Sacrament…
It was called the Rough Cut, in ironically, flippant honor of the Diamonds' otherwise flawless, physical condition, a dim, raucous, noisy tavern that sat in the depths of an even less respectable section of the industrial civic quarter of Fristal, a distant protectorate of the Diamonds' empire.
Since the establishment was Fristalan-run, and therefore, organic, it catered to fellow organics and Gems, and with prompt bribes and tacit allowances from the city government, it survived Authority scrutiny as one of countless, neutral, watering holes in the underbelly of the empire that catered to the outlaw, the anarchist, and the rebel, whether native or visiting.
Here, one was known for the reputation he, she, or it bore, and was given a respect that reflected that infamy. The prevailing gallows humor was that the reputation of the Rough Cut, itself, was that it was so rough, if one wasn't careful, one would get cut.
To the Off-Colors, sitting in, and for Fluorite, resting by, a booth in one dark corner of the establishment, it was the perfect place to conduct business.
Although food and drink were erstwhile luxuries to Lars, he quaffed a local concoction that reminded him of a mango smoothie with a slight kick of fermentation.
He and Rhodonite concentrated on watching the various patrons that sauntered, drunkenly, or with a purpose, around the dark environs of the establishment, while waiting for their contact.
A pink pearl and a blue pearl sang a saucy duet on stage to the lecherous approval of other Gems and a few aliens who came to blow off steam, with Fluorite watching their performance, in rapt attention.
The Rutile Twins gave each other a knowing glance from the polyfusion's behavior. Fluorite may have looked matronly, but there was always a simmering passion for Gems that caught her many eyes, as the number of her displayed gems attested to.
"One of us should have been by the door, in case this is a trap, or something," Rhodonite muttered to Lars, her double eyes sweeping at any motion outside their booth.
"It couldn't be helped, Rhodonite," Lars whispered, slouching forward from his side of the table. "Don't worry, though, even among these characters, she'll probably stand out."
Suddenly, a feeling of extreme cold crept along Lars's side. He looked down to see a dagger, made of ice, gently touching the skin above his kidney, drawing his attention to its owner, a small, hooded figure.
Padparadscha, looking like an out-of-place child, in the tavern, suddenly stiffened and gasped, "Lars, a Sapphire will be holding a dagger on you!"
"Thanks, Padparadscha," Lars said, as he and the others wondered who this little, knife-wielding figure was, beyond her gem-type.
"Uh, they say that, no matter what, diamonds are always shiny and clean," Lars said, recalling his half of his given code phrase.
The small Gem, a Blue Sapphire, smiled under her hood, replying her half. "There's not enough polish in the universe to keepthem clean."
She put away the weapon, explaining, "Sorry, but when you do the things I do, even with my powers, you learn to be careful."
"My thoughts, exactly," Lars said, still slouched on his side of the table, but lifting the elbow closest to her, so she could see the charged tip of the pronged destabilizer that the elbow obscured.
"Not bad," the Sapphire nodded.
"So, what do we call you, 'cuz, I can't remember all of that cuts and facet stuff."
"Call me Azure, and I want to hire you and your crew for a small job."
The eyebrow over Lars' scar hiked up in interest. "We're listening."
"We are Star-worshippers, illegal in the eyes of the Authority. In orbit, lies the last place of worship for any of us, a Star Temple. We want you to be our escort when we go there."
"How come?" Lars asked.
"We only have a civilian shuttle and we'll need protection from Authority forces, while we spend some time on-board the Temple, communing with the stars. Word has spread about the Off-Colors' actions against the Diamonds, and so, we hoped that you would help us."
When Lars cupped his chin in thought, Azure added, quickly, "We can pay, of course."
"Well, we are low on funds," the captain considered, coyly. "All right! Get your people ready and we'll meet you in low orbit."
"Thank you, Captain!" Azure sighed in relief. "May the Stars forever shine upon you." With that, she left the booth and disappeared into the activity of the tavern.
"What do you think, guys?" Lars conferred with his compatriots. "Should we take this?"
"It'll be tricky protecting an unarmed shuttle in the middle of a firefight," Rhodonite advised.
"She's got a point there/No two ways about it," the Rutile Twins concurred.
"I'm sure...that the Star-worshippers...understand the risks," Fluorite uttered, sagaciously.
Lars took most of his crew's feelings into account, and then looked towards his tactical advisor.
"What do you think, Padparadscha?" he asked her.
After a moment, she serenely said to him, "I predict...that you will do the right thing."
Considering that her prediction was based on his concerns of the immediate past, Lars acquiesced. They've faced odds in their burgeoning piratical career that would have been terminal to anyone else. His confidence was always rewarded with the fact he had the ship and the crew that could get the job done.
He stood from the table, finished his sweet drink, and made his decision.
The Sun Incinerator maintained a close position with the shuttle, a slow, boxy affair that held the lives of forty worshippers on-board.
From the Incinerator's view port, the crew could see, on approach, a dingy-white, long-spired, star-shaped structure winking in the nearby star shine of Fristal's sun, a legendary Star Temple.
"What do you see, Pads?" Lars asked her.
The Sapphire waited, and then, reported on the station's past. "The Temple is old, damaged, and the last of its kind. Its sister Temples were destroyed by the Authority, eons ago. In defiance to imperial edict, it still manages to minister to those who still believe, whenever it appears over their worlds."
"It's big, shields are weak in places, but has no weapons," Rhodonite reported from her station. "And I don't see any other ships, so far."
Satisfied, Lars regarded the helm. "Okay, Twins, bring us in."
"Rodger/Captain."
After the shuttle's pilgrims broadcasted an all-safe signal to the Temple, the Incinerator led its charge, on approach, to the station's hangar/airlock level.
Following the faithful into the Temple's central spire, the Off-Colors walked through an arched doorway and saw the grand stage of the devout.
The Great Hall was simply constructed, a wide, high-domed, circular chamber that almost reminded Lars of a concert venue, if not for the vast, arched window on the opposite end of the far entrance, that towered above everyone and thing, giving a clear and awe-inspiring vista of the heavens, outside.
A rise, decorated with small stones, bracketed the room's circumference, and in the center of its broad floor was a scuffed, but still legible, stylized star, whose rays spread halfway across the width of the chamber. At the ends of the star's radiants were the images of Gems of differing facets and colors, with even the four Diamonds, spread among their number.
However, as they walked further into the room, everyone's attention was soon taken, wide-eyed, by the massive, multi-limbed figure standing, back-lit, under the window, flanked by its smaller attendants.
"Welcome, Children of the Stars, to the Star Temple," announced the figure, a smiling, serene-looking Sardonyx in star-patterned vestments.
She peered over the parishioners to the pirates, nearby. "And thank you for guiding them to our humble sanctuary. Azure has told us your exploits and we are glad that her trust in you is well-founded. Although our time in this system is short, please rest and refresh yourselves while we begin our service."
"Uh, thanks, Father," Lars said, in an awkward reflex to addressing this cleric. The Sardonyx seemed to sense the odd respect he tried to convey, and gave him a bow of understanding.
"Before you...begin," Fluorite asked the Sardonyx. "Could we join...your ceremony? As permafusions, such...an opportunity would be rare...and wonderful, and we...wouldn't want to miss out."
The Sardonyx's multiple eyes widened in pleasant surprise. "As High Fusion Priestess of the last Star Temple, I would be honored if you would join us. Please, take a spot on the floor."
With a grateful bow, Fluorite, followed by a shy and nervously smiling Rhodonite, undulated to a bare space on the wide floor, while the other followers stood on chosen places around them, like dancers preparing for a waltz, and the station slowly rotated so that the window faced Fristal's sun.
The Sardonyx took her place in front of the window, the four attendants standing near her, from below. Then, she raised her arms and addressed the congregation.
"The stars, a primal, benevolent force that existed long before even the Diamonds claimed the heavens," she called out. "From their fiery hearts, they created all we see, all light, all matter. Through their holy act of fusion, they created the one from the disparate, and this is the example that we follow, in deference and honor of our creation.
"From the disparate comes the one-many elements fuse to become the Gem." Upon saying that, her attendants gave an atonal, monotone chant that echoed hauntingly across the ceiling.
"From the disparate comes the one-many Gems fuse to become the Fusion!" she proclaimed above them.
The chanting attendants sidestepped against each other, merging thought, emotion, and their hard light construct bodies into two fusions: unique in appearance and harmonious gestalt of mind, now singing in a higher register.
Upon seeing this, the worshippers, all of them, singular Gems, looked lovingly at their partners and fused upon touching them, the combined light of the mutual pairings illuminating the chamber with a primordial light.
Rhodonite and Fluorite, already permafusions, allowed the ritual to take hold of them, their eyes and the cores of their gems, followed the other fusions', and glowed with ancient fire, their voices raised with the others in a haunting cant, as the sun's distant light bathed them.
Off to one side of the chamber, Lars, who was leaning against the Hall's rise, with the other, already enchanted, Off-Colors, was impressed with the imagery and drama of the spectacle.
"This is the coolest concert I ever seen," he commented to himself, with an approving nod.
In the midst of her ecstasy, Fluorite wanted to see how Rhodonite was doing, but then, as she came down from her heightened state, she noticed that Azure was standing alone among the now smaller population of fusions.
So as not to disturb the others, Fluorite waved one of her lower hands, until she had the sapphire's attention. Then, Azure walked over to them.
"Azure...why aren't you fused?" asked the polyfusion. "Where...is your partner?"
Azure looked unsure, but she admitted, "Jade...she left when the ritual began. She said that she left something in the shuttle, but she didn't come back."
"Perhaps...we should go...look for her," Fluorite suggested, tapping Rhodonite gently on the shoulder to bring her back into the here and now.
In the shadow of the shuttle's bow, a lone Gem, a diminutive Jade, absently kicked aside the conical rainbow gem of a Bismuth hangar engineer, before changing shape and settling into the form of a lean, reddish Gem clad in a body suit striped with bands of green and white.
"Thanks for refueling the ship," she said to the poofed victim. "Service with a smile."
She took a satisfied look past the blunt nose of the ship, to the nearby berthed Sun Incinerator, the hangar's tall ceiling and the criminals, somewhere on the decks above, and anticipated the devastating end to a long, unloved assignment.
Then, she walked over to the forward landing gear, opened a unlocked hat switch on the hydraulic strut, and depressed a button, allowing the shuttle's main hatch to unseal itself and descend.
The sound of someone entering the hangar's pressurized entrance from the hall, outside, made her turn to see two fusions and a familiar gem walking towards her.
"What are you doing here?" the Gem asked. "Shouldn't you be with those other heretical fusions in the Great Hall?"
Azure, a psychic Gem, looked genuinely confused by how things were playing out. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Where's Jade?"
"In reverse order, I was never Jade, I'm Tourmaline. Watermelon Tourmaline, Authority Intelligence, and what I'm doing is leaving, because I placed a plasma bomb in the Temple's reactor, and I'd like to get out before I detonate it," the agent said, matter-of-factly.
Despite having no blood, the other Gems grew cold with shock.
"You're a spy, and I didn't see that! Why?" Azure asked.
"Like I said, I'm a Watermelon Tourmaline," said Melon the spy. "I can infiltrate and copy the appearance of other Gems. That's what we're made for, and I played my part in your sad little cause well enough to fool even your mental powers."
"No, I mean why are you doing this to these innocent Gems?" Azure pressed.
"They aren't innocent, and neither are you!" Melon sneered. "Look at yourself, trying to bond with a Gem that's different than you. Where's you sense of purity, of loyalty to the Diamonds, your honor?"
Rhodonite was suddenly moved to speak, softly, in response to the spy's narrow vision. "I once thought that same way you do. I always questioned myself, ashamed of who I was. But, I found out that I love who I am, that their love created me. How can you say that it's wrong?"
"Indeed. We are all...Children of the Stars," Fluorite told her, evenly. "They created the universe, us...by the fusing of different elements...together. In their great wisdom...they gave us the gift...of fusion, to remind us...of that ancient power of creation."
Melon wanted to laugh in the old fool's face. "Spoken like one of those long-shattered Fusion Priestesses!" she scoffed. "The continual unity of the Diamond Authority should be the only fusion that concerns you, harridan."
Fluorite fixed the Tourmaline with an uncommonly hard look. "Not all...were shattered."
"Ask me if I care!" the agent spat. "I know why Star Temples were built in the first place, '...to celebrate the glorious act of fusion, in all its levels, for strength, for understanding, and for love.' I read the dossier on all of that religious clap-trap."
Azure, noticing that Melon was still talking, and the station wasn't particulates, yet, attempted to buy more time and appeal to her better nature, once more. "Please, Tourmaline, you still have time to do the right thing! Stop the bomb and let the Temple go!"
Her entreaties were rewarded with a look from the agent as hard as her gem. "I am a loyal citizen of the Authority. I amdoing the right thing. It was by the Diamonds' decree that they should be seen as the pinnacle of Gem society, the unattainable height that all other Gems aspire!
"This...preoccupation with the stars, robs the Diamonds of the glory they have long-since earned by forging this government. The stability of the laws that protect you, the personal comforts that you pursue, the simple honor of being a citizen of this awesome empire...These are the gifts that were bestowed upon your ungrateful brows, and those heretics above us cheat our leaders of their due!"
She fixed a glare of simmering hate towards the Sapphire. "You have no idea what it was like to stand with you, to fuse with you. Waiting year after year for that accursed satellite to appear in-system, all the while, hearing you and the others bleat,'Oh, my stars-this,' and 'Oh, my stars-that.' Those nostalgic fools want to worship the stars? In a few minutes, they'll be blown across them!"
She stiffened and brought the back of her hands and knuckles together into the angular salute of the Authority, revealing her square, pink and green gem on her right palm. "The Diamonds are our strength! The Diamonds are our future! Long shine the Diamonds!"
She brought her hands out of the salute, lifted them to eye level and oriented them, as though they were about to hold each other, and clapped the palms together. As she slowly pulled the hands away from each other, energy from her palm gem radiated between her hands. When the energy dissipated, there was a large, chisel-hard katar in gripped in each hand. "Long shine the Diamonds!"
The Ruby within Rhodonite communed with her lover, telling her, as a warrior, what needed to be done. There was simply no convincing this Tourmaline, no more appeals, and no more time.
Rhodonite gulped, and then, turned to the others. "Fluorite, go to the reactor and try to defuse the bomb! Azure, warn the others! I'll...try to keep her here!"
As she watched the two leave the hangar in a rush, Melon gave the remaining fusion a curious and bemused look, while she brandishing her katars. "To what end, Off-Color, to scare me into surrendering, to save your crew, like that Padparadscha? How ironic. One of the rarest of her kind, and she's not even worth the dirt she crawled out of."
"That, you're going to pay for," Rhodonite uttered, with a deep frown, as one of her Pearl's hands reached up to her chest, gracefully pulled a keen saber from the glowing depths of her gem, and assumed an archaic combat pose.
The Tourmaline almost dropped one of her punch daggers in a fit of bitter laughter. "Ha, ha, ha, ha! That's a Pearl's stance! There's a reason we don't use them in combat, anymore! In the Diamonds' wisdom, they were given their true purpose. The Pearl inside of you will wish she heeded that wisdom, before the end!"
The detonator was safely hidden aboard the ship and she could, confidently, get to it at any time. Now, was the time to test her blades on this Off-Color, and teach her the folly of defying the will of the Authority.
And so, between the two of them, alone in the hangar of a doomed station, an unexpected battle was joined.d.