Onyx quickly closed her fingers around the summoned article, a single corner of which protruded from between her light-grey digits. Very gently she laid it on the table between himself and the director, and though Hematite saw that it was a container (its unremarkable surface suggested nothing else, being entirely featureless apart from a groove that split the matt black cuboid exactly in two) she made no attempt to open it: before today Onyx had described her newest project as "a surprise…", and she wasn't going to spoil it when it was so close to being unveiled.
The moment Onyx's upper left hand had set its cargo down on the table, her lower left hand rose to her gem and she repeated the same sequence of actions as before; thus, an identical second container came to sit next to the first, Hematite relaxed in her chair to convey her readiness, and on seeing that her audience was sitting comfortably — Onyx began her presentation.
"For many millennia now, the quartz has played a key role in the Imperial Army, and more recently in the war for this planet. It is the way it is for three obvious reasons: one, the average quartz is noticeably bigger than most other Gems — and with that comes the expected increase in raw physical power; two, a lot of the planets that we've colonized are really rich in quartz, so the supply of everyone's favourite mineral isn't likely to run out anytahm soon; and three, as a group, their allegiance to Homeworld and its causes has always been absolute.
I say 'has always been absolute', as in the past tinse, because that loyalty which has so defined the first order quartzes… is no longer a given —as this war is demonstrating. The problem y'all are havin' is that the Gems we kindergarteners put so much effort into making for you, keep leavin': which could be because you— well, others of your rank, and similar, treat 'em like product, and they feel like Rose Quartz would treat them better; or because they agree with what she's sayin'; or a bunch of other reasons. The important thing is that if they keep defecting at the rate they are now, the campaign here is going to get a lot more difficult… I'll be blunt; I think we might actually lose this one.
But it got me thinkin'. This sorry state of affairs could've been avoided if things were a little less… oppressive, not just towards the quartzes, but towards people in general. Now I'm confident that change'll happen in tahm — after an incident like this people will start to realise their own power, and the way things are done will have to be altered or this'll happen more and more often. But that alteration will take a loooong tahm to take place, you know the Authority…" she explained quickly and dismissively. Hematite had to suppress the smile Onyx's candid tone called for, and at how relaxed she was in her company. It wasn't something the Lieutenant General experienced at all often…"In the meantahm," Onyx continued, "we need a solution, and the faster one can be found the better.
So I started looking for one. I started with the simplest question I could think of: 'how would you make a quartz, or any other artificially made Gem, do what you want them to do?' And the answer to that, really, is you cain't —not if you want a fully functional Gem. When they create flash programs to teach the new Gems the basics, it really is the basics that they're introducin' 'em to: they give 'em the simplest version of the idea they want them to understand so that their mahnds can expand on that idea in their own ways. And why do they do it like that? Because the more controls and explicit instructions you add into a flash program, the less of all the good stuff you get: initiative, creativity, the capacity to apply what they learn to new situations... Either that or they reject the program entirely, and then you just lost however many of your shiny new Gems. You want your soldiers to be totally obedient, but at the same time you don't want machines that you have to instruct on every tiny detail, because if you did then you would've just built those machines...
So then I looked to the obedience experts, the pearls, to see what it is about them that makes them so much more docile than even the other service rank species; because if you could somehow get your kindergarten-made Gems to develop that pearlish mahndset, then you'd have armies that'd obey your orders without question, every tahm. That's where the solution is, so my next question was 'how does one go about giving them that mahndset?'
Well I've already minshuned the problem with tryin' to flash program it, so it isn't with one of those —the pearls get the absolute minimum of flash learning innyway, because any idea worth imparting to a pearl is always given with those wave transmittin' pylons. And they work! The subtle, suggestive, long-term way the pearls are 'taught' as their gem is growin', is just so much more effective than writing that mentality straight to their gem. Buht, we both know the wave technology they use on the growing pearls won't work in planetary crust conditions, and if you take the developing gemstone of the ground too early then it stops developing.
And so I realised that the solution is actually in the pearls themselves — in the way they're grown... Their physical makeup…
The cases in front of you contain a little somethin' that I've been collaboratin' with myself to create over these past few months. Please, open 'em up and take a look. Hold 'em, get a feel of the future…" Onyx invited, dramatically parting some imaginary curtain in front of her with her palms.
Hematite did smile now: how could she not, with Onyx grinning encouragingly at her like she was? For all that had been said so far she still didn't know what was inside the cases, and although she knew that they weren't for her (as such) it still felt like Onyx was giving her a gift: it was an exciting combination, and she allowed herself to fully enjoy the moment. Leaning forward she picked up both cases and brought them to her edge of the table; as she put one down to focus on opening the other, Onyx produced a pair of heavily darkened glasses from her forehead gem and held them out to her.
The sudden need for this particular type of eyewear brought a few guesses to Hematite's mind as to what was in the cases. She took the glasses, hastily (but delicately) positioned them in front of her eyes, and went back to opening her— opening the case. By feeling around the object she soon worked out that its two halves separated at the indentation, and with a gentle twisting motion she slowly drew the top away from the bottom.
It was an odd sensation, being surprised and yet... not surprised, at the same time:
"Seed crystals...?" she asked unsurely.
"Yep," Onyx confirmed with obvious pride, "but unlike any that have ever been made before."
From what Hematite could see Onyx was certainly right about that; in all her years (which were many, and rich with kindergartening experience) she had never seen a specimen like the one in front of her. The specifics depended on the species of Gem being grown, but seed crystals were typically angular, with very well defined corners and certain species-characteristic shapes, roughly a centimetre in length at their longest edge; the one in the case had noticeably rounded edges, at a glance did not possess any of the regular seed crystal geometries, and was over twice the size one would normally expect such a thing to be. The most striking thing about the new artefact however, was its glow: the brightness with which they shone made it impossible for most Gems to see a seed crystal's actual colour without special equipment, so when Hematite thought she could see white stripes patterning the stone's surface she naturally figured that it was an optical illusion, because there was no way its glow could be that dim.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you..." Onyx warned playfully as she began removing the spectacles.
"Why not?" she responded cautiously, her hands freezing in place.
"They react to the presence of living gems. The closer they get to one the brighter they shine." she explained.
Hematite extended her arm to its full length and sure enough, the glow diminished. Bearing the warning in mind she carefully lifted the glasses to get an unaltered view; her eyes had been telling the truth: the stone's natural radiance made it harder to see, but there were definitely bands of white circling a slightly darker background. Lowering the glasses back onto her nose for a moment she opened the other case, which contained a stone no less intriguing than the first: this one had no corners, it was a perfect ellipsoid, and the inky blackness of its smooth surface was only made more prominent by the points of white light that decorated it, in addition to the light it was emitting anyway. She decided not to take the glasses off after all and brought the case closer, before gently taking the seed crystal out for a closer inspection. Even with eye protection the stone became unbearably bright within a certain distance, but apart from that handling it revealed nothing else. After a brief feel of the striped seed crystal she put both back in their cases, resealed them and placed the glasses on the table with a quiet click.
"Are these seed crystals ready for injection?" she inquired.
"I wouldn't be showin' you if they weren't." replied Onyx with a grin.
"And if I were to inject them, how would that solve the defection problem you described?"
Her grin widened.
"Injectin' these crystals is only half the story... See, in the same way that I've made some changes to the desahn of the crystals themselves, whut you get at the other end is gonna be different as well..." she told the director cryptically.
"..."
"..."
"And what do you expect to get at the other end then?" Hematite asked impatiently.
"Discontinuous conversion-accretion formed, expanded seed crystal core, nacre exterior, composite stone artificial Gems." Onyx enunciated, positively beaming at her as she made sense of the description.
"…Hybrids?" Hematite asked, scarcely able to believe what she was hearing.
"Exactly! By extracting the growin' gemstone from its matrix and puttin' it into a pearl-shell to finish developing there, I believe it's possible to create a Gem that's neither a pure pearl, nor a pure Gem of any other species. I call the project 'Altered Core', named for the Gems that it would create."
And for the longest moment, Hematite's only thought was:
"Of course..."
...
The concept was so simple, so obvious… and yet in all the millennia the since the mineral transmutation and pearl culturing processes had existed simultaneously, nobody had thought to combine them, because those that had the resources to do so were all considering things from the same perspective…
For thousands of years the Authority had sought to make the Gem race as formidable as possible, and they had decided that the best way to achieve their aim was by (forcefully) pushing each variety towards what they were best suited to. That idea was imposed even more rigorously on artificially produced Gems, and for the pearls it meant that they stood very little chance of doing anything other than being slaves. When the scientists created the first pearl they had marvelled at their own ingenuity: a new type of Gem, created from an organic life form. They'd run all sorts of tests on the new species, so as to ascertain their strengths and weaknesses, their physical and mental characteristics and supernatural properties — all to quantify their usefulness, and find where they best fit into the Empire of Gemkind.
But the pearls had been unfortunate in that their greatest natural attribute was versatility: there was a wide range of skills that a pearl could be taught, given enough time — their capacity to take in new things was second to none (a trait which extended to their gems, which could store more complex objects, more easily, and in far greater numbers than most other species); but while they had the potential to be great at many things there was no single area that they dominated in, and that put them at a real disadvantage…
The military saw no immediate use for the new members of the race as soldiers — the pearls weren't the weakest Gems, but they definitely weren't the strongest either; their toughness was nothing to take note of, and their powers (psammokinesis and low-level hydrokinesis) were rarely strong enough to justify a presence on the battlefield — or otherwise, and neither did the main industries; so when the novelty of their existence inevitably started to wear off, it was the small (as they were then) businesses that continued research into pearls and their applications… They quickly capitalized on the pearls tendency to accept instructions from those that took a prolonged interest in them, discovering a way to make the attribute far more pronounced — suddenly, subservience was the area that the pearls excelled in, and the market for fully customizable 'attendants' was created.
After pearl culturing became its own industry nobody was really interested in changing what worked: each company had its unique modifications to the basic pearl 'recipe', but with pearls being what they were, and what they now for, there wasn't any need to make radical physical changes, so the only innovations that were made in pearl culturing focused on the minds and superficial appearances of the finished products.
Thus the thought of trying to combine a pearl with any other type of Gem was laughable: it was deemed even less than pointless to dilute a fine, kindergarten-made Gem with the gemetics of a servant, when there were other varieties with superior qualities that could theoretically be used instead.
But that had been a long time ago, and recent occurrences necessitated some kind of change to established ideas. If Onyx was leading where Hematite now suspected she might be, this could be the beginning of those changes...
…
"And you're expecting that these hybrids could be made... more compliant than the average kindergarten-made Gem, because of their in-shell development stage?" Hematite asked.
"Correct once again, Director." Onyx said. She was happy that Hematite was finally hearing the idea, that there was now someone that could think about it with her, and possibly even add to it.
"To what extent do you think that effect might be observed in the hybrids? Considering that these Gems aren't pure pearls, and wouldn't be spending their... How would the total development time of one of these Gems compare to the ground-time of a Gem of the same species, and how would that time be divided between the ground and shell stages, roughly?"
Onyx grinned. She'd expected an intense questioning from Hematite and here it was. There was also something highly entertaining about knowing things that she didn't.
"...I ran a few hundred simulations into this —which was actually really difficult, by the way: I had to write my own software, which also had to work with whut we're usin' already, before I could even start the seed crystal des— Ah..."
Hematite's face made it clear that she'd rather not hear about Onyx's hardships. But it was okay, she could tell her about the technical difficulties she'd had later.
"Well I'm just sayin'. You should look into getting some pearl experts down here, to expand our simulation database... Innyway, what I found is that there's a lot of freedom in the composition of a hybrid gemstone, though as you might expect it varies a little with the species used as the core… buht I predict that a fully functional unit could be anything from ten to eighty percent non-nacreous by volume. If you try to get above about eighty percent either the pearl-shells die, or the cores die; and below ten percent the hybrid might as well be a pure pearl.
I cain't say for sure, but I'd say the percentage of pearliness would be an accurate reflection of their compliance, when compared to your average pearl. That plus whatever they'd gain from any flash programs you decided to use later on, plus however submissive that individual would've been anyway. Now, defining the time split between the ground and shell stages is complicated, it's a function of both the core's species and what percentage of its predicted ground-tahm has elapsed before it goes into the shell.
That's another interesting thing I noticed: consistently, the fahnal volume of the hybrid gemstone was pretty much equal to the predicted fahnal volume of the core — aind that's regardless of how much of the ground-tahm had already passed. I mean, it seems obvious now... but it was— But innyway, the very general trend is that compared to a gemstone left to self-facet in the ground, a hybrid gemstone with a core of that same species takes longer to finish growin' if it's more nacreous by volume, and finishes faster if it's mostly core by volume. I've got graphs on it if you wanna see for yourself."
"That won't be necessary just yet; I trust the accuracy of your observations." Hematite replied with a faint smile, which Onyx returned. "But how do you imagine the unfaceted cores would reach the shells intact?"
"That's easy." the fusion dismissed. "I would pull the whole matrix outta the ground with the gemstone still growing on it, as per usual. As long as the warp pads work and you're not tahmwastin' between the kindergarten and the pearl factory, then there should be enough residual energy in the matrix to keep the core alive while you transport it, extract it, and then put it in the shell. And as the size of the cores you need decreases, the number of cores you can grow in the same amount of space increases —you could even have 'em all on the same matrix, if the specifics are right. They're not gonna be growin' for their full ground-tahm, so you won't have to worry about there bein' enough energy available in the distant future."
For a few seconds after Onyx had spoken, Hematite's gaze shifted away from her and a faraway look came over the dark Gem's face. Onyx waited quietly for the Lieutenant General's pondering to finish; she was trying to guess Hematite's next words exactly when she turned back again and spoke, quietly and clearly:
"This is very clever, Onyx… It's novel, and the possibilities it raises are extremely exciting, and if it were up to me I'd have you working practically on this as soon as possible…" Then her tone became much more serious, the word 'aggressive' sprang to Onyx's momentarily disconcerted mind. "But it isn't up to me, and what's clever isn't always what the Authority wants. How are you going to convince them that these hybrids aren't simply an inadequate average of the species they were made from? That their real value isn't in how they compare to other types of Gem, but in what they — uniquely — can offer our race?" she challenged.
The Authority wasn't sympathetic, it was a machine — one that demanded results from its endeavours; the questions she'd asked were legitimate, and Onyx's ability to answer them would dictate how far her idea was going to go. This was practice (mainly): she was giving Onyx an opportunity to sharpen her arguments, but she also wanted to hear the light-grey Gem's most compelling points, which she was sure were being saved until last.
…
The light-blue glow of Onyx's eyes brightened, and the corners of her mouth upturned to form a wicked grin. Gracefully, the fusion uncrossed her legs and slid herself towards the edge of the seat, bringing her a little closer to the director.
She knew that Hemaite knew there was more to come, and if after she presented it to her she still didn't think the project would satisfy the Authority, nothing would.
It was time to show her the beauty of Altered Core.
"For these Gems to exist at all, and be able to do everything 'pure' Gems are capable of, then their gems will need to have finished growing and ignited at the end of the second development stage —inside the pearl-shell. For that ignition to take place the gem has to contain a complete consciousness: immature, yes — but total, whole, its full self. If you extract an unfaceted gemstone from its matrix and leave it alone, it'll never finish growing —because it's dead... which means it won't ever ignite, which means that for a hybrid gemstone to ignite, a proportion of the consciousness inside must exist within both parts of the gem — in the nacreous and non-nacreous layers. All of which can only mean one thing... There are uninterrupted transfers of information across the two layers. As you've probly assumed already, with them being hybrids, the same thing happens with the properties associated with the core and with the nacreous layer, but the extent to which the simulations show it happening... that's where the hybrid's greatest gift lies...
For now I'm calling these transfers the crossover effect, or just 'crossover' for short, and the effect is so strong that it's like the pearly layer is... working, almost, to absorb the properties of the core, and not just gaining them as a consequence of being near it. So for instance in a more pearl-like hybrid, you could have a hybrid stone with a garnet core, that looks and behaves like a pearl's usually would, but it can also withstand heat like a pure garnets'd be able to; and say you used a magnetite core instead —if it's been naturally magnetahsed, then instead of observing the core's magnetism at a weaker level through the nacreous layer, the nacreous layer exhibits magnetism of its own! And the core actually benefits from crossover as well: the simulations show that the presence of the nacreous layer can remove even the largest imperfections from the core, if it's a large enough percentage of the gem's composition. So in the event that the deposits where you are are of an unsatisfactory quality, it'd be smarter to produce hybrids with them over say, your standard quartzes — because you know the hybrids'll come out with zero defects every tahm.
But I didn't leave it there. I figured that if the crossover effect can correct imperfections in the core, then it could potintially be used to stabilise gemstones that are growing from multi-species seed crystals. Imagine you had a solid citrine base, but you wanted to balance it nicely with some sapphire, add a little carnelian to give it some edge, and maybe some diamond — just because we're showing off. Normally that'd be impossible: unless you're really, really lucky then that seed crystal is incompatible in any known matrix, period, forget about those four specifically. By the tahm you even get a quarter way through the ground-tahm for it it would've burned out and left you with this useless, vitreous cavity in the ground that you aren't gonna get any more Gems out of. But if you took that developing gemstone out of the matrix and put it into a pearl-shell, then the crossover effect would mean you produce a Gem with all the characteristics that you wanted —and because that Gem would be a stable combination of the four original species, any seed crystals then derahved from its gemstone would be compatible in any deposits of those four original species. Not only that, but any useful or supernatural traits that the hybrid Gem possessed would probably be present in Gems grown from their seed crystals, regardless of whether those traits are usually seen in a particular species or not.
I need more powerful computers to simulate that kahnda of thing though... That's all I really have for now, simulations, and these," she said, gesturing towards the seed crystal cases, "which I'm positive can be used to grow hybrids —with the correct equipment, and the right people involved…
So whut do you think, director? Is there enough 'value for the race' for you now?" she taunted, smiling triumphantly.
Hematite smiled back, broadly and proudly:
"Yes, Onyx. I believe there is."
…
Gem-gem hybridization had so far proved to be too much for the Empire's scientists, whose attempts at it had — quite logically — always focused on the movement of matter within the ground. Moving developing gemstones between mineral deposits for any reason was difficult in itself, but it was the problem of incompatibility that caused the most frustration: once a gemstone of a certain species began developing from its seed crystal, moving that stone to a deposit of a different species deprived it of the substrate rock it was designed to grow from, terminating its growth and killing the growing Gem in the process.
It now appeared that Onyx had found a way around the incompatibility problem. There was even the possibility that her theory would make that method of hybridization irrelevant altogether, such were its predicted effects… The implications for both Gem production and warfare were huge: ideas were already germinating in her mind, certain stratagems that were previously unfeasible, could potentially be employed with ease now.
And without her… without Glare and Sparse, considered by most to have been 'misplaced', it may never have been realised… Those ranking above her would be unable to ignore the fact that a fusion had conceived this: finally, her vision might be shared by others, and when that happened…
The possibilities were limitless.
…
"Your graphs, notes and simulations: I'd like you to put them into a full report that I can give to my superiors." Hematite said.
"Already taken care of." Onyx replied smugly. "I knew you were gonna say that, so I went ahead and put everything together to save tahm."
"Excellent. In that case, please send it to me as soon as you leave here. …Are there any other personal projects you're working on at the moment?" she inquired.
"Whyyyyyy?" Onyx playfully inquired back.
"There are aspects of Altered Core that I imagine will appeal to the each of the Diamonds for different reasons. When they've discussed it, it's highly likely that you'll be sent offworld to begin experimenting with this concept."
"Now that's a plan I like the sound of! And no, I don't have any other projects goin' on."
"Good. Now—"
"Wait, when you said offworld did you mean off Earth or Homeworld?"
"Off Homeworld, Onyx; but they wouldn't send you back to this planet either, for obvious reasons…"
"Yeah…" she agreed. "You think they'd let me take a look around the pearl-buildin' factories on Homeworld before I go, for research? I've always wanted to see the Nacrarium in person."
"The Nacrarium? You're not going to be that lucky." Hematite said disdainfully.
"Whut, you don't like them over there?" Onyx replied, a little surprised by her apparent distaste.
"No, I don't dislike them..."
"Buht…"
"But they're unlikely to take any notice of altered core hybridization until it's been tested, rigorously, and then the hybrid Gems will have to meet their aesthetic standards. They've been making pearls for thousands of years, and they're not going to risk that reputation they've acquired for any fusion or their outlandish idea." she explained.
"Well somebody's going to miss out then…" Onyx said with a grin.
She was largely unfazed by Hematite's words, and in the back of her mind was expecting that sort of response from them: the Nacrarium was as old as it was mysterious, and very few were unaware of its reputation for simplicity and elegance — they didn't have to worry too much about ideas like hers because their pearls were always going to sell.
"It'd be their own fault." Hematite said brusquely. "Doing research at the Nacrarium would be a waste of time anyway, even if they were to let you 'look around'. Silver Edge or Astral would be much better choices; they're a lot bigger, they're less traditional, and they'd both be more inclined to support your work."
"Didn't you used to be with CaratArma?" Onyx probed.
"What has that got to do with anything?" Hematite retorted, looking puzzled.
"Well shouldn't you trying to send me there? You're not a very good salesperson…"
She sighed.
"I suggested those two because they make pearls. Unless you didn't actually plan on doing any research…"
"No, I did… but how many people can say they've been inside the Nacrarium?" Onyx asked eagerly.
The Lieutenant General slowly shook her head. She would have sighed again, but really, there just wasn't any point.
"CaratArma would be willing to invest heavily the development of hybrid Gems though, even though they don't currently manufacture pearls. You'd have all the resources you could want with them. The same goes for InGem, seeing as we're on the subject: the company is built around hybridization, so they'd be very interested in this —despite the lack of alien species, if you discount the molluscs used to grow the pearls. …This is all speculation, of course," she quickly interrupted herself, realising that she was getting carried away. She stood up, and Onyx did the same. "The Diamonds may have other plans for you…" she reminded the fusion, as much as herself.
"Hopefully those plans won't end up starting a war with anyone…" Onyx said jokingly.
Noticing the cases still on the table, Hematite prompted:
"Your seed crystals…?"
"Your seed crystals." Onyx corrected with a smile. "I'd like you to have 'em."
"Oh… thank you." Hematite said, struggling to keep her own smile under control.
They continued looking at each other a little longer, long enough for Hematite to feel a rush of… something, which was replaced as quickly as it had come by an intense sense of inappropriateness; abruptly she moved towards the main door, and when the huge block of metal had ascended into the ceiling she turned to Onyx:
"I really can't tell you how impressed I am with you."
"And I cain't tell you how pleased I am to hear you say that. I look forward to seeing you again, director. Real soon…"
With that Onyx turned away from her and strolled down the corridor, and she watched the fusion until the closing blast door obscured her view.
She sighed, and then she smiled, and then she walked back to her desk to plan her next move…
The End