A/N: My friend on Tumblr, ask-onyxrose gave me this prompt for a drabble. I'm sorta satisfied with how canon it sounds! If people like this story, I may add more chapters. Reviews really matter!
Back in her offplanet Homeworld megacomplex compartment, Peridot tried to get her bearings.
It was a tiny, cramped room by average gem standards - full of equipment, badly ventilated, and only going up as high as the doorway itself - but this space accommodated the scout well. Lit dimly with a gemlike glow coming from an opening in the ceiling, it was replete with the noises of crashing metal.
She dug through her storage banks to find several flasks of robonoid juice, then went to searching for her electronic tools. Under her breath she muttered, habitually flustered. "Damn this Earth mission... they've got me running back and forth, rebuilding everything..." She pried free an electrostimulus cord from its socket. "Nobody even wants to help me. You'd think - ugh! - they'd send more gems if it was at all important. Why did they send anyone in the first place!? I have level A clearance - - "
"Sergeant Peridot 2F5L-5xG."
"Huh!" The green gem turned, startled, to find a class 2.4 Selenite in her doorway.
"I have come to deliver intelligence that a Lapis Lazuli was recieved at one of the loading docks." The Selenite stood with her arms clasped behind her back respectfully, reciting data from a portable infoscreen.
"Go on... what does this have to do with me?"
"The Lapis came from Earth. You are designated to meet with Imperial Topaz in three-point-oh time-units to resolve the matter."
"... What?"
The Selenite closed her eyes. "That is all." Then her eyes flashed open, with white light and a new task to execute.
Peridot watched the messenger hurry away down the corridor. "Ugh, dusty cruddy shards! Clods!" She kicked an infoceiver sharply, and nearly dislodged her ambulatory limb enhancer. "Ack! ...Clods!"
At precisely 56:00 time-units, Peridot warped into the executive wing of the megacomplex. She'd polished her limb enhancers till they reflected the steely hallways and neon lights. She'd even set aside some time to rake her touch stubs through her hair, and form it into a perfect seamless triangle. There was no other option, than to look her best for the Commander of this database.
She had no time to prepare a dialogue. The massive door split in the center and melted, magma yellow, into the archway.
"Peridot 143." Topaz's severe voice filled the room and took seconds to die out, clamoring at the walls and bouncing into the high ceiling. The commander had draped herself over her throne, amidst a storm of infoscreens.
Hers was a curvaceous and severe figure, draped in a seamless curtain of burnt orange hair. She didn't even need any enhancement-tech to be ten feet tall. The four-cut, five facet gem in her forehead flashed like a solar flare, as her chin lifted and her gaze settled before her. "2F5L. Cut 5, xG."
"Yes, your luminescence." Peridot stepped inside and knelt, her own forehead gem centimeters from the floor.
The towering auburn gem glared down her pointed nose. "Rise. I have no time to waste on formalities."
"Uh- -" Shooting upwards, Peridot directed her attention zealously at her superior.
"This Lapis was brought to me from Earth - the same place to which you were dispatched recently." With a simple gesture, Topaz summoned a cage from behind her throne to drift forward into view. It was made of panels of antimatter: such that could destroy a gem's physical form. Inside, a dainty blue gem was chained, by her neck and limbs, bent awkwardly into a curled position so that her teardrop gem was exposed upward. Her dress was in tatters, and she was riddled with bruises. She screamed almost noiselessly at the ground, struggling against her constraints. The sounds were muffled - and dreadful.
"Peridot-143. Exactly how many other gems are on Earth?"
The chartreuse gem could barely speak - her lips trembled, her throat suddenly became dry. Topaz rose from her seat and stepped forward with enough force to crush any lesser gemstone to small pieces.
"Peridot!"
"Forgive me! I do not know what gems are present on that planet, at the moment-"
"How have you not ascertained this data?!" Her veil of calm had rapidly vanished, while the infoscreens behind her frenzied with activity; incoming messages.
"I have no excuse, Sergeant! The Redeye data collector we deployed reported no gems are present as of this star cycle! And in the time that I have been surveying that planet, I have found no conclusive evidence as to what creature defiled the last active warp pads -"
"What?" Topaz' eyes viciously narrowed; her lip curled.
Peridot gulped. "My robonoids repaired the main warp channel. Once I arrived there over the stream, I found a strange symbol attached to the side with sticky adhesive!" She was on her knees, shouting to be heard above the echoes of the room. "Not long after, the main warp went down again. Whatever is there, has been destroying my robonoids! Whenever I take inventory, less than twenty-percent return from their data recovery missions!"
"I thought these native... 'humans' were weak. Do you think they broke the warp pads?" She didn't wait for an answer, but it looked as though Peridot couldn't speak much anyhow.
Topaz turned sharply away, a look of pained displeasure in her eyes. "You know what you need to do. See that it's done quickly."
"Your Radiance-"
"Take this as your informant." She shoved the floating cage toward Peridot, who caught it in her own electric force stream. "Round up whatever remains of that stupid rebellion, and reactivate the primary Kindergarten! GO!"
Peridot clambered to the executive warp in a panic, dragging the cage with her. As soon as they both were on, she activated the warp and teleported out.
The echoes of Imperial Topaz' shrill voice were still in her head as she found her bearings in the warp stream. Trying to relax her nerves, she turned toward the prisoner, who was still hunched over in her shackles. Only now it was silent. She stared at the blue gem in the captive's back, surveyed her slight frame.
"Why were you on Earth?" Peridot narrowed her eyes, then turned the cage around so that they faced each other.
No answer came. The lapis hung with her filthy bangs covering her eyes, and made not a single noise.
"How did you escape? Did you use the warp system?"
Still nothing. "Not gonna talk, huh?" She crossed her arms and scowled at the cage. An idea dawned on her. "What if I get you out of that cage? Will you talk then?"
She may have imagined it, but Peridot seemed to recognize a glimmer of interest in the prisoner's face.
Back in her storage cell, Peridot blew the dust off her frequency dispelling transmitter. "Here goes."
She flicked a tiny switch, and a short, deafening explosion of sound and prickling electricity came from the device. The cage flickered and then fell apart, its hinges that had held it together clattering to the floor. Its occupant fell to her knees, then collapsed on her side. Peridot stared.
The corner of her mouth twitched as she watched the lapis lying facedown, breathing shallowly. Her resolve was quickly wearing away.
There was a clattering from the corner of the room as Peridot began digging through her things again. In a moment she emerged with a clear flask of robonoid fluid. She took small steps toward the prisoner, then closed the sliding door to her compartment. Kneeling, she came right to the captive's side, then nudged her with a single floating finger.
The lapis moaned. Peridot hesitated, then prodded her again. Lapis turned over, and looked up with dark, exhausted eyes. Tears ran off the side of her face and dripped to the steel floor.
"Here." Peridot set down the vial. "It only works on electronics, for healing purposes. But it's... cool. Cool and smooth. Rub it on your skin."
After a few seconds of quiet, The green gem rose to her feet and clomped back over to her storage units, and started retrieving the parts for a spare arm enhancer blast cell. She might need one for this next mission.
Only after the gem left her side, did Lapis let her eyes move. She looked blankly at the vial, at its blurry, formless shape skewed by tears. A blotch of mint green surrounded by shining glass and stoppered with a triangular spike.
Lapis slowly extended her shaking hand, and took the vial, uncorked it. Spreading the goo on her inflamed wrists, she concentrated on relief.
Peridot glanced over her shoulder, to find that the lapis was applying the robo- fluid to her burns and scratches. Something strange happened for a second - she thought she felt her gem glowing. "Eugh..."
Shuddering, she shrugged it off as she went back to her preparations.
A/N: Did you like it? The Only way I'll Ever Know is if you Favorite or Review! Preferably both!
Thank you so much for reading. I think I wanna do an introduction story with Jasper too.
