Chapter One: Earth
"That is . . . very unfortunate." Yellow Diamond didn't sound angry, but with her it was hard to tell - rather a drawback, really, as you had no warning before she blew her top.
"Yes, My Diamond, I'm sorry. The Steven and his comp -" Peridot was cut off midsentence.
"Silence." This time the sharpness in the matriarch's voice and the quirk in her lip gave away her displeasure. Peridot involuntarily lowered her eyes, and Yellow Diamond continued, "Now that the galaxy warp is destroyed, you'll have to take a ship. I'll send an escort familiar to the planet with you. You leave in ten hours."
Peridot wanted to say that she didn't need an escort - she was perfectly capable of dealing with the clods waiting for her back on Earth - but she bit her lip hard and saluted, ending the transmission with a dutiful "Peridot out."
The bright light of the screen disappeared, leaving Peridot blinking her eyes in the dim room she gave reports from. She sighed, putting as much frustration into her sigh as she could so it ended up being more a snort. Escorts were always hit and miss, being trapped for a week and a half with some clod on a ship was a trying experience. Peridot couldn't help but shudder when she remembered a particularly loud and clumsy carnelian who wouldn't stop bothering her. Fortunately, the odds of it being any of her previous escorts were slim. The escorts she'd had were much too stupid to have survived Earth.
There was only one bright side to this whole scenario: she'd get clearance to read the reports from Earth's Beta Kindergarden, and could download and read all of them now she was going to the planet itself. It might give her something to concentrate on instead of whichever annoying escort she was assigned on the trip. Besides, she liked reading reports. They calmed her down, made her feel more organized, and inspired her to make her logs even better than they already were.
Peridot marched down to the ship docks precisely on schedule - as always. She approached the topaz who appeared to be keeping track of the ships, who made a note on her screen before looking up.
"Destination?" she asked politely.
"Earth," Peridot replied.
Topaz scrolled down her screen, muttering, "Peridot . . . Earth . . . Here we are." She grinned down at Peridot. "Dock Three. You can take off soon as you like, the passenger and your escort are already there - biggest gem I've ever seen," she added.
Peridot snorted at "passenger" as she moved down the docks. It was a layout she was intimately familiar with due to her other missions, and she navigated it with practiced thoughtlessness. Her mind drifted to her assignment . . .
"Biggest gem I've ever seen."
Wait. Peridot knew she hadn't had any escorts that would be on this mission, and she didn't know anyone familiar with Earth . . .
Except.
Peridot shoved it out of her head and craned her neck to find Dock Three. Now was the time to concentrate on her mission, not unsolved mysteries of a few centuries ago.
She found what she was looking for quickly, and did a mental double check to make sure she'd seen the right ship. The one on Dock Three was nice. Like, really nice. Definitely a cut above the poorly constructed rubbish she was used to flying. Yellow Diamond must have been more invested in Earth's destruction than she let on. Peridot's experience in engineering let her admire the workmanship for a few seconds before moving to enter, fingers itching at the thought of all the extra features it would have.
Peridot loved extra features. She probably appeared more excited than was appropriate when she keyed her access code into the terminal.
The interior did not disappoint. It was clean and austere, the architecture steamlined. Even the thought of an escort couldn't dim Peridot's enthusiasm to crush the stupid clods that had screwed up her mission to the Prime Kindergarden with her new awesome ship.
She paused, pulling up the blueprint for the ship on her screen. She allowed herself a second or two of appreciation for the ship, then figured out the quickest route to the prisoner. Always best to check on one's cargo before leaving.
Strangely, she didn't see any kind of activity around the ship. She had expected her escort
As Peridot had realized was usual for the lapis lazuli, the blue gem was sitting down and leaning against the side of her cell, playing with a stray piece of hair. As she seemed normal and all in one piece, Peridot moved on. She had to flip the blueprint around a few times before finding the path to the pilot's room, but made it work eventually. She grumbled as she stomped along the halls, something she wouldn't be able to manage without her limb enhancements.
By the time the door of the pilot's room came into view, Peridot had calmed down. This mission was definitely looking up, and she even grinned a bit to herself as the door slid open in front of her.
The pilot's controls looked much nicer than anything Peridot had flown, just as she had predicted, with the chair and room matching its wonder. Equipment and architecture, however, was not what made Peridot's eyes widen as she entered the room.
A little off-center, facing the view outside, stood her escort. Peridot's eyes traveled up almost twice her height to where the large mass of hair typical to quartzes began to cascade down the jasper's back. A red floor-length cape was the only other thing visible from Peridot's perspective, a fact that was quickly rectified as the large gem turned to meet her eyes.
"Peridot," Jasper acknowledged. Peridot stared.
That was one gem she hadn't seen at least a millenium.
one thousand years ago, give or take a century
"Are you the Peridot we requested?" The amethyst asking the question looked harried and impatient, but her tone was respectful.
"Yes?" Peridot tried to sound confident, but her voice faltered. Even small quartzes were much taller than she was, something she hadn't noticed with quite such clarity as she did now. There weren't many quartzes in the places she was used to being, and certainly not nearly as many as there were here.
"Do you, um, want me to take you to . . . ?" Amethyst seemed even more unsure than Peridot. Of course. The only thing more intimidating than a size difference was a rank difference.
"Yes," Peridot replied, with more confidence this time. Command structures were something she understood.
"Come this way," Amethyst said, gesturing. She maneuvered deftly through the encampment, and its stark contrast to Homeworld was even more apparent. Dust kicked up by carnelians training in a dirt arena marked by four rubies made Peridot cough. She cast around desperately for her guide, jogging to catch up with her.
As she rounded the bend, the command tent came into view. It was surprisingly plain - all upper-class gems on Homeworld flaunted their rank with ostentatious technology and pearls. Amethyst pushed aside the three-diamond insignia emblazoned on the tent's door and entered, Peridot one step behind.
"Commander." Amethyst saluted the largest quartz Peridot had ever seen, a hulking orange Jasper striped in red. She was studying a map projected on the back wall of the tent, but turned when Amethyst addressed her. Technically, Peridots were the same rank as quartz commanders, so Peridot forwent the salute.
After a second of awkward silence, Peridot cleared her throat. "I'm here to oversee your kindergarden."
"Good," Jasper replied with a sharp nod. "Ever since the last counterattack, we've needed a new kindergardener."
What happened to the old one? Peridot thought, a kernel of dread settling in her stomach. She hadn't stumbled into a war zone, had she?
" - soldiers as soon as possible," the commander was saying.
Amethyst saluted and turned to leave, Peridot on her heels.
"One last thing." Jasper eyed Peridot up and down, leaving the smaller gem with an uncomfortable feeling of being judged unworthy. "We can't afford to wait for another peridot," she continued, "at least try to stay in one piece."
Something flew past Peridot's face and landed just behind her. She glanced down to see what looked like a destabilizer laying on the dirt floor, and glanced up to see the commander looking at her.
"Pick it up," Jasper urged.
"What do I need a destabilizer for?" Peridot demanded. "I'm not a quartz, I'm a peridot. Obviously."
"Well the last one didn't have one," the commander sneered. "Unless you'd like to follow in the footsteps of your finely powdered predecessor, I suggest you pick up that weapon."
Out of the corner of her eye, Peridot noticed Amethyst edging out of sight. Peridot decided to follow her example, and, glaring one last time at the jasper, ducked away. So she was here to replace a shattered gem. The thought gave her chills, but the behavior of the commander made her angry enough that she warmed up. Peridot hmmphed as she followed Amethyst.
"The commander really is brilliant," Amethyst said timidly. She shrunk when Peridot glared at her.
"How do you know?"
"Well-she's, y'know," Amethyst stuttered, "the jasper."
"The jasper?" Peridot asked.
"You know. The perfect quartz, the one good thing from a bad kindergarden." Amethyst pushed through a cluster of bickering rubies, Peridot's rank clearing a path.
"Never heard of her," Peridot grumbled.
"She's amazing." Amethyst might as well have had stars in her eyes.
"If you say so," Peridot said skeptically.