Nufon was in shock, they were probably going to kill her! He didn't exactly know much about other civilizations, but if the records he'd read were any indication most species were extremely hostile. He stood there for a moment, hoping that they would call back and say that that was a very strange welcoming ceremony for this race...
Until one of the crew spoke up, "Sir! The ships are advancing on the fleet!"
Nufon was silent for a moment, trying to think of a way to solve this without starting a war. He came up with no solution.
"First order of business.." He finally spoke, "We save Nephrite."
Most of the crew understood and went to their stations, but there was one who disagreed, "Sir? We can't just go out and save this random alien!"
To say Nufon was upset would be an understatement, he turned to see who spoke, "Mason... You've read the reports, we have all read the reports." He gestured to the surrounding crew, "You know that all the intelligent races our species has discovered so far have been hostile. Nephrite was the first ever alien anyone in our empire has met who's been an even somewhat decent person."
Mason understood what Nufon was getting at, but he still had his doubts, "And what if this 'Nephrite' character turns out to be a trap? What if-" He was cut off.
Nufon responded in a calm, yet saddened voice, "If Nephrite is tricking us, I'll kill her myself... Is that good enough for you?"
There was silence for a moment, "Alright..." Mason slowly spoke, "Trust me, I hope she's good too. Just.. Exercise caution... Sir." He went back to his station.
"Good." Nufon turned back to his seat, "Communications, you know which ship the message was coming from?"
"Yes sir, the message was coming from the ship on the far right. Also, judging by what we were able to intercept, the control between the two is coming from the other ship." The engineer responded.
"Alright people!" He turned to the crew, "Here's what we're going to do."
It didn't take long for Nephrite to remember that Pink Diamond ordered her to contact the ships.
"Hey! I'm innocent! Pink Diamond told me to contact them!" She yelled out to a Ruby guard, which didn't respond.
"UghhH!" She grunted in frustration as she kicked a wall, which surprisingly dented it. "Woah."
"Hey! Quit breaking everything!" The guard barked at her.
She didn't respond, but that seemed to please the guard anyway. Nephrite looked around to see if there were any exposed pipes, or anything that could give her some sort of leverage to escape. When she found none, she came up with an idea.
"Hey Ruby.." She called out with faux sadness, luckily for her Rubies weren't all too bright.
"I'm not allowed to speak with prisoners." The ruby responded.
"Well yeah," she began, "but.. I'm your captain. You have to follow my orders."
"Yeah but..." The ruby spoke before something shook the ship, once she regained her balance she continued, "You're in a cell, and the other captain said-"
"Oh please," she brushed it off, "that other captain doesn't run this ship, I do! And besides, if I were to be carted off to somewhere, who'll run the ship? One captain can't command two ships forever."
The ruby seemed to be at a loss, "Well, alright I guess, but don't tell anyone ok?"
Nephrite smiled, "Your secret's safe with me!"
The fight was intense. Several ships had been destroyed, and many would have to be decommissioned. Luckily however, the Belloggan weaponry proved rather effective against the Gem ships.
"HEY! Pull your punches, we've got a hostage on that ship!" Nufon yelled into his communicator.
"Backup is on the way sir!" One of the crew members yelled.
"Good! Tell them to board the ships, we've got to disable them!" Nufon responded.
The battle went on for a few minutes uninterrupted, until the communicator began beeping, Nufon responded and was greeted by someone he didn't want to see, "General Norg reporting." The man spoke in a gravelly voice.
"Ah, General. While I would usually greet you with a snarky remark, or something else; that doesn't matter now. We've got a real situation here!"
General Norg looked genuinely shocked, "Holy.. If it's got you this serious then it's gotta be something big! What is it boy, tell me!" He leaned up to the camera.
"We've found an alien who isn't hostile, and she's on one of those ships and her race is planning to kill her!" Nufon frantically replied.
Norg looked suspicious, but decided that it wasn't worth arguing about it, "I'll ask questions later, for now we need to get her to safety!" Norg responded, determined, "Which ship is she on?"
"I'm pinging it now.. There, it's on your radar!" Nufon said, as he sent the ship's coordinates to the General.
"Aaaalright got it! C'mon men lets get moving!" Norg ordered his men as he turned away for a second, "Alright, now I need a picture so the guys-"
"No! Don't kill any of them." Nufon cut him off, before the General could ask why he quickly continued, "We're going to need all the information on this race we can get. We need prisoners."
Norg suddenly understood, "Ah, got it."
Before Norg could continue, Nufon quickly interjected, "And I'll be sending some of my crew over to help, it's best we get this over with as fast as possible."
"Alright, I'll let you know when the ships are cleared out." Norg spoke before he hung up.
Nephrite was having a difficult time traversing the ship; for one there was only one Nephrite on board, so everyone knew who she was. Secondly, the entire crew was scrambling around the ship to get to their stations, due to the ship being designed for defense the crew was mostly made up of various quartzes. If she didn't already know the layout it would have been impossible. She was travelling down a relatively empty hallway when the ship began to vibrate, she was confused until she realized that the ship was being boarded.
"Finally!" She whispered.
She was ecstatic to finally be able to escape.. Until the soldiers began to exit their boarding capsules and take out Gems indiscriminately.. She still wasn't in the clear yet.
"Alright!" One of the soldiers called out once they believed the hall to be empty, "Spread out! Capture anyone you see! Standard training protocol still applies!"
Nephrite quickly hid in a partially opened metal crate as one of the groups passed her location.
Obviously terrified, Nephrite quickly thought to herself, "Alright Nephrite, what would be the smartest route from here?" She thought about it and came to a conclusion, "I'll need to kill the engines! The ship can't be allowed to escape!" And she was off.
Quickly heading to the center of the ship, while somehow remaining undetected, she made it to the engine room. Nephrite looked around to make sure that no one was guarding it and quickly got to work...
"Sorry.." She muttered when she finished disfiguring the engine, "I'll get you all fixed up when this is over, I promise."
She slowly exited the room, not realizing she was no longer alone...
And there's chapter four! I'm glad I could get this one out early, and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! See you all next time!
