Chapter Two: Dream
"Garnet! He's talking crazy! Mars!" Pearl ranted. Garnet knelt down for Steven. The preceding evening he'd either dreamt or traveled astrally to Mars, and she needed to know for certain which it was.
"Pearl, please. Steven, tell me about your dream," she asked. Garnet had just returned from checking the bubbled entities in the temple depths, and meditating on timelines to foresee the places gem monsters or gem mutants or dangerous artifacts might be.
Steven was upset that he wasn't being taken seriously. "I was there! Really!" he pleaded. Garnet nodded. "Go on," she said, mildly. Through the seriousness of this moment, even as discordant as it was, she could feel her pride swelling. Steven was as much a caretaker as his Mother, and as much an explorer as his Father. Each time he faced a new challenge, he conquered it with aplomb. She wanted to burst, cry out, cheer him on. She was certain he was being truthful, but she couldn't let on how proud she was.
"At first, I thought I was dreaming, like with Lapiz. I was flying over Beach City. I wanted to see how high I could go. First I passed the moon, then some rocks-"
Garnet interrupted. "Rocks like the ones we found you with when you got blown out of the moon base?" she asked.
"Yeah! Then I flew past two really big rocks-" Garnet smiled. She wasn't feeling the smile, but it was a cue for Steven to listen without being intimidating or authoritarian. "Did they look like big potatoes?" she asked.
"Wow- did you have the same dream?" Steven asked, beginning to doubt himself.
"No, Steven. Those are Phobos and Deimos, moons of Mars. I think you were there. Tell us what you saw," she urged. Bolstered, Steven went on.
"Well, once I got there, there was this room, er, actually there's a whole shrine for her, so she can help people. There's the statue room and a big amphitheater classroom, and a whole bunch of little rooms, and some hallways." The gems were looking at each other, and he knew enough to stop.
"You said 'her'- 'her' who?" asked Amethyst.
"Golden Topaz! She is the, uh, the Counselor and Healer General of Mars. She's really nice, but she thinks that I'm in the homeworld galaxy and that she's going to be alone forever and I have to go back because she's cracked and-" Garnet hugged him quiet. Pearl placed her hand on his shoulder.
"Counselor and Healer General of Mars. And a Topaz? Steven, this is just so- amazing! Garnet, this is exactly the kind of ally we've been looking for," she said, trying to curb her excitement. Her face darkened a little. "But on Mars? There weren't any bases on Mars that I knew of." Pearl placed her hand on her chin in thought.
"If Steven says she's there, we should look. We haven't been to Mars, and now we have a ship that can make the trip. But we need to talk this out. I've read about Mars, and it sounds rough. We'll need to prepare. And we'll need to tell the others." Garnet stood.
"Uh, hellooo, does anybody else wanna know why she's by herself?" demanded Amethyst. "Oh, she was imprisoned by a crazy quartz. It was awful," blurted Steven. Amethyst crossed her arms.
"Eh, yeah, but why was she imprisoned? Did you ask?" Steven felt heat in his cheeks. "Er, no, we were talking about her friends and Fluorite and Diorite." Amethyst frowned. "So, 'no', right?" Steven deflated. "No." Amethyst sighed. "What do you know about her?"
Steven stood in front of them making wild gestures as he told them the story of clock, the forcefields, the recordings, and how Golden Topaz reacted to all of it. He described what she had told him as they talked in the halls of the shrine. He told them about how Topaz had simply asserted that he wouldn't be meeting Diorite, and how she wished he could meet Fluorite.
He left out the evil voice of the quartz that lingered in her mind, tormenting her. They didn't need to know about that, and he wasn't sure that was his story to tell anyway. That would an intrusion.
The Gems sat on the couch looking at Steven in silence as they often did when processing some startling new thing he'd told them. Pearl's color was off, and looked utterly creeped out. She kept her hands clutched over her chest.
Amethyst's expression of disgust was unhidden. "But you don't know what she did. Someone thought she was bad enough to leave there for who knows how long. Ugh," she said and flopped back onto the couch. Pearl looked at her in shock.
"Did you not hear what someone did to her!? Who deserves that!?" she exclaimed. "Steven, I owe you an apology- it's just, sometimes your stories are a little far-fetched," she said. Amethyst rolled her eyes, and then rolled over.
"I know nobody deserves what she got, 'kay? But bad things happen to good people, and sometimes bad things happen to bad people, too. Remember what happened to Jasper." The couch muffled her voice, but her feelings on what happened to Jasper were still evident. Amethyst then rolled off of the couch and stepped into the open kitchen to the sink.
Garnet abruptly stood, said "I need a moment to think," and stepped out the front door. Pearl watched her go out in puzzlement. Amethyst put on her best 'I-don't-care' face as she gulped down drain crystals and burped purple flames. Steven dashed out the door after Garnet.
He thumped against the rail next to her, and looked up at her. Where her stoic lips would be was a tiny downturn. She looked out over the Atlantic and exhaled. Then she looked down at him with affection. She took off the mirror shades she liked so much, and looked Steven in the eyes. There, he could see how much what was going on affected her as all of her eyes glistened.
"Garnet?" he asked. She placed a hand on his shoulder.
"This Gem you met, whether she's bad or not, has been done a terrible injustice," she said. She put her shades back on. "You remember when we told you how Gems are made. When a Gem emerges from the ground, she knows her purpose, and how to act. But even then, she still has other things to learn, like Gem culture, Gem etiquette," she sighed. "-and Gem law. Every law that I know is against the way your Golden Topaz was punished."
Pearl's voice came through the screen on the front door. "That kind of incarceration, for the duration you described, violates every ethic I remember starting with or learning."
"Even I know it was wrong," said Amethyst through the window before belching another purple plume of fire. Pearl sighed. "Honestly, you know how you are with lye and aluminum- go outside!"
"My bad. Gang way!" said Amethyst as she trotted out through the door and down the boardwalk to the beach before letting loose another outburst. Steven held his breath as the toxic fumes dissipated.
"Are we going to go get her?" He asked once the haze had faded. Garnet looked down at Amethyst gulping down ocean water, then over her shoulder at Pearl, who now opened the door and stepped out.
"We need to think about it. All Topaz were banned in this sector of space long before we were sent here. And we need to tell Lapiz Lazuli and Peridot. And your Father," said Garnet. "I want to be here when you try to make contact with her again. Please wait," she instructed.
"But why? You can't see what I see- unless I leak like Pearl does-" he said, earning himself a quick 'shh' from Amethyst and a "What!?" from Pearl. "Amethyst, you've burnt the shades again. Come inside and help clean up!" she said.
"Because I think your Golden Topaz is imprisoned not because of what she did, but because of what she saw someone else do." Garnet turned to face him and knelt down to his level. "I trust you to do what's right, Steven. What I don't trust is what Gems have done to other Gems. I don't want you to learn or see something terrible without someone ready to answer your questions about it. Even grown Gems sometimes don't handle it well." Steven shrugged.
"I think she's asleep- no, something, uh, bigger than sleep- right now. I don't think I could see her if I wanted to. It'd just be dreams." Garnet nodded.
"Even so. You've had a very busy night as a Crystal Gem, so take today off." Garnet turned to look down the beach. "There's Sadie and Lars. You could go get some doughnuts!" she said brightly. Steven looked where Garnet was pointing.
Sadie and Lars were sprinting up the beach as hard as they could manage. Sadie looked like she was about to faint, and Lars looked excited about something. Steven hugged Garnet and dashed down the boardwalk and met his friends at the bottom.
"Steven," said Sadie, between breaths, "we saw a flash! Is everything okay?" she asked, looking around for the usual destruction.
"Yeah! There was this awesome mushroom cloud and flames-" Lars added, hoping for more fireworks. Amethyst moaned.
"Ugh- it was just a little indigestion. Gosh!" she said, flipping her hair. Greg rounded the corner at the opposite end of the beach.
"What's with all the smoke? Not another gem monster I hope-" he said, spotting Steven immediately and running directly to him.
Amethyst growled. "Aluminum makes me burp, okay!? I can handle spicy food! Leave me alone!" she said, stomping back into the house. Pearl spotted her. "Oh, good, now you can help get this carbon off of the window." Amethyst mumbled something back as the door closed behind her.
"Greg, may we please get a ride out to the farm?" asked Garnet. "Sure thing," replied Steven's Father. "Hey, buddy, what's happening?" he asked as he trotted up, winded from his run around the base of the rock the lighthouse stood on.
"Lots of stuff!" Steven related the previous evening's goings on as Greg, Sadie, and Lars listened intently. Garnet waited patiently for Steven's story to come to a close before calling to the other Gems to get ready to leave.
Sadie was astonished. "Steven, that's terrifying! I don't even know what I'd do if I found myself on another planet!"
"Greg, we need to get going, please." Garnet led the other Gems down the wooden walkway as they argued. Pearl was lecturing Amethyst again.
"-so next time just choose a less volitile cleaner, that's all I'm saying."
"Well I'm sorry, but I wanted something with bite, and bleach is mild sauce. I'll just have it outside next time." They followed garnet down the beach. Garnet paused and turned around as Greg joined up with their little group. She made eye contact with Steven.
"Day. Off. And no sneaking off to visit with Centipeedle!" she asserted.
"She's right! Lucid Dream Astral travel, and rest, of the real kind, are two very different things!" added Pearl.
"See you as soon as we get back, I promise," called Greg. Garnet did her 'heart' sign and finished the goodbyes with "Love you," and the party disappeared around the corner.
Steven and his friends went back to the Big Donut and sat in the dining room sampling the latest flavors of fritters. It was decided that the plantain fritters were probably not going to be in circulation long. They talked for a long time as Steven wondered what the other Gems were talking about, and worried about Topaz. Sadie realized that he wasn't paying attention as she finished her story of the scorch mark in the supply room.
"-hair product and fire suppressant left a near-perfect gelatin mold of him. I think it saved his life. He's still afraid of dough hooks- Steven?" She stopped her story, knowing that he was a hundred-million miles away. Steven tried to fake his way out of embarrassment.
"Uh, napkins are always freeeee," he sang.
"Wow, you really were in outer space, weren't you," said Lars bluntly. Steven blushed.
"You're really worried about this Golden Topaz." Sadie frowned at him. Steven was all heart. She wondered if there was some way she could help him or be supportive.
Steven nodded. "Yeah. Garnet says someone 'did her an injustice', but Amethyst doesn't think I should trust her, and Pearl isn't sure how she feels about it all. They want me to wait." Steven tossed back his milk, and slapped the carton down on the table, and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Ugh. I hate waiting!"
Lars growled and went behind the counter as Sadie and Steven watched. After a moment of rummaging around, he set a box down on the glass. Then he operated the till. Sadie and Steven stared.
"I used my discount. Maybe this'll help." They continued to stare. "What!? He said he hates waiting. That's the most sense Steven's made in *ever!" said Lars. Steven leaped up and opened the box.
"There's even a bag of Lion Lickers! Thanks Lars!" Steven burst. Lars shrugged. "Hey! Nobody hears about this. People will think I've gone all soft," he said. "Now go home and do weirdo stuff, and get your mind off of your Mars friend. I know I don't like it when people bug me when I'm sleeping."
"I know that's true. Last time I had to kick you out of the employee room you almost bit me," added Sadie. "And feet don't belong on the break table. Take care, Steven. Sometimes waiting is just better."
Steven searched up the planet Mars on the web. He studied maps, the poles, landings by various space agencies, composition, and moons. He knew the Shrine was near a volcano called Olympus Mons, but that alone was the size of Texas.
"Ugh!" He flopped onto the couch. Lion cocked his head at Steven. He looked at lion. "I think Amethyst does it better." Lion grunted, and then flopped down next to him, forcefully shoving the table into the middle of the floor.
"Yeah I do," Amethyst said as forcefully as she breezed in through the door and flopped onto the couch next to him. "You didn't go see the scary Topaz lady without us, did you?" she asked, with uncharacteristic empathy. Steven could hear the van shut down outside as more doors slammed and feet walked on the steps.
"Nope. Lars got us donuts." Amethyst looked at him doubtfully as the rest of the gems and Greg came in. "Lars did," she said. Lapiz and Peridot came in next, followed by Greg and Pearl, and finally Garnet. Lapiz looked pointedly unhappy. The others were animated, but seemed interested rather than upset.
"Yep. I've been reading instead," he said, and showed her the tablet and the articles on Mars. "Saved you some," he said, handing her the box. She put a Bavarian cream on the box, and devoured both in a single bite, leaving the last three donuts on a napkin. Then she punched him in the shoulder. Amethyst wasn't an overtly affectionate Gem.
"Ah! Mars! Good man. Way to be on the ball," Steven's Father plopped down on the opposite side Amethyst was on, observing Steven's tablet. "Whad'ja learn?" Steven sighed.
"There's almost no air. It's super cold, unless the sun is out, then it's hot but also cold. And there's lots of radiation." Steven remained in his post- 'flop' position. "She's by herself. She's alone there, and she's been alone for all this time, and she's hurt."
Pearl frowned. She'd seen Rose Quartz worry like this over Gems, and now he more than ever, reminded her of Rose. "I wonder how bad it is," he finished. Garnet gestured as she sat on the floor and Peridot scooted two chairs over from the dining area. Pearl seated herself by Amethyst.
"Sit up, buddy," urged Greg. "We need you to know what we talked about," he said as he put a big hand under the boy and lifted him upright. All of Steven's Gem friends were here, all of his adults, and they seemed pretty serious. Steven gulped. "Er- so, everyone's here," he started.
"Oh, Steven, you're not in trouble- but what you've done is amazing," said Pearl, realizing how tense he suddenly was. "We're proud of you. Making contact with people on another planet, unaided by technology is- just- well-"
"Hugely awesome!" interjected Amethyst in her sassiest tone, but her enthusiasm was quickly replaced by concern. "But, uh, this person," she started. "Golden Topaz-" Steven corrected. Lapiz shifted, and Peridot jostled with excitement.
"-Eh, yeah- we're concerned that she may not be who she says she is." Steven stiffened. "She wouldn't lie!" he protested. Peridot stood from her chair with her hands up in submission.
"No, no, Steven! We don't mean to say she's lying. But on the home world, Topaz is just a nurse, or a confidant, or some sort of servant, like a Pearl-" this earned her a sharp look from Pearl, "er, home world Pearl. 'Counselor and Healer General' is a second-in-command position, what humans call a 'lieutenant'. Only Quartzes, like Amethyst or you would be allowed to have that position. A Topaz, even a powerful one like a yellow one wouldn't be allowed to have it. It upsets the traditional hierarchy of gem kind." Peridot finished, but remained on her feet.
"That's the only reason, Steven. We come from a specific culture, and she doesn't seem to, uh, 'fit' into any of it-" Pearl said hesitatingly. "And being astral might not completely protect you from harm." She sighed. "We worry."
"Boy howdy," added Greg. "But here's the rest, Steven; we know we can't stop you visiting with her. We don't even know if you could choose not to. So we talked it over and figured something out." Steven waited. "We just want to wait until you can ask her why she's there and what happened to her before we go see her, and maybe rescue her," he said.
"Really!?" Steven exclaimed. "Wait- 'maybe'?" he said, a little crestfallen.
"Yes, maybe. If we believe we can bring her back safely, we will. If we can't, she'll remain on Mars, and you can see her astrally," said Garnet, and added as Steven began another protest, "because if you can't heal her, we may be unable to move her."
"- Oh," said Steven finally. That was one thing he hadn't considered. What if- "oh," he repeated.
"I brought some paper so you can write down your questions," said Pearl.
"This is your, uh-" Greg began. "- 'thing'. You gotta do it the way you think it needs to be done. But just be careful, and wait to tell us when you, and she, are ready. We need to do it right, the first time. This is in space, not just around the block." Greg leaned over and kissed Steven on the forehead. "Gosh, I'm proud of you," he said. Then he spotted the donuts on the other side of the snoring Lion. "May I?" Steven nodded. He spotted Lapiz still not making eye contact with anyone.
"Lapiz? What do you think?" Lapiz started, not expecting anyone to ask her opinion. "I hate that anyone could be imprisoned like that. It's-" she shuddered. "I remember how I felt. But they're right. We don't know her. What if it's a trick?" Steven frowned.
"It doesn't feel like a trick. Wouldn't a trick be more… 'Trick'-ish?" he asked. The other Gems looked at each other and nodded. Garnet spoke finally.
"This is your show. Just check in once you make contact and get some answers. If you have questions for us, ask." She stood, and the others took this as dismissal. Lapiz went outside with Peridot.
"We'll just fly back to the farm, it's not far. Night Steven. Be careful." Peridot climbed onto Lapiz's back.
"Maybe I should start teaching you about the home world gems," she said. Pearl whirled around from the sink where she had begun cleaning dishes. "Ahem- 'We' will teach him about the home world," she asserted.
Over the course of supper, Greg and Steven sang songs, talked about the farm, and talked about Steven's impressions of Topaz. "She never moved, I think. It's hard to tell in the astral thingy. It's so dream-like." Greg picked his guitar, working a bar, and finding little satisfaction with the result.
"Never?" It seemed odd to him. The four Gems he knew were never still. Garnet liked to sit for a spell and think, but he'd never seen a Gem absolutely motionless.
"Well, she looked at that clock," Steven answered. Something about the clock made him shudder, and it was a strange and visceral satisfaction that came from the knowledge that it was destroyed. "I think someone hurt her. On purpose," he said and shuddered again.
Greg wrapped his arm around his son. "Hey, you said she's alone, right? Don't worry. We'll handle it." Steven smiled. "You're all heart, bud. But you gotta take care of you, sometimes, too." Greg stood and saw the wall clock. "And I've already kept you up too late, c'mon, let's get ready for bed."
"Is it okay if I go and check on her tonight?" Steven asked. "I just want to see if she's awake. I have a million questions for her."
"Absolutely. And I'll be right down there," he said, pointing at the couch. "Peejays, face, teeth, c'mon, you know how this works." Greg scooted Steven down the steps. "Pearl, at least let me dry-" he said to her washing dishes, as Steven disappeared into his washroom.
An hour later Steven was soaring past the potato moons of Mars. Below he could see the great mountain. It was a volcano. This alone was a thrill for him- Olympus Mons was the biggest volcano in the entire solar system! But he remembered that the location of the shrine was not in any of the craters, but at the edge-
Steven stopped. This search could take forever. The mountain was absolutely huge. He thought for a while, trying to discern land features, looking for familiar things.
The laughter that rang out was so startling that his astral form jumped. He slapped his forehead. "Or I could just listen," he said aloud. The sound was so clear he could almost see the music and voices. He followed it downward in the spiral it wove. The sound of it seemed made of happiness.
Notes from what sounded like crystal bells and champaign-filled goblets chimed, joining more faint tones from a woodwind flute, while the voices of Gems harmonized. There were no words, and none were needed. Steven found the overhang with ease.
This time he took a moment to look around, and make a solid note of his location. Facing out from the cleft was a shallow ravine that led downhill from right to left and then off to a canyon. Rising above the basalt revealed that this was not actually a part of the giant volcano, but some sort of canyon structure possibly caused by it. Steven carefully made notes for as long as he could stand it before rushing down and inward to join the music.
It was easy to make his way visually. An orange glow filled the cavern, and this, even more than the music, made him smile broadly. Was this the same music from before? He entered the room, and it was lit without the tint of the glass that looked out into the cavern and down the slope to the ravine in Topaz's purest light.
Topaz was dreaming. He remembered that entering her dream could result in it being interrupted, and much as he wanted to ask questions, he couldn't bring himself to stop the party. He chose instead to explore. Steven re-examined the room.
There was the gem door, the bed on which Topaz lay, the piles of dust on the floor- Steven stepped back and straightened. There, in the shadow of the bed she lay on and illuminated from, broken and missing its face, in a hardened pool of green gel, was the clock.
The gel glowed dimly, bright enough only to illuminate the shape of the crushed case of the thing. Even now it seemed to lie, as though its silence was another trick to add to its betrayal. It failed to do anything for several minutes. Next to it was the tiny crystalline cube.
Steven examined it more closely. As far as he could tell, there was nothing at all notable about the cube. He noticed after a moment, that there was another cube inside the shattered shell of the clock. They stopped being interesting once he realized he could neither manipulate them nor understand what it was inside the machine they did.
He moved into the great hall. Here, he found absolute darkness. For a moment he didn't understand why it was dark. Then he remembered the last time he was here, Golden Topaz had illuminated the spaces. He remembered how bright it had been. But it wasn't a pink glow, it was yellow. Steven blinked.
It was his own gem glowing now, remembering the joy and pride Topaz had been feeling that seemed to power her light. After several attempts to focus it, he seemed to have it. It was a thin, focused beam, even if at first it was only a dim glow. At least now it was useful. He ignored the memory of how her light died when she seemed to remember something.
That was something he was going to have to learn. This place, this new person, seemed to be made more of memory than material. Awful things had been done here, and eventually he would have to learn about them. Especially if he was going to be asking questions. Especially if the Diamonds were coming. What awful things would he learn? Fear caused him to be cast back into darkness.
"Aw, come on," he mumbled, and conjured a bit of light again. Now he could see the big statues, and re-visited Diorite, Topaz, and Fluorite. Fluorite was a beautiful collection of pinks and purples. Her smile was as inviting as any he'd seen, her gem cut in a spiral. He examined her globe for a little while. It was as featureless as the cubes from the clock.
Off to his left was the hall that led down to the amphitheater. Four other unexplored passages led away from the hall of Titans. He decided to explore systematically. The first passageway to the left went only a few hundred yards until it terminated in a hall lined with balconies and doors. Each one was similar to the one to Topaz's room, and after inspecting a few, discovered how bare they were.
Each one was set up the same way, with the entrance recessed on the left side next to a cabinet that seemed to be filled with technology of some sort. Once past that, the room proper was an ample space, a cube as tall as it was wide or deep, with a floor-to-ceiling window. Strangely, none of the windows faced out onto a view. Instead, there seemed only to be a basalt or granite wall partially merged into the windows. Each room had a small table high enough only to accommodate an equally small seat or cushion.
Down the next one, before the one that led to the amphitheater, was a room filled with seats at consoles and monitors, scrolls of acid-etched foil, and many, many more of the tiny clear cubes. Each of the consoles seemed to have what almost looked like a multiple-cube changer/player, like Greg's CD changer from the old days. Cubes littered the consoles and the floors.
He re-visited the amphitheater, and found the same stage and seats as were in the last visit he had here. He looked around a bit, and found on one of the desks, what looked like a pencil. Rather than having a lead or ink ball or a felt brush, it looked quite sharp. He went to the stage. No lights came on for him, and he felt a little cheated, until he remembered who the spots were for. In the back were boards, marked still with lessons. There seemed to be stick people in various circles, some of them intersecting, some of them not.
The next passageway led to a space similar to the one filled with consoles, but this one had only two consoles, and the rest of the space was filled with machinery. All of it was strange to him. Some of it looked like it had moving parts, some of it looked like more instrument cabinets. A few of the machines looked distinctly like robots from an assembly line.
The next and last passageway led to a room that was filled with what at first seemed like junk. Large, broken cylinders were stacked on crossed girders like wine bottles. Armitures and servos and joints were hung from chains in a serpentine that descended from the ceiling in echelons. All of them showed wear. Several stacks of cones lined another wall. In bins, strange, worn-looking ovals only as large as misshapen jars or mugs made from metal occasionally overflowed onto the floor ages ago.
Unable to touch anything, he was getting bored. He started heading back to where Golden Topaz was, when he noticed the music was gone. Alarm filled Steven and soon he was cheating walls and making a straight line through structures to see her. Steven found her lying as he had left her, head turned. Pink light bathed the room as a new scene played out in her unfocused eyes.
Steven decided to check on her, gently. Maybe she was having a good time, but he had come all this way to make sure she was well. He peered as he'd done before, and was drawn into her dream. Steven was off to one side, and remained as motionless as possible.
In front of him was Golden Topaz, in the arms of her Fluorite. Fluorite's large form was reclined against a large rock, and Topaz's much smaller form was reclined in her lap, looking at the sky. Her face beamed.
Topaz pointed at some falling stars. "Oh, there's more!" she said quietly. Steven realized the falling objects were moving in 'V' formations, and were probably spaceships. Fluorite looked up from some thought of her own. "Oh- ah, yes," she said, clearly faking interest through her frown. Topaz turned to face her.
"What is it?" said Topaz, her glow diminishing significantly. Fluorite held up an object she'd just drawn from the ground beside her. Steven sneaked closer. Fluorite's hand held what looked like flakes of rust, but as she handled them, they behaved more like paper, or fur, and glinted wetly. He realized that the same material was all over the ground he was on, and thickest in the low, wet places. "Has this ever been done before? It's- frightening," she said. "Sshh, don't worry- they're starting in the desert on facet eight. It won't affect us, or your- creatures, and in any case they can't start without me," Topaz said soothingly.
Fluorite smiled half-heartedly, then drew Topaz into a deep embrace. Topaz could only embrace Fluorite's arms as the larger Gem settled back to better see the sky. Topaz nestled into her embrace, and nearly closed her eyes. When she thought Topaz wasn't looking, Fluorite looked again at the material in her hand, her frown now deepening. Topaz looked up at her again with a broad smile, and pointed at another formation of ships.
"Steven? Steven. Time to wake up, buddy," said Greg. The image raced away, replaced by a sideways view across his bed and into the living space of his house. "You've hit the eight-hour mark. I don't want your sleep-cycle to get messed up."
"Awww, I think I was about to see something!" Steven sighed. He liked what he knew of Golden Topaz, and what little he knew of Fluorite was pleasing as well, so he was upset that he'd been interrupted. His tummy growled.
"Sounds like it's time to eat. Let's get some breakfast, and you can tell me and Pearl what you were seeing." Greg got into the refrigerator as Steven sat down on the other side of the counter from him. Pearl placed a rolled tape measure on the counter beside a pin cushion and scissors.
"Were you there again? What did you see?" asked Pearl as she took up the tape, held out Greg's left arm, then took a measurement as he obediently held it out for her and looked on with confusion. Steven began to recount his explorations, giving as much detail as he could.
Pearl nodded as he gave the descriptions of the various places. "It almost sounds like a base. The only thing it's really missing is the living space devoted to its principal, and the parking basement for ground vehicles and trans-atmospheric ships." Pearl stopped what she was doing. "Steven, I apologize. You must have been off world. We haven't taken you to this kind of major gem hub." She wrapped the tape around Greg's neck gently and took another measurement as he scrambled eggs,.
Greg finished whipping the eggs. "Maybe you can draw it for us. Pearl put a pencil and paper out for you." Pearl measured down from Greg's hip and muttered. "That was supposed to be for questions, not drawings, but maybe it'll help."
Steven pushed the table back by the sofa, and began work. Pearl and Greg watched him as Greg tried to serve up the toast and eggs, and Pearl started her own notes and sketches. Greg set a plate near Steven and sat down next to him with his own plate.
"Pearl?" started Steven. "Yes?" Pearl stopped sketching. "How long is she gonna be asleep?" he asked as the domes and hallways took shape on the paper. "I don't know. I wish I did." She stopped what she was doing and sat down beside him.
"I think you were right when you said 'not sleep, but something 'bigger' '. If she's been there for five thousand years, and awake that whole time, and with that horrid recording- who knows what kind of rest she'll need." She leaned forward and put a hand on his arm. "I want you to know, no matter what she's done, you stopping that machine was the right thing to do. Now let's see," she said, as Steven smiled weakly at her and handed her the drawing.
"I hate waiting. I can wait for toast, or for the pizza guy. I can even wait for a new episode of 'Crying Breakfast Friends'. But when I don't know how long to wait-" Greg finished his toast and nodded. "Its like cabbage."
"Is this another of your food analogies?" asked Pearl as she examined the drawing. "Yes, it is. You wouldn't have hotdogs if every porkchop was perfect." Steven laughed. "Yeah," his smile fading as quickly as it came. "Oh, but I don't want a Golden Topaz hotdog. I want her to be the perfect porkchop she deserves to be!" Greg nodded.
"What goes with a good porkchop?" Steven shrugged. "Barbecue sauce?" Greg nodded again. "I was thinking sauerkraut. It's just cabbage, but aged in brine and spices. To get good sauerkraut you have to let it age, but ya also gotta keep an eye on it." He looked at Steven wisely. Pearl rolled her eyes behind Steven's map.
"I think what Topaz needs is a good dose of sauerkraut." Steven was awed. "Whoa," he said. "So you're saying that I need to let her marinate until she's ready to become the greatest porkchop ever!" Pearl lowered the map and looked at Greg with one eyebrow raised.
"Now you're making 'Golden Topaz sauerkraut'?" Greg cleared his throat. "Eh, something like that. It sounds like she needs a while to, er- do- Crystal Gem, uh, stuff," he sputtered as the last of the mangled analogy wore through.
"- to balance her inner energies, ground her magic, and rediscover her connection with the universal vitality." Pearl nodded. "We're all here, and we're all waiting with you."
"To sauerkraut." Greg held his 'Empire City' coffee mug up in a cheer, and Steven met it with his own 'Cookie Cat' cup. Pearl tapped both mugs with the tip of the pencil. "To sauerkraut!"