I'm back! I'm all moved in and well rested and ready to get back into this. Thank you so much for being patient, and for all your wonderful comments. and thank you to squish for betaing this chapter. hope you enjoy this chapter and I'll see you friday!
Steven didn't usually spend a whole lot of time on Homeworld. Typically, it was just a stop on whatever adventure Domina had decided to drag him and (usually) Connie on. But he had always thought it was cool. Especially when he started seeing it in the context of a place that some of his friends lived, rather than a place where he was put on trial (by some of those same friends) for his mother's war crimes.
So it did hurt a little to see it in worse shape than it had been during Blue's Rebellion.
After arriving on Homeworld in the spaceship Domina had 'accidentally' left on Earth that one time, Pink Pearl showed him where they had begun to recover gems that were cracked... Or worse. He could feel his enthusiasm begin to wane the longer he sat there, licking gems, or spritzing them with the emergency fountain water he carried in the pickles of his backpack.
Eventually, he had to take a break, the bottle was empty and his mouth was dry. He helped the Ruby Squad bubble the remainders while he took a nap and checked his messages. Pearl had sent him like five thousand texts to make sure he was ok. He responded to the chain with a message saying that he had gotten to Homeworld safely and everything was ok and that he missed them and would see them soon. And then he added several emojis, to make sure they knew it was him.
When he woke up and drank some water he finished up the rest of the gems in the room before going to see if he could find Domina, and hopefully a bathroom.
"I mean, I think we could get you another couch," Steven said as they walked to the Styx. Domina shrugged, she was glancing around at the street thoughtfully.
"It was a good couch, and the trip to that store was... nice." She said distractedly.
"What are you looking for?" He asked, gently stopping her from walking into a building with a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm not entirely sure... evidence that a plate support has crumbled?" Domina frowned, then muttered. "As if that kind of thing would be visible on the surface."
"...What's a plate support?" Steven asked, and then Domina gave him a smile that told him that he was going to regret asking.
And he did regret asking. Being friends with Domina was a lot like being friends with Peridot, except your hairdo or umbrellas or anything light enough to be carried away by a gust of wind was a lot more likely to disappear.
"And knowing all that, they don't even want to leave!" Domina said pacing down the narrow hallway of The Styx. Steven, sitting backward in the pilot's seat, pulled a few leaves out of the front of his hair.
"Well, yeah it's their home, I mean how would you feel if you had to leave..." Steven trailed off, Domina was giving him a withering look. "Well just because you could handle it doesn't mean that they can." He said with a shrug. Domina sighed and collapsed onto a bed.
"I know, I know." She muttered. "It doesn't make it any less frustrating. And that White Diamond decided that it was a good idea to drain the planet in the first place..." Steven uncomfortably put a hand over his gem. Sometimes it felt like even when it wasn't his mom's fault, the troubles that he and everyone around him faced were still his mom's fault.
"Yeah... How's Pink Diamond?" He asked in an attempt to change the subject.
"Escaping orbit over the idea that she's able to do something," Domina said dryly. "She helped Yellow Pearl put out a PSA and I think..." Domina sighed. "I think it might be a good idea if she went to see the test kindergarten, White Diamond's journals said something about her having some kind of organic powers and she definitely has an... interest in organic life."
"I guess if that's what we want to call it," Steven said with a nervous chuckle. Domina shrugged, and the door to the Styx opened.
"Ah, this is where you two have been hiding." Yellow Diamond said with a frown, just barely poking her head in.
"Sorry!" Steven said, "I needed to do some human things." He checked his phone and actually saw that there weren't any messages from the Ruby Squad.
"I'm actually here for Domina, We're meeting with Mossy in a few minutes if you would like to join us," Yellow said. "To discuss the... situation." Domina sighed and looked at Steven.
"Do you mind wandering Homeworld for a bit? Or you can stay here."
"Yeah I'll be fine, I might take another nap," Steven said with a yawn, the cot someone had helpfully set up for him was... well it had been a nice gesture but the bed was literally as hard as a rock.
"Nap away," Domina said following her fellow Diamond off the ship.
Steven took his nap and actually felt pretty relaxed and well rested when he woke up to his phone buzzing. He rolled to one side and saw that it was the Ruby Squad, with more gems for him to try to heal. There was also a text from Connie, one with several heart emojis, which made him smile. When he rolled over to get out of bed, he found himself face to face with Pink Diamond.
"Gah!" Steven cried jolting upright, smacking his head on the top of the bed
"Sorry! Sorry!" Pink Diamond said scrambling back and falling over onto the opposite bed.
"Why were you watching me sleep?" Steven asked, rubbing his forehead, though really, he should be used to that by now. Pearl had mostly stopped, but that didn't stop Lion.
"I just came in and you were and I've never really seen Domina sleep, why do you and she doesn't?" Pink Diamond asked looking a little less embarrassed than she probably should. Steven shrugged and tugged another leaf out of his hair.
"I don't know, I'm organic and Domina's not, that's probably part of it," Steven muttered. Half gem stuff was always so weird. He flicked the leaf out of his hair, they were probably part of one of Domina's many collections, and while normally he would feel bad about it, she was the one to mess it up first.
Pink Diamond caught the leaf and inspected it, smiling curiously, a smile which quickly faded as the leaf began to unshrivel, turning a bright healthy turquoise.
"Woah... that's cool," Steven said, finally breaking the uneasy tension between them. Pink Diamond forced a smile and flicked the leaf away, letting it fall to the ground to where it stayed as fresh as if it had just fallen from a tree.
"I guess..." She said with a shrug. "It's just an annoying habit of mine."
White Diamond had approached Yellow after the rose quartzes had already emerged. After the first time a quake upset Homeworld. Of course, it wasn't nearly as bad as the most recent one, but still enough to cause alarm. She had told Yellow Diamond of what had happened, had returned her protests and anger with a firm stare, and then told her to fix it.
"Temporarily, until we come up with a better solution." White Diamond had said before striding out the door without even sparing her a look. The air suddenly moving again after she had passed.
And of course then, with Pink having only been three thousand years out of the ground, Yellow did it without any complaint. She was still so worried about how she had let down White, and with her added tantrum on top of that she wanted to get back into the matriarchs good graces as quickly as possible.
The supports were supposed to be temporary, but like so many things, they became permanent.
And now here they were, two eras and thousands of years later, trying to come up with a better solution.
"Well, a one to one relocation won't be possible." Moss Agate said via holoscreen. She stared at a stream of data just off screen and frowned contemplatively. Yellow Diamond sighed and she could see Domina trying to suppress a smile as she hovered next to Yellow. "However, there is a five-planet system on the edge of the inner planets-"
"They already refused that plan, Moss Agate. After I suggested it." Domina said, her face was emotionless again and Yellow Diamond saw the unease from Jet on the other side of her. She had to agree with it, thankfully the two were several quadrants apart. Moss Agate paused and after a moment sighed.
"So what exactly do you want to do then?" She asked.
"To do whatever is necessary to preserve the planet's structural integrity." Yellow Diamond said even though she knew...
"We're a little past that point, " Domina said.
"Well, we wouldn't be if we didn't have to worry about saboteurs." Jet snapped. "They could be repaired and we could move on."
"Yes, but the planet would still be held together by a network of braces. That's still a problem. " Domina said, sounding agitated. Yellow Diamond sighed.
"It was never intended to be permanent. White always thought we would find a solution, we just got... sidetracked."
"A civil war essentially sanctioned by a diamond would do that." Moss Agate muttered. Yellow Diamond frowned, that wasn't the official story about Earth's rebellion but apparently, Moss Agate had found out the truth, as she often did.
That did stump them into silence for a moment though until Jet spoke up.
"Maybe I'm just stating the obvious here but why don't we simply just re-terraform Homeworld like we did on 23-T72?"
"Well because..." Domina said, then thoughtfully floated to a nearby pillar.
"Because..." Yellow Diamond frowned and pulled open a file with the stats from 23-T72 the terraforming had boosted the planet's integrity.
Though 23-T72 had still had at least a spark of life left within it, enough to keep it together.
"This is a far greater scale than 23-T72." Moss Agate said as she stroked her chin.
"Well yes, Homeworld is twice 23-T72's size." Jet said. Domina had risen again leaning to look over Yellow Diamond's shoulder.
"And older and more drained," Domina said. "If we had the time..."
"If we had the resources..." Moss Agate mused.
"But we don't." Yellow Diamond said firmly. She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "We don't have the time, or the resources or the power to even begin to think about terraforming the planet. We need to explore other options. Send out a request, we need as many ideas as possible."