A wonderful little chapter full of cases of mistaken identity, diamonds jumping out of airlocks and Pearl having a heart attack. It was fun to write, and I hope it's fun to read. If you want something else to read over on the blog for this series (domina- alba. tumblr. com) you can read about something even more amazing, Domina and Yellow Diamond getting along.
See you tomorrow!
The nearest gem base was still rather remote. It was on the edge of the empires ever growing control, but it was still bustling with activity. The main section of the colonization fleet had been docked there for nearly a week now.
Domina's presence didn't cause nearly as much of a stir as white diamonds presence normally would, mostly by virtue of the fact that no one knew who she was, as she wasn't readily recognizable. Domina enjoyed being able to walk across the base with Pearl or the quartzes or her father in relative anonymity. The crew were more relaxed on base. Everyone still had work to do but until the orders and fresh crews came in there wasn't any pressure.
Which did mean that some of the gems got into trouble, there were all kinds of unsupervised sparring matches going on. Peridots tricked out and programmed flask robonoids to fight each other. Nephrites racing the small shuttles the base had through the asteroid cluster the base was located in. Domina was thrilled by all of this and could often be found in the middle of a group who had just been caught by one of the Agates, which cut short most of the scolding they delivered. Pearl and Vitus chided Domina in private and domina looked suitably apologetic for long enough before she dived back into the next bout of trouble.
Around 2 months in the fresh set of gems started to come in, most notably a new peridot to oversee the installation of the warp system on the new colony planet that was going to eventually be turned over to blue diamond's was following Domina out of a meeting with the colonies beryls.
"Goshenite!" a peridot's voice called. Pearl frowned and glanced back, she saw the era 1 peridot but didn't see any goshenite's ,She was pretty sure there weren't any on base. The peridot was heading right for Domina and Pearl realized what was going on a fraction of a second too late.
"Excuse me Goshenite" The Peridot had stopped right in front of Domina who nearly ran her over but stopped just in time. The gem saluted her and Domina blinked. Then she turned back to look at Pearl and mouthed 'Goshenite?' Pearl shrugged. Domina chuckled slightly.
"What is it Peridot?"
"My apologies for interrupting you, but I am looking for the Gem in charge of the prime fleet division." Peridot said. "Normally I would not bother you your transparency but I haven't been able to get anyone to give me a straight answer."
"It's absolutely fine, What's your cut and facet?" Domina asked. Pearl saw the Peridot blanch slightly, that was never a question you wanted to hear from a superior, though she knew Domina meant it completely innocently.
"1F7-9YN" The peridot stuttered out. Domina smiled.
"Nice to meet you 9YN, You want Mossy Agate, I'll take you too her,"
"That's not necessary your transparency, if you would just point me in the direction-"
"No no it's fine I was headed that way myself." Domina said waving her objections away. Pearl fell behind the peridot and saw that the Peridots gem was on the back of her skull, a slightly unusual position. "So you're going to be with the prime division? You must be our new warp administrator."
"Yes. I am quite excited, this will be my first time aboard a colony fleet. And to be in white Diamonds personnel division, such and honor!" the peridot said. Domina looked amused and Pearl bit back a laugh.
"Yes..." Domina said. Several gems, the ones that knew who Domina was saluted but were cut off by mentioning her name by a quick and rapid head shake from the Diamond while the Peridot wasn't paying attention.
"What's going on?" Milky Quartz 9ZQ asked Pearl and the Peridot had drifted a few feet ahead.
"She thinks Domina is a Goshenite." Pearl said with barely contained mirth. Milky Quartz laughed garnering attention from Domina who put her finger of her mouth, still sporting a huge smile. 9ZQ muffled her laughed and eagerly followed the trio to Mossy Agates temporary office. Mossy was sitting on the edge of the desk talking to Vitus who had settled into the chair. She blinked at the motley crew that walked in.
"Hello Mossy, this is our new warp system admin." Domina said gesturing to 9YN.
"Ah, yes thank you my diamond, 9ZQ don't you have somewhere else to be?"
"Nah." 9ZQ Said. Pearl watched from Domina's right side the peridots face contort in confusion. She turned to look at domina who returned her look eyes go comically wide.
"Diamond..oh my stars!" The Peridot lept away from domina and saluted bowing deeply. "Your brilliance forgive me I'm so so sorry I meant no offence I did not realize-" Pearl saw domina's smile fade the moment the Peridot used her title.
"Oh come on we were having such a nice chat." Domina said.
"What happened?" Vitus asked.
"She thought she was a Goshenite!" 9ZQ said cackling. The Peridot shook slightly, her face had gone bright red. Mossy frowned.
"9ZQ, leave please." she said.
"Yeah yeah fine, see you later Domina." 9ZQ left after clapping the Diamond on the back. Domina rolled her eyes and lowered herself very slightly to the peridot's level.
"No harm done, it is very nice to meet you though 9NY, I'm glad to have you with us."
A week before the prime division of the fleet was due to leave the base was shaken by an explosion and a then the wailing of the alarms. Pearl and domina were working in their temporary quarters while Vitus took a nap on the couch. Vitus sprung awake milliseconds after Domina had sprinted out the door.
"What? What's going on?" he asked with a groan.
"I know as much as you do!" Pearl shouted back as she took off after Domina. The girl easily outpaced her, Pearl didn't have the advantage of a position imposing enough to cause normal gems to get out of her way. She caught up with Domina at the source of the explosion, a massive chunk of the base had been ripped off. The Breach was sealed now with an anti hard light base head, an Emerald, was rapidly ordering around the nearby gem to check the other area's of the ship.
"What happened?" Domina ordered, she didn't exactly look the part of a diamond, she had been attempting to relax so she was barefoot and her hair was in all kinds of disarray. Pearl saw the Emerald give her a double take before snapping a salute.
"My Diamond, it seems an asteroid slipped passed our sensors, it knocked off this section of the station, I've just dispatched a batch of flask robonoids to repai-"
"Was anyone on board?" domina interrupted
"Well yes, a few peridots, some rubies maybe no important gems, everything is-"
"Get a crew out there to get them." Domina said. The Emerald blinked.
"My Diamond thats unnecessary, there were no essential gems on board that portion of the base." The Emerald said. Domina's face darkened.
"Someone has to go get them."
"I'm afraid all personnel that would be qualified to get a ship out there is otherwise occupied my diamond"
"I can take a shuttle."
"I don't have any shuttles to spare my diamond!" The Emerald said. Pearl could already see how this was going to play out and reached forward to grab onto Domina. She was a fraction of a second too late. The Diamond ran for the barrier, pulling air around herself.
"Domina don't you dare!" Pearl shouted right before Domina dived through the barrier. At this point Vitus came around the corner.
"What in Hades name just happened." Vitus said his eyes wide. Pearl didn't answer she felt cold and frozen as she watched the faintly glowing figure of Domina flying towards the separated piece of the base. Pearl was aware of the panic going on around her, but she couldn't do anything to contribute or to explain. She kept her eyes trained on Domina thinking of a thousand horrible ways this could go wrong. Thinking of a hundred outcomes of Domina dying. Thinking of no outcome in which she would ever forgive herself if Domina didn't come back safe.
The Diamond in question seemed to be doing fine, she was moving quickly, stopping every once and awhile. Then she turned and launched herself back towards the station, she broke through the barrier with a crackle of static and collapsed on the ground holding a cluster of red and green gems to her chest. The spell was broken and Pearl was the first by her side, followed seconds later by Vitus.
"Domina! Domina!" Pearl said shaking the girl. Domina's eyes opened, and she groaned
"Ow!" She said loudly, "That was definitely not my best idea I think I got everyone though!"
"Domina what were you thinking!" Vitus shouted at her.
"What?" Domina shouted back.
"I SAID WHAT WERE YOU-"
"I can't hear you! I think I burst my eardrums! They really hurt!" Domina said. She had stopped smiling then looked around and saw the Emerald. "Here! Take them!" She said handing the emerald the collection of the gems. "If there's any one missing let me know and I'll go check it out again!" She said still shouting. The emerald nodded speechless.
"You will not!" Pearl snapped.
"What?!" Domina shouted back.
"You will-Argh!" Pearl said helping Domina to her feet. She turned to the Emerald furiously."Send someone else to check out the wreckage, She is not going back out there."
"But I-"
"Now!" Pearl ordered channeling all of her anger towards this simpering buerecrat who scampered off
"Wow Pearl you look really upset!" Domina said "Sorry! I figured I had at least a minute before I couldn't fight the vacuum anymore!" Domina said loudly. Pearl groaned and headed back to their Quarters, a shouting and apologetic Diamond behind her.