in the room was palpable.

“Hatch Guard Selenite—” said the communications operator, a note of concern in their otherwise monotone voice, “—Selenite—please respond—what is happening?”

Lapis glanced up at the ceiling. “I think her comm device is off.”

“The banging noise earlier could have been a malfunction,” said Emerald.

“True.” Lapis glanced over at Peridot, then back at Emerald. “I wouldn’t want Hatch Guard duty. Too stressful.”

“And isolated.”

Something moved upstairs, heavy yet swift. Peridot brought her gaze to the ceiling, as did a growing number of gems. The chatter became curious mumbles.

“Visual on two of three ships confirmed,” said the operator. “Location of third ship unknown.”

The thudding sounds grew louder. All of the gems in the lounge were poised for action now—or flight. Emerald summoned her weapon—a reinforced wooden stave—and held it out in front of her, twisting her hands over its polished surface.

Despite her better instincts, Peridot stood and went to the door. A helmeted gem, one of the workers from earlier, accompanied her, dark eyes narrowed.

“Be careful,” Lapis warned.

“I am,” replied Peridot. She opened the doors and looked out. No one was in the hallways. She stepped out fully, turning her head in one direction and then the other. The sounds of footsteps had faded, but something told her whatever it was, it was not gone.

She was surprised how quickly she was proven right. To her right, where the hallway curved just out of sight, a whirling ball of white and orange appeared, hurtling forward like a runaway wheel. It was at once unrecognizable and familiar. It careened towards her, then stopped short just feet away. Powered by momentum, a large gem leapt forward, swinging out wildly at Peridot with one fist.

It was the pilot. A wild, determined expression was plastered on her face. Peridot just barely managed to dodge the first strike, staggering with the effort, and a second strike caught her by surprise, clipping the side of her head. With a loud crack, her visor split, and a jagged edge caught her cheek with a slice of pain.

“Stop! I don’t want to fight you,” she exclaimed, avoiding a third punch. “I—”

The gem snorted, pushed her aside, and shot forward again, spinning up into a ball once more. Down the corridor she rocketed and apparently into a handful of other gems. Shouts rose up, and Peridot turned to see guards trying to fight the interloper. They had mixed success; the orange gem was larger than even the biggest of the guards, and she fought with a frenzy too powerful for their efforts.

“Are you all right?” asked the helmeted gem, running up to her.

Peridot removed the pieces of her visor from her face. She could just barely make out her reflection in them, warped and fuzzy. “I am fine,” she said, quiet. She turned back to the lounge, and saw gems clustered around the door, peering anxiously at her. “Who was that?”

“Gem warrior,” said Emerald. “From the enemy’s homeworld. She’s here for Garnet.”

“I need to talk to her,” Peridot said, half to herself and half to her audience.

“What?” cried several of the gems, visibly shaken.

“Are you insane?” Lapis asked. “She’ll kill you!”

“I have to try,” said Peridot, under her breath. “I have to…”

Peridot tucked the broken visor into her cloak pocket and sprinted down the hallway after the guards. It took only a minute or two for her to find them again. They had gathered in an empty docking station, and there were many more gems present now, both civilians and security guards. They were lining the walls, forming a ring of bodies swaying this way and that with the nervous energy that often accompanied crowds.

The warrior was nowhere to be seen.

Alone, in the center of the room, stood Garnet. She had cast off her gloves and summoned large, powerful gauntlets onto her hands. As Peridot watched, she called out, “Where are you Jasper? Don’t play games with me. I know you want to fight—come out and show me you mean it!”

Peridot scanned the room; even without the visor, she still had keen eyes, and she saw the warrior then, crouching on a balcony near the ceiling, half-hidden in shadow. She had no idea how Jasper had managed to get herself up there, but she was clearly watching and waiting.

Then she stood up, orange helmet gleaming as she stepped into the glow of the artificial lighting. A gasp rose up from the gathered crowd, and people began to retreat from the corner where Jasper was. Peridot scowled as gems bumped against her, trying to focus on Jasper and Garnet. She had to try. This could only end poorly.

“Stop! Wait! Do not fight!” she shouted, pushing through the crowd. The symbol of Jasper’s home planet was visible on her shoulder; it was etched into Peridot’s mind now, she could see it even at that distance. She had possible answers for Peridot, and that was what mattered. “Wait! Stop!”

“What are you doing?” snarled a voice. Someone grabbed Peridot’s shoulder and spun her around. It was Pearl, holding a spear in one hand. “Have you finally revealed your true intentions?”

“Let her do what she wants,” said Garnet, holding up her fists. “This is between me and Jasper.”

Pearl began to drag Peridot off, away from the crowd and the impending fight. “Go back to your ship and let us solve our own problems,” she said.

“This problem is mine, too,” Peridot replied, pulling away from her. “Please, do not stand in my way.”

The other gem looked stricken, then gripped her spear and pointed it at Peridot. “How dare you. You come here, a stranger, and you try to intervene in things you know nothing about!”

She struck at Peridot with the side of the spear; just in time, almost anticipating the blow, Peridot formed a sword out of her non-corrupted hand, long and thing, and blocked the initial strike. The energy field of the sword buzzed and began to eat away at the spear’s crystalline structure. Pearl pulled her weapon away and swung again. Blocked. And again. Peridot took a step back. She had never been in true combat before, but the moves were coming naturally to her, each one following the next.

The crowd around them churned with excitement and confusion. Peridot looked behind her for a split-second, then heard the whistle of the spear as it descended again. She parried it just in time, the point inches from her gemstone. They held each other there, Pearl continuing to press down and Peridot fighting back as hard as she could. Then, with less effort than she expected, she grabbed the haft of the spear with her corrupted hand and snapped the weapon in half.

Pearl’s expression went blank as her weapon disappeared in a puff, and she gaped wordlessly.

“You do not know what I know,” Peridot said. She spun around and entered the crowd again, shoving aside other gems. She had to get to Jasper. It was her one chance to attain answers about the alien entity and her own salvation.

As she surged through, the scene became clear. Garnet and Jasper were absorbed in ferocious combat. They were fighting hand-to-hand, and although Garnet was shorter than the orange gem, she was far more controlled with her strikes. For every heavy swing of Jasper’s fists, Garnet countered with a precise blow. It would be madness to come between them.

And yet. Peridot took a deep breath and stepped out to the edge of the crowd. Her sword was still summoned; it hovered and flickered next to her leg.

As she watched, Garnet sent Jasper flying with a riposte that looked nearly effortless. The orange gem crashed against the wall of the docking station, leaving a massive indentation. She slid down the now-uneven surface but caught herself before hitting the bottom. She panted, chest heaving. Garnet approached her, slow and steady.

It was now or never. Peridot seized the opportunity and rushed between the two gems, the tip of her sword pointed in Garnet’s direction. The maroon gem frowned at the sight of her, looking almost disappointed.

“No more,” said Peridot. “Let me have her.”

Jasper staggered up, breath coming in fast and shallow. She tensed, preparing herself for something, and then Peridot transfigured her other hand into a sword, attention momentarily diverted from Garnet. The tip of the new weapon pressed against Jasper’s gemstone with a soft clink. Its blade cut in and out of existence, and strange dark lines broke across it, like bands of impurity. The rust was starting to affect even her external attributes now.

“What happened to your hand?” asked Garnet.

Peridot scowled, her concentration divided between the two gems. “This is why I left. This corruption will kill me if I do not get help.”

Jasper snarled and bit down on the blade of the sword. The weapon spluttered, energy fields weakened, then reformed, then disappeared, sending Peridot’s fingers back to their original positions. She froze, acutely aware of her sudden vulnerability. As quickly as she could, she grabbed and unholstered her stun weapon. She turned it on Jasper first, as she posed the most obvious threat, and then to Garnet, who would undoubtedly stop her from continuing onwards. The two harsh crackles of energy were nearly deafening in the almost-silent room.

The crowd murmured with alarm as the two gems collapsed. Peridot caught Garnet over one shoulder, slinging her arm around her midsection and de-summoning the longsword in the same motion. Jasper fell halfway to the floor. Peridot managed to put her other arm around her. They were not easy to carry, but she felt stronger than she had in a long time.

Kyanite emerged from the crowd and went to Peridot, her face devoid of expression or worry. She said simply, “Give me Garnet.”

“Here,” said Peridot, passing the station leader off. “I apologize.”

The blue gem said nothing further.

“I will take Jasper,” Peridot continued, addressing the assembled crowd, “and depart. Where is docking station 4?”

Someone pointed. Peridot voiced her thanks and then began to lift Jasper into her arms.

“Stop right there!” a voice cried.

It was Emerald. Like Kyanite, she had stepped forward from the crowd, but unlike Kyanite, she was holding a gun. Her hands trembled with emotion; her face was contorted with confusion and rage.

“I knew something was off about you! You’re…one of them!” she continued. “One of the enemy.”

Peridot offered no reply. There was no point in trying; Emerald could not be convinced in what little time she had left to make her exit. She adjusted Jasper in her arms and took a few steps forward. The big gem was strikingly light in her arms. Strange.

“Don’t move!” shouted Emerald. She held the gun up as if she was going to shoot.

Lapis, eyes wide, pulled at Emerald’s arm and shook her head. She seemed to mouth the word no, but Emerald did not waver. Her fingers twitched.

The trigger clicked and a blast of energy shot out of the muzzle.

Emerald crashed backwards into Lapis.

The energy bullet cut through Peridot’s chest just below her collarbone. She looked down at the injury, saw it, but felt nothing. It wasn’t registering. She took a step, stumbled, corrected herself, and continued walking. She had to leave. Time was running out. One foot in front of them other.

“By Yellow Diamond,” said a gem from the back of the crowd.

It was perhaps the longest walk of her life. She stalked down the hallway to where the gems had directed her. She only thought about reaching her ship. Fluid poured down her chest and across both her midsection and Jasper. Still nothing, no pain, no shocked system. She shifted Jasper in her arms, making sure the gem was secure. They passed other gems in the hallway, in the docking ring, and if they said anything, Peridot did not hear them.

Her ship was silent inside. Peridot put Jasper on the ground behind the cockpit and slumped into her command seat. The communications panel beeped, as if expecting her.

“We can’t let you out,” said the operator.

“That’s fine,” Peridot replied. “I can see myself out.”

It was not a difficult process—the station's technology was dead simple for a ship out of Technos. Garnet had said herself that Peridot’s world had long ago outpaced Homeworld’s own tech geniuses. It was just a matter of getting two machines to talk to each other and come to an agreement. The docking clamps loosened with a jarring thump, then the cables whirled away, falling loose. Almost there.

“I don’t understand…” the operator said. “How—?”

Peridot did not answer. She fired up the main engines, engaged the propulsion systems, and slipped out of the docking berth. The radio line snapped close with a staticky warble.

Pearl kneeled next to Garnet as the station leader came back to consciousness. Kyanite stood behind them, respectful and at attention.

“What happened?” were the first words out of Garnet’s mouth.

“Are you okay?” Pearl asked.

“Fine,” said Garnet, lifting up her shades and blinking in the blazing light. “What happened?”

“Peridot…escaped…with Jasper,” said Pearl, toying with her hands. “But Emerald critically injured her before she left. I don’t know—well, we’re not sure if she’ll be forced to regenerate soon. They were unable to track her system. She doesn’t—”

“I get it, Pearl,” Garnet said gently. She sat up, massaged her temples. “Damn! And I almost had Jasper, too.”

“You did,” Pearl agreed. Her expression soured. “Until Peridot stepped in.”

“I don’t know what she wants with Jasper. But unquestionably—the rebels will be back.”

Pearl opened her mouth and shut it. Then: “You’re going to let her go? After all she’s done?”

“Do not mistake my leniency for apathy,” said Garnet, standing. Her jaw was set. “If she returns, there will be consequences.”

Chapter Text

Jasper woke up to a dark ceiling, her head pounding with a dull ache. As she swam up from the depths of unconsciousness, she took stock of her surroundings. Nothing looked, smelled, or sounded familiar. The ground beneath her hummed and pulsated with energy. There was a smell like burnt metal, mixed with chemicals. Turning her head slowly she could see cramped walls on either side of her, dimly light but clearly smooth, unblemished. The pieces fell into place. She was on a ship.

She flexed her fingers, knuckles crackling, acutely aware of every aspect of her physical form. Her gem wasn’t cracked, despite the energy sword that the green gem—Peridot, was it?—had brandished at her. She sat up, like a piece of paper being folded along a crease, and fell into a crouch, feet underneath her, ready to spring.

She could only see a receding darkness in front of her, a corridor stretching back into shadow. Faint thumping noises, like the sound of a distant engine, caught her eyes. She turned around, expecting to see a door, or another wall—something to indicate her imprisonment.

To her surprise, she saw the green gem.

Peridot’s body teetered on the edge of shutdown. She could barely move, stricken with a mix of exhaustion and, increasingly, real pain. Alarms called out from every system: this wasn’t working, this was offline, this was at reduced capacity. Her gem half wanted to regenerate, the familiar itching, almost burning sensation, begin to seep out from her forehead. Still, she struggled to retain control, refusing to give in so easily. She couldn't regenerate. Not the way she was.

To make matters worse, two of the rebel ships had appeared from who-knew-where to escort her. They gave her enough breathing room so she wasn’t trapped between them, but it was clear they were flanking her. She followed their subtle nudges and redirections, hoping, perhaps stupidly, that they were taking her where she wanted to go.

She heard scuffling behind her and swung the chair around.

Jasper was awake.

Even the brief exertion to spin proved too much. Peridot pitched forward off her chair, hitting the floor with a metallic thump. As she collapsed, the thrumming noise of the ship disappeared, replaced by an eerie, almost tangible, quiet.

Jasper scrambled backwards out of the way and regarded Peridot with a wary squint in her yellow eyes.

“You alive?” she asked.

Peridot gave the faintest indication of movement, a twitch of her good hand. She could barely see Jasper, between her face being mostly pressed into the floor and the blurriness that was overtaking her vision.

Jasper crawled forward again, suspicion still plain on her face. That much Peridot could tell. She waited for…anything to happen.

“Why did you stop me?”

“The…symbol…”

“What symbol?”

“On…your ship…”

“Yeah?”

“I need—to…alien—healer.”

The words provoked more of a reaction that Peridot expected. Jasper inhaled sharply, then made a growling noise low in her throat. She grabbed Peridot by one shoulder and rolled her over. More fluid had spilled out of the injured gem, staining her clothes dark.

“What do you know about that?” Jasper said.

Peridot couldn’t form the words. She groaned, softly.

Jasper snatched the gun out of Peridot’s holster. She pointed it at Peridot’s head and raised the settings, the dial whirring ominously. At maximum capacity, it could kill. Especially in Peridot’s weakened state, it could kill.

Jasper said, “If you think you’re going to get anything out of me as thanks, you’re wrong. Whatever you know, you don’t.” She bared her teeth. “Why don’t I just put an end to your suffering now? You may never regenerate the same again.”

Peridot winced and managed to part her lips. “I’ve never…met anybody like you before. You’re…fascinating…”

“What?”

At the same time, the communications panel beeped. Jasper stared down at Peridot, perplexed, then set the gun aside. She rose and stepped over into the tiny cockpit. It took a moment for her to orient herself to the strange controls and sheer number of buttons and controls. Finally, she found the radio, and turned it on.

“What is happening?” asked a blessedly familiar voice. “The ship stopped. What are you doing?”

“Sardonyx, it’s me,” Jasper replied. She glanced down at the chair and opted not to sit in it. One, it was too small; two, it was covered in whatever Peridot’s excuse for blood was. Jasper cleared her throat. “The ship stopped?”

“Yes. Did you kill the gem?”

“No.”

“Can we kill her?”

Jasper looked back at Peridot. “No. I—she—there is more to it. We must take her home.”

“Oh.” Sardonyx sounded disappointed. “Sister, did you kill the station leader?”

“No.”

“Mother will not be very pleased.”

“I know.”

Sardonyx made a noise that was not quite a word, and then the line went dead.

Jasper looked out into the cosmos in front of her. Nothing but stars and planets, out there as far as she could see and beyond that, endlessly.

After her moment of contemplation passed, she leaned over the control panel of the ship and began to puzzle out how the spacecraft worked. Despite the number of things to press, turn, or pull, it ultimately wasn’t too different from her own. She found and clicked the button that most closely resembled her own ‘engine start’ button. With a satisfying rumble, the ship started up again. There was a course plotted into the navigational array. Jasper peered down at it.

It was to her home planet. She’d know it anywhere. She raised her eyebrows but started the ship off on the course. Her sisters’ ships trailed behind.

Jasper looked back at Peridot one more time and sighed. “You better be alive when we get there,” she said. “Mother’s going to have a lot of questions for you.”

Their world was hushed one, though it teemed with movement and life just under the surface. Wind rustled across the dry plains that etched scars between vast forests. In the woods, footfalls rang over metal bridges as gems crossed from one suspended platform to the next. On the plains, dust devils formed, swirled, and died between buildings. Beneath camouflaged roofs, voice called and sang and whistled. And every so often, from the larger settlements that could almost be called villages, ships came and went.

Jasper’s sisters were already parked on the square-shaped landing pad. They shielded their eyes as the foreign ship came down, landing awkwardly but in one piece. After a moment, the ramp crashed to earth, and Jasper emerged, carrying Peridot.

She was heavier than expected. Jasper figured it was all the strange technology that augmented her physical form and wondered how she could tolerate being hooked up to machines like that.

Keenly aware that her sisters were watching her every move, she ignored them and walked towards the tallest building in the area: an oblong structure with a peaked roof. Trees clustered around it, and thick plants grew over the sides, but its walls were a brilliant silver-white, untouched by dust, erosion, or the creeping hands of nature.

Inside it was several degrees cooler than outside. Jasper’s boots left dusty imprints on the dark floor, and she felt a twinge of shame for bringing dirt into the hallowed space. Nothing stirred inside; there was no sound but the sound of her breath, and Peridot’s own strained breathing and the whir of her machinery. She cut a beeline for the center of the room, where a long table, cut from a single massive rock, stood.

Upon this she laid Peridot. There was a small woven basket of glowsticks on the ground beside the table, dark and inactive, and Jasper took one, crinkling it so that a steady purple light shone. Her palms were awash with shades of lavender, and she laid the glowstick next to Peridot’s head.

Then, quicker than she had walked in, she went out, taking long strides to hasten the distance to the entryway. She sat out front and waited.

If Jasper had been inside, she would have witnessed something not entirely unlike her own reckoning of what might have happened.

From the shadows of the room’s curves, a creature emerged. Whether organic or synthetic, it was impossible to tell. Its body was composed of scintillating metal, but it moved like a living, breathing organism. Tall, but with a bent back, it crept forward, five-fingered hands at its sides. It approached the table and regarded the glowstick, then Peridot.

After a long moment, it bent over the injured gem. A thin beam of purple light emerged from an oval indent on its forehead, aimed at the hole in Peridot’s chest. The trickle of blood-like liquid stopped. The whirring ceased. Her breathing hitched, then steadied.

The creature straightened up, collected the glowstick, and devoured it with a mouth that emerged from nowhere. Sated, it disappeared, leaving only faint dusty footprints and the smell of grass after the rain.

Peridot opened her eyes. She was not on her ship, and she was not in station X-019. Her fingers clenched and unclenched; her systems still had reports of damage, but for now…she touched her chest with a slow, stiff gesture. The wound was gone.

She to sit up but fell back against the cold surface of whatever platform she was currently laying on. She was weak—not everything was operative yet. As she stared up at the ceiling, struggling to reckon with what had transpired, she heard footsteps.

Jasper, carrying something in one hand.

“It healed you,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “I wasn’t sure it would do that for someone like you.”

Peridot offered no reply, still trying to figure out where they were and why they were away from the ship. Where had Jasper taken her? Had someone else taken her?

“Do you eat?”

When, again, there was no response, Jasper came closer to the table and stood next to Peridot. She opened her hand, revealing small edible squares. Peridot could recognize those squares anywhere: compacted cubes of nutrients, nutrients, and more nutrients. It was what you ate when you had nothing else.

Jasper chewed one, wincing as she did so, and then offered another to Peridot. Summoning as much strength as she could, Peridot accepted one but found herself unable to chew. The cube almost fell out of her mouth.

“What’s wrong?” Jasper asked. She frowned. “I know it tastes terrible, but it’s good for you.”

Peridot attempted to push the food further into her mouth, hoping instincts would kick in, but there was no such luck. She could not work her jaw to chew it, and this time it fell out of her mouth to the floor.

“Can’t eat. Okay. Figures.”

“The effort…” Peridot mumbled, “is appreciated…”

Jasper, who had been reaching down to pick up the tiny cube, paused at the remark, as if processing it. She said nothing in reply, though, and straightened up, putting the cube on the table beside Peridot.

“Well, you’ll have to eat eventually,” she said. “I think—”

Shadows passed over them, blocking out the light. Jasper turned, and Peridot tilted her head to see what was happening. Just beyond Jasper, she could see an entryway, currently occupied by a trio of unfamiliar gems, and behind them was a wall of brilliant light—daylight, it seemed, though what day and from what sun it came she did not know.

One of the gems was larger than the others, dressed in heavy armor like Peridot had never seen before. She was whitish blue in color, and her voice was rumbling. “Jasper. Your sisters have told me what happened. How is our guest?”

Peridot shifted her head to gaze back up at the ceiling above; the light was hurting her eyes, and she closed them. She managed to raise a hand and touch her cheek where the visor had scratched her. There was nothing but a small line there now, and that was almost undetectable. She doubted she would have noticed it if she was not already looking for the mark.

Jasper was speaking. Peridot caught the end of her words: “—can talk now, but not much.”

There was the sound of heavy footsteps treading forward, and then the armored gem was leaning into Peridot’s field of vision. “Speak, outlander. Who are you?”

Peridot’s eyes opened again. “My name is Peridot.”

“They tell me you are here for our protector. What do you know of it?”

“Only what I was told: that there was an entity that could cure me. An alien, on a distant world. That’s all…”

“Then you are healed. I see no mark on your form nor on your gem.”

The technician raised her other hand from under the cloak, displaying the rust across her hand. She hoped, against hope, that it, too, had been healed, but no. It had worsened, now sprawled up and down her wrist and across a couple of her fingers.

The gem curled a lip at the sight. “What did that to you?”

“A destructive computer program,” said Peridot, letting her hand fall back. “It would have grievously injured my home planet…but I stopped it.”

“Brave of you.”

Peridot frowned. “It was my duty.”

An odd, half-grimace smile crept across the gem’s face. “Yes. When duty calls, it is cowardice not to live up to your station.”

Another voice, not Jasper, but one of the other newcomers, said, “Mother. General Tanzanite is outside.”

“Bring her in.”

Peridot made an effort to sit up but struggled, finding strength sapped from the entirety of her body. She huffed under her breath and tried to fight through the weakness. Her chest ached, and her corroded arm thumped with pain, and she was making no progress.

Then, to her surprise, Jasper put an arm around her and set her upright. “You shouldn’t move so much,” she said, quietly.

Peridot was able to take in more of the room from her new vantage point, even with her vision still not back to full capacity. Jasper stood beside her, and the armored gem was a few feet away, looking towards the entrance. A third gem stood nearby, ruddy orange in color with white bands up and down her body, and another was by the entrance, obscured by distance and shadow.

The next arrival made her entrance with enthusiasm.

“Chalcedony!” Tanzanite—it had to be Tanzanite, armored like the white-blue gem—boomed, clanking into the room. “Those scum have encroached on yet another planet. We must retaliate immediately!”

Chalcedony held up a long-fingered hand. “Patience, Tanzanite. We have already attacked once.”

“Then why do I not hear of victory?”

“There was an intervention,” Jasper said.

Tanzanite scowled. “By whom? What? We should have killed that Garnet before, when we had the chance. Now this—we can’t afford to miss opportunities!”

“That was in the past,” Chalcedony said.

“I—” interjected Peridot, struggling to string the words together in front of so many strangers, “—I stopped…Jasper…from killing Garnet. It was me.”

 Tanzanite craned her neck to look at Peridot. “You were the intervention?”

“I was.”

The general came closer and stared down at Peridot. Up close, Peridot could see that she only had one eye—the other socket held her gem, which was by turns purple and deep blue and almost red.

Tanzanite asked, “And why were you there to stop Jasper? These events do not concern you. You—you wear nothing of the station and nothing of our planet. You are an outsider. Explain.”

“I was seeking your protector. I was told it would help me with this.” Peridot showed Tanzanite the rust. “But it only fixed the superficial injury.” She touched her chest and felt this time that there was the slightest indentation where the bullet had passed through.

“Who gave you that?”

The question was redundant. Peridot looked aside and gave a new answer to the old question. “Garnet and the station.”

The general’s face lit up. “Then we have a common enemy!”

“I am not here to make enemies—” Peridot replied.

Jasper put a hand on Tanzanite’s shoulder and moved her away from the table. “General. Let her be. We’ll talk later.”

Tanzanite glanced at the red hand on her shoulder and patted it off. “Very well.” She looked at Chalcedony. “Will we retaliate?”

“We wait.”

“For how long?”

“For things to settle down again.”

Tanzanite laughed. “Your patience is strange.”

She left the building, the metal of her outfit clinking together with every weighted step.

Chalcedony sighed, crossing her arms. “Her pride may kill us all. We fight to protect our—what’s left of our solar system, but…we must temper our bloodlust.”

“But we are superior!” Jasper countered, making a fist. “We can easily crush them.”

The white-banded gem nodded vigorously in agreement. “We are fighters, every one of us. They are stationers—weak and not bred for battle.”

“Sardonyx, you underestimate them,” Chalcedony said. She sighed again and added, “But enough. This is talk for another time. Let us go home.”

The words of the rebel gems had been growing fainter in Peridot’s ears. Perhaps she had pushed things too far, too soon. Her systems began to turn off, one by one, like water droplets running off a smooth surface, until blackness engulfed her. The last thing that registered was the warm sensation of Jasper’s arms curling around her.

Chapter Text

A knock on the door prompted Garnet to look up from the reports on the screen in front of her. Pearl entered with a short purple gem at her side.

“Amethyst,” said Garnet. “Hello again.”

“I have news from Homeworld,” Amethyst replied.

She held out a hand. In her palm was a small datastick, black and unassuming. Pearl took it from her, gave it a cursory inspection, then passed it to Garnet. The station leader plugged it into her computer, and a message appeared on screen.

“To Space Station X-019,” she read, “from Homeworld. Begin message: We have deemed it time for you to cease your resource gathering efforts and the exportation of materials. Reports have reached us regarding a much more significant and pressing issue, which we have deemed necessary to be dealt with immediately..”

“They’re talking of the alien on the last free world,” Amethyst cut in.

Garnet said, “I know.” She cleared her throat and continued, “We have assigned this mercenary along with a small fleet of fighter ships to assist you in retrieving the Core. Report back to us when the task is completed. End message.”

Pearl was the first to speak. “Now they finally take action! And it’s just to tell us to hurry up and finish what we’ve already started.”

“How many ships?” Garnet asked Amethyst.

“At least forty.”

“That is a decently sized fleet.”

“When will we strike?” Pearl said.

“Soon—quite soon.”

 Chalcedony permitted Jasper to bring Peridot to their home, a small, spartan house on the far end of the town. The three sisters and their mother already made the front room cramped, and with Peridot occupying the couch as she convalesced, there was little room to maneuver. Jasper crouched next to Peridot, watching her closely.

“Carnelian,” Chalcedony said, “Go out to the hangar and make sure everything’s accounted for. We need to be ready.”

“Right away,” said Carnelian. She was the smallest and reddest of the trio, and she slipped out the front door with only a quick glance at their guest.

Chalcedony put a hand on Sardonyx’s shoulder and indicated a room off to the side wordlessly. Sardonyx nodded and followed the instruction, leaving Chalcedony alone in the room with her final daughter and Peridot.

“Jasper,” she said.

“What?” Jasper asked.

“This was your decision. You will care for her. Yes?”

“I will.”

“Good.”

Chalcedony followed Sardonyx to the adjoining room, and the door clicked shut behind her. Jasper waited a moment, wondering if anyone would wander back in, then picked up a jacket from the back of a chair and laid it over Peridot. Since it was sized for someone built like Jasper, it covered almost the entirety of Peridot’s body. Then she sat down again, listening to the hum of the room’s electricity and the faint gurgling of water in pipes, and Peridot’s slow, rhythmic breathing.

Cautiously, with almost a guilty look on her face, she picked up Peridot’s right hand and stared at the rusty-brown splotches that ran up past her elbow. They were pitted and rough to the touch. She noticed that, at the elbow, it seemed like Peridot’s arm had been spliced together. Below, it was machine-like, a thick sturdy gauntlet, and above, it resembled—well, a gem’s normal body. Jasper set her hand back down, questions floating through her mind.

Strange.

Peridot stood ankle-deep in cool, dark water. Green lights flashed along the edges of her vision, but when she turned her head, she could not see the source of illumination. Curiosity, and something beyond her own free will, propelled her forward, wading through the shallow lake.

A figure loomed ahead, tall and gangly. She had never seen anything like it before, but it felt familiar on an instinctual level. It seemed to generate its own light, and as she drew closer, she could see it more clearly: shimmering silver in color, with long limbs and a face devoid of recognizable features. There were slight indents where eyes might have been, but beyond its vaguely humanoid shape, she could not say it was a gem.

“You are…the entity,” she said. She could not find a better word for it. Alien? Robot? It seemed to defy and transcend those simple categories. Too many things could be called alien, and it appeared too organic in nature to be a robot.

“You helped me,” she said.

It remained silent.

“Well. Not all—”

She stopped. She had been raising her hands to look at them, but instead of her robotic fingers, she could see her actual hands. They seemed…smaller than she remembered. There were no marks on her right arm. She hadn’t seen her actual arms since she was little.

“What is this?” she asked.

Of course, there was no answer.

The alien raised its left arm, suddenly, reaching out, and despite the distance still between them, it touched Peridot on the forehead, right where her gem was, and a cold shock ran up and down the length of her body. Too late, she realized she was tipping backwards, and with a loud splash she hit the floor. The water rose up around her. Pain exploded through her right arm, and as she sank, she saw her arm was back to normal, safely ensconced in its mechanical shell.

She awoke with a jolt.

The room—a different room than the strange open one she had been in before—was bathed in shadow, moonlight drops sliding across the floor like soap bubbles. She was on a couch, a hard couch with a thin covering of soft fabric. Her fist was clenched next to her side under a heavy jacket, shaking and whirring internally. She gritted her teeth and tried to ease the tension in her arm, willing it to calm down, to no avail.

At last, she sat up, holding her injured arm with the other. It took a further amount of effort to stand, and when she managed to do so, her steps were wobbly and off-kilter.

In the blue-black gloom, she could see the windows from where the moonlight was streaming in. Between them was a door. She staggered to it, grasped the handle with her good hand, and stepped outside.

Cold air blustered across her face, and the smell of dirt and sweet, aromatic plants hit her nose. She was looking out towards a small town, full of clustered buildings. There were no lights on in any of them, no lights on streets—she could not even see streets, just strips of ground where many feet had eroded away plant life and compacted the earth. Everything was cast in the soft light of the moon; she tilted her head up and saw that it was nearly full.

“It’s not very refined, but we have our own beautiful things,” said a voice above her.

Peridot stepped forward, turning as she did so, until she could see the top of the house.

Chalcedony sat on the roof, a silver sword lying in her lap. She smiled faintly when she saw Peridot and said, “I know of your kind. You are a technician, not a fighter. And now you cannot even be that. You are an outcast.”

“I chose to leave,” Peridot said.

“But you have no home now.”

“No.”

“You do not belong here. And you do not belong with the station.”

“I am only seeking to heal myself.” Peridot looked at her arm. The corrosion had worsened; the marks were darker, wider, and consumed nearly everything up to her shoulder.

“Only,” Chalcedony scoffed. “Your agenda seems much larger than that. You have come to this system, interrupted a conflict far greater than yourself, and now you say you are just looking out for yourself.”

“It is not my fight,” Peridot admitted, “but I couldn’t stand by and do nothing.”

“You realize this is more than a squabble over some planets.”

“Garnet told me—” and Peridot noticed Chalcedony’s eyes narrow at the name “—that Homeworld is behind them.”

“Will you try to convince Homeworld to make nice and go away?”

“I don’t know if I can.”

“Then why bother at all?”

“There has to be another way. Homeworld has destroyed so many. My own people among them.”

“Ah. Of course.” Chalcedony shifted position, revealing the gemstone on her side, where a sword’s scabbard would go. A wide crack split it in half.

“Your gemstone,” Peridot said. “You are severely damaged.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“Will the…” She groped for the right word. “…Temple keeper heal you?”

Chalcedony raised an eyebrow. “Is that what you call it?” Before Peridot could respond, she said, “No. And I will not try to receive its aid. Nor will I ever approach that station asking for help from their healer.”

“Then you’ll allow yourself to die?”

Chalcedony looked at the sword in her lap. “Yes.”

Peridot clasped her hands behind her back. “That is your choice. But what of the others? Your daughters?”

“They will do as they want. Many of us will die. Many of us have, fighting to take back our solar system. It is a hard, bitter fight.”

“What if you moved? My people moved; we resettled beyond where Homeworld could reach us.” Peridot thought, belatedly, ‘beyond where we thought Homeworld could reach us.’

In a sudden, fluid move, Chalcedony leaped off the roof and landed a few feet from Peridot, sword in hand. “You suggest that we are weaker than that station. That we turn tail and run. If I were Tanzanite, you would be dead where you stood.”

“No,” Peridot stepped backwards. “I’m just suggesting you stop wasting your resources and lives on this. Even if you can regenerate, it is pointless.”

“That is our choice,” she snarled, but she made no move against Peridot. After what seemed like a long lull of silence, Chalcedony sighed and let the weapon in her hand disappear. “I know some would agree with you. And some would not. Most, in fact, will argue with you. We are proud. We love our planet, and the remains of the other ones. We will fight till the last.”

“Is this how you raised your daughters? To fight?”

“Yes. It’s who we are.”

Peridot looked down at her hand and then up at Chalcedony. Something clicked into place inside her mind, and she said, “It’s not just you, is it? It’s about the temple keeper. You protect it.”

“We do.” Chalcedony leaned against the side of the house, arms crossed. “We call it the world shaper. It maintains the balance of things, and in turn, we protect it against prying eyes and too-curious ears.” She flicked a hard glance at Peridot. “You are the first outsider to set foot in its sanctuary since before I can remember.”

“I’m honored,” Peridot said, genuinely. “I dreamed of it, last night.”

“Did you?” Chalcedony sounded intrigued. “Strange…”

Peridot asked, “How many days have I been asleep?”

“I do not know. Many. The moon was beginning to wax when we brought you here.”

“And you’ve cared for me all this time?”

“Jasper has.”

“Jasper,” Peridot repeated. She thought of the jacket, which she had left behind on the couch.

“Yes. She—has taken on an unusual attitude about you. Perhaps she is learning the other side of the warrior—the healer, the warrior after war.”

Peridot said, “That seems worthwhile.”

“Yes.” Chalcedony gazed out past her, towards the rest of the village. “I hope you realize you cannot stay here.”

“I figured.”

“Then you will leave when the sun rises.”

“If I must, I will.”

“You will,” Chalcedony said. She straightened up and made to leave, to walk off into the darkness that surrounded the village. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Peridot replied.

She took the cue and went back inside the house. This time, she noticed Jasper sitting in a chair beside the couch, half-hidden beneath a large grey blanket. When Peridot shut the door, Jasper’s eyes cracked open, just wide enough for Peridot to see the amber of her irises.

“You can walk?” Jasper asked. Her voice was husky from sleep.

“Thanks to you,” Peridot said.

“Mm.” She shut her eyes again. “Good. That’s good.”

Peridot lay down on the couch again, drawing the jacket around her. It was not comfortable, or warm, but it was all she had at the moment, and she needed to rest. Tomorrow, she would be on the move.

Chapter Text

Dawn arrived too soon. It washed away the night with gentle laps of orange and yellow waves across the sky. Peridot woke peacefully this time, her visual system taking a moment to kick in.

Her arm was no longer painful, the internal workings quiet, almost as if brooding over something. With a soft grunt, Peridot came to her feet and studied her surroundings. Jasper’s chair was empty, and the house was quiet. Suspiciously quiet almost.

“You’re awake,” said a voice behind her.

The spell was broken. Peridot turned to face her company.

Sardonyx stood in the doorway, her arms stiff at her sides. Peridot stayed quiet, anticipating more to come. At last, Sardonyx cleared her throat and continued with, “I’ve been instructed to guide you to the outside orbit of the moon. From there—”

“—I go alone,” finished Peridot. “Understood.”

“Your ship is this way.” Sardonyx spun around and strode down the hallway.

Peridot stumbled her first few steps forward. Evidently, last night’s movements had not stuck.

“Hold on. My—movement systems are not very strong—” she muttered, waiting several long seconds as they recalibrated. Her next movements forward were stronger; there was still a struggle to maintain balance but each step felt easier.

Sardonyx looked back. “Are you coming?”

“Yes.”

Peridot hurried to catch up. They were going out the back of the house, past a handful of rooms with locked doors. Only one or two lights glowed from the ceiling above. After a couple of corners, they exited out into the growing daylight. The suspicious silence persisted here; Peridot looked around and saw no signs of activity.

“Where are the rest of the gems?” she asked.

“Elsewhere,” Sardonyx replied.

Peridot frowned. “That could mean anything.”

“Elsewhere,” repeated the orange and white gem. “Preparing.”

Peridot didn’t press the question of “for what?”

They strode along one of the dirt pathways, climbing up a hill to a wide, rocky plateau. A spaceship hangar stood here, the largest building Peridot had yet seen on the planet. When they were closer, Sardonyx keyed in a passcode at the door and held it open for Peridot.

Inside a variety of somber grey and black ships were parked, without the markings or flash of the red and silver ones Peridot had seen before. There were also numerous empty spaces, where a ship had clearly been early, and now was gone. Preparing, Sardonyx had said.

It was hard to miss Peridot’s ship, even tucked in the back—dark green and white against the ashen hues of the others. Sardonyx simply pointed wordlessly at it, and Peridot went over to inspect everything.

She checked the exterior first—it seemed fine—and then entered. The robonoids were as they should be, standing by and fully charged. Everything seemed in-place, excluding dried stains in the cockpit that were clearly from her injuries. She would have to clean that later.

“We have your things, too,” Sardonyx said, materializing behind Peridot and nearly making her jump. “We put some stuff back where it should have gone.”

Peridot, composed again, noticed her cloak hanging from a small hook in the wall. She tugged it off and draped it over her shoulders, feeling more like herself again with its weight and folds around her.

There was something heavy in one of the pockets. She took out her visor, repaired with a crude form of something akin to the robonoid salve and a small black bag. Peridot crinkled it in her hand and heard a noise like the nutrient wrappers from before.

Sardonyx cleared her throat. “I will be in my ship.”

“Wait,” Peridot said. An idea had struck her. She opened the storage compartment on her left arm and removed the computer-chip necklace. “Here.”

“What is this?” asked Sardonyx, taking the adornment in her large hand. “A decoration?”

“Give it to—give it to Jasper. It is a token of thanks,” said Peridot. Mentally, despite herself, she added: May she remember me by it, too.

“I will.” Sardonyx’s fingers closed around it. “Now. It is time.”

The roar of two spacecrafts preparing for flight filled the domed room. Sardonyx inputted another code from her ship, and the main hatch doors slid open, revealing the sky, blue now with all traces of dawn vanished. Peridot launched first, followed by the orange-and-white gem. They hovered for a moment above the city and then ascended to the atmosphere.

As promised, Sardonyx led the way to the planet’s moon and then dropped back, letting Peridot continue on without her. After a moment weighing her options, and with Sardonyx’s ship rapidly fading out of view, Peridot laid in a course for the space station. Better there than nowhere.

“Nothing?” asked Jasper. “Still?”

“Patience,” Chalcedony said. “They will move in when they choose.”

“All this waiting is making me uneasy. Do they really think we’ll get bored and leave, and just hand the planet over to them? Idiots!” Jasper ground her teeth together. “I don’t like those station gems.”

“None of us do,” Carnelian said. She polished a scuff mark off the barrel of her gun.

There was a terrific clatter, and then Sardonyx came sprinting up the stairs into the observatory. The other gems assembled there turned to face her.

“Has Peridot gone?” asked Chalcedony, taking her hand off the gigantic telescope in the middle of the room.

Jasper seized it and peered through the lenses, teeth bared in a disapproving frown as she watched the proceedings.

“Yes.” Sardonyx opened her hand, which still held the necklace, undamaged. “Jasper.”

“What?”

“This is for you.” Sardonyx extended her open palm.

Jasper turned away from the telescope, brows knit together in confusion. “What? From where?”

“Peridot.”

“Peridot?”

Her sister offered a nod in response. Jasper took the necklace and studied it, unsure what to make of the intricate lines etched on its surface. Then with some effort she managed to string it around her neck.

“A warrior is not supposed to wear frivolous decorations,” Carnelian said.

“It’s not frivolous,” said Jasper.

Chalcedony let something like a smirk slip through her otherwise blank expression. Jasper, noticing the attention on her, returned to the telescope hastily, although there was nothing new to report.

“How many have gathered?” Sardonyx asked, standing next to Jasper.

“I count forty-three. Of those, two carry the station’s symbol, one I don’t recognize, and the remaining forty are from Homeworld.”

“Ach.” Sardonyx crossed her arms. “We have superior numbers.”

“Tanzanite will lead the first attack one the battle begins,” said Chalcedony.

“Let us go with her,” Jasper said. “I would rather fight than loiter here.”

“Rushing in on the first attack. Is that wise?”

“Let us fight,” Sardonyx said. An eager light had come into her eyes. “We want to fight.”

Carnelian set the gun down. “You are injured, Mother. We are not. We would serve as better fighters on the front line.”

Chalcedony looked over her daughters with a stern, but deeply proud, gaze. “Your zeal to defend our planets is admirable. Go and fight if you want. I will not stop you.”

Jasper, Carnelian, and Sardonyx exchanged ferocious grins. Together, they chorused their thanks, and then sped to gather their supplies and dash to where the General was encamped.

Chalcedony waited until they were gone, and then she turned back to the telescope.

“I don’t like this,” she muttered to herself. “Something’s wrong.”

Peridot passed through the solar system on the far side of the route she had originally taken. As she passed the planets she had so briefly glanced at before, she noticed the craters and gaping wounds carved into the planet surfaces. She remembered standing with Garnet and watching the explosions. How distant it had felt then, and now, too, though more real, as she saw the consequences of such casual destruction.

As she looped around one dusty red planet, a cluster of ships with Homeworld’s insignia on them appeared before her. They did not look friendly. Whether they had been tracking her for some time or had only noticed her now, she did not know.

The communications panel beeped. Peridot opened the channel and promptly regretted it.

“Interloper! Off with you! This is strictly Homeworld business!” shrieked a gem on the other end.

Peridot switched off the panel as the ships began to fire on her. So much for any semblance of a grace period. She took a few skating blows as she maneuvered out of their direct line of sight and picked up speed, hoping to shoot past them. Her face set into a scowl; it was always one thing after another, and these Homeworlders were the latest nuisances.

When her attackers moved to pursue her, she activated the main weapons of her own ship, returning fire with a flurry of bullets.

The first ship went careening sideways after a direct hit to her secondary engine. In a matter of seconds only a wake of debris indicated where she went. Peridot cruised through the mess, aware that the Homeworld fighters would undoubtedly continue to follow her.

She circled around the planet again, keeping high enough above the atmosphere to avoid the pull of its gravity. Two of her pursuers reappeared in front of her, guns locked on the ship. She yanked the nose of her vessel upwards, feeling the ship shudder as the bullets scraped too close against its hull. Fancy flying would only buy her so much time—she spied the station on her screen and made a beeline for it. She could find sanctuary there—if they’d forgiven her for her last visit.

Or not.

The station was beleaguered by more Homeworld ships. The defenses on the station itself were weak and doing little against the besiegers, but the structure itself seemed to being holding true. The communications panel beeped.

Peridot, still focused on flying to avoid getting peppered with bullets, detached a finger and activated the comms. The sensation made her arm buzz.

The message that came through was garbled, its signal weakening to the point where words were splintered from each other, cast adrift in static:

Send word—to Garnet—help us—we are—situation critical—dire need of—assistance—she should be—planet four—find—her.

Peridot gritted her teeth as another buzz ran up her arm. The garbled message began to repeat, and she turned the comms off. Then, she reattached the finger, feeling the pains subside.

Planet four. Even with no idea of how they named their planets here, she knew which planet Garnet had gone to. There was only one. She prepared herself to go back the very way she had come.

Chapter Text

The bullet came out of nowhere, punching a hole in the hull and slicing through a primary power system. Within milliseconds, the heartbeat of the ship, its humming engines, grew quieter, and auxiliary power kicked on to compensate for the losses.

Peridot groaned and channeled the remaining power of the spacecraft to the weaponry. The oncoming ships—there were five of them, the same Homeworlders as before, it looked like—approached from different angles and at varying speeds. The first one fired towards Peridot; she diverted power to the shields and blocked the hit just in time. Within seconds, she had returned fire, cutting off a protruding wing of the ship. It veered sideways, red lights flashing inside.

There was only a tiny chance Peridot could manage to fend off her opponents in her current situation. She detached several fingers and paired them up on certain controls. Her arms shook, but she pushed past the tactile distraction and concentrated on staying alive.

It was not a good situation to be in. Virtually immobile, Peridot’s ship drifted in space. She would have to deploy a robonoid or two to inspect the engines, but not right now—that was for later.

The second ship scored an abrasion against the top of her ship. The entire craft rocked. Shields had come up too late; now Peridot gave back fire of her own, causing the other gem to perform an evasive maneuver that sent her spiraling away into the atmosphere of a nearby planet.

“Come on,” she muttered as the other fighters milled about.

She tentatively lowered the shields and fired off another round. A good hit: one ship exploded. The others scattered. Peridot raised the defenses again and summoned her fingers back to her.

The corrosion had marked bands up and down her entire right arm. She didn’t have much time left.

Exhaustion from overexertion loomed in the back of her mind. She pushed it aside for the time being and went to her shelf of robonoids. Picking a few from the mix, she turned their primary function to internal repairs, then set them down to work. Of the group, two joined Peridot at the console and began to work at the controls. She sat in the chair, fighting against the fatigue, working through her next steps.

She knew she had to keep going, and she did, driving the ship back to planet four, hoping she was not too late.

Before she got far, a monstrous ship came up from its orbit around a different planet, escorted by several smaller ships. Peridot sat up, hands tensed, but the ship did not have the emblem of Homeworld emblazoned on its side. Communications chirruped. She was getting tired of that noise

“Who is this?” Peridot asked, the second she established the link.

“Peridot?” asked the gem on the other side.

“Who is this?” she repeated.

“This is Kyanite. You’re alive?”

Peridot ignored the question; it was obvious, and they were wasting time. “What are you doing?”

“We’re circling around these planets to gain a better vantage point on the rebel homeworld, per Garnet’s orders.”

“You are attacking their homeworld.”

“Garnet’s received commands from our Homeworld.”

“How long have you been away from your station?”

“Quite a while.” There was a noise like Kyanite was laughing. “Why?”

“It’s under attack. There’s Homeworld ships all around it, trying to take down the defenses.”

“What?” Kyanite gasped, all amusement cut from her voice.

Another voice cut in, nasally and peevish. “She lies. Shut off communication.”

“I do not,” Peridot insisted. “I was just attacked by several Homeworld vessels.”

“They could have come from anywhere,” said the voice.

“I was trying to go to the space station for help—they were overwhelming me—but there was an even larger threat present there. I was able to catch the distress call, and I turned around to find Garnet, when the Homeworld ships swarmed me again. I was incapacitated out here.”

“Is the station all right?” asked Kyanite.

“I—I’m not sure,” Peridot said. “For now, maybe.”

Kyanite’s voice grew faint. She sounded as if she was addressing the rest of the ship. “…we must…go home…help out—I know—hurry!”

“You can’t go back!” snarled the peevish voice. “You’re under direct orders.”

“Those are our people!” Kyanite snapped.

“Kyanite,” Peridot said, “will you allow me to park my ship in your shuttle bay? I can barely move right now.”

“Yes, of course,” replied Kyanite. She shifted her emotions back to the voice. “I don’t care what’s going on—we need to get back to the station!”

Peridot felt the tractor beam take hold with a jerk and then the slow, conveyor belt-like motion as she was pulled in. Just as before, her ship was brought inside and set to rest on the bay floor.

The communications, thankfully, cut out in the middle of the argument.

Peridot scrambled out of the ship after the bay doors closed, to find Kyanite standing in the entryway of the spaceship bay, arms crossed. Her armor glinted in the artificial lighting, and a gun sat in its holster at her side. Peridot approached her, her affected arm under the cloak again.

“What’s the damage?” asked Kyanite.

“Some scrapes to the hull, and one of my primary systems went out. Turned the main engines off nearly completely,” Peridot said. “My robonoids will handle it.”

“Do you need a new ship?”

“Yes.” Peridot looked around. “I assume all of these are—”

She stopped once her gaze caught on a familiar ship: ash-colored with black striping. The insignia was partially hidden, but she still recognized it.

“You have one of them as prisoner,” she said.

“One of them?” Kyanite echoed, following Peridot’s gaze. “Oh. Yes. An red gem. She’s being held on the lower decks.”

“I see.” Peridot narrowed her eyes. “Garnet, you said, is on the rebel homeworld?”

“Yes—why?”

“I have to speak to her.”

“Is this about the space station?”

“Yes. And something more—something she needs to know before things go too far.” Peridot turned back to face Kyanite. “Red gem—were there others? A white-striped one? What about Jasper?”

Kyanite blinked, thinking it over. “There were lots all around us—a whole fleet. We were in the back lines. The mercenary ships were in the front—they were…utterly destroyed…and then we stepped in…I think I might have seen a couple of other rebel gems. We only managed to capture this one.”

An image of Jasper’s ship being blown apart flashed through Peridot’s mind—she pushed it aside hastily. “Let me take Carn—the soldier and her ship back to the rebel homeworld.”

“You want us to free her?”

“Yes.”

“No way.” Her voice dropped to conspiratorial tones. “Look, we’ve let you on board, and that’s already bad enough for some people aboard, and if we let you go free with a prisoner, I’ll never hear the end of it from those—”

There was heavy clanking behind the two gems. A group of solemn looking warriors marched towards them, the Homeworld mark stamped on their chests.

“What brings you here?” Kyanite asked, polite but direct. Subtly, she put a gloved hand on her gun. “You’re supposed to be escorting.”

“We are here to remove the foreigner,” said the foremost gem, pointing a finger at Peridot. “She does not belong here.”

“We’ve got business with her,” Kyanite said. “Her ship has been damaged by your affiliates.”

“She lies!”

“I do not tell lies!” Peridot snapped, tired of the repeated accusation. She curled her fingers up and felt thrumming power flow through her hand. “I just need to take a ship to the planet Garnet is on. I can talk to her, and Jasper, and the others.”

“And do what? Tell them all of our secrets?”

“I don’t know any of your secrets. You keep them well-hidden.”

“Flattery can’t save you.” The leader turned to her band. “Lock them both up and call the rest in. We must initiate Code 43.”

Kyanite unholstered her gun and fired it off twice with impressive speed. One of the bullets blazed through the form of the leader gem and the other bounced off the wall, ricocheting into the ground. The Homeworld gem screeched as she promptly disintegrated, her gem clattering against the metal floor.

“You heard her!” shouted another gem, a second-in-command by her attitude. “Get them!”

They fanned out as they approached, weapons drawn. Kyanite passed Peridot something rectangular and small.

“Call for reinforcements. I don’t know if I trust your plans, but maybe we can try and stop this mess before it’s too late,” she whispered.

“On it,” answered Peridot. She looked down at the box in her hands. It had a little red button on the bottom and something analogous to a speaker at the top. She pressed the button.

Static crackled, then turned into a soft droning sound, then finally became a real voice.

“Emergency operator Zircon here. What’s the issue?”

“Reinforcements needed on…” Peridot glanced around for an identifying marker. “…spaceship bay ten. Immediately.”

“Who is this?” Zircon said.

“Peridot, under Kyanite’s orders.”

“I don’t recognize that name.”

“I’m with Kyanite, what else do you—?”

Kyanite bumped into Peridot and looked at her expectantly. “Well?”

“Who are you?” Zircon repeated.

Peridot gestured unhappily to the radio.

“Kyanite!” yelled the owner of the name. “Just send reinforcements, Zircon!”

“Right away,” reported the operator, entirely compliant.

The line went dead, and the box began to smoke in Peridot’s hand. She stared at it, bemused.

Kyanite spun and narrowly dodged a spear thrust, then fired off a couple rounds, taking out another Homeworld gem. Peridot avoided a volley of energy weapon fire. The box continued to heat up.

“Throw it!” Kyanite shouted. As her enemy turned into a gem, she snatched it out of midair and tucked the small object into a slot on her armor. “It’s primed to detonate after communication!”

Peridot hurled the miniature explosive at the second-in-command, who flinched and blocked it with her gemstone shield. Anticipating the parry, Peridot jumped aside. Kyanite grabbed Peridot’s arm and dragged her through a break in the formation of the Homeworld gems as they scrambled to avoid the explosive radio. They hustled towards the shuttle bay doors.

“The red soldier is kept on deck thirty-four. The passcode for the cell block is 6784 and for her cell—it’s—” Kyanite paused and shot at their enemies. “—it’s 0993.”

“Changed your mind?”

“Yes—now go! Come back here when you are done if the whole place doesn’t go up in smoke and flames.” Kyanite shoved Peridot into the hallway and turned back to the remaining six Homeworld gems. With striking calm, she said, “Let’s keep this civil, now, shall we?”

Peridot ran. She could hear the gunfire as she sprinted down the hall, her strides long and clunky. There were no other gems in the corridors. She reached the end, where there was a T-junction and an elevator. The technician stepped inside the elevator. She was on deck thirteen. Deck thirty-four—there was the button. She pressed it, and the elevator shot downwards. Even though it took mere seconds, it felt like it took minutes to pass through each deck.

Three guards were standing outside the cellblock. Peridot expected them to stroll towards her with casual malice, which they did.

“Hold,” said a red gem. “State name and rank and business.”

“Officer Peridot, formerly of the planet Technos, under orders from Kyanite to release a particular prisoner.”

“We didn’t hear of any such orders. Nor of any such officer like you on this vessel.”

“They were urgent. Passing a message by mainstream communications would have taken too long,” said Peridot. Bluffing, not lying, she told herself. “And I am not a stationed officer.”

“Hmmmm,” said the second gem, crossing her arms. “All right. Input the passcodes. We’ll be watching…closely.”

The technician slipped past them, tapped in 6784, and continued. Carnelian wouldn’t be hard to find—a big red warrior gem amongst rows of dull gems with tired expressions and even some empty cells. Peridot, on a whim, inspected a seemingly empty one.

There was nothing but a gemstone inside.

She moved on.

“Carnelian?” Peridot asked, spying a familiar figure up ahead.

“What?” The gem stared at Peridot, recognition and confusion playing out across her face. “You! What are you doing here?”

A red alert whooped overheard. Peridot hoped Kyanite was handling herself well enough. She pressed in 0993 on the door of Carnelian’s cell and said, “I’m rescuing you. We need to talk to Jasper and Garnet.”

“You didn’t have to come here and free me to do that.” Despite her caustic tone, the big gem seemed almost grateful. “Don’t you have a ship?”

“Damaged. I need you and your ship. Let’s go.”

Peridot spun on her heels left the cellblock, with Carnelian following close behind. The three guards raised eyebrows at the sight of Carnelian but said nothing. The red alert continued.

The elevator was more of a squeeze with the two of them inside, but they ascended towards deck thirteen at a good clip. The ascent felt faster than the descent. Peridot braced herself for whatever lay ahead. Gunfire could be heard in the distance, growing louder with each deck they crossed.

“Battle?” asked Carnelian, as the doors slid open.

“Your ship is in there,” Peridot said. “Hopefully, they have the Homeworld gems under control.”

“There’s been mutiny. Those Homeworld gems cannot be trusted.”

“I think the station gems are well aware of that.”

The pair hurried down the hall and into the bay. At least a dozen of the station gems were fighting the three remaining Homeworld gems. Peridot reached for her stun gun her fingers closed on air. Right. The rebels had taken it. She summoned her sword, the green blade hissing into life from her hand.

The first Homeworld gem went down easily, caught off-guard, but two still standing turned about immediately to confront the new threat. But, with their attention diverted from the station gems, they were caught unawares by a barrage of gunfire. There two soft patters as their gemstones hit the floor.

“There,” said Peridot, pointing, “that’s your ship, right?”

“Yes,” Carnelian said. She eyed the station gems warily. “Are they going to let us through?”

“Will you?” Peridot asked the nearest gem. “We need to leave.”

“And you are?”

“Peridot.”

“Oh. You.” The gem frowned deeply.

“Will you open the doors for us?”

“I suppose. Do we have a choice?” The gem grimaced. “Or are you going to stun us into compliance?”

Carnelian stepped forward. “You don’t. Let us through.”

The station gems let them pass, grumbling amongst themselves. Peridot noticed Kyanite was not among those standing and felt a twang of dismay at the realization. Hopefully, she would regenerate soon.

They climbed up into the small ship, Carnelian shimmying in first and Peridot squeezing in between the chair and the airlock door. No comforts here, only cold, efficient utility. Somehow, it was even more austere than her own craft.

“Are you injured?” she asked.

“Not badly,” said Carnelian. “Just a few scrapes.” She fiddled with some of the controls, out of Peridot’s sight, and added, “At top speed, we’ll be able to reach the planet in under half an hour.”

“Good.”

The doors of the ship’s bay opened. A station gem waved a hand at them to signal the all-clear. Carnelian engaged the engines and off they shot, full power on. Peridot cast one look back at her ship, sitting there, waiting for her return. The robonoids would finish the job and go back to their shelf. And she would come back for them. One way or another.

To no one in particular, Carnelian said: “I hope the others are all right.”

“You’ve suffered many losses, I take it?”

“Both sides have. We underestimated the station gems. Our defense was initially strong…but then it weakened. Tanzanite was anticipating sacrifice. Chalcedony thinks there was too much.”

Peridot was silent.

“You’ve really entangled yourself in this,” said Carnelian, looking over at Peridot with. “I don’t think there’s any going back with you. Not after everything that’s been going on.”

“No.” Peridot shook her head. “I don’t think so, either.”

Chapter Text

It was not easy to arrange a fleet of ships into an offensive formation when attacking a planet. Garnet rose from her seat for the third time in ten minutes to direct orders. Pearl sat beside the commander’s chair, neck craned around to look up at the station leader.

“All right, everyone—position yourselves! We are descending in minutes now, minutes, and everything needs to be situated correctly,” Garnet said. Her words were directed both at those around her, and the gems on other ships, over the communications line.

“Sorry, Commander,” murmured a gem. “Having difficulties. Some systems are being uncooperative.”

Garnet sighed and sat back down. “Understood.” Then, to Pearl, she said softly, “This is taking way too long.”

“Reinforcements should be arriving soon, if that ship gets to their destination on time.”

“Those escorts better be doing their job.”

Pearl glanced at the Homeworld gem standing near the door, hands clasped behind her back, eyes staring out at the viewing screen.

“I’m sure they are,” she said at last. “Amethyst promised us they would be efficient.”

“Yes. She did.”

“Formation success,” said a gem on the communications panel. “Proceed with landing?”

“Proceed,” Garnet affirmed, louder. “Watch our flanks.”

“Small unidentified ship approaching on our starboard side!” Pearl reported suddenly, eyes flicking over the screen directly in front of her. “It’s a rebel ship—it looks like the one we captured.”

“Well then. It seems like those escorts didn’t do as they promised.” Garnet frowned ever so slightly. “What’s its heading?”

“Intercept course with us.”

“Open communications.”

“Are you sure? That could prompt a hostile reaction—”

“Communications.”

Static at first, mumbling, fizzling, then:

“There you are.”

“This is Commander Garnet, of the Station X-019. We believe you to be a threat. What are you doing?”

“Peridot—you—I—go on…” There were more inaudible utterances the station gems couldn’t pick up on.

“Peridot?” repeated Pearl. “I thought she was dead.”

“I am alive, still, and quite well,” Peridot said.

“Ah,” said Garnet. “Peridot. It seems we meet again.”

“Commander. I have urgent news for you.”

“Go on…”

“Your station is under attack from Homeworld gems. Whatever alliance you may have had with them is…clearly over. On top of that, another ship—with Kyanite commanding—was besieged as well. They shoot indiscriminately and don’t seem to have any qualms about what they’re doing.”

“Damn,” hissed Garnet. “I knew something wasn’t right about those orders.”

“What shall we do?” Pearl asked. “That’s quite the accusation, if it’s true.”

“It’s true,” Peridot said. “I would have stayed to help if I could have.”

“No, I believe you,” Garnet said. “It’s entirely plausible.” She studied Pearl for a moment. “We must keep going.”

“What? What of the others, then?”

“They can handle themselves.”

As she spoke, the communications line went dead, and the rebel ship shot off, zipping through the orderly ranks of Homeworld ships. A few tried to attack the fleeing gems to no avail.

Garnet looked at the Homeworld gem on the bridge.

“Get her off of here.”

“I have been assigned here,” said the gem.

“Clear the ship of Homeworld gems,” Garnet said, addressing Pearl.

“Well, then,” said the Homeworld gem. She broke her stiff position and summoned a mace from her gemstone. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Garnet.”

Garnet whirled around, gauntlets appearing on her fists. “This is a terrible time for mutiny, you know.”

The gem struck out, mace clanging against Garnet’s protected fist. “Orders are orders,” she said between gritted teeth.

The tip of a spear poked her in the side, and she tilted her head to see Pearl standing there, fury dancing in her eyes.

“What orders?” she demanded to know.

The Homeworld gem—they didn’t even know her name—fell silent. As quickly as the fight had begun, it was over. She was outnumbered, and she knew it. Her mace dematerialized.

“Anything to say?” Garnet asked.

“You won’t get in our way,” was the response.

“And you won’t be in mine. Pearl, take her away. Tell the rest of the ship to not trust the Homeworld gems.”

“Right away,” Pearl said.

With some prodding, she escorted the Homeworlder out of the command room. Garnet remained standing, her mind buzzing with what it all meant. Homeworld had betrayed them, that much was blatantly obvious. As for the mission they had all embarked on, she could only imagine the consequences. Either Homeworld would seize the power they so desperately craved, or everything would be destroyed. Maybe both.

A voice announced they were beginning atmospheric reentry. Garnet sat down again, crossing one leg over the other. If what she thought was true, they would all soon be reaching the point of no return. She had to be ready.

“Look at this mess,” Tanzanite sneered, leaning heavily on her staff. “This town’s done for.”

“We still have a chance of victory,” Jasper replied, halting beside her.

“Where’s that damned robot when you need it?” Tanzanite straightened up, wincing with pain. “If we can just make it to the shrine…now there’s our chance for victory.”

“Sardonyx?” asked Jasper, turning to her sister. “How’s our horizon?”

“Clear.” Sardonyx looked around. “From what I can tell.”

“Not the easiest place to scout around in,” Jasper noted, eyes flicking over the smoldering ruins of the village. Hours before, this had been their hometown. Other settlements nearby had been attacked, but none so brutally as their own. Little wonder why.

Now, ominously, all of their enemies had retreated to the perimeter, lurking on the outskirts.

“Let’s go, before we lose our opportunity,” Tanzanite said. She started forward again, each step a staggering stride that made her legs shake.

“You should rest—” Jasper took a few hurried steps to catch up “—your gem—”

“Are you going soft about this?” Tanzanite asked, fixing her with a glower.

“No! All I’m saying is, you shouldn’t be pushing yourself when we have a chance to rest and gain some strength back. What if something were to happen and we lost you? Or you were injured? And then where would Sardonyx and I be? Stranded, without a leader.”

“I’m fine.” Tanzanite brushed a hand over the gemstone that took the place of her left eye.

“This is too slow,” Sardonyx muttered to Jasper. “I will go ahead. Mother is waiting somewhere by the temple. I will meet you there.”

“Be careful,” Jasper said.

“I will.” Sardonyx dipped her head respectfully to Tanzanite and then bounded off into the ashen gloom.

Tanzanite’s finger ran up and down the wide crack through her gem. The movement seemed strange to Jasper as she watched: weirdly jerky and, with a faraway glint in Tanzanite’s eyes, almost involuntary.

Something caught her attention to the far left. A form, stalking towards them. Jasper clenched her fists, unsure if it was an enemy or ally.

“Let’s keep moving,” she said to Tanzanite. “I have a bad feeling about being out in the open.”

“They’re very depressing,” agreed the general.

The two gems continued forward, picking their way through the wreckage. Occasionally, gemstones glittered underfoot. Jasper avoided treading on any, knowing that some were most likely their own allies. Through the murk, the walls of the central shrine glimmered.

“There! At last!” cried Tanzanite. “Now I can heal myself, and we will be able to triumph with its power at our backs.”

The unusual form flickered again at the edge of Jasper’s vision. Now there were multiple. Her knuckles went pale orange with tension.

“Are those the reinforcements?” Tanzanite murmured, turning towards the figures. “Ah, maybe we are lucky today…”

“I don’t like this.”

“Hush. You’re a young gem. You know little.” Tanzanite leaned against her staff again and waved an arm. “You there! Be you friend or foe?”

They encroached, silent as the thin grey clouds puffing across the sky. Jasper pulled out the gem destabilizer at her waist, sparks leaping between the tines. They were gems all right, but there was something wrong about them.

“They are friends,” said Tanzanite. “There is little to concern yourself about here. Put that away.”

“Your state has clouded your perception.” Jasper turned to face a gem approaching from the rear. “They’re not what they seem.”

Tanzanite scowled and touched her gemstone again. “No. You are mistaken.” To the gathering gems, dressed in the outfit of the rebels, she cried: “Come on! We’re almost there! Inside we will receive the benefits of our hard work.”

She staggered forward again, almost falling over, before finding her balance. Jasper trailed behind her, weapon still clutched in her hands. The gems strode after Tanzanite, bobbing close to the wounded general’s side. Too close. Jasper swiped at one with the destabilizer and the strange gem backed away, a glint of fear in her otherwise blank eyes.

Ahead, Sardonyx stood on an elevated platform that might have once constituted a balcony or bridge. She took in the situation and turned away, despite Jasper’s gestures of ‘come here!’

The shrine was badly damaged. The roof was beginning to crumble downwards and loose bits of the building trickled onto Jasper’s back as she took point for Tanzanite. She shivered without thinking and pressed forward, opening the door wide enough to accommodate Tanzanite in her full raiment.

The general stepped inside and took a few steps, when suddenly, without warning, she slumped forward, dropping to the ground. It was as if her legs simply gave out. The staff vanished with a soft clatter. The mysterious gems pressed close.

“Hey! Back! Off!” Jasper shouted, swinging the destabilizer. “Leave her alone!”

The gems scattered back. Some summoned their weapons. Others stood quiet. Waiting.

Jasper knelt beside Tanzanite and rolled her over onto her back. The crack across the general’s gemstone had widened, exposing a practical cavern across her cheek. Jasper sucked in her breath at the sight. It would be only a matter of minutes or even seconds before corruption began. Tanzanite was volatile enough as it was.

Jasper looked up, further into the shrine. Sardonyx wasn’t there; where she had gone, Jasper had no idea. She spotted a gem lying half-sprawled across the central, sword still in her limp hand and immediately knew it was Chalcedony. The floor rocked gently, enough to shake more of the roof downwards. Bits of metal and tile were caught in her hair, she shook them out half-heartedly as her attention focused back on Tanzanite.

The general stirred. The strange gems crowded close again. Jasper batted at a few of them, but they were bolder now, as if they didn’t expect her to actually use the destabilizer on them. Tanzanite’s body went white and she retreated into her gemstone for several long moments. Jasper shuffled backwards, waiting for what would happen next.

The ground rumbled underneath them, much harder than before. She stumbled backwards , sprawling onto the floor. The destabilizer clattered away from her; she grasped for it in vain as it slid under the congregation of gems. Another quake rocked them all as Tanzanite began to regenerate.

She appeared normal at first—and then extra sets of legs burst out of her body. Her form shimmered as she turned into a boar-like creature with several enormous tusks and spines jutting out along her back. She bellowed, yellow foam frothing from her mouth. Then she spat something out, at first appearing fluid and then solidifying. The ground shook, tossing Jasper off balance again. The projectile buried into the ground inches from her face and a crystalline structure branched off it, enveloping Jasper’s shoulder with terrifying speed.

Something whistled overhead. She glanced up—saw the sinister smirk of one of the odd gems—and then blackness.

Chapter Text

Carnelian and Peridot narrowly avoided colliding into the planet’s surface, the bottom hull of the ship scraping against a levelled building. Carnelian flung open the door of the spacecraft, coughing as ash and dust swirled inside. Peridot waved a hand to waft the fumes away. With a distance feeling of despair she noticed her entire arm was now swathed in the corrosion. There was nothing she could do about it, not now.

“This whole place is a ruin,” Carnelian remarked. “There’s no way we’ll be able to live here.”

“There is a slight chance that you could rebuild. Slight.”

“That’s what I figured.” Carnelian strode forward, boots crunching through metal.

Peridot followed her.

“The shrine isn’t far from here,” Carnelian continued. “We should make it before those station gems.”

They ran; well, Carnelian ran, and Peridot ambled faster than usual alongside her. After a few minutes, Carnelian made irritated noises under her breath and grabbed Peridot, slinging her under one arm.

“You are a very slow runner,” she snapped. “It’ll be faster this way.”

“I was not designed to be a runner,” objected Peridot, “I am a technician, first and foremost—”

“I always thought machines would be better sprinters than gems, but I guess I’m mistaken,” Carnelian interrupted. “We’re almost there. I can see the tops of the buildings around the plaza. Er. What’s left of them.”

Peridot said nothing. She trusted Carnelian to hold her securely, even if it was somewhat embarrassing.

As they drew closer to the plaza, the wreckage made for elevation changes. Carnelian doggedly plowed through, striding up rubble hills as easily as she came down the other end. Her foot was briefly snared in a hollow circle, some remnant of a barrel or industrial pipe, but she shook it off with ease, as if it weighed nothing.

“We have company,” Peridot remarked, wriggling her nonaffected arm out and pointing. “Gems.”

“Dammit!” Carnelian exclaimed. She squinted ahead. “Wait. Those aren’t station gems. They look like our—wait. Wait! What the—they’re attacking the shrine!”

Peridot’s mind ran through the possibilities. Her best guess: “They could be Homeworld gems in disguise.”

“Clearly.” Carnelian slung Peridot down to the ground. “Listen. We have the advantage of surprise. Let’s get ‘em while we can.”

“Carnelian?” called a voice. Sardonyx burst out of a pile of rubble, breaking through as if it were merely water. Her hair was disheveled, and her armor rent, but she grinned at the sight of her sister. “Found you.”

“Sardonyx!” Carnelian said. “What were you doing in there?”

“Waiting.”

“For me?”

“Yes.”

“What’s happening in there?”

“I don’t know. Something’s wrong with Tanzanite. Something’s wrong with Chalcedony. Jasper is trapped.”

“Jasper is trapped?” Carnelian and Peridot asked at the same time. Peridot added, “How?”

“Tanzanite.”

Carnelian looked towards the shrine. “Let’s go figure this out.”

She summoned her weapon—a long glaive—and gripped it in one hand. Sardonyx produced a long metal bat and hefted it. Peridot tried to use her sword with her right hand. Nothing. The fingers remained stubbornly in place. She managed to call another blade up with her left hand, then let it disappear.

“I have an idea,” she volunteered, hesitating only briefly when the other two gems looked at her. The intensity in their eyes was more than a little frightening. “I can fight, but not as well as you two. If you can hold off the Homeworlders, I can try to sneak through and assess the situation inside, figure out what’s wrong with Tanzanite and Chalcedony, maybe free Jasper.”

“Tanzanite is corrupted,” Sardonyx said, pressing her lips into a thin line.

Carnelian’s eyes widened. “Corrupted? Why didn’t you say—”

One of the temple’s outer walls crumbled suddenly with a terrible crashing sound, spraying up dust and small chunks of rock and metal. They flinched, debris clattering against Sardonyx’s and Carnelian’s armor, and bouncing off Peridot’s cloak.

“We have to go, now!” Carnelian yelled. “Or she’ll tear the whole thing down, and then what?”

The three gems rushed forward. Peridot darted to the left, where there was an unobtrusive opening, too small for the others to squeeze through but decently sized for her.

Turning her head before crawling inside, she saw Carnelian shift her grip on the glaive and swing upwards into the first rank of Homeworld gems, catching two off-guard. Sardonyx waded in, swinging her bat indiscriminately. The Homeworld gems turned in unison and fought back using their own weaponry. Angry shouts filled the clouded air.

Peridot clambered over a chunk of the wall and into the temple.

It was much bigger than she remembered. Chalcedony lay sprawled over the table, motionless. She was still alive or else she would not have had a corporal form. But beyond that, for all Peridot knew, she was hanging in the balance between life and regeneration.

Tanzanite was hunched over on the floor, utterly unrecognizable in her corrupted form. She had far too many limbs and her body jutted and twisted in horrible ways, and yet she stood very still except for the occasional shudder up and down her sides. Pale yellow froth poured from her mouth and spikes protruded from her skin. When she shuddered, some ripped themselves off and sailed through the air, puncturing walls and gems alike.

Where was Jasper? Peridot’s eyes scanned over the floor, noting that where the spikes landed, they produced a mass of hard crystals. Much of the surfaces were already coated in them, and they shimmered unevenly in the dim light, making it difficult to see.

Then, she saw a familiar shape. Peridot could just make out the stripes on Jasper’s arm, which stuck out from a mass of the crystalline material. She rushed forward and kneeled next to Jasper. It had covered nearly all her body.

Peridot managed to pry off a few shards surrounding Jasper’s face and neck. It kept growing back at an alarming rate. Peridot snapped more and more off, hands working desperately fast, until the warrior’s face was exposed. She looked to be asleep, an almost serene expression on her face.

“Jasper?”

Her eyes opened, slowly. “Peridot?”

“Jasper!” Peridot repeated. “Are you—?”

Before she could finish, a pair of arms seized Peridot. Tanzanite. Peridot whirled her head to stare the broken general in the eye. Just the one. The other violet-blue gemstone was nearly split in half, with small fractures all over it.

“Wait!” she started to say, but it was no use.

Tanzanite roared at her, foam flecking her face, and hurled her aside. Peridot slid across the table, hitting Chalcedony, and careened onwards to smash against the wall with a jarring thud. She lay still, the cloak draped over her body like a shroud.

Carnelian, who had fought her way towards the entrance of the shrine, paused long enough in her duel battle with a Homeworld gem to shout: “General! I know you’re in there! Stop this—!”

Tanzanite slammed her enormous fists into the floor again, and the whole structure shook. Carnelian nearly fell over, like many of the Homeworld gems, and Sardonyx caught her. They both briefly gaped in alarm at Tanzanite, who was gearing up for another vicious bellow.

Then, from the pedestal, Chalcedony rose, like a reluctant sunrise coming to dispel the darkness before dawn. Her pale form, arranged in still-bright armor, trembled, and she clenched her sword tightly with both hands as she approached Tanzanite. No fear shone on her tired face, only disappointment and anger.

“You fool,” she growled. “You were too hasty. And now look at you. Look at what you have become. Look at what we all—”

Fangs exploded from her jaws and she bent double, eyes shut in pain. Then her knees hit the floor. A fur-like covering rippled across her skin, and her form shifted, becoming sleek and lupine.

“Mother!” cried Carnelian and Sardonyx together. “No!”

Chalcedony stood, staggering, still on two legs, and stumbled forward, closer to Tanzanite. She still had her sword—it seemed to have almost fused to one of her hands. “Release my daughter.”

Tanzanite hissed, foam spluttering from her jaws. Her jaw champed, and the tusks swung threateningly.

“Can’t even speak? Pathetic.”

Carnelian and Sardonyx suddenly found themselves surrounded with more gems, not just Homeworld, station as well. Garnet and Pearl had arrived.

Weapons clashed, guns fired, fists swung with abandon. Garnet and Pearl lingered in the back, terror flashing across their faces at the scene they had walked into them. Beside them, Amethyst lurked, having landed on the planet before the others. She clutched a large box to her chest.

Chalcedony lunged forward, knocking Tanzanite backwards despite the difference in their sizes. More spikes shot out of the latter’s body, ricocheting through the shrine. One bounced unnervingly close to Peridot’s head and shot off again. Chalcedony pushed Tanzanite backwards with every swing of her sword, farther and farther from Jasper’s prone form.

Carnelian lashed out with her glaive, but it was useless in the close quarters. Another gem seized her wrist and held her there. Looking over, she saw Sardonyx had been disarmed and was also being held back. They exchanged a glance that said more than words could. The end had to be near.

“Peridot!” Chalcedony cried, holding Tanzanite at bay and looking over at the fallen gem. “Rise!”

Peridot’s eyes opened. The edges of her vision were blurry. She clenched her hands and pushed herself into a sitting position. Tanzanite and Chalcedony were struggling against each other; Chalcedony had lost her familiar shape and seemed to be transformed as the General had. She shook her head, priorities swimming back into order.

Jasper.

She saw that Carnelian and Sardonyx were being held by station gems. Station gems! Peridot stood and climbed over the table, landing roughly but regaining her balance as she ran towards Jasper.

Gasps and murmurs rose up above the din of Tanzanite and Chalcedony’s fight. Peridot, kneeling beside Jasper and ripping the crystals away, looked up to see what was happening.

The temple keeper—world-shaper, Chalcedony had called it, the shrine’s protector, perhaps the whole planet’s guardian—was walking towards the two corrupted gems with its long, gentle strides, arms swinging beside its legs. It seemed totally unaware of anything else.

More murmurs. Peridot saw Garnet pushing to the forefront of the station gems, a heavy-looking gun in her arms. Pearl was right next to her, eyebrows knitted together in concentration.

The station leader took aim.

Peridot froze. She did not know Garnet’s motives. But she knew the guardian was not approaching with intent to harm.

“Garnet! Don’t shoot it!” she shouted.

Garnet gave her a long look, a look that seemed to say, it’s nothing personal, and then fired.

Everything went in slow motion. A net, not a bullet, exploded from the muzzle of the gun. It wrapped around the world-shaper almost anticlimactically. The guardian made an unusual, machine-like sound before shaking free of the net and continuing forward.

Peridot’s mind buzzed in confusion. She had almost freed Jasper—the last bits fell away between her fingers, and picked her up with a surge of strength that she had only felt before, when she had carried Jasper out of the station. She found Carnelian and Sardonyx in the crowd, saw the quiet melancholy and resignation on their faces, and ducked behind a nearby column, laying Jasper down gently. The orange gem had not awoken yet, but she still breathed. Peridot touched her face, her own tenderness surprising her.

The moment did not last long.

A thud, loud and heavy enough to shake the walls again. Dust, more dust, fell over Peridot. She wiped her visor clean and peered around the column. Tanzanite had fallen to the ground…then Chalcedony beside her.

The guardian stood over them. A red beam began to emit from the dent in its forehead, bathing the two corrupted gems. Tanzanite was the first to succumb. Her form shone white, and her gemstone exploded into tiny fragments. Then Chalcedony, too. Neither gem resisted, laying still, almost at peace. There was a muffled scream from a gem—either Carnelian or Sardonyx—and then silence. The red beam continued for several more long seconds.

Then came the dreadful crack of gunfire again, and a heavier metal net trapped the guardian, pinning it to the ground. It crunched down on the various spikes that Tanzanite had projected, and a strange fluid began to flow out from it.

Garnet sprinted forward, followed by Pearl and Amethyst, and stood over the fallen protector. They spoke to each other, rapidly and too far away for Peridot to hear; then, to her horror, Pearl drove her spear into the guardian, opening up a panel on its back. Inside a blinding light glowed—all who saw it threw up an arm over their eyes. Garnet reached in and drew out a perfect sphere, a glowing orb, its radiance reflecting off her polarized shades. Amethyst opened the box she was holding, setting it on the floor.

In that moment, Jasper woke up. She flailed and growled as she stood, instantly absorbing what was happening, and Peridot grabbed her around the waist to hold her back, staving off what was sure to be a terrible decision. As they both watched, the net around the guardian suddenly dissolved as more fluid poured out of it. It stood, with jerky, nauseating movements, arms extended in front of it as it sought whatever Garnet was now holding. Pearl stumbled backwards, but Amethyst yelled, “Into the box, now!”

Garnet tossed the sphere to her, and Amethyst caught it deftly, placing it inside the case in the same motion.

“We have to destroy it!” Garnet said. “Now! Before Homeworld gets a hold of it!”

The guardian continued to leak fluid—it spread across the floor, far too much liquid to have simply been contained within its body and caught the ankles of a few gems, both stationers and Homeworlders. In the moment the liquid touched them, they were disintegrated, gemstones dissolving when they fell into the muck.

“Don’t touch it!” Pearl shouted. “Get away!”

Panic erupted across the crowd. Most fled in any direction they could head towards; others reached for Garnet, calling for her to flee with them. In the fracas, Carnelian and Sardonyx pried themselves loose from their terrified captors and raced back into the building, dodging the lethal, rapidly growing puddles.

Jasper jerked her head around, confusion flickering in her gaze. “Where is Mother? And Tanzanite? What of them? What’s happening?” she demanded to know.

“Mother and the General have fallen. There is no further time to explain,” said Carnelian. “We must leave now!”

“But the—the whatever it is!”

Across the room, Garnet was facing off with Amethyst, who was chuckling as she shut the box.

“Sorry, boss,” she said. “I’ve got my own orders, remember? Homeworld’ll pay a nice price for this tech. Gotta run now—you understand.” She gestured towards the undead guardian, which was roaming blindly around the temple. “See you around some time!”

“Amethyst!” shouted Pearl, twirling her spear into a battle-ready position. “I thought you stood with us.”

Amethyst grinned and tucked the box under one arm. She leapt across a puddle of the acid—Peridot figured it had to be some sort of acid—and out through the entryway.

“What’s happening?” repeated Jasper, scowling deeply. “How long was I out?”

“We have escape,” Sardonyx urged. “There’s an exit there.”

Carnelian began backing away towards the aforementioned exit. She grabbed Sardonyx’s arm and pulled her sister behind her, then reached for Jasper. The latter allowed herself to be tugged away. Peridot let her go and remained where she stood, watching.

Garnet stood on a small island of rubble, Pearl just feet away on another raised platform. Amethyst stood in the doorway, alone, glancing back for one last look.

In the distance, gems ran for the ship, still yelling in hysteria. The guardian was still stumbling in circles, arms groping forward and liquid sloshing down its sides. The floor was now truly bathed in the acidic substance, and it was beginning to eat away at the ground. Peridot narrowly avoided the splash as the guardian passed by her, seeking its missing piece.

And then Amethyst turned and ran, carrying the strange orb in its case.

The guardian, its target clarified, charged after her, a strange grinding noise coming from its insides. Peridot jumped for a nearby island, now an equal distance away from Garnet as Pearl. Her arm burned for an unknown reason, far more painful than ever before.

As it went, the guardian sped up. It kicked through Garnet’s ground, and without support, the station leader tumbled. Her feet plunged into the acid up to her knees, and she yelled in agony. Pearl immediately jumped towards her, spear tumbling from her grasp and splashing into the deadly liquid as she reached for Garnet.

But Garnet disappeared mere seconds later, her form replaced by two gems: one blue, one red. They spun through the air. Pearl grabbed one just in time.

Peridot caught the other.

Chapter Text

“Jump!” Peridot yelled to Pearl. “Before the rest of that platform disintegrates beneath you!”

“What do you think you’re doing?” Jasper snarled behind her.

Peridot turned around as Pearl landed beside her, trembling slightly and clutching the blue gem to her chest.

She said to Jasper, “I’m doing what I think is right.”

“Please—” Pearl cut in, quietly. “Give me Ruby’s gem, please.”

Peridot looked down at the red gem she held. Pearl reached out a hand, asking again without words. Peridot gave her the gem, without a word, and heard Jasper huff angrily. Pearl took a strip of her clothes and fashioned a sling for the two gemstones, then tied in securely to her chest, holding them close.

Carnelian and Sardonyx hovered impatiently at the mouth of the escape tunnel. To Peridot’s dismay, both siblings were holding their weapons again.

“Doing what’s right?” Jasper said, finally bursting. Fury and grief burned white-hot in her eyes. “You’re a damned fool, pretending to be smart and wise, and you don’t know anything. You don’t understand anything about this fight. Our fight. My fight!”

Peridot stared at her, silent.

“You can’t just come in here and fix everything,” Jasper continued, unabated. “The stationers hate us, Homeworld hates us, and we’re just trying to survive. How can you help them, after everything we’ve done for you? How can you live with yourself, playing for both sides? Will you simply regenerate once your form is no longer stable and decide to walk away? When there’s nothing left for you to gain or ruin?”

“I can’t regenerate,” Peridot said, at last.

Pearl inhaled sharply, and even Jasper seemed taken aback.

“What?”

“I am going to die,” Peridot said. “When the corrosion takes over, I will die. My systems will shut down.”

“I don’t understand,” Jasper said.

The shrine was beginning its final collapse around them. Without its sentry, it had lost its center. Pearl looked nervously around them, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Jasper’s sisters remained where they were, watching intently.

“Listen. We don’t have much time,” Peridot said. “We have to stop Homeworld from getting what they stole.”

“We can do that without you,” Jasper said, taking a step back. “We don’t need you.”

“You’ll destroy yourself and your sisters.”

“So what? If we stop them, it’s worth it.”

“No!” Peridot said. She stepped towards Jasper, who tensed up. “You must live. You must all live. For those that have sacrificed already.” She looked back to where Chalcedony and Tanzanite had lain, mere minutes ago.

“They would tell me to fight to the end,” Jasper said, clearly getting what she was hinting at. “You can stop now. Go home. Or back to the station.”

Peridot held out her arms, pushing the cloak back. Her right arm was enveloped in the corrosion; it had begun to spread across her chest, even reaching over to her left. “It’s almost over for me, Jasper. Look.”

Jasper winced at the sight. Then, softly, she asked, “Does it hurt?”

“Not anymore,” Peridot said, which was true.

The ground shook again, churning beneath their feet.

“My people made a choice a long time ago,” she said. “When Homeworld tried to make us give up our technology, our secrets, and serve them wholly, without freedom. We left, and we made ourselves into machines to live the lives we desired. We have one form, one life. All we can do is live it well. I am trying, Jasper.”

“What will you do, when you have the world-shaper’s core back? Heal yourself and leave us stranded?” Jasper asked. An inner fight was plain in her face now. “Or what?”

“We’ll return it,” Peridot said. “Together.”

Jasper said nothing, but she reached out and took Peridot’s right hand. Her palm was warm, rough to the touch, but gentle. After a moment, she let go and turned away, towards her sisters.

Peridot waited.

“Let’s go, then,” Jasper said at last. “Amethyst won’t have gotten too far.”

They needed only to follow the trail of acid that the guardian left behind. Sardonyx pointed out it was a clear shot to the nearby fields, which had been untouched and would have been the perfect place to land a contingent of ships.

“They’ll take off for Homeworld without a second look back,” Pearl said. “We won’t be able to catch them on foot.”

“The ship!” Carnelian exclaimed. “Peridot and I arrived in a ship—just over there,” and she pointed where they had landed, just off from the trail. “Not far, we could make it by the time they reach their ships and catch up.”

“It only fits two,” said Sardonyx.

“We’ll go,” Jasper said, putting a hand on Peridot’s shoulder. “Come on. You two keep…” She looked at Pearl, clearly biting back disdain. “Keep her safe.”

“We want to go with you,” Carnelian immediately protested.

“Keep her safe,” Jasper repeated. “And protect the shrine. We’ll be back. I promise.”

“You better,” Sardonyx said.

Jasper touched foreheads with each of them in parting, then turned to Peridot. “Let’s go.”

The sprint back to the ship was faster than coming from it. Peridot ran with surprising speed; whatever fueled her, she did not complain. Jasper was still faster, moving with astonishing bounds over the ruins, but Peridot managed to keep up.

They reached Carnelian’s ship, and Jasper boosted her aboard before jumping up through the hatch herself. No ramp necessary.

Jasper flung herself into the pilot’s seat. She got the ship running in seconds and flew right over the ruined village.

Peridot grabbed onto the back of Jasper’s chair, watching the landscape ahead of them. Wherever the acid had flowed, the ground around it was stained black and greenery withered. It was not hard to miss; ahead, already, they could see it glimmering in the dying daylight. A crowd of gems were just ahead, scrambling to board ships.

“They’re not letting the station gems board,” Peridot said. “Look!”

And indeed, Homeworlders were pushing station gems off the ramps and blocking them from boarding their own ships. In between the chaos, as the two forces clashed again, they managed to spy a familiar gem.

“There she is,” Jasper said.

As they closed the gap, the ship that Amethyst boarded took flight, abandoning its fellows remorselessly as it sought to escape. Jasper hauled their ship around to intercept it, preventing it from finishing its banking maneuver. The Homeworld ship was forced to dive away abruptly, nearly crashing into a hill, before swerving around in another attempt to flee.

“No, you don’t,” muttered Jasper.

Now the Homeworld ship was fleeing from them, darting this way and that as they skimmed over the planet’s surface, further and further from the shrine. For every move Amethyst and her crew tried to make, Jasper countered expertly. Peridot watched the scanner as another blip began to follow them.

“It’s onto us,” she said.

Jasper glanced down and grimaced. “Okay, let’s finish this, then.”

She accelerated to a feverish speed, and they were right on top of Amethyst’s ship now. Slowly, Jasper descended, until the Homeworld ship was forced to crash land, nose first, driving its bulk across the dirt and mud. One of its wings was torn off, and it spun almost 180 degrees around its axis when it finally came to a halt. Jasper brought their ship down with almost the same ferocity, and Peridot clung desperately to an overhead railing to avoid being thrown about the cabin.

The moment they stopped moving, she let go, opening the hatch again. Jasper leapt through first, and Peridot followed. They raced towards the crashed Homeworld ship, which now lay smoking. An emergency exit door on the side had been opened from within, and Amethyst had crawled out, still holding the box. She glared balefully at Jasper and Peridot as they came up on her.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve cost me?” she snapped. “This contract would have seen me through retirement and beyond!”

“Homeworld can’t be allowed to have that,” Peridot said. “They would destroy everything in their way with that in their hands.”

“What do I care?” asked Amethyst. “I wouldn’t be in their way!”

A few hundred feet away, the guardian crested the hill and began making its way towards them. It had seemed small from the air, and still comparatively small on the radar, but now on the ground, with it confronting them, Peridot realized it had grown since it had left the temple. It had tripled, perhaps quadrupled in size, still spewing its muck, still reaching out for its lost core.

“We’ll be killed!” Amethyst groaned. “Look at what you’ve done.”

“No,” said Jasper. “Give us the box. We’ll return the core to it.”

“You’ll be killed,” said Amethyst, shocked. “What good will that do?”

“It wants to be whole again.”

“It’ll kill you,” Amethyst repeated.

Jasper reached down and put her hands on the box. “We have to try.”

Amethyst said nothing, alternating between staring at Jasper and staring at the guardian. She let Jasper take the box, releasing her grip without further protest, and scrambled away towards her ship.

“It’s heavy,” Jasper grunted, as Peridot reached over to take the box. “Careful.”

They set it down on a flat part of the ground, and Jasper undid the latches. Inside, the core glowed, resting in a special kind of padding. Peridot put a hand on it and felt a coldness to it like she had never experienced before. Jasper touched it and flinched at the sensation.

The guardian was at the nose of the ship, drawing closer.

“How do we do this? Just hold it up?” Jasper asked.

“Yes,” Peridot said. “Together.”

There was just enough room on the sphere for all four of their hands to fit. They lifted the sphere out and held it up, Jasper’s arms bent slightly to accommodate Peridot’s shorter reach.

The guardian towered over them, casting them into shadow. Jasper’s breath grew shallow. Peridot looked at her, then up at the figure above them. It reached out with one huge hand, towards the core, towards them, bending down so its chest was right over them. Peridot could see a yawning hole in the middle of its torso.

It touched the sphere, and everything became white.

Chapter Text

Away to the east, where Sardonyx and Carnelian stood guard over the hollowed-out frame of the shrine, a wind whipped through. It was unlike anything they had encountered before, nearly knocking them over. Eyes shut against the gale, they did not see the world transform around them.

The ruins did not become rebuilt. But the guardian’s trail of destruction disappeared, leaving a wake of rich green grass where it had once been. From where they had fallen, gemstones regenerated into gems, who were all surprised at the sudden, sooner-than-expected return to life. Sardonyx and Carnelian spotted friends and ran to greet them; stationers and Homeworlders mingled awkwardly, unsure what had happened since the last time they were conscious.

Pearl, who had been dutifully carrying Ruby and Sapphire, nearly squawked with alarm when the two gems began to regenerate. But when they came back, she hugged them both, and told them what had happened and what was happening now, and Ruby said she was surprised Peridot had such good hand-eye coordination.

Then came the job of trying to organize all the gems milling about.

Peridot woke first. She felt grass tickling her face and brushed it aside. The simple motion made her sit up with alarm, and she stared at her hands. Her real hands. The machine parts she had inhabited for so long lay in the newly sprouted field, looking like it had lain there for years. She had her old boots on, thin and fragile, but the same ones she had last seen so long ago.

Looking up, she could see Amethyst’s ship, covered in a carpet of greenery like it, too, had been there for seasons on seasons. Curled up in a hollow by its side lay Amethyst herself, unharmed. A flower had sprouted by her head.

Jasper. Peridot found her not far away, and crawled over to her and shook her shoulder.

“Hm?” asked Jasper. “What happened?”

“It’s over now,” Peridot said. “We did it.”

“Is it?” She sat up, rubbing her head, and suddenly jumped backwards, pointing.

Peridot followed her finger and saw the guardian standing over them, where it had been…however long ago. It had shrunk back to its previous size, but it was not moving. As she looked closer, she saw that the shine had vanished from its plating, and its feet were buried in the dirt and grass. It looked like a statue.

“Is it dead?” Jasper asked.

“I—I don’t know,” Peridot replied. “Can it die?”

Then Jasper asked, “What happened to you? You’re…smaller…”

Peridot saw that Jasper was staring at her in a mixture of disbelief and confusion. She pulled back a tuft of grass to reveal one of her arm augments laying there.

“It healed me,” she said. “The only way I could be healed.”

“But you lost your…” Jasper trailed off. “Will you be okay?”

“Yes, I think so.” Peridot stood, on her own two legs for the first time in a long time, and took a deep breath.

Jasper stood and went over to the guardian. She put a hand on its chest, waited a moment, then let her hand slide away. “It’s gone,” she said. There was bitterness and sadness in her voice.

“I’m sorry,” Peridot said. She looked up at Jasper; the height difference between them was much larger now, and she had to tilt her chin back further. “I know…” and then she stopped. “No, I don’t.”

Jasper sat down again, hands on her knees, and said, “What now?”

Peridot sensed she wasn’t looking for an answer. She sat beside Jasper, and they listened to the breeze over the grass together. In those moments, everything else felt very, very far away.

They went back to the village, after a time, with Amethyst squeezed in the back of the ship. Garnet had re-fused by then, and she and Pearl had largely organized everyone, even finding and bringing back those gems who had run for the ships. Amethyst slunk into the ranks of the Homeworlders, who were now largely aimless with their mission gone awry and happy to listen to the nearest authority figure.

Meanwhile, Sardonyx and Carnelian had rounded up their friends and allies and calmed them down with assurances that the conflict was over, or should be over. When it was clear that neither Chalcedony nor Tanzanite would be returning, they were accepted as the new leaders.

Jasper left the ship first after Amethyst, walking heavily down the ramp. Her sisters had spotted the ship as it flew overhead and ran to greet her, sharing in a group hug.

“What happened?” Sardonyx asked.

“We returned the core,” Jasper said.

“And?”

Jasper gestured around them. “See for yourself.”

“What about the world shaper?” Carnelian asked next.

“Deactivated, I think,” Jasper said. “I don’t…I don’t really know.”

Peridot stepped down then, and even though she was expecting some sort of reaction, the double-take that Carnelian and Sardonyx performed was more amusing than offensive.

“What?” was all Sardonyx got out before Jasper thumped her on the back.

“I was given another chance,” Peridot said simply.

“Are you coming with us?” Carnelian asked. “We have work to do here. Rebuilding.”

Peridot shook her head and looked over to where Garnet and Pearl stood. “I can’t stay here. This is your life. I don’t belong.”

Jasper pushed in front of her sisters. “What about Homeworld? Won’t they come asking questions?”

“They tend to move on,” Peridot said, “when things don’t turn out the way they planned. Trust me. This one I do know. Besides that…I don’t think Garnet will be taking orders from them anytime soon."

“Will you visit, then?”

“Yes. Whenever I can.”

Jasper nodded, took a breath as if to say something, then didn’t. She nodded again and turned away, towards her sisters. They murmured something between themselves, then walked off towards the rest of their group. Jasper threw one final look back. Peridot met her eyes and smiled.

Then, at last, she turned and walked towards her future.

Chapter Text

Orbiting a binary star with six others was the small olive green planet known simply as Technos. A plain, descriptive name for a place that sustained several million technicians, engineers, programmers, and other intelligent persons.

Peridot was an up and coming young technician currently involved in the mainframe computer overhaul project, or MCOP. She took her job seriously and her dedication earned her much respect. Today had been a good day so far for her. They had cleared up several bugs in the program and were beginning to wind things down as the end of the work period approached.

A stocky Fluorite gem tapped one last command into her computer and looked up at Peridot. “Permission for dismissal?”

“Permission granted,” Peridot responded. “Efficient work today, Fluorite.”

“Thank you, Officer,” said the gem, giving a respectful nod to her as she passed by.

Peridot peered over the remaining three gems, still hard at work. The curfew for end of work wasn’t for another twenty minutes. It pleased Peridot to see them still doing their job. She sat down at her station and opened up the current program overhaul notes. There was the faint buzz of the intercom and one of the other gems responded, flicking on the communications switch.

“Who is this?” she asked.

“Is Peridot there?” asked a gruff voice.

Peridot turned on her channel. “Present, Counselor Ammolite. Is there trouble?”

“Yes. Report to my office immediately and dismiss whatever gems are left in the workroom.”

The communications line went dead with static. Peridot looked over at the three workers. “Dismissed.”

They all filed past her with respectful little gestures flitting between them and the officer. Peridot shut down her main computer and exited. The lights went out automatically.

Counselor Ammolite’s office was located three miles downtown. Peridot settled herself on the slim terracraft she used for on-planet travel and shot down the street, dodging between pedestrians and other drivers. She was a careful driver but sometimes the traffic made it difficult to be concise with her movements. The uniform workforce buildings melted into equally identical office buildings with varying amounts of terracraft parked in front of each one. Peridot stopped in front of one of the largest at the end of the cul-de-sac road. She stepped off the vehicle, smoothed back a few stray hairs, and approached the door. A sensor appeared, scanned her body, beeped to signal confirmation of identity, and the door opened with a hiss of artificial air. A robonoid skittered across the floor, spitting cleaning fluid out one end and scrubbing at it with its four legs. Peridot stepped over the small techbot and continued.

Ammolite was sitting in front of her computer, absorbed in a tidal wave of reports washing in. Peridot cleared her throat before proceeding any further.

“What is the matter?” she asked, standing next to the Counselor. “I have not perceived any errors.”

“There is a rogue program,” said Ammolite. “It keeps reappearing at the same spot in every report. Something’s gone wrong in the system.”

“My team said they cleared out all the bugs.” Peridot detached her fingers on her right hand and summoned the holographic screen. “Here are their findings.”

Ammolite glanced at the data. “That’s irrelevant now. Look—” She pointed at a red-marked line of code. “I’ve highlighted it to mark every time it shows up. The rate at which it appears is increasing.”

“Do you know which computer it originated from?”

“No.”

“We should shut down the entire system or else risk losing valuable progress.”

“Whatever it may be, I do not think it is any good.”

“I will shut it down,” Peridot said, turning and preparing to leave. “I am the only Officer with such capabilities left in the city, as the others have gone to other cities to work on other projects.”

“That’s true but—Peridot!” Ammolite exclaimed, rising at once as Peridot exited the room. "You must be careful. If you try to sync with the machine and somehow this code infects you...there is no telling what will happen."

The technician stopped before reaching the door and faced Ammolite. “I will be fine.”

She settled herself into her terracraft again and stepped on the accelerator. The small vehicle responded admirably as she weaved in and out of the evening crowds.

As she passed a cluster of young, off-duty gems, three of them turned to look at her. One cried: “Officer Peridot—the work day is over! Why are you going back?”

“Urgent business,” was all Peridot managed to say before speeding onwards.

Suddenly, the screen in her terracraft lit up with Ammolite’s face.

“I know what it is: a virus of some design,” she said. "It's trying to locate the information stored on the main server."

Peridot shifted the conversation to her holographic hand screen as she exited the terracraft and entered her office. “I’m working on it.”

The computers were eerie in their cold silence in the darkness. Peridot started up the main one and turned on a few others for back up. Ammolite’s face disappeared suddenly; the green screen remained in position regardless.

“Report of Information,” said Peridot, turning on the recording software, “log date 7 24 9. Officer Peridot performing sweep of computers to confirm for a virus. All systems currently checking out as safe.”

Sometimes, she forgot how many computers she had command over. With a practiced movement, she inserted her right hand in a slot on the side of the computer, syncing her programming to the computer's to gain a better control of it.

Ammolite’s face flickered into view. “I should’ve let you use my computer—the virus is moving fast. It’s corrupting files.”

“It would have taken even longer to verify myself and gain access to your computer,” said Peridot. “This is an unusual virus. It appears to be controlled. It’s aiming to destroy something.”

“Can you save any data?”

“I will need to investigate that further.” Peridot watched as the virus moved around, somehow evading all of the safety-nets and catches the government had installed. She attempted to eliminate it but only managed to stall it for several seconds before it continued on. It wasn’t a virus. Someone was trying to hack into their systems. If they got into the private data files, there was a chance that everyone in the city could be shut down. All citizens were required to back their personal data up on a cloud-based storage unit, which synced to the city-wide cloud storage unit.

“Peridot?” Ammolite’s voice cut in and out. "Desync immediately—something’s—shut it down!”

“It is now only targeting my computer," Peridot said calmly. "I would advise the city to shut down all computers. Interference could be dangerous.”

“Good—” said Ammolite, and she disappeared.

The PA system overhead crackled and as the counselor droned on, Peridot began a sequence of careful attacks on the virus. It was difficult, but she persisted. Suddenly, with a snap, the rogue virus-program jumped through everything. There was only way to kill it now. She opened up the inner workings of the computer and prepared to destroy it. If the computer itself was destroyed, there existed the possibility the virus would also disappear.

The door banged open suddenly and the three young gems stood in the doorway. “Officer, we’re here to help you—”

“Do not interrupt me!” said Peridot, her attention wavering.

As she was distracted, the attacking program reappeared. The entire screen of the computer flashed red, and a jolt of energy surged up her right arm. Her hologram spluttered and zipped out. The flashing continued and Peridot tried to blast the inner system, this time succeeding. The computer screen went black. She tumbled over, yanking her hand from the syncing dock.

“Officer!” yelped one of the workers, rushing forward.

Peridot could hardly form a sentence. The red light was blazing in her mind. Something had hit her internal systems. She struggled to rise, but one of her hands short-circuited and send a volt of pain coursing up her arm. Abruptly, the red was replaced by utter darkness.

“Officer?”

“She’s not fully recovered—”

“I’ve fixed as many circuits as I could—”

Faces swam into perspective as Peridot’s system rebooted itself. There was a cautious, lingering moment where the system contemplated self-destruction, but it disappeared. The red light was also gone.

“Officer?” repeated the first voice. It was Counselor Ammolite.

“Counselor,” rasped Peridot. She waited a moment for her voice to settle. “What has happened?”

“It wasn’t a bug nor a program,” said Ammolite.

“I knew that already.”

“It was a hacked bot or something akin to that. It was seeking our most important information before you destroyed it, but part of the bot has latched onto you. Internally speaking, of course.”

Peridot sat up with a slow, deliberate speed. “What does that mean? I have never heard of that happening before.”

Another Counselor stepped into her field of view. It was Feldspar, grim looking with a slight tenseness of her jaw. “You will shut down, permanently, if the bot damages any more of your systems. There is no way we know of to reverse this process.”

Peridot glanced around the room at the assembled mechanics and repair technicians. Some looked distraught, others stoic, and still others were examining the floor. Not one of them offered an explanation. “This is what will happen to me? There is no way to fix it?”

“I’m sorry, Officer,” said Ammolite, “but unfortunately you will die.”

“There are rumors,” said a third gem, stepping forward from the crowd, “of a powerful alien entity on a distant world. One capable of healing even the unhealable.”

“We have already discussed that,” said Feldspar, folding her arms. “And thusly we give you three choices: we can shut you down for good right here and now, sparing you any anguish; two, you can go about your business until you are destroyed; three…you can chase that legend. That also gives you the opportunity to be off-world and self-destruct, if it comes down to that.”

“I will not let you shut me down,” insisted Peridot, “and I will not succumb to the virus.”

There was a pause. “You are also under federal investigation for the destruction of a government computer.”

“That is ridiculous—I had no choice!”

Feldspar nodded her head once. “True. But such as that stands, you are still considered a criminal of low concern and threat.”

Peridot was silent for several moments. At last, she said: “I do not necessarily believe in legends. I do not want to be considered a criminal for my actions. But I will do neither of the first two options you have presented me with.”

“Then you will leave?” asked Ammolite, eyebrows raising.

“Yes. Tonight,” said Peridot. “Maybe I will find this planet.”

The third gem cleared her throat. “I can provide star-maps to find your way there.”

“Thank you,” said Peridot. She stepped off the table, looked around at the room, and left.

Her footsteps were the only sounds in the abandoned off-white hallway. Her mouth was set in a thin line and she looked straight ahead. Her spacecraft was parked in dock 56A, along with several dozen other models. Hers was a sleek and green, designed for high speeds, evasion, and still tough enough to weather a battle or two. She ran her right hand over its surface and stiffened as she saw hints of something akin to a red rust spreading across her digits.

As she settled into the cramped control room, there was a knocking from outside, muffled by the walls. She opened the hatch and looked out. One of her underlings was standing there, straight at attention.

“Officer Peridot,” she said. “I have something for you.”

“What is it?” asked Peridot. “I can’t take much on this ship.”

“It’s small,” insisted the gem. Peridot recalled her name—Aquamarine. “Here’s the star-maps Beryl wanted to give you and this—here.”

She passed the star-maps to Peridot, who set them inside the ship. When the officer turned back around, Aquamarine held out her hand. Inside it was a necklace.

Peridot picked it up and examined it. “This is a computer chip and wire.”

“From the first computer you built,” said Aquamarine.

“That old thing?” Peridot scoffed. “I put that in the back room ages ago.”

“I dug it out and made this for you a while ago. I was planning to give it to you when you were promoted to Counselor. But you can’t be Counselor now.” Aquamarine’s expression turned soft and sorrowful. “I’m sorry we interrupted you. This is all our fault.”

Peridot looked at the young gem with a peculiar expression of stern fondness. “I appreciate your gift and accept your apology. You are a hard worker.”

Aquamarine swallowed. “Thank you, Officer Peridot. Safe travels.” She gave a respectful nod. “Permission for dismissal?”

“Dismissed,” said Peridot. As Aquamarine walked away, she added: “I will miss you—all of you.”

The blue gem turned her head and gave a smile before continuing forward. Peridot looked down at the necklace in her hand. It was beautiful in its own odd way. She put it in the storage slot on her left arm, shut the little pocket space, and entered her ship again. This time, she sealed the door, checked the systems, and made sure all of the supplies she had stored in here were still there. A stun weapon, armor for emergencies, a few deactivated robonoids for any repairs, and extra warp cells to fuel the ship. Peridot settled in the pilot’s chair and started up the engine. The doors to the outside were open. She gave one last glance over her homeworld, then plugged in the star-maps from Beryl. The course was a long one. Peridot hoped she would make it—to see a legend and live through it would be incredible. The spacecraft nosed out of the dock and onto the runway. Peridot took a deep breath. This was goodbye to her homeworld, her career, and her friends and colleagues—for good.

Chapter Text

There was no concept of time in space. Gems, especially gems with a computer half, didn’t need sleep. Both of these factors combined kept Peridot at the helm of the ship for hours on end. She set the ship to follow the blue route highlighted on the screen of the computer, heading for the distant planet where she could potentially receive aid from a mysterious alien entity.

She was travelling through a foreign solar system at the moment. There were nine planets and three meteor belts she had to pass by before exiting out. Peridot adjusted the ship’s speed, bringing it down to warp three, as she approached the second meteor belt. It was becoming easier and easier to navigate through the difficulties of the galaxy. She wasn’t born a pilot like some other gems, but she still had enough technical know-how to fly her ship.

Strangely, the meteor belt seemed to continue beyond what the sensors said on the screen. She made it scan again, but it showed the same results. There were bits of scrap and metal everywhere, indicating perhaps a crash.

She could see ships up ahead. Peridot engaged an even lower speed as she came closer to them. They were fighting, obviously, or at least one side was attacking the other with vicious intent. The aggressors had thick, square ships with diamonds printed on one side. Peridot gripped one of the arms of her chair in recognition. The diamond was Homeworld's symbol.

The other side was unadorned, mostly civilian ships. As she watched, two of the militant ships blasted a carrier ship to pieces and then instantaneously turned to find new prey. Her communications panel made a buzzing noise of alert and she turned on the ship-to-ship communicator.

“Who are you?” growled a voice.

Peridot said nothing.

“You’re trespassing!”

Still nothing. Peridot reached for the communications panel and shut it off. The ship on the right began to fire at her immediately afterwards the line went dead. Peridot engaged a higher speed and kept going, evading the rapid fire of energy bullets. She turned on her own weapons and gouged a mark in the hull of the ship of the left. It spun outwards, crashing into one of its brethren and exploding the both of them. Peridot made a tch noise under her breath and looked at the other attacking ship. She spun the guns towards it and hit it directly through the port side. The spacecraft burst apart.

Peridot increased her speed to warp seven and shot past the civilian spaceships. The Homeworld ships made no move to pursue her. She disliked killing without reason. But they had provoked her, and thusly deserved what had come to them. As for the civilians, she would not stay to protect them, but she hoped they managed to flee from their pursuers. They were, for the moment, no concern of hers.

According to the star-chart, there was a space port coming up ahead. The damage to the ship, while minimal, could potentially cause harm in the long run. As her ship came closer to the port, her communications panel beeped.

“Unidentified spacecraft, please identify you,” said a dull voice.

“Officer Peridot, of the planet Technos requesting permission to dock for repairs and potential overnight leave,” said Peridot.

“Thank you, Officer,” said the voice, a shade warmer. “Your docking station is A9. Please be sure to read the rules posted inside the station.”

The line went dead. Peridot maneuvered the ship into the designated station and prepared to enter the port. She put on a dark green cloak with the hood up and took her stun weapon, tucking it into her belt. A guard stopped her as she stepped out, and once the weapon was acknowledged between the both of them, she let Peridot out. She walked over to the post on the wall and examined it. The rules were traditional:

1. Please do not hijack others’ ships.
2. Please do not carry weapons without acknowledgement from the guards.
3. Please do not start unnecessary conflicts.
4. Please do not steal from the space port. We receive specific shipments on a schedule and any deviation from that results in a comprising deficiency.
5. Please refrain from gambling.
6. Under no circumstances are you allowed to put a gem in regeneration state.
7. No strip-card-games.

Well, traditional until the last one. Peridot figured she was not going to engage in any activities of that nature. She turned back inside and picked up the robonoids. One by one she activated them and set them to repair mode. They skittered across the floor and up onto the control panel, where they sat down and began to fix the ship. The last of the four, however, moved to the outside and started to repair the external damage.

The guard watched the proceedings with an amused expression on her face. She turned to Peridot. “Are these yours?”

“Yes.” Peridot said, also observing the techbots work. “I did not program them myself but they are in my possession.”

“They are interesting things.”

“Yes. I enjoy watching them work. They are efficient workers. Better than gems.” Peridot turned away and entered the space port, leaving her tiny robot workers to complete their job.

The first thing that flooded her sensory circuits was the noise. Background music collided with words overflowing from room after room. Gems of every kind and shape and size paraded through the halls. Peridot slunk down the corridor, hood tucked low over her face. She went to the socializing room down the way—or, to put it in colloquial terms, the bar. She was looking to purchase supplies for her hand. The rust-like disorder was beginning to spread across her hand, covering two digits entirely and some of her palm. If she could find someone who sold polish or green paint, she could avoid unwanted suspicion.

Peridot settled herself in a seat at the back of the room where she could observe gems in silence. Her scanning technology was disabled for the moment, but she could still read the occupants of the bar with clarity.

Someone settled across from her. Peridot turned her head within the moment the gem sat down and examined her company—short, purple, with a black bandana on her head. White bangs covered one eye; the other scrutinized Peridot.

“You were the fighter from earlier,” she said. “Near those meteors.”

“I recall no fight,” answered Peridot.

The gem shook her head. “Maybe you don’t remember it as a fight, but from my perspective, it was surely something along the lines of a skirmish.”

“Are you speaking of the battle I was forced into not six hours prior to this meeting?”

“Yes. That one. You had the little green spaceship. Tough scrapper, isn’t it?”

“It is specialized for travelling quickly and managing a fight or two.”

The gem smiled. “Yeah.” She squared her shoulders a bit. “You’re watching people instead of interacting with ‘em. What’re you looking for?”

“Personal care.” Peridot did not show her hand, but said: “One of my hands is damaged a mild amount. I am looking for a solution of a good design to fix it.”

“Ah. Yeah. I can’t help you there.” The gem crossed her arms. “Is it really mild or are you understating?”

Peridot, inclined somewhat to trust the gem, showed her hand. The latter examined it, curiosity dancing in her eyes. Then Peridot stowed her hand again under the cloak, wary of any observers.

“That is interesting,” said the gem. “Seems like some kind of disease.”

“I am hoping it is not as bad as it looks.”

“There are rumors—only whispers and fragments of what I’ve heard in my travels—of an alien healer on a distant planet. A powerful one. Maybe it could help you.” The gem dug into her pocket and pulled out a scrap of paper with an unfamiliar symbol drawn on it. “All of know is that the people who bear this insignia know of the alien. Here. Take it.”

“I do not believe in rumors.” Peridot said, but she took the paper anyways. “I am merely trying to find my way to a new life.”

“Well, your way certainly saved me from having to do what you did. Homeworld is brutal when it comes to hunting down station worlds that don’t fit its mold. The planet I was staying on nearly suffered destruction. Your intervention was, to say the least, timely.”

“I was provoked and fought back. I am sure others would have done the same.”

“Some speak of another station world. A world that was chased by Homeworld to the far reaches of the galaxy for obtaining power too great. And they escaped beyond its power. A group of gems that tended machines and loved technology more than other gems. You remind me of the descriptions of them.”

“I know little of those people,” said Peridot, aware of the lie she was telling. “Yet it sounds entirely plausible.”

“Yeah.” The gem stretched, extending her arms and legs out. One of her feet knocked against Peridot’s leg, a hollow metal sound ringing out. The gem quirked an eyebrow. “That you?”

“Yes,” said Peridot, rising. “I must depart now. Thank you for the conversation.”

“Maybe we’ll meet again,” said the gem.

Peridot dipped her head respectfully and left the bar, avoiding touching anyone. Outside, the robonoids had finished their job and were in deactivation mode again, clustered on the inside of the ship. The guard was standing watch over someone else’s ship now as it was being given a thorough cleaning of various space debris it had picked up.

Peridot put the robonoids in the back of the ship again and sat down in her seat. She did not do anything for several minutes. Inside, she could almost sense the corruption spreading through the system, a gradual progression towards the inevitable. The green technician looked down at her hand. The rust, as she now decided to call it, was the same. It hadn’t spread.

Although she might not have gotten what she wanted, she had heard additional rumors about the alien entity as well as speculation about her people. That was something she had no desire to discuss. She keyed in the command for the doors to seal but did not add the command for the engines to start. She had, after all, added overnight leave to her request for docking. After an internal deliberation, Peridot quietly set her systems onto the mode she used rarest of all: sleep.

Chapter Text

When Peridot awoke from her programmed sleep, it was pitch dark in her spacecraft. The automatic lights had given up on her and turned themselves off after twelve hours. As the gem awoke, the lights, too, activated.

Peridot ran a brief scan over the ship’s systems to check for any errors and found none. Upon that discovery she started up the engines, ready to exit. The communications line beeped:

“Preparing to open docking bay A9’s doors, please stand by.”

“Standing by,” confirmed Peridot, watching as the aforementioned doors opened.

“Permission granted to proceed, Officer Peridot,” said the voice. “Goodbye and safe travels.”

“The same to you,” said Peridot, as was routine. She guided the spacecraft out at a safe speed of subwarp five. Once clear of the docking bay she increased it to warp two and rapidly left the space port behind her.

The gem from the bar watched the technician leave from her makeshift office at the top of the port. She nodded once. “There goes that green gem again.”

The green spacecraft was set on course again for the planet of the alien entity. Peridot put the ship on autopilot and let it take her to the destination.

The cargo ships were taking too long. Pearl stood next to Garnet on the bridge of the latter’s spaceship, arms folded and mouth pursed into her usual concerned expression. Garnet also stood, despite the chair that sat next to her. They were viewing the cargo line as it passed by them, laden with supplies and even civilians.

“The rebels haven’t shown their faces yet,” said Pearl. “I don’t think they’ll bother us today.”

“We can’t be certain about that,” said Garnet. She flicked on the communications line. “Fighter ships—standby on yellow alert for enemy encounters.”

As if on cue:

“This is Fighter Pilot Moonstone, reporting in from your starboard side. I have a visual on rebel ships—three of them; I repeat, confirmed visual on three rebel ships,” said a pilot.

“Fire when ready,” commanded Garnet looking out at the scene unfolding in front of her. “Helm, take ship around to starboard side and prepare to engage enemy when weapons are charged.”

The flag ship of the cargo fleet made a slow turn around just in time to see the three dark red rebel ships careen towards the cargo line, making a clear collision course with the front of the line. From the fighter pilots stationed outside of the cargo line blazed energy weapons. All shots missed the swift trio; they swung around as a unit and headed off.

“That wasn’t the real attack,” said Garnet, narrowing her eyes. “Where’s our actual opponent?”

“Fighter Pilot Smoky Quartz reporting in with visual on rapidly approaching rebel mothership,” blurted the communications line. “Enemy’s ETA is within thirty seconds.”

“Hold your ground! Fire when ready,” Garnet ordered. To her own ship she added: “Prime weapons for confrontation with mothership.”

The dark silver and red ship took a sharp turn to port side and crashed straight through three small cargo spacecrafts. Pearl stiffened, and said something indiscernible.

“Fire!” said Garnet.

Her ship let loose a barrage of fire. Some missed and others smashed directly into the rebel mothership; the latter veered out of control and took down one last cargo ship before jumping to a higher speed and disappearing out of sight.

“We appear to have warded them off,” said Pearl, putting her hands on her hips. “Well done.”

“Yes, we did, but we also lost several ships.” Garnet lowered her gaze. “We don’t have time to rescue the fallen gems. We need to keep to the schedule.”

“We will leave them behind?”

“Yes.” Garnet turned communications on and said: “Ahead as normal!”

The cargo ships had halted for the duration of the brief confrontation and now pressed forward. Garnet folded her arms and kept a close eye on the viewing screen.

“Unusual,” muttered Peridot to herself. Ahead of her ship was the wreckage of several ships along with containers of unknown substances. She had moved far away from the space port, the recent battle with the Homeworld ships, and all meteor belts in the vicinity—there was no sign of anything that could have created this mess.

The technician adjusted the ship’s sensor to also scan for signs of energy blasts or radiation nearby. As it processed, Peridot slowed the ship to navigate with more caution. Her eyes could just make out two colored bubbles floating amongst pieces of wrecked spaceships. Gems.

The sensor indicated there in fact had been recent high-energy use in this area, and radiation well within normal levels was emitting from some of the containers. Peridot approached the two bubbled gems and turned on the tractor beam, pulling the bubbles in close without disrupting them. Once they were under the bottom hull of the spacecraft, Peridot went down to the lower hatch. She had done this once before, and only once. She hoped she retained enough of the memories to perform it again with no errors—an error could be fatal.

First, she sealed off the doors above her to prevent anything sneaking into the interior of the ship. Then she pulled the tube down from the ceiling that would hold anything the hatch brought in—the latter which she set to open gradually. The two bubbled gems rose out of space, one in a grey bubble, the other dark green. The grey bubble’s gem had a crack running down it, but the green bubble’s gem was smooth without blemish.

Peridot closed the hatch and removed the tube. The sensor at command center beeped, and she left the two gems to sprint up the stairs and see what the computer was making a fuss over. Her spacecraft, on its autopilot route, had wandered into new territory while she was assisting the two bubbled gems. Now, four new ships were just a short distance away. She halted the ship and studied them. The biggest ship appeared to be damaged, and the three smaller ones were escorting it away. The symbol on the escorted ship was that of the paper the purple gem had given her. At last—potential confirmation of the alien entity’s existence.

The communications line was quiet for a long moment. Peridot spoke first: “I am Officer Peridot, from the planet Technos. You carry on the hull of your ships the design of an alien entity I am aware of and seeking. Are you of the planet wherein it resides?”

No answer. The four ships had gotten close enough to Peridot to where she could see the pilots inside. They made neither move against her nor any friendly overtures.

“You are not welcome here,” said a voice. “The alien is no concern of yours. Leave.”

Peridot looked up from the communications panel to see the four ships turning and leaving. For a brief moment, she caught sight of one of the pilots—big, orange, and muscular. Her eyes turned to Peridot and they locked gazes until the pilot snapped her attention back to piloting the ship.

The technician watched them go, a prickling sensation crawling across her skin. There was a shout from below deck that caught her attention and she put the spacecraft on autopilot again before going down to investigate.

One of the gems had regenerated, but within the confined space of the lower deck, had hit the ceiling and lay sprawled on the floor. Peridot lowered her eyebrows and twitched her mouth in a small frown. The other gem noticed her, and rose in a blink.

“Who are you?”

“The owner of the spacecraft you’re currently aboard.”

“You—rescued me and Citrine?”

“Yes, obviously.”

“I offer my thanks to you.” The gem bowed her head. “I am grateful you have spared us a longer stay in cold oblivion.”

“It was no trouble of mine,” said Peridot. “What is your name?”

“I am Emerald.” The gem paused and cleared her throat. “I have a favor to ask of you, if you would not mind obliging us one last time.”

“What is it that you require of me?”

“We have lost our cargo train back home. I wish to return as soon as possible. Would you take us there?”

Peridot crossed her arms. “Where is it that you must go?”

“The Space Station X-019. It shouldn’t be far from this system, and I know the way if you do not.”

“Come with me, and bring your bubbled companion. I do not wish for another incident like yours.” Peridot moved away and up the stairs. Emerald carried the bubble in front of her as she slowly navigated upwards. Peridot plunked herself in the command seat and began to investigate the star-maps. It appeared as if this station was en route to the alien world.

“You’ve found a way to get there?” asked Emerald.

“Yes,” said Peridot, “adjusting course now to drop you off.”

“Much appreciated.” The gem sat down in the main hallway and watched the grey bubble float up and down ever so slightly.

Peridot let the spacecraft run itself at high speed as she mulled over the four ships from the alien world. The pilot had made deliberate eye contact with her—perhaps she was the one who had spoken. She could not shake the image of the orange gem from her mind, no matter how hard she tried to concentrate on more important matters.

“What’s that?” snapped Emerald suddenly.

Peridot turned. “What is what?”

“The scrap of paper you have affixed to the wall. It is of our enemies,” growled the dark green gem, her stone glowing as if she was going to summon her weapon.

“Enemies?” echoed Peridot, rising. “I am not your enemy. I am in search of an alien entity that can—help me with a problem. Another gem I met gave me that scrap to guide me there.”

“That alien is not what you think it is,” began Emerald, but stopped. “You are being deceived to join their cause.”

“You have clear bias against it, as you are from the opposing side,” said Peridot. “But do not think your words have no effect on me. I am still thinking this matter over. It is personal to me.”

Emerald remained tense for several more moments, then relaxed, looking abashed. “Apologies if I offended. I’m in a terrible state.”

“You did just regenerate,” said Peridot, spinning her chair back around.

“True,” Emerald agreed.

They entered a new solar system, the sensors displaying that this was in fact the correct one. They passed by two small barren planets before encountering a lush green and brown one. Emerald glowered out the viewing screen and made a distasteful noise under her breath. “That’s the enemy’s homeworld.”

“It is magnificent,” said Peridot.

“It’s a death trap.”

Peridot sighed and pushed the ship forward, past the planet. Three planets ahead of them was a space station orbiting a large, pock-marked world. This space station was larger and more grandiose than any space station Peridot had seen or heard of. Another spacecraft was sitting outside it.

The communications panel signaled. Peridot answered.

“Unidentified spacecraft, please identify,” said a voice.

Peridot prepared to answer when Emerald leapt up. “Kyanite! Kya, is that you?”

“Emerald?” the voice exclaimed. “You are alive?”

“Yes! Citrine and I were rescued by this brave pilot here.”

There was a moment of silence, and then Kyanite said: “Unidentified spacecraft, please prepare to be brought aboard.” She paused. “Thank you.”

The larger spacecraft appeared to engulf Peridot’s as it was pulled into the shuttlebay aboard. Emerald and Citrine’s bubble disembarked as soon as they were given permission to do so, but Peridot put on her cloak again before leaving her ship.

“What happened to Citrine?” asked Kyanite, hurrying over to Emerald and the bubble. “Why hasn’t she regenerated?”

“Her gem is cracked,” said Emerald. “She needs medical attention from Rose Quartz as soon as possible.”

“Right. I’ll arrange for that.” Kyanite noticed Peridot and smiled broadly. “Thank you again for rescuing these two. The rest of us will doubtlessly wish to praise you further. If you are comfortable, would you like to come along?”

Peridot nodded once. Kyanite’s smile widened and she led Peridot and Emerald to the main bridge as Citrine’s bubble was carried off to a safer place.

The space station loomed ahead as the ship prepared to dock aboard. Peridot carried her stun weapon under the cloak, concealed for emergencies. Kyanite turned from her station and looked at Peridot.

“I like your visor,” she said. “I’ve never seen one like it before.”

The technician blinked and tapped the visor on her face. It had been there so long she had forgotten entirely about it. “Thank you,” she said at last.

Kyanite gave her a friendly nod and resumed her duties. There was a small crowd assembled inside their docking station. Peridot counted around forty-six gems, an activity that took mere seconds to complete.

“I’m home,” said Emerald. “I thought I would never see this place again.”

As Peridot, Emerald, Kyanite, and a handful of others ambled out of the ship, the crowd grew larger. A dark blue gem near the front was the first to come near.

“Lapis!” exclaimed Emerald, running forward. “Did you miss me?”

“Sure, but you weren’t gone that long, Em,” said Lapis, smiling.

“It felt like forever,” Emerald replied, sounding mildly put out.

The Lapis Lazuli gem shifted her attention to Peridot. “Who are you?”

“Officer Peridot,” said the owner of the name.

“Not much of a talker?”

“Not with strangers.” Peridot stepped a pace back to gain some distance between herself and any of the new gems.

“What’s going on here?” asked a new voice. A tall white gem pushed herself to the edge of the crowd. At her arrival, Lapis and Emerald exchanged a glance and each took a small step back.

“Emerald?” asked the new gem. “Are you the only survivor?”

“No, Pearl.” said Emerald. “Citrine survived but she cracked her gem. She needs Rose Quartz.”

Pearl investigated the bubble and then passed it along to the gem standing next to her with a whispered command. Then she looked over at Peridot. “You are not from this space station. Who are you?”

“She says her name’s Officer Peridot,” interjected Lapis.

“Is that true?”

“Yes,” said Peridot.

“How are you connected to these gems? Are you from the rebel homeworld? What is your purpose in visiting us?” asked Pearl, each question punctuated by a step forward until she was only inches from the technician gem’s face.

“Enough, Pearl,” said a second voice, cool and collected. “Leave her alone. We will have time to ask questions later.”

“Garnet?” asked Pearl, turning around. “Oh. Apologies. I overstepped.”

“It’s all right,” said Garnet. She was a tall gem, pink and maroon with gauntlets on her hands and a pair of shades akin to Peridot’s visor over her eyes. There was a definite air of command about her. “Welcome to Space Station X-019, Officer Peridot.”

Chapter Text

After Peridot’s ship was giving a proper station in the dock, Garnet led Peridot into the space station. Peridot had let down her hood at last, but kept the cloak wrapped around her to conceal the strange rust. The crowd of gems had dispersed once Garnet began to converse with Peridot, and few remained lingering in the hallways.

“You have an organized system here,” noted Peridot. “Everyone has a job and a place to be at any given time.”

“This station requires one hundred percent organization at all times,” said Garnet. “We rely on each other to succeed.”

They stopped in the observation lounge and looked out at the planet they were orbiting. Peridot noticed an explosion in the far north, and a new crater emerged.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“We are a resource-gathering station,” explained Garnet. “We supply Homeworld with whatever it demands—usually metal, minerals, and other substances that can be used for advancing technology.”

Peridot tensed up, her rust-corrupted fingers curling into a fist involuntarily. “I see.”

Garnet watched, unblinking, as another hole was blasted in the surface of the planet. “Homeworld has also tasked us, along with three other stations, to begin claiming and reclaiming outcast planets.”

The technician grimaced. “That sounds unpleasant.”

“It’s a tedious process. So far we have managed to regain three planets. Our fourth attempt failed—which was unusual.” Garnet looked at Peridot. “It was on a planet of gifted engineers and programmers. Technos, as I believe it is called.”

“Ah,” said Peridot, her face inexpressive.

Garnet turned away from the view and left the room, talking all the while. “It is a meaningless place, anyhow. Left the Homeworld alliance years ago. I don’t understand why they want us to take it back.”

“I do not understand it either,” said Peridot, attempting to uncurl her hand with no success. “Yet I disagree with the idea of destroying other worlds for the gain of an individual planet. It is a selfish notion.”

“I have little say in the matter, unfortunately. I am under strict orders.”

“If a planet can escape Homeworld, then a station can, too.”

“Are you suggesting we disobey Homeworld?”

“If you take it that way.”

Garnet chuckled. “I like that idea.” She hesitated before continuing with: “So, what’s your story? What brought you to wander space?”

“I left my planet,” said Peridot quietly. “To escape a shameful death.”

“Is this the explanation for why you travel alone?”

“Yes.” Peridot managed to relax her fingers. “I do not want anyone else with me.”

“You are welcome to stay in the station as long as you wish,” said Garnet. "We will do our best to provide for what you need."

A red light flashed overhead, and the distant sound of energy pellets was heard smashing against the exterior of the station. For a moment, Peridot thought of the pilot, and then Garnet spoke.

“I must go," Garnet said. "We are under attack. Stay somewhere stay.”

She turned and hurried down the hall. A gem with a metal cylinder under one arm approached from the opposite direction. Peridot stepped out of the observation deck and looked about. Despite her natural urge to investigate the trouble, she turned away and followed the other gem.

“It’s just the three smaller ships from earlier,” reported Pearl once Garnet entered the room.

“If they want to finish this fight,” said Garnet, “by all means, I’ll finish them.”

“Shall I accompany you?” Pearl asked.

“No. Stay here.” Garnet put her hands on Pearl’s shoulders. “I need you to make sure no other attackers arrive.”

“I will do my best,” Pearl said, a determined smile crossing her face.

“Thank you.” Garnet spun around and walked out of the room.

 There was a ferocious banging noise overhead that echoed throughout the station. The intercom system crackled; then:

“Lost visual on all three ships. Repeat: negative visual on all three ships.” A pause. “Hatch Guard Selenite please respond.”

There was silence across the station. Peridot was sitting in a lounge room located on one of the upper deck reading an archaic paperback book. Lapis Lazuli and Emerald were at a table several feet away, talking between themselves. Several other gems filled the room with quiet chatter.

“Hatch Guard Selenite—” said the communications operator, a note of concern in their monotone, “—Selenite—please respond—what is happening?”

Lapis Lazuli glanced up at the ceiling. “I think her comm device is off.”

“The banging noise earlier could have been a malfunction,” said Emerald.

“True.” Lapis glanced over at Peridot, then back at Emerald. “I wouldn’t want Hatch Guard duty. Too stressful.”

“And isolated.”

Something moved upstairs, heavy yet swift. Peridot dragged her gaze off the pages and to the ceiling like Lapis and Emerald. The chatter became curious mumbles.

“Visual on two of three ships confirmed,” said the operator. “Location of third ship unknown.”

The pounding grew louder. All of the gems in the lounge rose, on high alert. Emerald summoned her weapon—a reinforced wooden stave—and held it out in front of her. Peridot and a helmeted gem approached the door.

“Be careful,” Lapis said.

“I am,” returned Peridot. She opened the doors and looked out. No one was in the hallways. The noises grew closer—and then someone or something appeared at the end of the corridor. They were a whirling ball of white and orange, unrecognizable and yet familiar. The ball shot towards them until it was yards away, then the gem inside appeared and continued forward on foot.

It was the pilot from earlier, tall, arrogant, and determined. She swung out with one fist at Peridot, who dodged it with little room to spare. The gem made another attempt to hit the technician, and this time managed to graze the side of the green gem’s head, snapping her visor in two.

“I do not wish to engage in combat!” said Peridot, avoiding a third punch. “I—”

The gem made an aggressive, contemptuous noise and shot forward again. There were shouts coming from that direction and Peridot turned to see a cluster of guards trying to fight the significantly larger warrior.

“Are you all right?” asked the helmeted gem.

Peridot took the pieces of her visor off her face and examined it. “I am quite fine.” She around at the other occupants of the lounge. “Who was that?”

“Gem warrior,” said Emerald. “From the enemy’s homeworld. She’s here for Garnet.”

“I need to talk to her,” Peridot said, half to herself and half to her company.

“What?” cried several of the gems, visibly shaken.

Peridot tucked the visor into her cloak pocket and ran down the hallway after the guards. It took only a minute or two for her to reach them. They had gathered in an empty docking station and there were many more gems present now, both civilians and security enforcers. The warrior was nowhere to be seen.

“Where are you Jasper?” called Garnet from the center of the room, her gauntlets summoned. “Don’t play games with me. I know you want to fight—come out and do so!”

Peridot saw the warrior then, crouching on a balcony near the ceiling. She had no idea how Jasper had managed to get herself up there, but she was clearly watching and waiting. Then she stood up, orange helmet gleaming in the bright artificial light.

“Do not fight!” shouted Peridot, pushing through the crowd. The symbol of Jasper’s homeplanet was all-too visible on her shoulder. She had possible answers for Peridot, and that was what mattered. “Wait!”

“What are you doing?” snarled a voice. Someone grabbed Peridot’s shoulder and spun her around. It was Pearl, holding a spear in one hand. “Have you finally revealed your true intentions?”

“Let her do what she wants,” said Garnet, holding up her fists. “This is between me and Jasper.”

Pearl began to drag Peridot off, away from the crowd and the impending fight. “Go back to your ship and let us solve our own problems.”

“This problem is now mine, too,” hissed Peridot, yanking away from Pearl’s grasp.

The other gem gasped, then gripped her spear and pointed it at the technician. “How dare you!”

Peridot used the fingers on her non-corrupted hand to form a longsword and blocked Pearl’s first strike with that. The energy field of the sword buzzed and began to eat away at the spear’s crystalline structure. Pearl pulled her weapon away and swung again. Blocked. And again. Peridot took a step back.

The crowd behind them made a variety of surprised noises. Peridot looked behind her for a split-second, then heard the whistle of the spear as it descended again. She parried it just in time, the point mere inches from her gemstone. Then she grabbed it with her corrupted hand and snapped the weapon in half. Pearl’s expression went blank as her weapon disappeared in a puff, and she gaped wordlessly.

“Stay out of my business,” Peridot said. She turned and entered the crowd again, shoving aside other gems. She had to get to Jasper. It was her one chance to attain answers about the alien entity and her own salvation.

Garnet and Jasper were absorbed in ferocious combat. Both of them were fighting with fists, and although Garnet was shorter than the orange gem, she was far more controlled with her strikes. Peridot took a deep breath and pressed to the forefront of the crowd. Her longsword was still summoned, it hovered and flickered next to her leg.

Jasper crashed against the wall of the docking station, creating a massive indentation. She slid down the now-uneven surface but caught herself before hitting the bottom. Garnet began to approach her. Peridot seized the opportunity and rushed between the two gems, longsword point in the vague direction of Garnet.

“No more,” said Peridot. “Let me have her.”

Jasper rose then, breath coming in fast and shallow. She seemed to prepare herself for something, and then Peridot transfigured her other hand into a sword, attention diverted from Garnet. The tip of the new weapon pressed against Jasper’s gemstone with a soft clink. The blade of the weapon was cutting in and out of existence, and strange dark lines broke across it. The rust was starting to affect even her external attributes now.

“What happened to your hand?” asked Garnet.

Peridot frowned, her concentration divided between the two gems on either side of her. “This is why I left. This corruption will kill me if I do not find aid.”

Jasper snarled and bit down on the blade of the sword. The weapon shorted out, then reformed, then disappeared, sending Peridot’s fingers back to their original positions. She froze, aware of her sudden vulnerability. Then she grasped the stun-weapon at her waist and pulled it out. She turned it on Jasper first, as she posed the most obvious threat, and then to Garnet, who would undoubtedly stop her from continuing onwards.

The crowd murmured with alarm as the two gems collapsed. Peridot caught Garnet over one shoulder, slinging her arm around her midsection and de-summoning the longsword in the same motion. Jasper fell halfway to the floor. Peridot managed to put her other arm around her.

Kyanite emerged from the crowd. She took in the scene and strode forward. “Give me Garnet.”

“Here,” said Peridot, passing the station leader off. “I apologize.”

The blue gem said nothing, her expression also said nothing.

“I will take Jasper,” continued Peridot, addressing the assembled crowd, “and depart. Where is docking station 4?”

Someone pointed. Peridot nodded once and then began to lift Jasper into her arms.

Emerald stepped forward suddenly, holding a gun in her hands. “Stop right there, Officer!” She spat the word. “I knew something was off about you! You’re…one of them!”

Peridot offered no reply. She adjusted Jasper in her arms and took a few steps forward. The big gem was strikingly light in her arms. Strange.

“Don’t move!” shouted Emerald. She held the gun up as if she was going to shoot. Lapis Lazuli tugged at her arm, trying to dissuade her friend. The trigger clicked and a blast of energy shot out of the muzzle. Emerald crashed backwards into Lapis.

The energy bullet cut through Peridot’s chest just below her collarbone. She looked down at the injury, saw it, but felt nothing. It wasn’t registering. She kept stumbled forward, corrected herself, and continued walking, determined to leave.

“By Yellow Diamond,” said a gem from the back of the crowd.

Peridot stalked down the long hallway to the next docking station over where her ship was. Fluid poured down her chest and across both her midsection and Jasper. Still nothing, no pain, no shocked system. She shifted Jasper in her arms, making sure the gem was secure.

Her ship was silent inside. Peridot put Jasper on the ground and slumped into her command seat. The communications panel beeped.

“We can’t let you out,” said the operator.

“I’ll let myself out,” answered Peridot. She didn’t come from a genius planet of programmers, technicians, and hackers for nothing.

“What—how—are you—what—?” spluttered the operator as the doors began to creak open.

Peridot continued to override the system with her own ship. It was not a difficult process—the station's technology was crude and easily accessible even through a remote device like the ship. When it was open enough for Peridot to squeeze the ship out, she started the engines and blasted out of the space station. The doors slammed shut behind her.

Pearl kneeled next to Garnet as the station leader came back to consciousness. Kyanite stood behind them, respectful and at attention.

“What happened?” were the first words out of Garnet’s mouth.

“Are you okay?” Pearl asked.

“Fine,” said Garnet, lifting up her shades and blinking in the blazing light. “What happened?”

“Peridot…escaped…with Jasper,” said Pearl, toying with her hands. “Emerald critically injured her before she left.”

“Damn,” said Garnet. “I almost had Jasper, too.”

“You did,” affirmed Pearl. “Until Peridot stepped in.”

“I do not know what she wants with Jasper. But unquestionably—the rebels will be back.”

Pearl opened her mouth and shut it. Then: “You’re going to let her go? After all she’s done?”

“Do not mistake my leniency for apathy,” said Garnet, sitting up and adjusting her shades. “If she returns, there will be consequences.”

Chapter Text

Jasper woke up staring at a dark ceiling, the ground beneath her humming and pulsating with energy. She flexed her fingers, acutely aware of almost every aspect of her physical form. Her gem wasn’t cracked, despite the energy sword that Peridot had brandished at her. The orange gem sat up like a piece of paper being folded.

Peridot was sitting in her chair, attempting to fight back the inevitable shutdown mode her systems were so hell-bent on initiating. Alarms flashed from every corner of her body. This wasn’t working, this was offline, and that was being flooded with pain. What was worse, the two other rebel ships were flying alongside her, too close to be anything more than an armed and wary escort.

She heard scuffling behind her and swung the chair around. Jasper was awake.

Then the technician pitched forward off her chair, hitting the floor with a metallic thump. Jasper scrambled backwards a few feet, then paused. The other gem didn’t stir.

“You alive?” she asked.

Peridot gave the faintest indication of movement.

Jasper shuffled towards her on her knees, a wary glint in her yellow eyes. “Why did you stop me?”

“The…symbol…”

“What symbol?”

“On…your ship…”

“Yeah?”

“I need—to…alien—healer.”

Jasper rolled Peridot over and grabbed the stun gun still around her waist. There was a secondary setting, marked in red. Kill. “I could end it here—save you and me both a lot of trouble.”

Peridot blinked, her vision fuzzy. “You—are…quite fascinating…”

“What?”

At the same time, the communications panel beeped. Jasper stared down at Peridot, then set the gun down and stepped over the prone gem. One of the rebel ships was on the line.

“What is happening?” asked one of the rebel gems. “The ship stopped. What are you doing?”

“Sardonyx, it’s me,” said Jasper. She glanced down at the chair and opted not to sit in it. One, it was too small; two, it was covered in whatever Peridot’s excuse for blood was. Jasper cleared her throat. “The ship stopped?”

“Yes. Did you kill the gem?”

“No.”

“Can we kill her?”

Jasper looked back at Peridot and remembered her words. “No. I—she—there is more to it. We must take her home.”

“Oh.” The other gem sounded disappointed. “Sister, did you kill the station leader?”

“No.”

“Mother will not be very pleased.”

“I know.”

Silence filled the communications line, and then it went dead. Jasper looked out into the cosmos in front of her. Nothing but stars and planets.

Jasper leaned over the control panel of the ship and began to puzzle out how the spacecraft worked. It wasn’t too different from her own. Just buttons, panels, and a more structured layout. She pressed the button that closest resembled her own ‘engine start’ button. With a satisfying rumble, the ship started up again. There was a course plotted in. Jasper peered down at it.

It was to her homeplanet. She raised her eyebrows, but started the ship off on the course. Her sisters’ ships trailed behind.

Jasper looked back at Peridot one more time.

“You better be alive when we get there,” she said. “Mother’s going to have a lot of questions for you.”

The planet was alive only in the rustle of wind across the dry plains and the faraway footfalls of rebels walking across the bridges between settlements. Jasper put the ship down in the port nearest to the central building; her sisters following suit.

Peridot was significantly heavier than she seemed. Jasper assumed it was all the strange technology she had. She moved towards the structure at the center of the plaza and pushed open the doors with her shoulder.

Inside, there was no noise but the sound of the orange gem’s breathing and a peculiar whirring noise coming from Peridot. Jasper pulled a glowing light-stick from the holder near the front of the chamber and continued forward, towards the long pedestal at the center of the room. She put down Peridot and then the light-stick. Nothing happened. At first.

Jasper left the building to sit outside and wait. It could be a while.

It emerged from the wall, a scintillating metallic being. Its footfalls were heavy and echoed on the stone floor. It approached the dais and bent over Peridot.

A thin beam of purple light emerged from an oval indent on its forehead, bathing Peridot’s injury in lavender. The trickle of blood-esque liquid stopped. The alien straightened up then, collected the light-stick and devoured it with a mouth that emerged from nowhere. It disappeared after that, leaving behind only impressions on the floor.

Peridot opened her eyes. She was not on her ship and she was not in station X-019. Her fingers clenched and unclenched; the systems still had reports of damage but for now…she touched her chest with a slow, stiff gesture. The wound was gone.

The technician attempted to rise but fell back against the cold metal of the platform. She was weak—not everything was operative yet. As she stared up at the ceiling, Jasper entered again, carrying something in one hand.

“It healed you,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “I wasn’t sure it would do that for someone like you.”

Peridot offered no reply.

“Do you eat?”

When, again, there was no response, Jasper sat cross-legged next to the pedestal. She opened her hand, revealing small edible squares of pure nutrients. She chewed one, wincing at the atrocious taste, and then pushed one at Peridot. The technician started to chew but stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Jasper asked. She frowned. “It tastes terrible but it’s good for you.”

Peridot attempted to push the nutrient square back into her mouth. She could not work her jaw to chew it, however, and it fell out of her mouth.

“Still recovering?” Jasper picked up the square. “Figures.”

“The effort…” mumbled Peridot, “is appreciated…”

The other gem took a moment to register the remark, and said nothing back. She ground up the nutrient square between her fingers and watched it crumble to dust.

The doors to the room opened and in strode three new gems. Jasper rose from her seated position.

“I have been informed of what has happened,” said the largest of the gems. She was whitish blue in coloration, with a heavy coat of armor strapped on. “How is she doing?”

“She has been healed as far as I can tell,” Jasper said. “Do you want something with her?”

The gem brushed past Jasper and gazed down at Peridot. “Speak. Who are you?”

Peridot’s eyes opened again. “My name is Peridot.”

“What are you doing, seeking out our alien protector?”

“I was told…of an entity that could heal my injury…”

“Then you are healed. I see no mark on your form nor on your gem.”

The technician raised her hand from under the cloak, displaying the rust across her hand. It had worsened, now tainting the entirety of her wrist and some of her fingers.

“What did that to you?”

“A programmed—destructive…bot,” said Peridot, letting her hand fall back. “It would have grievously injured—my homeplanet…but I saved…it.”

“Brave of you.”

“It was my duty.”

An odd, half-grimace smile crept across the gem’s face. “Yes. When duty calls it is cowardice not to live up to your demand.”

One of the gems from the back stepped forward. She was burnt orange with white bands running down the entirety of her body. “General Tanzanite is outside.”

The gem turned around. “Let her in.”

“Chalcedony!” boomed Tanzanite, clanking into the room. “They have encroached on yet another planet. We must retaliate immediately!”

Chalcedony held up a hand. “Calm, Tanzanite. We have already attacked once.”

“Then why do I not hear of victory?”

“There was an intervention,” said Jasper.

Tanzanite scowled. “By whom? What? We should have killed that Garnet before, when we had the chance.”

“That was in the past,” said Chalcedony.

“I—” said Peridot, struggling to string the words together, “—I stopped…Jasper…from killing Garnet.”

 Tanzanite peered past the white gem in front of her. “You were the intervention?”

“I was.”

The general moved forward and stared down at Peridot. “And why were you there to stop Jasper? These events do not concern you. You wear nothing of the station and nothing of our planet.”

“I was seeking the alien. To heal—this.” Peridot showed Tanzanite the rust. “But the alien only—fixed—the superficial…injury.”

“Who gave you that?”

The question was redundant. Peridot closed her eyes again, and gave a new answer to the old question. “Garnet and the station.”

The general’s face lit up. “Then we have a common enemy!”

“That is…not all.”

Jasper put a hand on Tanzanite’s shoulder and moved her away from the invalid. “Let her be. We’ll talk later.”

The general glanced at the red hand on her shoulder and patted it off. “Very well.” She looked at Chalcedony. “What say you of a return attack?”

“We wait.”

“For how long?”

“For things to settle down again.”

Tanzanite laughed. “Your patience is strange.”

She left the room, the metal of her outfit clinking together.

Chalcedony exhaled. “She is prideful of our solar system. The damage being caused to it is devastating, yes, but…I fear we will fight to the last and kill ourselves.”

“But we are superior!” countered Jasper, holding up a fist. “We can easily crush them.”

The white-banded gem nodded in agreement. “We are fighters, every one of us. They are colonists—weak and not bred for battle.”

“Sardonyx, you underestimate them,” said Chalcedony. “But this is talk for another time. Let us go home.”

The words of the rebel gems grew faint in Peridot’s mind. Her systems began to turn off, one by one, until blackness engulfed her. The last thing that registered was the warm sensation of Jasper’s arms curling around her.

Chapter Text

Footsteps resounded through the hallways of Space Station X-019. Garnet looked up from the reports on the screen in front of her. Pearl entered with a short purple gem at her side.

“Amethyst,” said Garnet. “Hello again.”

“I have news from Homeworld,” replied Amethyst. She pulled out something akin to a short stick and passed it to Garnet. The station leader plugged it into her computer, and a message appeared on screen.

“To Space Station X-019,” read Pearl, “from Homeworld. Begin message: We have deemed it time for you to stop with planetary consumption and the exportation of materials. If the status reports we have received are true—which they undoubtedly are—then there is a much larger concern we have perceived and this must be dealt with.”

“They’re talking of the...alien on the rebel’s world,” interjected Amethyst.

Garnet gave one nod. “Yes. I know of what they speak.”

“Continuing,” said Pearl. “We have assigned this mercenary along with a small fleet of fighter ships to assist you in retrieving the Core. Report back to us when the task is completed. End message.”

She paused, crossed her arms, and said: “Now they finally take action! And it’s just to tell us to hurry up and finish what we’ve already started.”

“How many ships?” Garnet asked Amethyst.

“At least forty.”

“That is a decently sized fleet.”

“When will we strike?” Pearl said.

“Soon—quite soon.”

 Chalcedony’s compartment was elegant but not spacious. Sardonyx, Jasper, and the third gem squished inside. The maternal figure of the household began to clear a space for Peridot to lie, then stopped and pointed for Jasper to continue.

“Sard,” she said, addressing the solid dark orange gem on Sardonyx’s left. “Go and tend to the ships. Make sure they are battle-ready if the time comes.”

The auburn gem acknowledged her chore and left the compartment. Chalcedony considered Sardonyx, and said nothing. She regarded Jasper next, who was kneeling next to Peridot and fixing a grey soldier’s blanket over her.

“Jasper,” she said. “You take care of Peridot until she is ready to leave.”

“I will,” said the orange gem.

Chalcedony exited the room, gesturing for Sardonyx to follow her into an adjacent chamber.

Jasper, alone, sat down properly next to Peridot. She picked up one of Peridot’s hands and studied the digits. “You are strange,” she said. “What are you? Neither machine nor gem…but something else.”

She set the hand back down and covered it with the blanket. Jasper sighed, and rose to attend to other duties.

It was night in Peridot’s mind. Green code flashed across her vision. She rose from her stationary position and walked a few paces forward. Her feet made no sound. In the distance she could make out the form of a lanky being, standing, waiting for something.

“You are the alien,” she said, starting forward.

It remained a fixed point, getting no closer or farther away. Peridot tried to run. Nothing. She stopped, but her feet remained in motion for several more seconds.

Voices came from behind her. She spun around. Jasper was sitting next to her—not her, her body, still on the floor. The warrior was attempting to feed Peridot. Behind her stood Chalcedony, grimly looking off into the distance.

The green code grew darker, malevolent and reminiscent of the markings on her sword. The alien burst into appearance in front of Peridot, lit up in a familiar purple color, and she tripped over backwards. The moment she hit the ground, the darkness disappeared, and pain shot up her right arm.

The planet was bathed in shadow, moonlight drops sliding across the floor like soap bubbles. Peridot’s fist was clenched next to her side under the soldier’s blanket, shaking and whirring internally. She gritted her teeth and tried to ease the tension in her arm, to no avail.

At last she sat up, holding her arm with the other. It took an unusual amount of effort to rise, and when she managed to do so, her steps were wobbly and off-kilter.

Peridot staggered to the door next to the windows and opened it, stepping outside. Cold air blustered across her face, and she gazed out on the planet. It was very unlike her own—compact and dull, with squat buildings every stone’s throw. Too close together, too bland. Militant.

“It is not much,” said a voice from above. “But it is our home.”

Peridot tossed her attention upwards. Chalcedony was sitting on the roof, a silver sword lying in her lap.

“I know of your kind,” continued the white gem. “You are a technician, not a fighter. And you are also an outcast now.”

“I chose to leave,” said Peridot.

“But you have no home now.”

“No.”

“You do not belong here. And you do not belong with the station.”

“I am only seeking respite from my injuries.” Peridot looked down at her hand—her arm, rather, as the corruption had consumed it to her elbow now.

“Only,” Chalcedony scoffed. “And yet you have managed to insert yourself into a solar war.”

“It is not my fight,” admitted Peridot, “but I wish to see a more peaceful era for this solar system. And perhaps, the downfall of Homeworld.”

“You speak with malice towards them. Tanzanite would say you share a common enemy with us.”

“I speak only with malice for they were the ones who chased my people to the far reaches of the galaxy for failing them once.”

“Ah. Of course.” Chalcedony shifted position, revealing the gemstone on her side, where a sword’s scabbard would go. A wide crack split it in half.

“Your gemstone,” said Peridot. “You are severely damaged.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“Will the alien heal you?”

“No. And I will not try to receive its aid. Nor will I ever approach that station asking for help from Rose Quartz.” She growled the name.

“Then you will allow yourself to die?”

Chalcedony looked at the sword in her lap. “Yes.”

Peridot placed her hands on the metal railing that prevented her from falling out. “I suppose that is your choice. But what of Jasper and the others?”

“They will do as they want. Many of us will die. Many of us have, fighting to take back our solar system. It is a hard, bitter fight.”

“But why not move, as we did? There is no point in remaining in a war you cannot hope to win.”

In a sudden, quiet move, Chalcedony leaped off the roof and landed a few feet from Peridot, sword in hand. “You are suggesting we are weaker than that station. If I was Tanzanite, you would be dead where you stood.”

“No,” Peridot paced backwards. “I am suggesting you stop wasting your resources and lives on this. Even if you can regenerate, it is pointless.”

“That is our choice.” After a long lull of silence, Chalcedony sighed and let the weapon in her hand disappear. “I know some would agree with you. And some would not. Most, in fact, will argue with you. We are proud. We love our planet, and the remains of the other ones. We will fight till the last.”

“Is this how you raised your progeny? To fight?”

“Yes. It is who we are.”

Peridot looked down at her hand and then up at Chalcedony. “You protect the alien.”

“We do.” Chalcedony sat down on the balcony.

The technician sat down across from her. “Last night, I saw darkness and Jasper tending to me through the darkness.”

“That was not just last night. You have been unconscious—or your form of unconscious, it is foreign to me—for many days.”

“How long?”

“I am not certain, but a long time.”

“Did Jasper care for me all the while?”

“Yes. She—has taken on an unusual attitude about you. Perhaps she is learning the other side of the warrior—the healer, the warrior after war.”

Peridot nodded. “That is important to learn.”

“Yes.” She looked out at the planet’s landscape. “I hope you realize you cannot stay here.”

“I am aware of that.”

“Then you will leave when the sun rises.”

“If I must, I will.” Peridot stood, nodded respectfully, and reentered the compartment, shutting the door behind her.

Jasper was lying on the couch against the wall. She opened her eyes and watched Peridot as the other gem entered. “Are you healed?”

Peridot glanced over at the orange gem. “Yes. Thanks to the alien and you.”

“Good,” said Jasper. She rolled over and faced away from Peridot.

Peridot lay down on top of the blanket and let her system fade into sleep mode. Tomorrow she would be on the move again.

Chapter Text

Dawn came over the charcoal planet, washing away the night with gentle laps of orange and yellow waves across the sky. The compartment was silent. Peridot woke, her visual system taking a moment to kick in. Her arm was no longer painful, the internal workings quiet, almost as if brooding over something. With a soft grunt Peridot came to her feet and studied her surroundings. They were barren of other gems at the moment.

“You are awake,” said a voice behind her.

Peridot moved to face her company. Sardonyx stood in the doorway, arms stiff at her sides. Neither gem said anything, until the warrior cleared her throat and continued with, “I’ve been instructed to guide you to the outside orbit of the moon. From there—”

“—I go alone,” finished Peridot. “Understood.”

“Your ship is this way.” Sardonyx spun around and strode down the hallway.

Peridot stumbled her first few steps forward. “My—movement systems are not very strong—” she muttered, waiting several long seconds as they recalibrated. Her next movements forward were stronger; still a struggle to maintain balance but better.

Sardonyx looked back. “Are you coming?”

“Yes.” Peridot took longer strides to catch up. They passed through the foyer and out into the planet. Out here it was tranquil in an almost unnerving sense.

“Where are the rest of the gems?” Peridot asked.

“Elsewhere,” said Sardonyx.

The technician scowled. “That is a very definite answer.”

“Elsewhere,” repeated the orange and white gem. “Preparing.”

Peridot didn’t press the question of “for what?”

There was a spacecraft parking bay up ahead. The two gems crested a shallow hill and looked down at it before continuing onwards. Sardonyx keyed in a passcode at the door and held it open for Peridot. Inside were parked a variety of ships—all of them somber grey and black, unlike the red and silver ones of before, with the insignia stamped boldly on their sides.

“Your ship is there,” said the warrior, pointing. It was hard to miss—dark green and white against the ashen hues of the others. Peridot checked the ship out from the outside—seemed fine—and then entered. The robonoids were as they should be. Everything seemed in-place, excluding the gem version of blood still staining the chair and floor. She would have to clean that later.

“Your things, too,” added Sardonyx.

Peridot noticed her cloak hanging from a small hook in the wall. She tugged it off and wrapped it around her body again, feeling more of herself again in its folds. There was something heavy in one of the pockets. She took out her visor, repaired with a crude form of something akin to the robonoid salve, and a small black bag. Peridot crinkled it in her hand and heard a noise like the nutrient wrappers from before.

Sardonyx cleared her throat once more. “I will be in my ship.”

“Wait,” Peridot said. She opened the storage compartment on her left arm and removed the computer-chip necklace. “Here.”

“What is this?” asked the other gem, taking the adornment in her large hand. “A decoration?”

“Give it to—give it to Jasper. It is a token of thanks,” said Peridot. Mentally, despite herself, she added: May she remember me by it, too.

“I will.” Sardonyx’s fingers closed around it. “Now. It is time.”

The roar of the two spacecrafts preparing for flight echoed around the domed room. Sardonyx inputted another code and the main hatch doors slid open, revealing the pastel blue sky. Peridot launched first, followed by the orange-and-white gem. They hovered for a moment above the city and then ascended to the atmosphere.

As was foretold, Sardonyx led Peridot to the planet’s sole moon and then dropped back, letting the technician continue on without her. Peridot set a course for the space station. Better there than…nowhere.

“Nothing?” asked Jasper. “Still?”

“Patience,” said Chalcedony. “They will move in when they choose.”

“All this waiting is making me uneasy. Do they think we will grow bored and leave, thus providing an undefended base? The fools!” Jasper ground her teeth together. “I do not like those station gems.”

“None of us do,” said Sard, toying with the gun in her hands.

Sardonyx came sprinting up the stairs in the observatory. The other gems assembled there turned to face her.

“Has Peridot gone?” asked Chalcedony, taking her hand off the gigantic telescope in the middle of the room. Jasper seized it and peered through the lenses, teeth bared in a disapproving frown.

“Yes.” Sardonyx opened her hand, which still held the necklace, preserved and undamaged. “Jasper.”

“What?” She stepped away from the telescope, muttering about how pitiful the space station troops were.

“This is for you.” Sardonyx extended her open palm.

Jasper’s brows knitted together and then she widened her eyes. “From…Peridot?”

Her clutch-mate offered a nod in response. Jasper took the necklace and studied it. Then with some effort she managed to string it around her neck.

“A warrior is not supposed to wear frivolous decorations,” said Chalcedony.

“It’s not frivolous,” said Jasper.

Chalcedony let something like a smirk slip through her mask. Jasper pulled her attention back to the telescope hastily, although there was nothing new to report.

“How many have gathered?” asked Sardonyx, moving to stand next to Jasper.

“I count forty-three. Of those, two carry the station’s symbol, one is purple and unrecognizable, and the remaining forty are from Homeworld.”

“Ach.” Sardonyx crossed her arms. “We have superior numbers.”

“Tanzanite will lead the first attack one the battle begins,” said Chalcedony.

“Let us go with her,” Jasper said. “I would rather fight than loiter here.”

“Is that as wise a decision as you think it is?”

“Let us fight,” agreed Sardonyx. “We want to fight.”

Sard set the gun down. “You are injured. We are not. We would serve as better fighters on the front line.”

Chalcedony looked over her progeny with a stern but proud gaze. “Your zeal to defend our planets is admirable. Go and fight if you want. I will not stop you.”

Jasper grinned ferociously. “Thank you.”

The other two gems nodded appreciatively. Chalcedony watched as they left, and turned back to the telescope.

“I don’t like this,” she muttered. “Something’s wrong.”

Peridot passed through the solar system on the far side of the route she had originally taken. As she passed the planets she had so briefly glanced at before, the technician noticed the craters and gaping wounds carved into the planet surfaces. It was such an unusual situation. Peridot frowned as a sudden group of ships approached her, all bearing the symbol of Homeworld.

The communications panel beeped. Peridot opened the channel and promptly regretted it.

“Intruder—off with you! This is strictly Homeworld business!” shrieked a gem on the other end. Peridot switched off the panel as energy bullets began to fill the air in front of her. She maneuvered through them and fired back. Her eyebrows lowered and her mouth set in a tight, curving downwards line. Now was not a good time to fight her.

The first ship went careening through space after a direct hit to her secondary engine. In a matter of seconds only rubble drifted behind. Peridot shot off through the mess, aware that the Homeworld fighters would undoubtedly follow her.

She circled around a planet, keeping high enough above the atmosphere to avoid the pull of its gravity. Two of her pursuers reappeared in front of her, guns locked on Peridot. She headed off, feeling the ship shudder as the energy bullets scraped too close against its hull. The technician pushed her ship towards the space station, hoping for a sanctuary there, perhaps a rest or defense.

Alas, no. The station was beleaguered by more Homeworld ships. The defenses on the station itself were weak and doing little against the besiegers, but the structure itself seemed to being holding true. The communications panel beeped. Peridot flicked it on with one detached finger, feeling a buzz shoot up her arm as she gave the command to move it away.

The message was garbled, static shot through it at times:

Send word—to Garnet—help us—we are—situation critical—dire need of—assistance—she should be—planet four—find—her.

Peridot gritted her teeth as another shock ran up her arm. She reattached the finger, feeling the pains subside. The panel went silent. A prerecorded message. The green gem twisted her ship around towards the planet she had just left, on a different route. If Garnet was out of the station, there were only a few options to where she was heading.

She did not like the prospects of any of them.

Chapter Text

The energy bullet came out of nowhere, slicing through an auxiliary system and shutting the ship down in a matter of seconds. Peridot made a frustrated noise and channeled the remaining power of the spacecraft to the weaponry. The oncoming ships—there were five of them—approached from different angles and at varying speeds. The first one fired towards Peridot; she diverted power to the shields and blocked the hit just in time. Within seconds she had returned fire, cutting off a protruding wing of the ship. It veered sideways, red lights flashing inside.

There was only a miniscule chance Peridot could manage to fend off her opponents in her current situation. She detached several fingers and paired them up on certain controls. Her arms shook but she pushed past the tactile distraction and concentrated on staying alive.

It was not a good situation to be in. Immobile, helpless, Peridot’s ship drifted in space. She had to deploy a robonoid or two to inspect the engines, but right now—that was for later. The second ship scored a hull abrasion against the top of the ship. The entire craft rocked. Shields had come up too late; now Peridot gave back spitfire of her own, causing the other gem to perform an evasion maneuver that sent her spiraling away into the atmosphere of a nearby planet.

“Come on,” she muttered as the other fighters milled about. She tentatively lowered the shields and fired off another round. One ship exploded. The others scattered. Peridot raised the defenses again and summoned her fingers back to her. The rust-corruption had marked bands up and down almost the entirety of her arm. She didn’t have much time left.

The technician crouched next to the pile of robonoids and activated them. They stood up and tottered a few steps before Peridot put a hand out to stop them. She picked one up and switched its mode to internal repairs. Of the group, two joined Peridot at the console and began to toy with the controls. She sat in the chair, face void of emotion.

All of the sudden, a monstrous ship slunk towards her from the starboard side, escorted by several smaller ships. Peridot sat up, but the ship did not have the emblem of Homeworld emblazoned on its side. Communications chirruped.

“Who is this?” Peridot asked, getting a word in edge-wise before the other ship.

“Officer?” asked the gem on the other side.

“Who is this?” repeated the technician.

“You’re alive? I mean—this is Kyanite.”

“What are you doing?”

“We’re circling around these planets to gain a vantage point on the rebel homeworld, per Garnet’s orders.”

“You are attacking their homeworld?”

“Garnet’s received commands from our Homeworld.”

“How long have you been away from your station?”

“Quite a while.” There was a noise like Kyanite was laughing. “Why?”

“It is under attack.”

“What?” Kyanite gasped, all amusement cut from her voice.

Another communications cut in. “She lies,” said a peeved voice. “Shut off communication.”

“I do not,” insisted Peridot. “I was just attacked by several Homeworld vessels.”

“They could have come from anywhere,” said the voice.

“I was trying to go to the space station for help—I was outnumbered significantly—but there was an even larger threat present there, so thusly I fled from it. I was incapacitated out here.”

“Is the station all right?” asked Kyanite.

“Of course not!” said Peridot.

Kyanite’s voice grew faint. She sounded as if she was addressing the rest of the ship. “…we must turn back…go home…help out—I know—what a betrayal—hurry!”

“You can’t go back!” snarled the voice. “You’re under direct orders.”

“Those are our people!” Kyanite burst out.

“Kyanite,” said Peridot, “will you allow me to station my ship on board your vessel? I am incapable of moving at all.”

“Yes, of course,” said Kyanite. She shifted her emotions back to the voice. “I don’t care what’s going on—we need to get back to the station!”

Peridot felt the ship be tugged towards the much larger spacecraft by tractor beam. Just as before, she was pulled aboard and docked. The communications cut out in the middle of the argument. Good. She didn’t want to hear them bickering.

Kyanite was standing in the entryway of the spaceship bay, arms crossed. Her armor glinted in the artificial lighting, and a gun sat in its holster at her side. Peridot disembarked, her affected arm under the cloak again.

“What’s the damage?” asked the blue gem.

“A few auxiliary systems went out, but they affected the main engines as well. There is also considerable hull damage,” said Peridot. “My robonoids will handle it.”

“Do you need a new vehicle?”

“Yes.” Peridot looked around. “I assume all of these are—”

She stopped once her gaze lighted on a familiar ship: ash-colored with black striping. The insignia was partially hidden, but she still recognized it.

“You have one of them as prisoner,” she said.

“One of them?” echoed Kyanite, following Peridot’s gaze. “Oh. Yes. An orange soldier gem. She’s being held on the lower decks.”

"I see." Peridot narrowed her eyes. “Garnet, you say, is on the rebel homeworld?”

“Yes—why?”

“I have to speak to her.”

“Is this about the space station?”

“Among other things. I believe I can help in this crisis.” Peridot turned back to face Kyanite. “Orange gem—were there others? A white-striped one? What about Jasper?”

Kyanite blinked. “There were lots all around us—a whole fleet. We were in the back lines. The mercenary ships were in the front—they were…utterly destroyed…and then we stepped in…I think I might have seen a couple of other orange gems. We only managed to capture this one.”

An image of Jasper’s ship being blown apart flashed through Peridot’s mind—she pushed it aside hastily. “Let me take Sard—the orange soldier and her ship back to the rebel homeworld.”

“You want us to free her?”

“Yes, did I not make that clear?”

“Perfectly clear—and absurd.”

There was heavy clanking behind the two gems. A group of solemn looking warriors marched towards them, the Homeworld mark stamped on their chests.

“What brings you here?” Kyanite inquired. Subtly, she put a gloved hand on her gun. “You are supposed to be escorting.”

“We are here to remove the foreigner,” said the foremost gem, pointing a finger at Peridot. “She does not belong here.”

“We have business with her,” Kyanite explained. “Her ship has been damaged by your affiliates.”

“She lies!”

“I do not tell lies!” growled Peridot. She curled her fingers up and felt thrumming power flow through her hand. “I need to take a ship to the planet Garnet is attempting to conquest. I can talk to Jasper and the others.”

“And do what? Tell them all of our secrets?”

“I know none of your secrets. You keep them well-hidden.”

“Flattery can’t save you.” The leader turned to her band. “Lock them both up and call the rest in. We must initiate Code 66.”

Kyanite seized her gun and fired it off twice. One of the energy pellets blazed through the form of the leader gem and the other bounced off the wall, ricocheting into the ground. The Homeworld gem screeched as she promptly disintegrated, her gem clattering against the metal floor.

“You heard her!” said another gem, a second-in-command by looks of her attitude. “Get them!”

They fanned out as they approached. Kyanite passed Peridot something rectangular and small.

“Call for reinforcements. I don’t trust your plans, but maybe we can try and stop this mess before it’s too late,” she whispered.

“Acknowledged,” answered Peridot. She looked down at the box in her hands. It had a little red button on the bottom and something analogous to a speaker at the top. She pressed the button.

Static crackled, then settling, then voices.

“Emergency operator Zircon here,” said a low voice. “What’s the issue?”

“Reinforcements needed on…” Peridot glanced around for an identifying marker. “…spaceship bay ten. Immediately.”

“Who is this?” Zircon said.

“Peridot, under Kyanite’s orders.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“You must.”

Kyanite bumped into Peridot and glanced at her. “Well?”

“Who are you?” repeated Zircon.

“Kyanite!” yelled the owner of the name. “Just send reinforcements, Zircon!”

“Right away,” reported the operator. The line went dead, and the box began to smoke in Peridot’s hand.

The station gem spun around and engaged one of the Homeworld gems in combat. Peridot dodged a volley of energy balls. The box continued to heat up.

“Throw it!” snapped Kyanite. As her enemy turned into a gem, she snatched it in midair and tucked the small object into a slot on her armor. “It’s primed to detonate after communication!”

Peridot hurled the miniature explosive at the second-in-command, who flinched and blocked it with her gemstone shield. The technician stepped aside to avoid a return blow. Kyanite grabbed Peridot’s arm and dragged her through a break in the formation of the Homeworld gems. They went to the doorway.

“The orange soldier is kept on deck thirty-four. The passcode for the cell block is 6784 and for her cell—it’s—” she paused and shot at their enemies. “—it’s 0993.”

“You are letting me free her?”

“Yes—now go! Come back here when you are done if the whole place doesn’t go up in battle.” Kyanite shoved Peridot into the hallway and turned back to the remaining six Homeworld gems. “Let’s keep this—civil, now, shall we?”

Peridot could hear the gunfire as she sprinted down the hall, her strides long and clunky. There were no other gems in the corridors. She reached the end, where there was a T-junction and an elevator. The technician stepped inside the elevator. She was on deck thirteen. Deck thirty-four—there was the button. She pressed it, and the elevator shot downwards.

Three guards were standing outside the cellblock. Peridot expected them to stroll towards her with casual malice, which they did.

“Hold,” said a red gem. “State name and rank and business.”

“Officer Peridot, formerly of the planet Technos, under orders from Kyanite to release a particular prisoner.”

“We didn’t hear of any such orders. Nor of any such officer like you on this vessel.”

“They were urgent. Passing a message by mainstream communications would have taken too long,” said Peridot. Bluffing, not lying, she told herself. “And I am not a stationed officer.”

“Hmmmm,” said the second gem, crossing her arms. “All right. Input the passcodes. We’ll be watching…closely.”

The technician slipped past them, tapped in 6784, and continued. Sard wouldn’t be hard to find—a big orange warrior gem amongst rows of dull gems with tired expressions and even some empty cells. Peridot, on a whim, inspected a seemingly empty one.

There was nothing but a gemstone inside.

She moved on.

“Sard?” Peridot asked, coming up to the cell with Chalcedony’s offspring.

“What?” The gem stared at Peridot. “You? What are you doing here?”

A red alert whooped overheard. Some remote part of the technician hoped Kyanite was handling herself well enough. She pressed in 0993 on the door of Sard’s cell. “I’m rescuing you. We need to talk to Jasper and Garnet.”

“You didn’t have to come here and free me to do that.” Despite her caustic tone, the big gem seemed almost grateful. “Don’t you have a ship?”

“Damaged. I need you and your ship. Let’s go.” Peridot spun on her heel and, with Sard following, left the cellblock. The three guards raised eyebrows at the sight of Sard, but said nothing. The red alert continued.

The elevator was cramped with Sard in it, but it rose doggedly until deck thirteen was reached. Gunfire could be heard in the distance.

“Battle?” asked Sard.

“Your ship is in there,” said Peridot. “Hopefully, they have the Homeworld gems under control.”

“There has been mutiny. Those Homeworld gems cannot be trusted.”

“The station gems are well aware of that.”

The two hurried down the hall and into the bay. At least a dozen of the space station gems were combatting the three remaining Homeworld gems. Peridot reached for her stun gun, but found its holster empty. Right. The rebels had taken it. She summoned her sword, the green blade hissing into life from her hand.

The first Homeworld gem went down easily, caught off-guard, but the rest noticed Peridot and Sard and went on high alert. With their attention wavered from the station gems they were caught unawares by a barrage of gunfire.

“There is your ship,” said Peridot, her sword fizzling away. She turned to a station gem standing nearby. “We need to leave.”

“And you are?”

“Peridot.”

“Oh. You.” The gem frowned deeply.

“Will you open the doors for us?”

“I suppose. Do we have a choice?” The gem’s face was twisted in an odd blend of scowl and half-smirk. “Or are you going to stun us into compliance?”

“You do not.” Peridot looked down at her hip. “I do not have a stun gun, either.”

As Peridot and Sard boarded the latter’s spacecraft, the station gems cleared the floor of gemstones and weaponry that wasn’t summonable. Peridot noticed Kyanite was not among those standing. Unfortunate.

“Not bad,” muttered Sard. “Just a few scrapes.” Louder, addressing Peridot, she said: “At top speed, we’ll be able to reach the planet in just under an hour.”

“Good.”

The doors of the ship’s bay opened tentatively. A station gem waved a hand at them to signal the all-clear. Sard engaged the engines and off they shot, full power on.

“Remarkable,” said Peridot. “This ship appears deceivingly slow.”

“It’s supposed to. Chalcedony says she has won many battles by fooling her enemies into believing she was a much slower fighter.”

“It is an admirable strategy.”

“Hm.” Sard shifted in her seat. “Keep an eye on the radar, all right? I don’t want any trouble while we’re trying to get there.”

“Yes.”

To no one in particular, Sard said: “I hope the others are all right.”

“You have suffered many losses, I take it?”

“Both sides have. We underestimated the station gems. Our defense was initially strong…but then it weakened. Tanzanite was anticipating sacrifice. Chalcedony thinks there was too much.”

Peridot was silent.

“You have really entangled yourself in this,” said Sard, looking over at Peridot with. “I don’t think there’s any going back with you.”

“No.” Peridot shook her head. “There is not.”

Chapter Text

It was not easy to arrange a fleet of ships into an offensive formation when attacking a planet. Garnet rose from her seat for the third time in ten minutes to direct orders. Pearl sat behind the helm, neck craned around to look up at the station leader.

“I said—position yourselves already! We are descending in mere minutes and everything needs to be situated correctly—” barked the tall maroon gem.

“Sorry, Commander,” murmured a gem. “Having difficulties. Some systems are being uncooperative.”

“Understood,” said Garnet, rubbing at her temples. She shut off communications and looked at Pearl. “This is taking too long.”

“Reinforcements should be arriving soon, if that ship gets to their destination on time.”

“Yes.” Garnet sat down. “Those escorts better be doing their job.”

Pearl glanced at the Homeworld gem standing near the door, hands clasped behind her back, eyes staring out at the viewing screen.

“I’m sure they are,” said the white gem at last. “Amethyst promised us they would be efficient.”

“Yes. She did.”

“Formation success,” said a gem on the communications panel. “Proceed with landing?”

“Proceed,” Garnet affirmed. “Watch our flanks.”

“Small unidentified ship approaching to our starboard side!” Pearl reported suddenly, eyes flicking over the screen directly in front of her. “It is a rebel ship—it bears the likeness to the one we captured.”

“Looks like those escorts didn’t do as they promised.” Garnet frowned ever so slightly. “What’s its heading?”

“Intercept course with us.”

“Open communications.”

“Are you sure? That could prompt a hostile reaction—”

“Communications.”

Static at first, mumbling, fizzling, then:

“There you are.”

“This is Commander Garnet, of the Station X-019. We believe you to be a threat. What are you doing?”

“Peridot—you—I—go on…” There were more inaudible utterances the station gems couldn’t pick up on.

“Peridot?” repeated Pearl. “I thought she was dead.”

“I am alive, still, and quite well,” said the familiar dry voice.

“Ah,” said Garnet. “Officer Peridot.”

“Commander,” said the other gem. “I have urgent news for you.”

“Go on…”

“Your station is under attack from the Homeworld gems you supposedly created an alliance with. Not only this but the ship you sent to attack from another location has been besieged. My presence there prompted an aggressive reaction from the Homeworld gems.”

“Damn,” hissed Garnet. “I knew something wasn’t right about those orders.”

“What shall we do?” asked Pearl. “This is quite the predicament. And she could be lying.”

“I do not lie,” said Peridot. “I would have stayed to help if I could have.”

“No, I believe you,” Garnet said. “It’s entirely plausible.” She studied Pearl for a moment. “We must keep going.”

“What? What of the others, then?”

“They can handle themselves.”

As she spoke, the communications line went dead and the rebel ship shot off, zipping through the orderly ranks of Homeworld ships. A few tried to attack the fleeing gems to no avail. Garnet looked at the Homeworld gem on the bridge.

“Get her off of here,” she ordered Pearl.

“I have been assigned here,” said the gem.

“Clear the ship of Homeworld gems,” said Garnet, still addressing Pearl.

“It wasn’t supposed to end like this,” said the Homeworld gem. She broke her stiff position and summoned a mace from her gemstone. “It’s nothing personal.”

Garnet whirled around, gauntlets appearing on her fists. “This is a terrible time for mutiny, you know.”

The gem struck out, mace clanging against Garnet’s protected fist. “Homeworld is tired of your sluggishness. They want you—gone!” The last words was punctuated by vicious swing of the mace at Garnet’s face. “You have outlived your usefulness to us.”

“I thought we were just being given extra help!” said Pearl. She summoned her spear. Now the Homeworld gem was outmatched.

“You thought wrong,” snarled the gem. With sudden alacrity she turned the mace on herself, shattering her gemstone. Pearl sucked in her breath as the Homeworld’s material form dissipated and the shards of her pink and green gemstone clattered to the floor.

“Descent is going smoothly, Commander,” said the communications. “Ah…will you be joining us?”

“Yes. We’ve just had a little…problem.”

“Yes?”

“Mutiny. Don’t trust the Homeworld gems.”

The gem’s confusion was practically audible.

“Just don’t,” said Garnet, shutting off communications. She gazed over at Pearl. “We need to get down there as fast as possible. The first fifteen ships down there have many of the Homeworld gems aboard. I don't know what they're planning, but it can't be good.”

“Right.” Pearl jumped into her seat. “What do you think they want?”

“I see two outcomes for this situation—either they win over us and seize what the rebels treasure so horridly—or we are all destroyed by some power I can’t discern.”

“Sounds pleasant,” Pearl said drily. “Beginning descent.”

Garnet turned communications on for the ship. Never mind the fact that there were still Homeworld gems on her ship. The rest of the crew needed to know.

“Preparing for rapid descent to planet’s surface. Upon arrival I will select a couple dozen gems to accompany me on a specialized mission.”

Someone began to cut in with a protest, but Garnet turned off the panel. On the viewing screen, the atmosphere burned around them. It was all or nothing now, if what Garnet thought was true.

“Look at this mess,” sneered Tanzanite, leaning heavily on her club. “This city’s done for.”

“We still have a chance of victory,” said Jasper, halting beside her.

“Where’s that damned alien when you need it?” Tanzanite straightened up, involuntarily wincing with pain. “If we can just make it to the shrine…there’s our chance for victory.”

“Sardonyx?” asked Jasper, turning to her sister. “How’s our horizon?”

“Clear.” Sardonyx looked around. “From what I can tell.”

“Not the easiest place to scout around in,” noted Jasper, eyes flicking over the smoldering ruins of the city. All of their enemies had retreated to outside the perimeter of the civilization.

“Let’s go, before we lose the opportunity to contact the alien,” said Tanzanite, starting forward again.

“You should rest—” Jasper urged, taking a few hurried steps to match the general’s loping strides. “—your gem—”

“Are you going soft about this?” Tanzanite asked, sounding incredulous and annoyed.

“No!” growled Jasper. “I am merely saying that in your current condition, you should not be mobile. You run the risk of serious injury. And then where would Sardonyx and I be? Stranded, without a leader.”

“I’m fine.” Tanzanite brushed a hand over the gemstone that took the place of her left eye.

“This is too slow,” said Sardonyx to Jasper. “I will go ahead. Mother is waiting somewhere at the heart of the city. I will meet you there.”

“Be careful,” said Jasper. “We can’t afford to lose another warrior like you.”

“Hm. I will.” Sardonyx dipped her head respectfully to Tanzanite and then bounded off into the ashen gloom.

Tanzanite’s finger ran up and down the wide crack through her gem. She was fine, she told herself, perfectly fine and capable of pounding anyone into the earth.

Jasper paced next her leader, eyes scanning the area. Something caught her attention to the far left. A form, stalking towards them. Jasper clenched her fists, unsure if it was an enemy or ally.

“Let’s keep moving,” she said to Tanzanite. “I have a bad feeling about these ruins.”

“They’re very despondent,” agreed the general. The two gems continued forward, picking their way through the wreckage. Occasionally, gemstones glittered underfoot. Jasper avoided treading on any, knowing that some were most likely their own soldiers. Through the murk the white-now-grey building of the central shrine glimmered.

“There! At last!” cried Tanzanite. “Now I may heal myself and we can maybe triumph, at last!”

The form flickered at the edge of Jasper’s vision. Now there were multiple. Her knuckles went pale orange.

“Are those the reinforcements?” Tanzanite murmured, turning towards the figures. “Ah, maybe we are lucky today…”

“I don’t like this.”

“Hush. You’re a young gem. You know little.” Tanzanite leaned against the club again and waved an arm. “You there! Be you friend or foe?”

They encroached, silent as the acrid clouds puffing across the sky. Jasper pulled out the gem destabilizer at her waist, the sparks leaping between the tines.

“They are friends,” said Tanzanite. “There is little to concern yourself about here. Put that away.”

“Your state has clouded your perception.” Jasper turned to face a gem approaching from the rear. “They are not what they seem.”

Tanzanite scowled and touched her gemstone again. “No. You are mistaken.” To the gathering gems, dressed in the outfit of the rebels she cried: “Forth! To the shrine, wherein we may take strength from the alien.”

She staggered forward again, then settled in her balance and kept at it. Jasper trailed behind her, weapon still clutched in her hands. The gems strode after Tanzanite, bobbing close to the wounded general’s side. Too close. Jasper swiped at one with the destabilizer and the latter backed away, a glint of fear in her otherwise blank eyes.

Sardonyx stood on an elevated platform that might have once constituted as a balcony or bridge. She took in the situation and turned away, despite Jasper’s gestures of ‘come here!’

The shrine was badly damaged. The roof was beginning to crumble downwards and loose bits of the building trickled onto Jasper’s back as she led the way into the main chamber. She shivered without thinking and pressed forward, opening the door wide enough to accommodate Tanzanite and her club. Then, without warning, the general slumped forward, dropping to the ground. The club vanished with a soft clatter. The mysterious gems pressed close.

“Hey! Back! Off!” Jasper yelled, swinging the destabilizer. “Leave her alone!”

The gems scattered back. Some summoned their weapons. Others stood quiet. Jasper knelt beside Tanzanite and rolled the bigger gem over. The crack across the general’s gemstone had widened, exposing a practical cavern across her cheek. Jasper inhaled sharply. It would be only a matter of minutes or even seconds before corruption began. Tanzanite was volatile enough as it was.

Jasper looked up and around. Sardonyx was gone. Chalcedony was lying half-sprawled across the pedestal, sword still in her limp hand. The floor rocked gently, enough to shake more of the roof downwards.

Tanzanite stirred. The strange gems crowded close again. Jasper focused her attention on the leader lying before her and ignored their odd companions. Tanzanite’s form went white and she retreated into her gemstone for several long moments. Jasper batted away a gem trespassing on her personal boundaries.

The ground quaked underneath them, much harder than before. Jasper stumbled backwards onto the floor. The destabilizer clattered away from her; she grasped for it in vain as it slid away under the congregation of gems. Another shaking occurred as Tanzanite began to regenerate. She appeared normal at first—and then extra sets of legs burst out of her body. Her form shimmered as she turned into a boar-like creature with multiple enormous tusks and spines jutting out along her backbone. She bellowed, yellow foam frothing from her mouth. Then she spat something out, at first appearing fluid and then solidifying. The ground shook again and Jasper fell with a shout. The projectile buried into the ground inches from her face and a crystalline structure branched off it, enveloping Jasper’s shoulder.

Something whistled overhead. Jasper glanced up—saw the sinister smirk of one of the odd gems—and then blackness.

Chapter Text

Sard and Peridot narrowly avoided colliding into the planet’s surface, the bottom hull of the ship scraping against a levelled building. Sard flung open the door of the spacecraft, choking as ash and dust swirled inside. Peridot waved a hand to waft the fumes away. With a detached sense of despair and concern she noticed her entire arm was now swathed in the rust. There was nothing she could do about it, not now.

“This whole place is a ruin,” Sard commented. “There’s no way we’ll be able to live here.”

“There is a slight chance that this civilization may be rebuilt. Slight.”

“That’s what I figured.” The dark orange gem strode forward, boots crunching through metal. Peridot followed her.

“The shrine isn’t far from here,” continued the warrior. “We should make it before those station gems.”

They ran, well, Sard ran and Peridot ambled faster than usual alongside her. After a while, Sard made an irritated noise under her breath and grabbed Peridot, slinging her under one arm.

“You are a very slow runner,” she snapped. “It’ll be faster this way.”

“I was not designed to be a runner,” objected Peridot, “I am a technician, first and foremost—”

“I always thought machines would be better sprinters than gems, but I guess I’m mistaken,” interrupted Sard. “We’re almost there. I can see the tops of the buildings around the plaza.”

“Good,” Peridot said.

There was a slight elevation of the wreckage levels as they approached. Sard’s foot was briefly stuck inside a hollow cylinder but she doggedly shook it off.

“We have company,” remarked Peridot, wriggling her nonaffected arm out and pointing. “Gems.”

“Dammit!” exclaimed Sard. “Wait. Those aren’t station gems. And they’re not ours, either. What the—they’re attacking the shrine!”

Peridot thought briefly. “They must be Homeworld gems in disguise.”

“Clearly.” Sard set Peridot down. “We have the advantage of surprise. Let’s get ‘em while we can.”

“Sard!!” called a voice. Sardonyx burst out of a pile of rubble. “Found you.”

“Sardonyx!” answered her sister. “What were you doing in there?”

“Waiting.”

“For me?”

“Yes.”

“What’s happening in there?”

“I don’t know. Something’s wrong with Tanzanite. Something’s wrong with Chalcedony. Jasper is trapped.”

“Jasper is trapped?” cut in Peridot. “How?”

“Tanzanite.”

Sard looked towards the shrine. “Let’s go figure this out.”

She summoned her weapon—a long glaive—and gripped it in one hand. Sardonyx produced a long metal bat and hefted it. Peridot tried to use her sword. Nothing. The fingers remained stubbornly in place.

“I have an idea,” she said, tucking her arm behind the folds of the cloak. “The pair of you will fight off the Homeworld gems. I will go in and see what is afflicting Chalcedony, Tanzanite, and Jasper. Perhaps together we will be able to overcome the odds against us.”

“Tanzanite is corrupted,” said Sardonyx.

Sard’s eyes widened. “That isn’t good news. We have to get in there before—”

A wall crumbled before their eyes.

“Now!” yelled Sard. “Or she’ll tear the whole thing down, and then what?”

The three gems rushed forward. Peridot veered to the left, where there was an unobtrusive opening to the interior. Sard shifted her grip on the glaive and swung upwards into the first rank of Homeworld gems, catching two off-guard. The rest turned in unison and fought back using their own weaponry. Angry shouts filled the clouded air.

Peridot clambered over a chunk of the wall and stepped inside. It was much bigger than she remembered. Chalcedony lay draped over the pedestal, motionless. She was still alive or else she would not have had a corporal form. Tanzanite was hunched over on the floor, quite still except for the occasional thrashing of her limbs. Froth poured from her mouth and spikes jutted out of her skin, both large and small. Some ripped themselves off and sailed through the air, puncturing walls and gems alike. But where was Jasper?

There. Peridot could just make out the stripes on the big gem’s arms underneath an odd casing of rock. The same sort of casing was beginning to spread across the walls around the points of impact from Tanzanite’s spikes. The technician hurried forward and kneeled next to Jasper. She managed to pry off a few shards surrounding Jasper’s face and neck. It kept growing back at an alarming rate. Peridot snapped more and more off until the warrior’s face was exposed. How serene she looked, almost peaceful…then Jasper’s eyes opened abruptly. Her amber irises focused immediately on the technician.

“Peridot?”

“Jasper!” replied the other gem. “Are you—?”

Before she could get another word in edgewise, a pair of arms seized Peridot. Tanzanite. The green gem whirled her head to stare the broken general in the eye. One. The other socket was occupied by a large, half-shattered violet-blue gemstone. Then it all whizzed by as Peridot was roughly flung into the air. She skidded across the pedestal, hitting Chalcedony, and continued on to smash against the wall. The green gem lay still, cloak draped over her body.

Sard paused long enough in her ferocious battle with a Homeworld gem to shout: “Tanzanite! I know you’re in there! Stop this—!”

Tanzanite pounded against another wall and the whole structure shook.

From the pedestal, Chalcedony rose like a reluctant sunrise, her pale form trembling ever so slightly. She picked her sword up and faced Tanzanite.

“You idiot,” she growled. “You were too hasty. And now look at you. I never did believe you were as great as they say.”

Fangs exploded from her jaws and she bent double, eyes clenched in pain. Then her knees hit the floor. Fur-like covering rippled across her skin and her form became sleek and lupine.

“Mother!” cried Sard and Sardonyx together. “No!”

Chalcedony stood and stumbled forward and looked up at Tanzanite. “Release Jasper.”

Tanzanite hissed, foam spluttering from her jaws. Her jaw worked and the tusks wavered threateningly.

“Can’t even speak? Pathetic.”

Sard and Sardonyx suddenly found themselves surrounded with more gems, not just Homeworld, but also station. Weapons clashed, guns fired, fists swung with abandon. Garnet and Pearl lingered in the back, terror flashing across their expressions. Beside them, Amethyst lurked, having landed on the planet before the others. She clutched a big box to her chest.

The white warrior gem lunged forward, knocking Tanzanite backwards. Spikes shot out of the latter’s body, ricocheting through the shrine. One bounced unnervingly close to Peridot’s head and shot off again. Chalcedony pushed Tanzanite backwards, farther and farther from Jasper’s prone form.

Sard lashed out with her glaive but it was useless in the close quarters. Another gem seized her wrist and held her there. Where were the reinforcements Tanzanite had spoken of earlier? Were they all dead?

“Peridot!” commanded Chalcedony, voice harsh and forceful. “Rise!”

The green gem’s eyes opened. She clenched her hands and pushed herself into a sitting position. Tanzanite and Chalcedony were still engaged in what appeared to be an intense pushing match—but Peridot knew better. Jasper. Sard and Sardonyx were being held by station gems. Station gems! Peridot stood and leaped over the pedestal. There came gasps of surprise then, but it was for something else. The alien was walking towards the two corrupted gems with its long, gentle strides, arms swinging beside its legs. More murmurs. Peridot saw Garnet pushing to the forefront of the station gems, a heavy-looking gun in her arms. Pearl was right next to her.

The station leader took aim. Peridot froze. She did not know Garnet’s motives. But she knew the alien was not coming with intent to harm.

“Garnet! Don’t shoot it!” she shouted.

The maroon gem gave her a long look and then fired.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion. A net, not a bullet, exploded from the muzzle of the gun. The alien made an unusual, machine-like sound before shaking free of the net and continuing forward. Someone made a noise of exclamation.

Peridot’s mind buzzed in confusion. She rushed forward, past the rubbles and seized Jasper in her arms, bits of crystalline structure falling away at the rough contact. The technician threw a glance at Sard and Sardonyx, who looked back at her with quiet melancholy, and ducked behind a pillar. She began to tear away at the entrapments on Jasper’s face and accidentally brushed her fingers across the warrior’s cheek. Tender, almost, but Peridot did not consider herself tender like that. She continued to free the orange gem, rushing, snapping, pulling, hoping the alien was still walking and that Jasper’s sisters were still all right.

A thud, loud and heavy enough to shake the walls. Bits of building fell over Peridot. She wiped them off her visor and looked back. Tanzanite was on the ground…then Chalcedony beside her. The alien stood over them. A red beam began to emit from the dent in its forehead, bathing the two corrupted gems. Tanzanite was the first to succumb. Her form turned white and her gemstone exploded into tiny fragments. Then Chalcedony, too. Neither gem resisted. There was a muffled yell from a gem—either Sard or Sardonyx—and then silence. The red beam continued for several more long seconds.

There came the dreadful crack of gunfire again and a heavier metal net trapped the alien, pinning it to the ground. It crunched down on various spikes that Tanzanite had projected, and a curious fluid began to flow out from it.

Garnet rushed forward to the alien, guarded by a few gems including Pearl and Lapis Lazuli. She opened up its back and ripped something free, a strange circular orb, sizzling in the air.

Liquid sprayed across the floor and hissed. Then the corpse of the alien—no, machine—stood up, arms extended in a grotesque fashion as more fluid spurted from its center. Pearl stumbled backwards. Jasper struggled to stand but Peridot caught her, holding her and preventing the hotheaded warrior from making a rash decision.

Panic erupted across the station gems. Some fled, others tried to reach Garnet. A whole band of six or seven were lashed with the liquid and instantly killed, gemstones dissolving. Garnet clung to the core of the machine and avoided its reach.

Sard and Sardonyx pried themselves loose from their terrified captors and raced back into the building, sidestepping the pools of acid. Jasper jerked her head around, confusion flickering in her gaze.

“Where is Chalcedony? And Tanzanite? What of them? What’s happening?” she demanded.

“Mother and the general have fallen. There is no further time to explain.” said Sard. “We must leave now!”

“But the—the whatever it is!!”

Garnet tossed the core of the machine to Amethyst, who was standing by with the specialized case.

“There you are!” cried the station leader. “Now destroy this before Homeworld gets their hands on it.”

Amethyst shook her head, grinning. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t do that. I’m under orders from Homeworld, too, you see? Special mission.”

“Amethyst!” shouted Pearl, twirling her spear into a battle-ready position. “I thought you stood with us.”

“What’s happening?” repeated Jasper, twisting her face into a deep scowl. Peridot’s attention was dragged away from the other conversation. The orange warrior continued: “How long was I out?”

“We must escape,” said Sardonyx. “There’s an exit there.”

Sard began backing away towards the aforementioned exit. She grabbed Sardonyx’s arm and pulled her sister behind her, then reached for Jasper. The latter allowed herself to be tugged away. Peridot let her go and remained, watching the scene before her unfold.

Garnet stood on a small island of rubble, Pearl just feet away on another raised platform. Amethyst stood in the doorway, alone. In the distance, gems ran for the ship, yelling in hysteria. The machine plodded about the shrine, arms groping forward and liquid sloshing down its sides. The floor was already coated in the acidic substance, and it was beginning to eat away at the ground. Peridot narrowly avoided the splash as the machine passed by her, intently seeking its missing piece.

And then Amethyst turned and ran, carrying the strange orb in its case.

The owner of the orb charged forward after her, a strange grinding noise coming from its insides. Peridot stepped forward, an equal distance away from Garnet as Pearl. Her arm burned for an unknown reason, far more painful than ever before. The machine sped up. It kicked through Garnet’s ground, and without support, the station leader tumbled. Her feet plunged into the acid up to her knees. She yelled in pain before biting back her noises of agony. Pearl jumped towards her, spear tumbling from her grasp and splashing into the deadly liquid.

Garnet disappeared mere seconds later, her form replaced by two gems: one blue, one red. They spun through the air. Pearl grabbed one.

Peridot caught the other.

Chapter Text

“Jump!” Peridot told Pearl. “Now; before the rest of that platform disintegrates beneath you!”

“What do you think you’re doing?” Jasper snarled behind her.

Peridot turned around as the station gem landed beside her, trembling slightly and clutching the red gem to her chest. The technician spoke without fear of the hulking warrior: “I am doing what I think is right.”

Sard and Sardonyx bobbed impatiently at the mouth of the escape tunnel. To Peridot’s mild concern, both siblings were holding their weapons.

“You don’t have a concept of right and wrong,” spat the orange warrior. “You’re a damned robot, and all you have is your artificial brain and intellect. We don’t need you or your smarts. I don’t need you.” She spun on her heels and stormed off. The three sisters disappeared into the dark exit, Sard shooting Peridot a remorseful glare.

The technician stood in silence.

“We better follow them before this place comes down around us,” said Pearl softly. “Give me Sapphire’s gem.” She held her hand out and Peridot passed her the blue gemstone. “Let’s go.”

The three orange gems headed directly for the spacecraft parking structure. Jasper thumbed the necklace she still wore, the computer chip’s tiny surface bumps rough under her digits. Sard looked over at her.

“Did you mean it?”

“Mean what?”

“You know perfectly well what I’m trying to talk about here.”

“I don’t know.”

“We can’t let them destroy that machine-alien-thing,” chipped in Sardonyx. “That would be bad.”

“No, we can’t,” agreed Sard.

“I thought she was with us,” muttered Jasper. “And then she goes and saves Garnet, of all people. I should have known better. Tanzanite was right. I’m just a young gem.”

“You’re wiser than you think, Jasper,” said Sard, “don’t forget that. You are a great fighter and a loyal one to boot.”

“I made a mistake. I trusted someone who I barely know. And it came back in betrayal.”

“Maybe it is a misunderstanding,” said Sard. “You didn’t let her speak much.”

“I didn’t need to hear it. It’s just the same intellectual waffling people call excuses.”

“They are following us,” said Sardonyx, peering behind the trio.

“They’re not coming with us,” said Jasper. “We need to get off this planet and find that purple gem before she gets too far.”

“Agreed.”

“Jasper!” called Peridot from behind them. “Wait!”

The big soldier turned around with reluctance and contempt. “What do you want?”

“I want to explain myself,” said Peridot, approaching swiftly and stopping mere paces from Jasper.

“Speak, then, and don’t waste our time.”

“Homeworld cannot have that machine’s knowledge. It is too advanced and would put the entire galaxy at risk.” Peridot held up an authoritative hand as Jasper opened her mouth to speak. “But then, no one can have it. For to return it to its owner means another opportunity for them to seize it. You must have heard Garnet. She wanted to destroy it—”

“I will not allow that! Chalcedony, Tanzanite, and many others fell defending that alien and this world. To destroy it would mean to destroy what they fought to preserve.”

“Their sacrifice is admirable but you must understand I am simply trying to see a way out of this conundrum.”

“You are putting yourself on the very fine line of neutrality, Peridot.”

“We must destroy the machine and prevent Homeworld from ever having a chance at it. For the sake of this planet, this solar system, this galaxy…the technology it possesses cannot reach the hands of gemkind.”

“Why do you call it the machine?”

“It is one! Of ancient origins, more powerful than anything even my people could build. Homeworld wants to use it to conquer more people.”

“That cannot be.”

“Believe me! Homeworld will destroy us all if they are allowed to keep pursuing this goal.”

“We will fight them off, as we have before.”

“You have no soldiers.”

“We can rebuild.” Jasper shook her head firmly. “You don’t understand how to fight, how to think like a warrior, to know what it’s like to fight on both the winning and losing sides.”

“You are right. I do not.”

A pause. Jasper’s hand fell to her side from where she had still been absentmindedly holding the pendant. Peridot noticed yet said nothing. A peculiar sensation of affection washed over her insides. Best keep those thoughts to herself.

“You’re wrong in believing that Homeworld can best us. We’ll fight to last to protect this—machine. Alien or not, it healed and defended us, and now we must repay it.”

“You are the last that still stands. I have seen no other warriors on this planet since my arrival. They lie on the ground awaiting revival or in dust, to be blown away by the wind.”

“We will fight to take back the machine. It is our duty. I will not fail Chalcedony.” Jasper’s voice grew almost, but not entirely quite, mournful at the mention of her mother. “I refuse to let her down.”

“Then you will chase Amethyst, take the part that was stolen, and return it to the machine.” Peridot paused. “And what next? Will you be able to fight off the droves of Homeworld gems that come next? The station cannot protect you—it certainly does not want to, either.”

Sard said: “It’s growing late. We must hurry or else run the serious risk of losing this Amethyst.”

Pearl stepped forward, freezing in her tracks as the three rebel fighters swiveled their gazes to focus on her. The second-in-command cleared her throat. “I don’t know what Garnet would have wanted, truly, in the end. But if I was to assume her stance on this—I want the core and the machine gone. As much as I hate to admit it, Peridot is right. Homeworld will continue to try for the machine’s superior capabilities.”

Peridot nodded and then looked towards the rebel gems again. “Jasper…do you understand? We need to work together to end this.”

“It’s not your fight,” Jasper growled.

“I am going to die soon. All of my systems will shut down. This is one thing I would like to do before then.”

“You can’t die. You’re a gem. Don’t play that game with me. Guilt-tripping doesn’t help anyone.”

“My people gave up the ability to regenerate to advance our technology. We are more machine than gem.” Peridot stopped and looked at the sky, which was rapidly becoming dark. “If we leave now, we can catch up to Amethyst and the Homeworld gems.”

Sard grabbed Jasper’s arm and pulled her aside. “Listen to me for a moment. You’re acting very irrational right now. Peridot is offering to help us. We aren’t many, we’re weak, and we’re without a leader. Chalcedony’s gone, Tanzanite’s gone, Amazonite’s gone. I don’t really care at this point who’s with us, as long as they’re with us. We need to get that machine back. Or destroy it. Sardonyx’s at her full capacity right now, and I’m a little dazed myself. So get it together. We need your best judgement, not an opinionated diatribe.”

“Fine. Fine. Let’s go get the head,” muttered Jasper. She turned to Peridot. “We’re going after the stolen part. But if you’re with us…you follow us, okay?”

“Seems justified,” said Peridot.

Jasper exhaled through her teeth.

“And what about me—or…us?” Pearl said, glancing down at the gems in her hands.

“Go back to the station. You are most needed there, I would presume,” said Peridot.

“Our ships can only carry one passenger per,” said Sard. “The four of us” —with some reluctance she looked at Peridot— “will be able to handle this.”

“Then I must use another ship to transport myself,” said Pearl.

“Go ahead,” said Sardonyx. “Not many left to use them, anyway.”

Sard, meanwhile, had opened the spacecraft parking structure. She gestured for everyone to enter. Jasper held the rearmost position and shut the door behind them.

Sardonyx opened hatch doors and the sobering grey spacecrafts greeted them. Sard took a sleek, triangular ship and motioned for Peridot to be her passenger. Sardonyx and Jasper boarded an identical craft. Pearl hesitantly made her way towards a squat, freighter-esque ship and slid inside. There was the roar of the three spacecrafts. Sard and Jasper shot off first, closely followed by Sardonyx. Pearl lingered for a second, then joined them, albeit at a much faster pace.

“Communications line set for sister ship,” said Sard, flipping on the communications panel. “This is a private channel.”

“I can hear you,” said Sardonyx. “All clear.”

“Where do you think Amethyst will go?” butted in Jasper. “The station or Homeworld itself?”

“Speculatively speaking, I believe Amethyst would go to the space station. There she has immediate reinforcements. From there, a course to Homeworld would be definite—what is that?” Peridot’s head turned to follow the path of a small object.

“Magnification,” said Sard, squinting. “That’s the machine. It’s travelling through space after its head.”

“Amazing,” breathed Jasper. “We don’t even know what else it could do, with or without that stolen part.”

“It is an advanced being,” said Peridot. “I assume it lived on the planet long before you arrived.”

“We did find it abandoned in the shrine. That building was the only structure on the whole damn planet before we started constructing things,” said Sard.

“Looks like it’s still burning an acid trail,” Jasper remarked. “I would guess it’s not actually acid to survive in space.”

“To be honest, I do not know the principles of acids in space,” said Peridot.

A station gem ship was ripped in half as the machine carved its way through the middle of the spacecraft. Bubbled gems floated in the wreckage, some popping upon contact with the liquid. Sard shuddered, grimacing.

“Maximum speed engaged,” said Sardonyx. “At this rate, even with Amethyst’s head start, we should catch up to her long before the machine does.”

“Good, good,” Sard said. “We need to keep away from the machine.”

“But how will we destroy it?” asked Jasper.

“You are agreeing to destroy it?” Peridot said.

“Yes. No.” There was a sigh. “Look I just want to be able to go home and live a life that isn’t clouded by robots and machines and Homeworld and gems trying to destroy us for their own selfish gains.”

“To achieve that, one would need to eliminate the primary cause of said destruction.”

“That’s the machine,” Sard said.

“Yes,” agreed Jasper. Another sigh echoed through the communications line. “I will keep fighting for this planet, my people, this machine…”

“But none of us want to anymore,” said Sardonyx. “Tired. We’re tired.”

“War can be extremely draining,” said Peridot. “Not just on resources but on the fighters themselves.” She paused, then added softly: “That is one thing I may know about fighting.”

“Ship coming just into view,” said Sardonyx. “Flanked by two escort ships.”

“Homeworld, by the looks of those insignias,” noted Sard.

“Space station coming up—they’re entering the ports.”

“Go right after them,” said Jasper. “If we’re quick, we can get on board the main vessel and seize the stolen part.”

Sard tilted her head, as if Jasper could see her. “Then destroy the machine?”

“We’ll figure that out as we go along.”

“I would like to have a plan, if possible,” said Peridot.

“Not possible,” said Sard. “We’ll reach the station in two minutes.”

“Weapons?” asked Sardonyx.

“Standby.”

“I don’t have a weapon,” said Peridot.

“What about that fancy holo-sword thing you used on me?” asked Jasper.

“I am unable to summon it.”

“Broken system?”

Peridot’s gaze flicked to her arm. “You could say that.”

Jasper seemed to be absorbed in thought for a long while. The station grew closer. No one greeted them, demanding identification or granting permission for boarding. The port doors automatically opened, as if on a system, and they entered the station.

Chapter Text

Peridot stepped out, cloak fluttering around her. Jasper approached her from the other ship, holding something in her hand.

“It’s your stun gun,” she said. “I kept it. Figured now would be…an appropriate time to return it.”

Peridot took it, fingers curling around the familiar grip. “Thank you.”

“Your arm—” Jasper said in a hushed, almost concerned voice. “It’s gotten worse.”

“I am quite incapable of doing anything with the right half of my body now.”

“And it’s going to keep spreading. Is this what you meant by dying?”

“Yes.”

“What a slow, painful way to go.”

“There is no pain.” Peridot clicked the gun in its holster. “No. Just a slow encroachment of numbness.”

“Why didn’t you let me kill you?”

“I thought…” began Peridot, but Sard and Sardonyx were gesturing to them. The whole exchange hadn’t taken that long but time was short.

“You thought what?” demanded Jasper, eyebrows rising in anticipation.

“Later,” said Peridot, “ask me later.” She began to stride away, cloak fluttering around her legs.

“You could be dead later!” Jasper grabbed Peridot’s arm, spinning the technician towards her.

From the door, Sard and Sardonyx watched with a mixture of ambivalence and anxiety.

Peridot looked Jasper in eyes, something she hadn’t done perhaps since the warrior had held a gun to her face and threatened to end her. Even if it could have been for her benefit.

“I wanted to make sure you stayed alive.” Peridot averted her gaze to her hands. “It was a rash decision, I know, perhaps foolish, even, though foolishness is not something that comes easy to machines like me. I knew then you fought for a reason, which was something I wanted to explore myself. But now it is a disaster. Many things have gone wrong and in some way I feel responsible. If I had not interfered that day at the station, none of this would have happened. Things could have been different.”

“Are you feeling guilt?” asked Jasper. “Remorse? Regret?”

“I do not feel empathy or sympathy. I am built to fix mistakes. And this is one of them.”

“Things would not have changed much if you hadn’t come, Peridot.” Jasper shook her head. “We still would be fighting. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened so soon but eventually, yes.”

“I find myself inexplicably drawn to you.” Peridot opened her mouth and shut it abruptly. “I do not believe in the strings that pull us together, but I do believe in possibilities. There was a strong possibility we would wind up together—in the same place at the same time—and this happened.”

“You are strange and I hate some parts of you,” said Jasper. “But I—I can’t help but—”

“Enough chatter,” interrupted Sard. “Every second you waste on this is another second we could have spent chasing down Amethyst.” She frowned. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be blunt but we need to hurry.”

Jasper impulsively took Peridot’s damaged hand and squeezed it, not hard, firm, reassuring. Solid. Then they joined Sard and Sardonyx.

Sard looked at Jasper. “Change of heart?”

“A talk,” muttered Jasper. “It’s all going to be fine.”

“Sure.” Sard smiled.

They raced along the corridor, Peridot managing a stride equivalent to the warriors’ for once. They could hear voices.

“I knew there were Homeworld gems among the station ones but—what’s happening exactly?”

“Did I not explain it already?” mused Peridot. “If you cannot infer from the events already happening, Homeworld revoked its alliance with its space station. It first rebelled within the station and then on ships distanced from the main attack fleet. On your planet, most was revealed. Amethyst is obviously in league with Homeworld and plans to return the stolen part of the machine—its core, let us call it that—to them.”

“Some of that we already knew,” said Sard. “Interesting. Three armies conflicting. Homeworld versus their own station and our planet against them together.”

They came to another port room. Inside were the ships of Amethyst and her escorts. The three warriors instantly summoned their weapons, and Peridot drew her gun. The Homeworld mercenaries rushed forward. There were only half a dozen or so of them. Peridot speculated that a battle between the station and Homeworld gems had devastated both populations. What reinforcements Amethyst might have hoped to find were limited.

Sard and Sardonyx leaped forward into combat with an almost unnervingly eagerness. Jasper careened past an obstinate red gem and reached out for Amethyst, seizing her in one hand. Peridot joined her.

“Where is the core?” demanded Jasper.

“Why would I tell you that?” scoffed Amethyst, glaring at the larger gem.

“You cannot flee from the machine,” said Peridot, “it is coming for its core.”

“So what? I can outrun it. We are faster.”

“You are faster,” said Sard, desummoning her glaive. She grinned. “Hand it over.”

Amethyst’s gaze rested on Peridot. “You! From earlier. I know you.”

“Yes, we have met.”

“Give us the core,” said Jasper, shaking Amethyst slightly. Her lips were curled in a grimace.

“And what would you do with it? Give it back nicely?” Amethyst laughed, voice spluttering a little. “Outside of that case, the core’s unpredictable. Launch it into space…who knows what would happen. It could probably destroy a ship in less time than it does to summon a weapon.”

“That’s why you put it away safely,” said Peridot. She looked at Jasper. “We must take it out to destroy it.”

“Destroy it?” echoed Amethyst. “Are you insane?”

“No one can have it,” said Peridot. “It is too dangerous.”

“It is powerful. And it will help us.”

The whole station shuddered then, the tremors rippling across the entire structure. The floor slanted away and they all fell, crashing into various items scattered about the area. Peridot's cloak snagged on something and she ripped it off to avoid choking herself.

“What was that?” Sard said, attempting to rise. Another shake rocked the station and viscous liquid began to drip down from cracks in the ceiling.

“Damn! It’s the machine.” Jasper rose partially before twisting and grabbing Amethyst before the latter could make an escape.

“This whole place is going to fall apart if we don’t get out of here!” warned Sard.

Peridot ran towards the ship, which was still upright despite the various shakes. Her feet automatically stuck to the wall, allowing her to move along the vertical surface. She reached the ship and pried the door open. A drop of the liquid splattered on her back and she froze.

“Peri—” began a voice.

Nothing happened, except that a new patch of the rust-like disease was spreading across her back. Her left arm felt stiff and she scrambled inside the ship before anything else could happen. The head was in the case on the floor. She could open the doors of the bay and the remove the core from the case now, thus destroying the machine. That, however, was quite irrational, as it would eliminate all lifeforms on the station. They had to get away from the structure and then release it.

She scanned the controls in a matter of seconds and found the one she was looking for: jettison, stamped in blue. If they could put the core in the disposal slot and release it into space, it could destroy the machine. Amethyst said that the power of the core could destroy a spaceship. It then, of course, by a logical extent, destroy the machine.

Peridot did not like to think she was speculating.

Two more gems entered the ship.

“Sard’s going to open the doors for us,” said Jasper’s voice. “We’ll get as far away as possible before…we blow it up.”

“Why did you bring Amethyst?” asked Peridot, without looking up.

“Somehow,” Jasper muttered, “she knows more about the specifications of the machine than we do. And she pushed me.”

There was a chuckle from the purple gem. “So you finally figured out what it was.”

“Peridot told us,” said Jasper. “You cannot take the machine from us.”

“It was never yours in the first place. It is its own thing—well it is until you destroy it.” Amethyst crossed her arms. “Homeworld will only use the technology to power its expansion. Surely you see no harm in that.”

“It is a danger to the galaxy,” said Peridot. “It must be destroyed.”

“I cannot let you jeopardize my mission,” said Amethyst. “Step out of my way and let me take control of the ship, or I will be forced to fight.”

She summoned a whip from her gem. Jasper’s helmet flashed into manifestation. The purple gem paused and then flicked the whip out at Peridot, who was unsuspecting of an attack. Jasper managed to seize the middle of the lash and tried to rip it in half. When that failed she merely yanked the end and slammed her fist into Amethyst’s head. The mercenary went down into unconscious.

“We must put an end to this now.” Peridot turned on the rear viewing screen and saw the machine rapidly encroaching on them. She put the ship on the highest possible speed—which was remarkably fast, as the craft was a mercenary vehicle—and turned to the case, opening the two locks.

There was liquid congealing inside the case. Peridot picked up the core, the acid-like substance spilling down her hands and arms. It pulsated and thrummed, the sounds reminding her of her home. She paused a moment, awash in nostalgia.

“Those markings are identical to the ones you already have,” said Jasper, interrupting the reverie. She reached out, as if to help with the process, but the technician moved away.

“Yes, I know,” said Peridot. “Homeworld attempted to hack into the computer systems of my planet, which would have allowed them to gain the ability to control the entire world. I stopped their attempts, and received this spreading corruption.”

“Let me help,” said Jasper.

“No,” said Peridot. She set the core inside the disposal chute. “I do not want you to bear the same markings.”

“Hey, you’re not the only one angry at Homeworld, now, are you?” said Jasper. Peridot crossed back to the control station and dropped the speed abruptly, rocking the ship. The soldier stepped next to her.

Peridot looked at the orange gem. “I need your assistance for this.”

“What are we doing?”

“I will press jettison as the machine gets closer. I want you, the moment I input that command, to jump us to the highest speed you can get.”

“So we don’t get blown up.” Jasper nodded. “Sounds…risky, but clever.”

Peridot monitored the machine’s progress towards them. For another moment she paused, thinking of the machine. Its knowledge. Its strange benevolence. It was a shame to destroy it. Peridot thought of the power that Homeworld would possess then, and she narrowed her eyes, her regret fading away.

“Three,” she said, hand hovering over the button. “Two.”

Jasper joined her on the last word: “One.”

Chapter Text

Everything was quiet when the jettison hatch opened and the core floated into space. The ship rocked with a vengeance as it shot away from the explosion. Peridot was bounced out of the chair she was half-sitting in and Jasper’s arms wrapped around her. The moments were long and the soldier braced the technician against her body. Amethyst held onto a detachment from the wall, but even that was a poor handle. Bits of the hull were sheared away. The engines whined and a red light flashed.

The silence continued long after the explosion stopped. Jasper opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings. They were still on the ship. Crimson illuminated the area every two seconds. Amethyst was sitting next to the chute, avoiding contact with the liquid that still oozed out.

“Hey,” said Jasper to Peridot, taking a shuffle-step back. “We’re still alive. I didn’t think we were going to make it.”

The technician adjusted her visor. “Yes. Despite the odds against us, we…made it.”

“Well done,” said Amethyst drily.

“Aren’t you upset?” asked Jasper, looking over at the other gem.

“I am upset, because now I won’t be paid. But I think I better just leave.” She stood. “You have made enough waves for a lifetime, Peridot.”

“I want nothing more to do with this conflict,” said Peridot. She turned, wobbling, and Jasper’s hand steadied her. “I would say that to run from Homeworld is an intelligent choice given that you just allowed us to destroy a source of great information.”

“As far as I’m concerned here, you two overwhelmed me while I, a simple mercenary, attempted to take goods to a contact.”

Communications beeped. Jasper hit the answer button.

“Hello? Anyone there?” said a voice.

“Sard?” asked Jasper.

“Jasper?” asked Sard.

“Amethyst?” asked Amethyst, “oh, wait, that’s me.”

She crossed her arms and made her way towards the two gems, settling herself down in the chair. “This is Amethyst, in control of this ship. I’m going back to the station to drop off these two gems.”

“You’re still alive?” Sard said, sounding incredulous. “You’re tougher than I thought.”

“A mercenary has her ways.” Amethyst shut the panel off and looked at Jasper and Peridot. “You cost Homeworld a tiny fortune there. With that machine dead—and it’s dead, believe me, the core would had destroyed everything in its explosion radius—Homeworld will have to find a new system to terrorize and conquer without that technology. Too many wrenches in the works and boom” —Amethyst jerked her thumb back— “Homeworld’s out.”

“What do we do?” asked Jasper.

“My advice? Either go somewhere new or go home and start making repairs.” Amethyst raised her eyebrows. “Then again, I’ve never quite had a home.”

“You are a remarkable gem,” commented Peridot, “just minutes ago you were trying to prevent us from destroying that robot and now you are offering advice.”

“I go where the weather’s most favorable,” said Amethyst. She plugged in a course for the station. “Right now, it’s definitely not in this system or anywhere near Homeworld.”

The station had serious damages but Pearl was certain that, given enough time, she and Garnet would be more than capable of amending all the minor disasters. Only three gems had been damaged enough to be put into regeneration state and everyone else just appeared…shaken.

Kyanite had reappeared in remarkable time, her stoic demeanor back. She was quick to reassert herself as a top-of-the-line officer and was now awaiting orders from Pearl, or, when they came back, either Ruby or Sapphire.

Sard and Sardonyx were not imprisoned, but that was only because they had barricaded themselves inside the space port and refused to let any other gems inside. They, too, were waiting, but for the return of their sister and the technician gem.

The mercenary ship arrived again, battered, scored by blast marks, but still, through it all, together. Jasper and Peridot stepped off. Amethyst remained on board, declined to stay and repair, and shot off just as quickly as she had come.

Jasper sat on a storage crate and rubbed her palms together. Peridot, after internal deliberation, sat next to her.

“So, what now?” asked Jasper. “We go home?”

“We go home,” said Sard, “and we start rebuilding.”

“We can do it,” Sardonyx said.

Jasper turned to Peridot and spoke quietly. “I have come to realize I hold much respect for you. But no matter how much I may like you, I know we cannot stay together.”

“That is fine,” said Peridot. “I will stay with the station and help with the efforts there. Perhaps, somedays, I will visit you and your planet.”

Jasper took Peridot’s hand. “You are not healed.”

“No,” said Peridot, “I am not. I must search elsewhere for a cure. Perhaps it exists even in this very station. I will see.”

“Yeah,” Jasper said, “I think you will soon find it.”

“We must go,” said Sard. “We have overstayed and the station gems will soon be inside.”

“Very well,” said Jasper. She rose, relinquishing Peridot’s hand. Peridot stood up and watched as the sisters boarded the sole spacecraft left.

“Goodbye,” she said.

“Goodbye,” said Sardonyx. “Please tell the station we wish to fight no more.”

“I will,” said Peridot. She looked at Jasper and for a moment they stared at each other. Then Jasper turned away. “Goodbye, Jasper,” said Peridot.

“Goodbye and safe travels, Peridot,” replied Jasper.

The ship door closed with a snap and maneuvered away through the still open port doors. As they closed, the entryways opened and gems flooded in. Kyanite was at the head of the troops.

“What happened?” she asked. “Where are the rebels?”

“They will trouble you no more, I believe,” said Peridot, turning towards her. “Has Garnet reformed? I must speak with her.”

Kyanite paused, taken aback. “She has reformed, yes. I will take you to her.”

“Thank you,” said Peridot, following Kyanite out of the room. There were important matters to attend to now.