Ok, seeing as how it's a few minutes past midnight, technically it's tuesday, but the chapter is done nonetheless
see you Friday
enjoy!
The first time Pink had been this far away from homeworld she had been with White, because well, this was the kind of thing that White did. It had been a long trip, especially since the idea of going beyond the speed of light was still out their reach. They had landed on a little planet in what was now the delta quadrant and White had been going on about soil composition and the types of gems that would most likely form and Pink had really been trying to pay attention but there was also still plants on the planet at the time, which wasn't as good as animals but much easier to sneak back home. White had gotten caught up in one of her tangents and didn't notice when Pink stopped as she walked on.
There had been a particularly large plant, kind of like one of Earth's trees but with a spongy hook like branches that excreted blue pollen when the wind blew. While White was around they didn't do anything of course but the moment she moved away, the air filled with a fine blue mist.
The "tree's" towered to a height well above even White but the seedlings were small enough that Pink didn't even notice them until she tripped and found one inches from her face. It was white instead of the grey of the full-grown ones and had a small blue cap on top. She would have shrieked with delight if it wasn't for the fact that she was trying to keep White from realizing that she wasn't following her anymore.
She dug out her screen and started trying to draw both versions, noticing the structures on the young one that hadn't quite formed yet. It was beautiful to her, something so complex that had just... grown from nothing! Finally, drawing finished, and still excited beyond words Pink reached a hand forward to touch the smooth textured plant. At that moment she only wished she could be around to see the plant grow to maturity. And before her eyes, the plant began to grow, rapidly, it's trunk darkened and the blue cap withered and fell off as the whole thing began to rise.
Pink scrambled back in amazement, glancing just briefly at the other seedlings around her to ensure that, yes, they had not had a growth spurt like this one. Her plant grew and grew until it was a little shorter than the closest full grown tree. The hooked branches emerged and a soft, pale blue mist began to emerge for just a few moments, until suddenly it stopped, along with all the other trees. And the wind.
"What did you just do?" White asked. She didn't sound angry but White didn't ever sound like anything. She just spoke.
"Nothing! I just touched it!"
"Do it again," White said crouching down to just above her level. So Pink did, and the same thing happened, she grinned then looked up at White and saw the emotion on White's face for the first time ever.
It was horror, utter and pure horror.
"Pink you ok?" Steven asked, breaking her out of her reminiscing. He was sitting on the bed behind the main controls and had been looking through some kind of physical text with brightly colored pictures along the outside.
"I'm fine," Pink said with a shrug. She had already explored all of the Styx and Domina had just now woken up from a nap, with a confused and disturbed look on her face.
"We'll be docking in a few minutes." She muttered. Pink Diamond did know that Domina wasn't exactly thrilled to have her along. But she hadn't told her no so it wasn't like Pink was just going to pass up an opportunity for a trip away from Homeworld.
"Wow, it looks just like the base that Red and Feldspar used to run!" Steven said leaning forward towards the screen. To Pink, it really looked like they hadn't changed the design of the stations since Era 1.
"It pretty much is," Domina said maneuvering the controls. "They're all made from the same blueprint."
"And Yellow hasn't decided that the blueprint needed changing in five thousand years?" Pink asked. Domina laughed.
"We haven't had a new base made in five thousand years." She said. "They're so big and cost so much in materials that we've been avoiding replacing them since they work. Moss Agates working on it though, with a lot of input from Forest."
"Yeah I'd imagine she has opinions," Steven said.
"Forest is the pearl right?" Pink said, then realized that was so unspecific nowadays it wasn't even funny. "Uh I mean the green one that I guess is Yellow's head of engineering now?"
"Yup!" Steven said, "She's kind of grumpy, but she's nice when you get to know her, like Yellow Diamond." Pink laughed at the idea of Yellow's expression if she heard that she was being compared to a pearl. Domina smiled but she didn't laugh.
"Steven, if you want food the box is under the workbench in the back," Domina said.
"Thanks but no thanks, I brought something better than zoo fruit," Steven said.
"Are you going to share?"
"You don't need to eat anymore."
"Rude."
Yellow Diamond didn't say anything for a long moment, partially because she didn't know what to say, and because her planned conversation with Blue Pearl about the areas that needed to have priority for reconstructions was probably not going to happen now.
Jet stared at her both in irritation and something that was probably the pearl's version of fear. It took her a moment to realize but they, the rest of the pearls in the room, were waiting for her to make the next move.
"I have been known too in the past. I'll attempt to remember to next time." She said finally, though she was almost positive that Jet was being entirely rhetorical.
"Good." Jet muttered before moving to walk past her, only to be stopped by a group of sodalites carrying... something.
"This is what we found." the lead one said holding the oblong sphere out to Jet.
"What in stars..." Jet murmured.
"What is that?" Pink, Domina's pearl, er, stars this was just getting more and more complicated.
"Not sure." The sodalite said. "It was found under the crust, close to where uh..." She fumbled for a moment, staring at Jet. "where you said it was, it had rolled out of sight, between two plates, we had a shale of time getting it out of there."
Jet nodded, turning back into the room, walking past Yellow Diamond again. "Thank you."
"Of course." The sodalite said, before heading off, after briefly nodding at Yellow Diamond. Yellow Diamond stepped forward closing the door behind her. Jet set the device on the table and inspected it closely.
"It kind of looks like a ship part." Blue Pearl said.
"Not for any ship I've ever seen." Pink Pearl murmured. "Granted I'm not an expert but..."
"I don't think it's for a ship..." Jet turned it carefully but the object remained inert.
"Can I see or would rather I left?" Yellow Diamond asked. Though she would be very hard pressed to leave at this point.
"...you might as well stay." Jet muttered. "It certainly doesn't look... well it doesn't look like anything." Yellow Diamond stepped closer and ran her hand over the surface. It wasn't completely smooth, there were depressions in it, enough for a six-fingered hand to grab a hold of it. Out of curiosity, she shifted a sixth finger to try it and got nothing for her trouble.
"A communication device or... a bomb?" Pink Pearl asked. Yellow Diamond shrugged.
"Maybe we should hand it off to Forrest and see what she says?"
"I'll call her." Jet said stepping out of the room.
"So.. How much of that did you hear?" Blue Pearl asked her lips pursed.
"Enough, I can't say I blame her, or any of you really." Yellow Diamond said taking a deep breath, wishing that would actually do something to calm her down. Because truly, how else was she supposed to feel about someone essentially saying that everything she had done wasn't enough?
Giving up so much and- Yellow Diamond shook her head. It didn't matter, she just had to keep working at it. Thousands of years and millions of mistakes could be undone in just ten years.
In hindsight asking Pink if she wanted to drive the scout ship out wasn't the worst idea Domina had ever had. But it was up there.
"Ok ok now ease up, ease up!" She said doing her best not to panic.
"That light goes on in the Styx, should it go on here?" Steven asked, not helping the situation in the least bit.
"It'll be fine," Domina muttered. "Ok Pink good, good, but you need to keep the forward axis stable."
"It is stable!"
"Stabler. We're drifting backward." Domina murmured, looking nervously at several indicators that were flashing now.
"Maybe you should just take the controls." Pink Diamond said pulling her hands back from the hard light controls.
"Not mid flight I can't," Domina said gently shoving her hands back forward.
"I can see the ship!" Steven said. Domina nodded gesturing for Pink to keep the ship steady while she leaned over to take the transmitter.
"Exploratory Survey Mission 6AP, this is Scout Ship 8.09 requesting permission to Dock." She said, intentionally avoiding the use of her name. There were a few moments of silence from the other end while Pink continued to struggle with the ship controls.
"My apologies," A rutiles voice came over the receiver. "Ship for mission 6AP. Permission granted, whom should we be expecting?" Domina paused for a moment and thought.
"Is Apatite 1KL onboard?"
"...yes."
"Tell her a pebble decided it would be a good time to drop in," Domina said. In the background, she could hear a faint whoop and smiled. "See you soon."
It wasn't nerve-wracking as she thought it would be to dock the ship. Pink was much better with the ship at slower speeds.
"So do we just... walk in?" Pink asked. Domina nodded.
"What else would we do?"
"I dunno, I don't usually just 'drop in' on gems. Yellow always said not to bother them if they were doing their job."
"Yeah she told me that too and then I decided to ignore it," Domina said. She double checked the docking indicator, mostly for Steven's sake and then opened the door, stepping through.
On the other side was a Rutile, who looked both puzzled and alarmed at the appearance of two diamonds and... well steven. A Citrine who was relatively nonplussed and Apatite 1KL who was positively beaming, the ends of her coat whipping around her ankles by a barely constrained breeze.
"Oh my star's! You've gotten so big!"