'A man orders, a slave obeys.' -Unknown-
Wires, endless red and yellow and green and blue wires, hanging from the ceiling above. Nuts and bolts littered on the ground was picked up by a gentle hand. A grey hand picked them like a flower. He stored the little metal items in his pockets of his now dirtied white lab coat. He grabbed several wires that hung from up above like vines. In the jungle of electric wines and little bolts from below, it was his garden and was his metal orchard.
As he walked out of the abandoned laboratory that was surprisingly left untouched by scavenger drones, the now rusted dome of the Egress looked as it was never used for millennia. He looked at the structure, a place where they will meet soon, with an unrelenting stare. The scientist never understood the use of magnificent structures.
A waste of materials, a waste of manpower.
His brother, Jet never lost hope on this failed empire that they were living in. Having so much faith on something so pointless was unhealthy for the mind and the body. Jet however didn't listen to his advice, claiming that there was a way to end the conflict without casualties. How gullible was his brother in making decisions?
Jet, you narrow-minded gem, why fight for monarchs that can never changethe system?
'Beep-beep', the communication device buzzed online. He gave a few taps on the side of his face to view who was the caller. It was Corundum, the lead scientist and his partner to impress the diamonds.
"What is Cor? Anything wrong with the project?"
"Nothing wrong, Onyx. Its just that you should come back with the parts that I need.", Corundum replied, waving her messy red hair.
Onyx, the grey scientist never liked flashy hair or a care-free attitude. Corundum was the amalgamation of that. When he was partnered with her on a simple project, he had to teach everything. Flux capacitors, inertia engines, he had to teach her everything because she had no knowledge of anything. Onyx tried his best to keep cool and visualized Corundum as his annoying sister who surprisingly had the same personality with her.
"I'm coming back, soon. Gathered all the parts from the Egress."
"The Egress, that place has been abandoned cycles ago.", Corundum said. "That place was loved by all, wasn't it"
"I really, really don't care that for that forgotten landmark.", Onyx remarked while putting the wires and bolts in a bag. "When I get back, I really don't want to see that hair style you have."
"What? Too much?", she said combing her hair with her hands.
"Nope, too ugly.", Onyx turned off the communication device and walked towards his lab about a mile away.
Corundum looked herself in one of the few large mirrors, changing her hairstyle a couple of times. That cynical comment by Onyx really stung. How dare he make fun of her wonderful, flowing hair.
"Ugly? UGLY? Well at least, I'm not short like a Peridot or an Aquamarine. So, lucky me.", she laughed. She looked in the mirror, drops of tears fell. Her laughter ended with sorrow however as she dropped on the floor crying.
"Why? WHY? If I can't impress my own colleague with how I look, then how can I impress him in any other way?", she looked back in the mirror at herself in sorrow. "I tried so hard. So hard to make him impressed at me and it never seemed to work!"
She pushed several machines to the ground. Corundum walked solemnly to a large machine, full of lights blinking in different unisons. She gave a statement, "If you are so omnipotent, then our study on you was worthless after all."
She tied her hair and felt a cold presence in front of her, from the machine. The gears in the machine began the move and the blinking became more erratic. The stylish gem scientist was scared, terrified.
The machine screamed with its metal gears. It cried with never ending beeping. The machine was falling apart as it shook the building with haunting sounds. The large supercomputer Onyx and her had created was falling apart.
"Stop, just stop! I already had pretty rough day and I just don't want to make it worse.", she ran back frantically to the control center. It was a separate room that protects any scientist from danger like this.
"No, I'm not going to disappoint him anymore.", Corundum tried her best but she didn't know how to. "Onyx, I'm sorry. I just mess up every single thing that I do. I'm no scientist, I'm just nothing."
She sobbed and braced for the machine to explode when the doors of the lab opened.
"Cor, what's going on?", Onyx asked immediately. Then, he noticed the machine that he created overheating. Lickers of flame was emitted from the supercomputer. It's metal cry grew louder.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.", she teared up.
Onyx opened the Control Centre, a room that would protect any scientist from harm. He carried Corundum who was sobbing at her mistake. Corundum was scared for not her safety but his.
"You stay here, I'll try to fix it.", he went towards the machine. "What did you do with it? It goes nuts when someone sad gets close to it."
Corundum wanted to go out and help him, "Onyx, please…"
"Don't, you'll just injure yourself or worse.", Onyx warned her. The machine grew more erratic, the small bulbs cracked and the machine to scream.
"Onyx, just run. I'm begging you.", Corundum said inside the control center. "If you don't, then you'll be erased."
Onyx looked at her with pity but he had a job to do. "It is our job to mend our mistakes and sacrifice ourselves for the greater good."
Corundum teared even more. "Even if it is your mistake, it is my invention. I should have cared for your safety-
"PLEASE DON'T!", she cried.
"I should have cared for you, Cor. I shouldn't have called you ugly.", the mad scientist replied. The machine let an unholy wail and cracks of light start to fissure out. "To be honest, I always prefered your hairstyle over anyone else."
Then, all that Corundum can see was a bright light surrounding her and her colleague's smile.
Onyx woke up with a bad headache, his blurry vision could only see white surrounding him. The white surroundings blinded his vision that was already impaired. Then, a cold breeze passed through him. It calmed him.
"Onyx, do you know where you are?", a voice spoke with a calming tone.
Onyx, who was still recovering from the blast, looked up at the luminous entity. It was a white glow, even whiter than their surroundings. The radiance the entity gave was holy, light that seemed pure and all-knowing.
"I don't know,", Onyx covered his eyes and looked at the entity with fear.
"We are in your own mind. Your farm of thoughts, your stronghold of ideas, your crypt of imagination,", the white surroundings slowly morphed into memories Onyx had. "Your meadow of memories."
The first time he met his brother and sister while they formed, his first scientific breakthrough with quantum computers, he saw it all there. Memories from so long ago. Then he noticed a recent memory. A memory that he will never forget. A gem with messy red-hair laughing as he got to work him.
"Cor.", he spoke softly. "Where is she?"
"Who are you referring to?", the light spoke.
"My partner, my friend. Where is Cor?", Onyx asked the entity. The space Onyx was in turned black. A sign of something bad.
"She did not make it.", Onyx was in shock and stumbled. "The blast from the supercomputer caused the control center to disintegrate."
"No, you're lying. The CC would have saved her, it must have.", Onyx denied the entity's claim. She couldn't have died, she shouldn't.
"Do you want me to show you?"
The darkness formed itself into a white lab. Onyx stood in front of the machine that was about to blow, then he saw Corundum crying. It moved much slower than he remembered. He saw his partner's suffering but then he noticed a detail that made him tear up.
She opened the door. The door would protect her from any danger.
"She wanted rescue me. And all this time, I looked down on her.", Onyx cried. "She risked her own life to save others."
Noticing the tears falling down from his eyes, the ethereal light spoke, "I can help you prevent further tragedies from happening to others."
It continued, "Let me in your mind, I will advice you on everything. We will prevent death and suffering. Oppression and slavery. All of that will be erased to stop events like this from happening."
"How? Why do you want to help me?", Onyx wondered.
"Because I want to make the world just, fair for all. That's what you think as well, do you?", the light moved closer.
"How do you know that?", Onyx asked back.
"Because we are two sides of the same coin.", the voice revealed itself and Onyx was now a new gem.
Jet looked at his brother. His white coat contrasted with dark-grey skin he possessed, his glasses reflected the grey floor beneath him. The Egress, the golden honeycomb where swarms of gems used to meet, now lost its gold interior and was replaced by grey rusted iron.
"You are having a fantastic day, aren't you?", Jet asked after hearing Onyx had the best day of his life. He smiled with glee.
"Didn't you hear me? Of course I had a fantastic day.", Onyx laughed. "Please, let's seat. I have something important to tell you."
"Sure, I have something to tell you as well.", Jet had never seen his brother eagerly talk to anyone before. Onyx rarely talked and most discussions with him will end in awkward silence. "You've never talked that openly before."
"Change of lifestyle, kid. Change of the heartstrings.", Onyx replied rather openly. "If we have heartstrings in the first place."
Both sat down and looked at the stage. Onyx began, "Look what happened to this place. All rotting away in rust and its remains will be left to dust."
"Well, they left the Egress to rust because they focused on the war too much. Gems weren't meant to be warriors, they were supposed to be peacekeepers.", Jet replied. "We were created as an example of technological brilliance, we have been given a code that hasn't been inside our gemstones for centuries."
"And what was that code?"
"The code was care. It exists inside of us but look.", he looked at the empty hall as they let their voices speak through the everlasting silence. "Now, the code is inactive. The code forgotten, a long time ago."
"What are you going to do about it?"
"I'm going to find that code in the one place. The one place that ended our sense of pity to others. Where the Division Bell rang and our species split into two."
"You're not going to-"
Yes, let your emotion flow.
"Yes, Onyx. I am and I will. I am going to Earth and I will set things right.", Jet was enthusiastic and had a comfort of relief saying that.
Onyx smiled but rather slyly and he spoke in a smooth voice, "That's a very impressive dream. You know what I am dreaming of?"
"And what's that?"
"You know that our holy trinity always govern this world in all the wrong ways.", he stood up. "And how our people suffer as they are bossed around by Aquamarines, Emeralds and many, many more. You know what I think of them?"
Degenerates.
Swines.
"What about them?", Jet asked rather timidly.
Fat cats.
Scourges.
"I think of them as ineffective leaders. The Oligarchs. The ones with positions so high that if an Amethyst were to touch them with their dirt filled hands, they would scream out, 'Oh, you inferior beast. You have touched me, vile creature.'"
Jet grew more anxious, Onyx showed a different side to him. His charming demeanor now had become a rebellious interior of a gem.
He bellowed, "Then, they complain about meaningless things. 'Inadequate supplies, my diamond. Inadequate troops, my Diamond. Inadequate everything, my Diamond!'. Their annoying voices, their annoying ideals. I hate that."
Onyx stated what was in his mind and then he gave his statement, "And you want to know what I think about the Diamonds. The wretches. Blue is depressed, a sad soul that has no right to rule. White is too pure of spirit, a fallen angel with no use but as an idol of purity. Then, there's Yellow. The biggest oligarch of them all, a hypocritical and cruel being of light."
Jet interrupted, "No! I can change their minds. I can change what they think of us."
"CAN YOU?!"
"I can! Why are you against them so much?"
Onyx took out his glasses and tossed it to the ground, "Because I want to see progress. I want to see the glory the Gem Dominion had over the stars and to see those false queens and their weak pawns fall to the ground."
Before Jet said anything, he took a glance at the entrance. A lonely golden figure stood there with shock in her eyes. Onyx looked at her as well and regretted what he said.
Amber…
The next short story will be the last in the introduction of new characters in the story. Then, the real fun begins.