Chapter Eleven

Today's class was going to be interesting.

I could tell because I had a pair of actual troublemakers now. Aquamarine and Eyeball. Luckily, they were quiet, even if they weren't paying much actual attention to the class. I knew that look all too well. They both had the look of "we're here, but we don't want to be" all over their faces. It was a look that many students had. Both had a big gem watching them warily. A large Amethyst and a slightly shorter Jasper.

I hadn't actually got around to getting the lesson for the tallied votes ready yet; I would soon enough, but I wanted to at least finish this unit; it had gone from human health to organic specific technology; both were things that were, pardon the pun, utterly alien to gemkind.

"Organic creatures have entirely unique makeups compared to gems. Polymorphic sentient rocks versus organic beings that have fairly strict physical limitations. While human technology is several millennia behind things gems have had to create, we still have had to make things entirely unique to humans.

"I've already talked about bacteria and viruses. Gems have known about their existence forever but they never really had to be concerned with them."

"Obviously." Muttered a dry voice. I didn't bother responding.

"Humans though, we've had to find ways to manage them. Antibiotics and vaccines to prevent them from inflicting us with some truly horrific diseases. Cancer, at least partially, comes from within our own bodies. The causes might be from other things, but the actual cancer forms within us. But most diseases come from microscopic pathogens that can absolutely wreak havoc with us."

"What? Tiny stuff like that?"

I shrugged. "It's less about size, and more about how it works. Some diseases can shut down our organs, others only mildly inconvenience us. On the other hand, a lot of gem tech doesn't seem to do much to us. Destabilizers and fields made to prevent gems from passing through don't do anything to us other than tingle."

I pulled open a drawer and before anyone could react, I jabbed myself with the destabilizer that was stored within, provided by Peridot.

Well it didn't hurt but it wasn't pleasant. Tingly shockwaves wavered through me, sending pins and needles along my arm and into the rest of my body.

"A-as you can see-" I turned it off, setting it gingerly down. "It's not a nice sensation b-but it doesn't inflict any kind of harm. It feels a bit like a light electric shock."

"Why would you do that?"

That was definitely Spinel and oooh I felt awful about that one.

"Because I knew it wouldn't hurt and it'd prove my point…" I turned a bit, trying to choke down my guilt.

"H-hey!" I whirled, as Aquamarine had jumped up and was grabbing at the destabilizer. I caught her wrist. She was stronger than a human her size would be, sure, but as far as gems went, she was one of the few I could overpower.

I gripped her tightly, glaring at her. Aquamarine froze, startled. The entire class went silent, a tense atmosphere rising.

" See me after class ." I said chillingly, before handing her back to the Jasper meant to be watching over her, who looked sheepish.

Aquamarine looked freaked out. I clicked my tongue, and went back to the lesson. It went by without incident, and was much more subdued. I hope I didn't just scare the hell out of everyone.

Aquamarine nervously squirmed in a chair, as I loomed over her. She was flanked by the Jasper meant to be overseeing her, and an arms-crossed Garnet.

"What exactly did you think you'd accomplish?" I hummed, staring her down unblinkingly. Aquamarine shrank back. She clearly wasn't used to being put in a position like this. Normally, from what I had gathered, she was always in charge, bossing others around, in a spot of control. Now she had none of that.

"This time, I can be lenient." I crossed my own arms, pursing my lips tightly. "But there can be consequences for these little games of yours. So if you persist in disrupting things… Next time I will just allow it to escalate and become that consequence."

Aquamarine glowered a little, but shrank as I leaned forward.

"You were placed in an unfair position when the eras changed, it's true. But lashing out as you are will only make that position more untenable. Think carefully, mm? Because you're on the verge of making decisions which would make your life a lot more bearable."

I turned my back, gesturing. "You can go now. Stay out of trouble."

I heard aquamarine scramble to leave, and held in a giggle until she was out the door. Garnet placed a hand on my shoulder and I jumped.

"Are you trying to help her?" She was smiling faintly. I glanced up at her and shrugged a bit.

"A little. She has to want help. I'd say it's more… I'm giving her a chance to become better by putting her in a position where getting better is the best option she can take." I winked at Garnet. "Even if she just starts by pretending, she might find herself becoming that without realizing it."

Garnet chuckled. "Just be careful. They're still dangerous even if they're small."

I nodded. "Yeah, I know. I'm not keen on getting stabbed."

Spinel lightly flicked my side when she approached me outside.

"Hey?" I giggled, nervously. She was pouting a bit, but it wasn't entirely serious.

"Gave us a scare there." She hummed, looping an arm around my shoulders.

"Sorry." I flushed a bit, sheepishly patting her hand. "I felt like it'd be an effective way to show how it wouldn't work…"

"Hm, guess I can forgive ya." She squeezed my hand a little, untwisting herself from me, though she kept her grip on my hand. "But try not to stick a weapon into your own arm again, okay?"

I laughed softly. "I think I can manage that." I sighed a bit then, as we found a nice shady place to rest in.

Spinel sat and pulled me down to sit next to her, and we spent some time perched there, watching the bustle of gems around town for a little while.

"I still have a lot to learn about Gems." I admitted quietly. Spinel glanced at me quizzically. "I'm starting to wonder if I know enough about them to really be qualified for this." I shrugged. "I still am learning, but Pearl's notes aren't exactly the best source of information. They're so dry ."

Spinel nodded, lost in thought. She perked up then. "Oh! I know! Peridot found out about an abandoned Gem Facility on earth, one that the Crystal Gems missed!"

"Really?" I hummed. "What's that got to do with it?"

"Well, Peridot says it seems safe to explore, so she wanted to grab a few gems and see what was going on down there." Spinel shrugged. "You could probably tag along. And that human friend of Steven's, Connie, you'll get to meet her too. She's really interested in this stuff. She has some days off from college or something and was nearby so it all just kind of worked out!"

"Hm, safe in what way?" I raised a brow playfully. "Safe for gems is a lot different than "safe for humans"."

"Well Connie can go." Spinel shrugged. "And I can go too, keep ya safe." She winked, and I felt another blush.

"Hm, I'll think about it." I chuckled. "Bit of a weird date." I winked at Spinel, who snorted.

"I mean I was gonna suggest our second date just be something nice like what we're doing now, but I guess that works too."

I rubbed my brow. "I could use some time off. As long as you all say it does seem safe."

"Well, mostly." Spinel admitted. "You never know with old gem buildings. You should ask Peridot for details."

"It would be a good way to learn about gems…" I pondered for a bit. "...Hell, why not? It could be fun!"

I had to admit, the hidden gem base was hard to find for good reason.

Because it was at the bottom of the ocean.

If it weren't for the lights within the building, softly glowing crystals, it would be pitch black down here, in the strange glass dome.

Spinel and I were there, naturally. Peridot was the self-proclaimed "expedition leader!" and had roped Bismuth, Lapis, Pearl, Amethyst, Garnet and Connie into joining her.

Connie had been introduced to me only once before, via video chat with Pearl, so it had been nice to meet her directly (and thank her for creating the job that I eventually filled.)

She was a really cool kid, I had to admit. She had a sword . How many kids are good at swords ?

"Scans already showed this place had air, and the pressure was safe for humans to enter." Peridot rambled as she fiddled with a heavily modified earth tablet, with chunks of gem-tech sticking out of it somewhat haphazardly. "But I couldn't uncover any records of why this location was built, or even when." She gestures at the structures. "Clearly it was built quite well. I would guess not too long after Homeworld's initial works on the planet. Maybe right around when the Rebellion started." She examined the sides of the walls, nodding. "But wow! It's so functional!"

Bismuth nodded in agreement. "Gotta agree. Whoever knocked this place together knew what they were doin'. It's not easy making something of this scale underwater!"

Lapis seemed a little stressed, by comparison. "I don't know what I was expecting. It's not as bad as before but… I don't think I like it down here."

Peridot lowered her tablet, hurrying to her side. "Hey. You okay?"

Lapis gave a firm nod, smiling weakly.

"Let us know if you don't feel okay, okay?" The smaller gem begged, and Lapis snorted, lightly flicking her forehead.

"Will do." She ruffled Peridot's hair lightly. "Thank you."

"This is so cool!" Connie gushed, darting over to a glass wall, staring out. She watched as a strange glowing fish slithered by, only visible thanks to the inner lights and its own bioluminescence. "Not just the gem stuff but we're so deep! " She was practically squealing.

The main three crystal gems seemed a bit more ambivalent. They were used to exploring gem ruins, and didn't have the same baggage or interests that the others did, so they mostly just shrugged, although amethyst occasionally tried to get a reaction out of the fish by shapeshifting into them.

"Most of these are blind, Amethyst." Peridot giggled at her antics. Amethyst huffed.

"Well maybe they can still tell we're here!" She grinned, wiggling her fingers. "Just waitin so they can chomp us! "

"Right." I rolled my eyes with a smile as we came upon the main chamber. "I'm less worried about the fish and more about being at the bottom of a deep abyss."

"You sound pretty unbothered." Spinel tossed her hands lightly behind her head.

"Well the place seems real sturdy." I shrugged. "And hopefully you have a plan to keep me and Connie from drowning if that's not the case."

"We do." Peridot beamed, pointing at the bands on me and Connie's wrists. "I told you!"

"I uh, might have forgot already. Sorry. You got super excited and were babbling and I think I only caught some of it."

Peridot pinched her brow. "It's an automatic Bubble! It's a bit like a bigger, sturdier, technological version of a gem bubble. It senses any significant changes in pressure, temperature, or environment, it'll pop and bubble you both and float you all the way to the surface!"

"Neat!" I admit, examining the silver band.

"Peridot!" Pearl waved from a door. "I found a room with some computers. They may still have data."

Peridot perked, scurrying over- she tripped about halfway, and wound up scrambling on all fours.

"Does she… do that a lot?"

"Sometimes." Bismuth chuckled. "Usually when she's excited."

"Or scared." Lapis nodded, a fond smile on her face. "Sometimes just because."

"It'll take some time to see... What's in here…" Peridot called out, already setting to work. "They seem to have a lot of layers of encryption! It's all an old system, not one I'm very familiar with, but I should be able to work through it!"

"Well, why don't we have a look around while she does that?" Bismuth grinned, heading for another doorway. "This place might have more secret stuff."

"Hm… What was this though?" Garnet crossed her arms, frowning. "I see so many different futures with what might happen down here, it's… actually very hard to sift through them all…" She paused. "Let's be careful."

We made our way into the next chamber. There was a number of machines, laying limply about.

"Robonoids…" Pearl mused. "They look like more primitive versions of the ones Peridot first sent to earth."

I caught motion in the corner of my eye, and my gaze drifted towards the ceiling. There, a number of odd, spider-like machines slowly crept along.

"Whoa!" I jumped, pointing. "We've got some live ones?"

Everyone tensed, but after a moment, relaxed, noticing the robots didn't seem to even acknowledge anyone.

"They must be maintenance bots." Bismuth lowered her arms, rubbing the back of her head. "See? They're reinforcing that spot there, and cleaning that one."

"They've been running for what, five, six thousand years?" Connie shook her head. "That's… wow. Gem tech!"

"Gem tech." I echoed, equally impressed.

"This place was really made to last." Bismuth blinked, baffled. "Why would homeworld make something built to last…"

"...In the bottom of the ocean?" Lapis finished, eyes narrowing. "Most water gets drained so that Lapis Lazulis can terraform worlds that don't have water…"

"That… is weird." Pearl curled her fingers, twitching nervously. "I'm getting a bit of a bad feeling."

"You always get a bad feeling, P." Amethyst lightly slapped Pearl's back. Pearl scoffed, practically clinging to Bismuth's side.

"Yes, and how often are they right?! "

Amethyst raised a finger to argue, but paused, clearly at a loss. "Uh… At least half." She looked around. "...Yeah okay, I get this is weird but how dangerous can it really be?"

She lightly punted an inactive robonoid across the room, sending it spinning away. The others didn't even react. "See?"

We continued. The place was set up with a number of dome-like structures, connected by hallways that were more similar to tubes. It wasn't all glass. In fact most of it was solid metal, presumably to keep the place more stable.

We reached a T-shaped junction in a corridor.

"Well, which way shall we go?"

"Why not split?" Spinel shrugged. "We've got communicators, right?" She tapped the small devices that Peridot had handed out. "As long as we don't take more crossroads, splitting up a little won't hurt, right?"

"As long as we don't go too far." Bismuth nodded.

We wound up splitting up; Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and Connie went one way, Lapis, Spinel, Bismuth and I the other.

We entered another dome. This one had much bigger robots than before. Inactive, thankfully, laying about the room haphazardly.

"Whoa." Bismuth paused. "These are looking more like… Defense robots. Like, with real weapons and everything. Tough ones too. Homeworld used these for really important things."

There was also a mural on the wall. Four huge figures, in silhouette. I felt a strange prickle, and Spinel's grip on my arm tightened.

"That's them, right?" I pointed at the walls. "The diamonds."

"Yep." Lapis pursed her lips.

"The upper-crust themselves." Bismuth nodded. Each held a number of orbs I could only assume to be their colonies. Pink only held one. "Huh… This mural of Pink though…" Bismuth trotted over. "It looks weird."

"How so?" I raised a brow.

"It's smaller." Spinel noted, eyebrow raised. "Pink was smaller, but usually her mural was still the same… Almost like…"

Bismuth gave it a tap. "...Like it's a door." She chuckled, as she pressed on the Pink mural's hand.

There was a low hum, and a door hissed open.

That wasn't the only hissing noise we heard.

The room was awash with a dull yellow glow, as the large robonoids began to stand.

"Whuh-oh." Bismuth winced. "Uh, whoops."

"Okay!" I yelped, ducking behind the gems, who quickly formed a semicircle, backing towards the doorway. "That's bad, right?"

"Yeah!" Spinel whipped out her scythe, Bismuth shifting her hands into hammers. Lapis rose into the air, floating with wings of water. "Yeah, this could be bad!"

I could hear pearl over the receiver.

"Okay! Who did that? A turret just activated in this room." She grunted, presumably tossing a spear. "I'm not mad, I'm just very disappointed in you!"

"Sorry Pearl!" Bismuth shouted, blushing a bit.

"Ying, stay back!" Spinel said sharply.

"If you need to run, you can!" Connie shouted over the earpiece and I winced a bit. "They can't see humans! They can't see me at all."

"Hah." I grinned. "Another limitation of gem tech, huh? I'm just gonna back off for now, then!"

"Good plan!" Spinel grunted, whipping her scythe into one of the defenders, using its broken body like a shield against a blast from a second one. "Head down the hall for now! Away from the fight!"

"Stay safe!" I called, backing up, before bolting down along the hall that had been hidden.

The room was a faint pink hue. No prize for guessing who it was for. Slowly I made my way around. There were a few strange cylinder like machines, with a panel I could just peer through if I stood on tip-toe. I gasped at what I saw inside.

Gemstones. Only two in all the machines, but they were definitely gems. I backed up a bit. What the hell was this? I decided not to touch them yet. Probably should have Peridot check first. I looked around, slowly. The room was circular, with a large chamber in the center. The central chamber had glass walls, but was unlit and pitch dark. I slowly shifted, and leaned against the glass, attempting to peer in, but could make out nothing. As my hand shifted, it landed on a console to my side, and I jerked away as it hummed to life.

"STARTUP INITIATED. " A massive voice, deep and mechanical rumbled slowly. " GREETINGS. I AM THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE OVERSEEING RESEARCH STATION CODENAMED "CONVERTER". MY DESIGNATED NAME IS [Error. Data corrupted. Generating name…] I AM NAMED "ALLOY"."

"Uh." I nervously backed up from the console. This was new. "What… is this?"

"INITIATING SCAN OF UNKNOWN PRESENCE." There was a pause, followed by a low hum. "SCAN COMPLETE. ORGANIC SUBJECT; SENTIENT, PRIMATE. IDENTIFIED AS SPECIES: HUMAN. QUERY DETECTED. PROCESSING. QUERY IS UNRESTRICTED. ANSWERING… THIS IS A RESEARCH STATION, CURRENTLY RUNNING AUTOMATICALLY UNTIL GEM OVERSEERS ARE AWOKEN."

"Gem overseers… The ones in those tanks?" I was having a conversation with a rudimentary sentient AI and that was boggling my mind.

" STATEMENT IS CORRECT. GEM OVERSEERS PLACED THEMSELVES IN STASIS. REASONING: [Error. Data corrupted.] "

There was a long pause, a whirr of machinery.

"ORGANIC SUBJECT IS WITHIN CHAMBER. PROCEDURE DICTATES: PACIFY. CONTAIN. CONVERT."

I sharply took a step back, turning away towards the entrance. Forget that. Whatever it was, it sounded very bad.

Something sharp suddenly jabbed me right on the rear. It would have almost been comical, if it wasn't for what I saw when I turned around.

A long, sharp needle had just jabbed my violently, and I suddenly was starting to feel woozy, legs shaking and stumbling.

"MINOR ERROR DETECTED. SEDATIVE AT LOW LEVELS. ERROR OF NO MAJOR CONCERN. SLIGHTLY FURTHER RESTRAINTS MUST BE APPLIED THAN INITIAL PROCESS DICTATES. "

I was conscious, but my vision was swimming, and my limbs were weak. I fumbled for my communicator, and then remembered the ring around my wrist. The bubble! I reached for it, struggling to hit the emergency button that would inflate it manually.

The band suddenly was ripped from my wrist, and the communicator yanked violently from my ear, as thick metal cables suddenly began curling around me, dragging me violently towards the central chamber.

"BEGIN PROCESSING SUBJECT ONE:" Alloy's voice rumbled, deep and suddenly sounding far more ominous, despite its tone of voice never changing. " BEGIN CONVERSION"

It was with a chill that I realized what the center chamber resembled.

It was like a large, high-tech surgical theater.