A Single Spark
Peridot wanted to run – and not just because Jasper had told her to – she needed to make sense of what had just happened to her in there. Running with limb enhancers proved to be more difficult than she remembered. Of course, she'd been without for a long time. So, naturally, as she turned a corner, she took a misstep and fell flat on her face. Figuring she was far enough away, she sat with her back against the wall. She hadn't even been back an entire day and already she'd been…what was a good word…mistreated – that worked. She didn't miss this – not at all. Part of her wanted to tell someone as she didn't quite understand exactly why this was done or what the topaz had hoped to accomplish by it. A larger part of her didn't really want anyone to know she'd had…that…in her mouth…ever. She wasn't even sure why she felt embarrassed or ashamed. It wasn't as if she'd done anything wrong. Or had she?
A crash from the room across the hall caught her attention and she heard the sounds of someone yelling and peppering their fit with words that were not appropriate. Peridot rose to her feet and peered in the room to see Spark throw a tray at the wall.
"Her own damn general! Who's next?! Blue Diamond?!" Spark violently kicked over a small shelf of vials sending them crashing to the ground with a shattering crescendo. "I don't care what happens to me! This experiment isn't worth it!" She picked up a tray of sharp instruments and hurled it at the door.
Peridot instinctively put out her hand, using her metal powers to stop the objects before they hit her. Spark, not hearing a clatter, looked up and her eyes widened in shock. "5-X-G?"
Using her abilities, Peridot placed the instruments back on the tray which she set on the counter before closing the door. "Now, I know you're shocked…"
"That's an understatement! You're supposed to be dead!"
"I…was actually nowhere near the communicator when it exploded. I've been living on Earth all this time."
"Did you get taller?"
Peridot gave a sheepish grin. "I may have finagled the limb enhancement program a bit…"
Spark laughed. "Sounds like you."
"So, this is the breeding program at work. You don't seem too thrilled about it."
Her friend gave a heavy sigh. "I don't think these gems really knew what they were getting themselves into when they signed up. You know how many of them have come here asking to see their offspring? And we can look it up, but…they don't get to raise them – they don't even to hold them or see them be born. They're not even themselves when they mate; it's like the hormones we give them make them act on their basic instincts. I can't count the number of times I've seen these gems awkwardly look at each other afterwards because there's no way they'd come together on their own. But today…the carrier couldn't smell to activate the heat cycle…so she wasn't acting on basic instinct. I don't know if Yellow Diamond knew that would happen or…I don't know why she had us restrain her, but I was outside the door and could hear her screaming." Spark shut her eyes. "And all I could think was that I don't know much about…intercourse…but it shouldn't be like that. No one should be forced into it."
Peridot had never heard of anyone being forced into that. Intercourse on Homeworld was rare enough; they had no word for what had happened in here. She had no word for what had been done to her. "And…was she okay?"
"Of course not! I know she was pretending to be strong…well, I mean, she is strong, but she was clearly shaken. To see a gem like that…bound and assaulted…and to know she'd been crying…that's all the proof I need that this is wrong." Spark turned toward the computer. "That's why I'm tempted to scrub all their data…to shut this whole thing down."
"No, no, no…you're thinking too small. Listen, I was up in the vent system when I heard you talking to Bright Eyes earlier, you know, about if everyone decided to rise up against Yellow Diamond. Besides, if you wipe the data and the program then those gems will never know which offspring are theirs. But…if every peridot shut down all technology all over Homeworld, we'd get their attention."
"Yeah…and then they'd shatter us."
"That's the point! They can't because who would restore everything? The problem with only having one kind of gem do a single type of work is that only those gems know how. So, if they want electricity and satellites and warp pads and breeding rooms for super soldiers, they'll listen to us. However, we have to unite the others, or it'll just be us and…well…they definitely won't think twice about shattering two of us."
"Three of us; I'm going to talk Bright Eyes into it."
It took more than a little convincing for Bright Eyes to agree to help. She was clearly scared of the consequences. "I lost my vision for less than this. The last thing I remember seeing was an electric whip coming towards me. Do you know how it sounds when your visor shatters…have you smelled flesh as it sizzles on your face? I don't want to lose anything else."
"But think of all we have to gain," Spark said. "Maybe they'll finally stop treating us like something they scraped off the bottom of their gravity connectors."
Peridot put a hand on her shoulder. "We're all scared. Each and every one of us will be terrified going in, but if we don't, nothing will change. This isn't just for us; it's to avoid these things happening to all the peridots and those to come after us."
"We need to keep power in the hatchery and the nursery," Bright Eyes insisted. "As well as peridots there to watch over everything. No reason to punish the gemlings."
"We'll be able to communicate with each other via our limb enhancers," Spark told them. "They run on a different network only we can access so we won't shut it down. Bright Eyes, can you get a message out to everyone?"
"Of course. I'm a communication expert after all."
"We might want to keep Big Boss out of the list of recipients," Peridot told them referring to their direct supervisor.
Bright Eyes chuckled. "I haven't heard her called that in a while."
"I've heard her called a lot of other things," Spark said causing the trio to burst into laughter.
"Sent. We do this quickly." Bright Eyes completely shut down her station, turning off everything and locking it with a passcode. They moved to the medical area where other peridots were already shutting down machines and pulling plugs. Spark got into the main computer, set a different code and it went silent.
Within fifteen minutes, all technology ground to a halt and for the first time in millennia, Homeworld was plunged into darkness. The peridots left their stations and blocked the entrances to the tech hub so no one could come in and try to turn things back on.
"We have to get the attention of the elites somehow," Spark told them. "Bright Eyes, you have a nice voice and they hate singing – or at least they hate us doing it. Give us our lead and we'll follow."
Bright Eyes started humming a tune and broke into words, which the others followed, even Peridot, though she kept her less-than-perfect voice low.
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry gems?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
I've only got two more chapters written at this point - better get on to writing more... :)
I'm glad to see people are liking this.
"Do You Hear the People Sing" lyrics from Les Miserables by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg.
(With one small lyrical change lol)
