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Out of all the blacksmiths in the Diamond Authority, Ruby was both one of the happiest and the most reclusive. Most gems, of the hundreds of thousands in existence, would have thought that nothing extraordinary, although they themselves would have been miserably useless in a room full of iron flakes, heavy ingot bars, and enough heat and smoke to barbecue any ten large organisms for those with both the appetite and the status to eat on a regular basis, and crack the gem that put them there meanwhile.
To Ruby, iron flakes came from a job well done, and ingots for an interesting task in store; smoke was just a byproduct, nothing so heavy she couldn’t see the glow of red-hot steel before it streamed out the ceiling. And she would have been no Ruby at all if a thousand or two Kelvin degrees had deformed her gem, which was far hotter than metalwork needed anyways.
But happiness in the Diamond Authority was never certain, and jobs weren’t always stable with the expanding boundaries. She would have known that, if she’d thought about it in the days before her last inspection.
It began like any other day. She crawled out from her narrow, hard bedrock, checked to see that none of the metals had been contaminated, and began making her room a bit hotter after closing the chimney vents.
She had already taken a metal ingot in her hand and pressed it to her anvil when she heard a knock.
It clearly wasn’t her hammer. It couldn’t be her- she hadn’t started working yet.
And yet the sound wasn’t imaginary.
A large gem walked into the dim room, lit only by the heat of metal. Her dress was sharp and simple around a full figure, except for the diamond layered skirt. Ruby bit the inside of her mouth. No one just walked into the forgery, and especially no one of this height.
“Hey, this is the forgery. I think you have the wrong room.” It wasn’t the epitome of politeness, but that wasn’t the first thing on Ruby’s mind.
It was, however, the second. “Ah, e-excuse me. I mean, I don’t think this is what you’re looking for?” The gem looked down at Ruby.
“No, I meant to come here. I’m Rose Quartz, and I’d like to see you in action.” Rose’s smile was a bit strained, but her voice was perfectly at ease.
“Why?” Ruby frowned almost immediately. She could already hear the lack of answers ringing in her ears.
“I want to see if you can do delicate work.” the room was hot, and only getting hotter, but Rose merely shielded her eyes. Although she did seem to be shimmering pink. Maybe that was just the fumes, but it was bizarre to Ruby. Although she didn’t need to keep the room as hot as it usually, that was just a habit when things wouldn’t melt immediately. She tried to calm herself.
It didn’t work.
“I don’t usually do delicate work. I’m a blacksmith.” She breathed in. There were occasional assignments, though. “What do you want me to do?”
“Can you beat out a copper wire?” Quartz asked. Rose Quartz asked. Why was she here?
“Yes.” It was a little tricky, a little dull, but underneath her eyes Ruby felt more tightly strung than any wire she’d ever made. “How thick?” Copper needed strength, as well as heat. Ruby had both, but being precise could be tricky.
“Two milimeters.” They were making… computers? Energy transfer? Ruby turned to pull up a heat resistant box’s lid. The room was cooling, getting colder. She carefully grabbed a hammer from the floor, newly aware of her sloppy placement, and got out a smaller one.
“How long?” Ruby made sure her hand wasn’t clenching too hard on the copper ingot. There was already a faint indent from her hand.
“As long as the materials allow.” And then Quartz carefully crouched, appearing shorter. “I’m sure you’re quite skilled.”
Ruby stifled a laugh in her throat. Or maybe it was a groan. “That’s me. Best blacksmith this side of the nebula.” She carefully tapped the copper with her hammer. Not hard enough. Regulation style work was unfamiliar to her.
“You do turn out tons of high quality work every year.” Ruby’s nerves eased, ever so slightly.
She continued her preparations carefully. Using her hands wasn’t an option here, so she pulled out some flat plates and used them to carefully bring the copper wire thinner. And thinner. She smoothed it over, not noticing the way her tongue stuck out. Almost there-
She checked carefully, but she hadn’t made it too thin. It was right. Everything was right, except the way her tools were glowing with heat.
She turned to present her work to Rose Quartz, but the wire was burning hot. It was too delicate. When laid it out on the table, there was a faint indent from where she’d pinched it.
Ruby didn’t say anything. Rose Quartz was silent for a moment as well. “It looks well made.” She didn’t seem to notice the indent, but Ruby didn’t let out her breath. “Did you get performance anxiety?”
Ruby’s cheeks heated up. “No! No. Fine, I’m fine. I swear.”
Rose Quartz nodded, her eyes shadowed. “I think you did well.”
She turned to leave, and Ruby’s shoulders relaxed. But just before she left, she said this: “I won’t ask for something so delicate when I’m watching. But you can improve.”
Within a week, Ruby was given notice that she had a new assignment. A few days later, the gem who hadn’t seen space for centuries was on a colonizing ship on repair detail for a new innovation in gemetics.
In the future, there would be more than a few thousand gems to colonize each planet. In the future, Rose would be less and less of a distant figure to Ruby as she took an interest in coming every week and talking about the fine details of Ruby’s work, or day, or things on the ship that Ruby hadn’t noticed at all from her bunker in her room. In the future, Ruby wouldn’t be content staying in the forge at all. But knowing the future wasn’t Ruby’s forté.
.:.:.:.
Sapphire always looked to the future. The past made her heart heavy, and the present was a tiresome road her eye had trouble seeing, but she was the only one who could look hours or sometimes days ahead, and cross out the worst paths.
But she could only see what she was looking for. When you were new to a life aboard a ship, away from training, it was hard to know what to expect, and Sapphire made a mistake in her new rest bunker.
She tripped.
It was such a bizarre event that she couldn’t help but brush her bangs aside and stare.
It was some sort of long... Stick.
She squinted.
There was another stick crossing it, and the whole thing wasn’t a solid block. It was kind of... pointy.
She leaned a little further away, and the details of the handle came into view. It had long curves wrapping around it ornamentally. It was...
Oh, a non-light-based weapon, and a fancy one, not the crude varieties given as an aid for basic vermin control to even civilian gems. So a status symbol for a wealthy superior, if history books serve her right.
What, for a sun’s weight, was it doing in her room.
Sapphire considered herself a refined gem. She has been trained very well in her specialty, without meandering off into some irrelevant study of the stars or gemetics. Physics, fighting, a basic understanding of starships, those were all useful in eliminating possibilities without running through every one of them. She knows this, even when she doesn’t like it.
But as she notices that the discoloration in the wall might well be a door, she decides that she should learn what’s on the other side. She tries to look with her Future Vision, but that only works if she has the slightest idea what she’s looking for.
Sapphire’s hand goes towards the door. Just before she nears it, she can feel her hand tingling for some reason. She frowns, but opens the door anyways.
The answers she’s seeking aren’t visible, because not enough is visible by the dim light. There’s fumes coming out now, distorting the air but not the loud clanging from inside. The tingling is heat. The warmth of the room isn’t due to some newfound control of her powers.
Her hand rests on the doorway as she inhales. “What are you doing?” she asks. Her voice is louder than normal, but the gem inside doesn’t respond immediately, even as the clanging ceases. A loud voice comes from inside.
“Who’s letting the heat out!” a voice screeches, “Close the door!”
Sapphire is stiff as she obeys, but not in the way the voice probably wants. She shuts the door behind her. But it isn’t the cool air of her room that’s draining the heat. It’s her that’s causing this.
Her sight isn’t perfect, but she can make out a red gem hunched over a glowing-hot table of some sort. An anvil?
The gem certainly seems to see her fine, if the way she looks up again is any indication. Her mouth twists in irritation, then confusion as she sees the door is closed.
“Why are you in this room? It’s really hot in here, and it’s getting so cold!” She gestures to the table, or maybe to what’s under it. There’s a grate that hides a bucket of metal underneath it. It’s still glowing, but the air around Sapphire is all chill the way the red gem isn’t.
Things go downhill from there.
“Why is that sword in my room?”
“Oh, it’ll cool faster that way. Isn’t that why Rose put you next to the forge?”
Rose. “Rose Quartz?” The one who seemed to run everything on this ship. The reason the gemetic sorting placed such a new variety of gem on this ship. The one whose Pearl follows her closely, sometimes just behind her and sometimes on her arm?
“Yeah.” The gem stared at her. “Oh, I guess you haven’t been briefed about that.” She sighed. Was this kind of thing normal? “I’m Ruby, and I’m a blacksmith. I usually use water to cool things quickly, but I think this new system has something to do with mass. Is there anything else you have to ask about?” Ruby sighed, her form letting off another wave of heat.
There was only one way to respond to this, really. One way to escape this awkward situation. “Nothing.” It didn’t really matter that she was confused, and annoyed, and still no closer to consciously commanding her powers than she’d been before. It didn’t help at all.
“Really?” Ruby squinted at Sapphire, who turned away from the heat and floated up.
“I have nothing more to say to you.” Sapphire wasn’t looking at Ruby, but Ruby scowled at her nonetheless.
“Then… I’m sure you have something better to do, I guess.”
Sapphire didn’t.
It couldn’t be worse than being here, though.
.:.:.:.
The next twelve day cycle passed swiftly. Sapphire had been trained for this, and she did it. She didn’t know why knowing sonar readouts in advance was important. She had only guesses. It didn’t matter.
She found out anyways, but not because she asked.
When the questions had been asked and she’d been dismissed with a small gemache brewing, she didn’t go all the way to her room. She just went quickly, to a quiet part of the ship she could tuck herself into while ignoring the world. It was a small place, but when she floated against the ceiling, she didn’t have to worry about anything at all. She curled up to wait out the throb of her gem.
She could hear the faint hum of the ship, but nothing else. The white noise was soothing, but somehow it made her want to move around rather than drift to sleep. She wondered if her voice could be anything like this. She could make so many other noises, not just high warning sounds or low snores. Sapphire settled for listening.
The blissful silence didn’t last.
“...something you’re curious about?” It’s a familiar voice, accompanied by light footsteps. Rose Quartz.
“Well...” the voice sounds a little strained, a little shy, but once it continues it has a distinctive lilt that Sapphire’s never heard before. “What about the secondary readout on that big screen? The radar, with those circles and dots?” She looks down. It’s the Pearl, in all her shimmering, transparent light clothing. Rose’s hand stretches out to run over her hair, drifting down her forehead by her gem. She pets the smiling Pearl as she thinks.
“Oh. At these speeds, we need to know about obstacles before we crash into them. That’s why we’ve recruited a Sapphire. We’re going farther than gems have gone before. If all goes well, we should be able to set up a warp pad there. At our new home.” Rose sounds happy, either at the Pearl or at the new planet. Being talked about rather than talked to isn’t new, but having the conversationalists literally unaware of her is odd.
This is what eavesdropping is.
With that, Sapphire’s heart races, making a somewhat interesting conversation bland next to an imagined danger. She doesn’t try to run, just stays where she is. She’s just floating here. She didn’t mean to. She might even be asleep.
It’s a horrible lie, but Sapphire closes her eyes anyways, until the quiet chatter beneath her quiets and footsteps echo in their wake.
.:.:.:.
Sapphire makes haste to her room afterwards. It’s always warm, but it never stays that way. Especially today, she can feel her gem sucking in energy like it’s preparing for something terrible.
She tries to think of a way to solve the terrible knot in her core.
She always feels better when she’s warmed up, really.
It’s easy to walk over to the door to the forge, but harder to open it. She notices an oddly shaped metal chip cooling on the floor, along with some large pipes. She puts a hand to it, and the lingering heat leaves.
She breathes in and listens. There’s no sound coming from the door, soundproofed though it is. Sapphire hums the same tune as the ship. Some of the tension leaves with the sound.
She knocks.
At first there’s no sound, but soon enough a tiny clink reverberates through the air. A smile on Ruby’s face turns into a slanted line. “Yes?” She glances past Sapphire to her work, but Sapphire shakes her head, her long hair curling around her. Ruby looks at where her eye would be visible, using her thin patience.
“Could I sit in there, with you?” Sapphire asks.
Ruby looks at her, then finally shrugs. “Uh, yes. You can. Why do you want to?”
Sapphire would look down, if she’d been looking up to begin with. “I like the warmth.”
Ruby smiles faintly. “So do I.” She steps aside, and Sapphire holds up her dress as she crosses the threshold this time.
The warm air hits her cold legs now that they’re out. Ruby looks down at them, curious and a bit redder than usual. Sapphire glances over at her, and Sapphire’s brief taste of relief is tempered carefully.
She looks around, finally sitting on the table. It’s hot, if not glowing, but to her the warmth is only a pleasant fizz. She sits quietly as Ruby watches, trying to figure out what she’s doing.
Ruby doesn’t watch quietly for long. “So, do you have… what kind of power do they call it?”
Sapphire doesn’t watch as her dress swings slightly. She can feel her heart slowing. “Goal-based foresight.”
“What? I meant your chill thing. What’s that?” Ruby clarifies.
“Oh. Ice creation, thermal absorption,” the cold shoulder, “automatic cooling.”
Ruby nodded, waiting for something to say to pop into her mind.
…
They sit there together in silence for a while, neither really sure what to do with the other.
When a knock sounds, Ruby can’t answer the door fast enough. She looks up at the now-familiar face.
“Rose! I’m done. But there’s company. So.” She looks over at Sapphire, who doesn’t look back.
Rose looks too, then smiles at Ruby. “Oh I’ve met her before.” Sapphire’s previous calm seems less certain as she tilts her head, looking though her hair at Rose. She came alone.
“I can leave you two alone.” After that initial glance, Sapphire doesn’t look at them anymore. She hops down to the floor and shuffles away. Sapphire could look back, or try to figure out what’s between them.
She doesn’t.
.:.:.:.
“Why did she come in?” Rose asks. She doesn’t sit down, and Ruby goes to stand on her anvil after a moment. It’s closer to Rose’s face than she’s ever been, and Ruby takes a moment to stare before she shakes herself and answers.
“She said she likes how warm it is.” Ruby shrugs.
Rose chuckles. “I thought so.”
Ruby squints at Rose. “You assigned our rooms?”
Rose looks to the side before she replies. “I thought you complemented each other nicely.” She frowns. “Was I wrong?”
“Uhh,” Ruby’s hand clenches her shorts as she thinks. “Maybe. She got briefed about it a little late. But since then she seemed to be fine with it, until today when she just came in and sat in here.” Ruby rubbed her hands together absently. It was a lot different having a cold room. It was… not bad. Refreshing, that might be the word.
Refreshing.
“Oh. Well, I didn’t come to talk about your neighbor. You were talking about some alloys you’re trying to perfect?”
Ruby’s blank stare goes away almost immediately when Rose mentions her work. “Yes! Working with aluminium and copper and phosphorous together gets something that’s really strong but not that brittle, but only if you add a very small amount of phosphorous to the mix.” Ruby doesn’t stop talking there, although she does stop every so often when Rose mentions her confusion to explain things, sometimes more thoroughly than others.
Rose is cross-eyed, staring intently at Ruby and the metals she uses as examples. Ruby has made a lot of dumb looking faces, but she’s never had the opportunity to look at someone else doing one because she was teaching them.
It’s cute.
“So, are alloys like fusions and break apart easily?” Rose asks. Ruby blinks.
“A fusion? Umm… Alloys don’t break apart, unless you melt them down again.” Ruby tilts her head. “So fusions break apart easily?”
“Oh, yes. Most of the time. They only last as long as two Gems want to accomplish the same goal in the same way.” Rose laughs. “Not long at all, in other words.”
“Most of the time? So not always?” Ruby is the one confused now. She’s heard of fusions, in the vaguest sense, but she forgot the word until now. They make a lot less sense than alloys.
“Well, I’ve seen some fusions last longer, but it’s hard for the components to keep themselves together,” Rose said.
“Well then, they’re not like alloys, except in that they’re stronger.” Ruby turned away, then looked to Rose again.
“You’re a Quartz, right? So you might have fused.”
“Have you fused?” Rose asks.
“No. It’s not really useful for a Ruby. But have you?”
“Yes. A few times.” Rose looks away.
“What was it like?”
“It was… interesting. Powerful. Sometimes as much of a fight as the actual battle. But it isn’t always that way.”
“What is it like other times, then? You keep saying sometimes, usually, most of the time. It's not always what?”
“Sometimes it’s...” Rose closes her eyes, thinking. “Sometimes we’re so similar that you don’t feel the binds at all. And sometimes… It’s like dancing, or working together, and trying to avoid stepping on each others’ toes. If everyone’s in sync, it feels…” A smile flits across Rose’s face and is gone. “It’s easier to be than describe.”
The topic sweeps by quickly, but after Rose leaves and Ruby's left to think, it's the thing that stands out the most. Fusion. It makes even Rose Quartz more powerful, it's hard to describe, it's like a fight or a... a group project.
She wants to know more.
.:.:.
Sapphire goes at the start of the thirty day cycle, but there's so little she can do now. They're still aimed at the same planet, the power gems are all fully operational, and there's nothing she can tell them from here.
Unless she becomes a power gem herself, she's got no function left.
Nothing except being Ruby's helper. But once they reach Holimer, she'll have new assignments. Then she'll be in the control center again, and Ruby will be making more and more, probably in a planetary forge instead of a mobile one.
Without her normal, exhausting exercises, Sapphire can't help but be curious about her neighbor. Ruby's nothing like what she's been taught; she was never going to be a metalworker. But she wants to watch, not search the archives for a book they don't have.
She's surprised when Ruby agrees to let her sit in on it. Ruby herself is surprised when Sapphire isn't bothered by the heat.
Ruby is quick to react, overdramatic, and either concentrates deeply or is easily distracted. She has two perfect eyes and two legs easily limber enough to carry loads bigger than she is without falling over. She seems to have never thought of wearing anything but the most basic uniform.
Ruby is also easily the best friend she's ever had, including the sparse ranks of other Sapphires. Sapphire can't help but worry about her.
It’s for that reason that Sapphire finds it in her to keep her eye on Rose under her bangs. She has a plan, but it’s so hard to figure out whether she should put it into action. What if she…
Sapphire waits and walks up to Rose after their brief meeting ends. Rose doesn’t sneer or turn away at her tense words, just stands and listens as her Pearl lingers nearby.
Sapphire lets out a shaky breath, then brings her hands together slowly. She… she used her powers. It’s tiring, but it’s a short look ahead compared to daycycles ahead. She’s most surprised that she did it. It’s always taxed her too much to use it casually, but she can use it for things like this. She just did.
She’s more composed when she really does it, even though it seems unreal. “Rose Quartz, may I speak with you?” And like a recording played over again, Rose turns, her beautiful curls following the slow curve of her head. But the slight puzzlement in her eyes is slighter, and the Pearl is more guarded this time. Maybe her composure changed things.
“Why do you meet with Ruby?” Sapphire doesn’t look at Pearl, but if she had she’d have noticed the confusion on her face.
“I do because,” Rose closes her eyes for a moment, squints at Sapphire for an instant, “I don’t know what she does, and I enjoy spending time with her.” Simple, formal words, but they’re almost a challenge, like Rose is daring Sapphire to object.
That’s why Sapphire is here now, talking to Rose. Because she likes Ruby, and her own inexplicable desires are so much more confusing when they’re from another Gem. And from a high ranking Quartz too.
“Well. I wouldn’t mind spending time with you there.”
“That’s good to know.” Rose’s mouth is tight, and she stares down a moment longer before she turns away. Her dress swings with her, and Pearl walks along behind her. Just before Sapphire leaves earshot, she can hear a faint whisper: “Who is-”
They part, and nothing has changed, except for an infinitesimal part in their hearts, and the baring of something Rose has kept quietly from her Pearl.
.:.:.:.
When Rose comes again, less than twenty hours have passed.
Sapphire’s visits with Ruby have always been slow, usually as quiet as watching water evaporate. But Sapphire brings an energy with her this time that she never has before, between her discovery and her actions, and Ruby likes it.
Sapphire wafts around the room rather than sit down, finding a file or a vise and asking Ruby about it. When Ruby walks closer she doesn’t back away after a moment.
“And so the Topaz mentioned that they were both taking her for granite.” Ruby’s smile is tilted and confident and silly in a way Sapphire hasn’t seen before.
Sapphire snorts. Ruby pauses. She thought she might get a smile.
“Ha. Hehehe. Ahahaha!” Sapphire can’t stop the laughter from flooding out of her, now of all times. Granite. The joke’s hilarious somehow, and Ruby starts to laugh along with her.
“Have you ever laughed that hard before?” Ruby teases.
Sapphire just shakes her head. “No.” She seems a little embarrassed.
“Ah, well. I’m glad you’re laughing.” Ruby looks at Sapphire’s bright blue cheeks. “You have a cute laugh, Sapphire.”
“Oh. I...” Sapphire’s blush has only gotten worse, and she leans towards Ruby.
The knock that arrives is perfectly punctual, and perfectly unwanted.
But when Rose enters, the ice soon breaks.
.:.:.:.
The depths of space are vast. No-one and nothing has explored it all. But on one ship, some of its gems have found the beginning of happiness in each other, for as long as they can bear it in their world.
Together. Though not one of them suspects it just then.