Chapter Three: Surviving

Emerald had a lot going through her mind as she descended the staircase. She thought about Tanzanite and Yooperlite, about Lefty and her lost sister, about how this planet was beyond saving. But most of all, she often found her thoughts wandering to where she would go after she had left Moridius behind. She had to keep reminding herself that there likely wouldn't be an after.

When she reached the basement, she found that it was indeed flooded. Lefty was working on fixing the generator, while Yooperlite was trying her best to bail out all the water. A valiant effort, but there wasn't exactly anywhere for it to go. "Need some help?" Emerald asked.

"Love some!" replied Yooperlite, handing Emerald a container. "This'll go way faster with two of us. We don't have to get this place completely dry, just…manageably damp. There's always gonna be some water down here, I learned a long time ago that trying to clear it all out's a lost cause!"

She and Emerald filled up their canisters and headed upstairs, throwing the water into the ocean just outside. This went on a few times, both of them growing tired over their many trips back and forth. "Surprised you haven't built something to do this for you by now," said Emerald.

Yooperlite wiped her brow. "Believe me, I've floated that possibility many a time before. There's just not enough spare parts lyin' around, and what little there are we have to save for repairs."

The Beryl set her container down as well, taking a break. The both of them were quite strong, even by Gem standards, but carrying water up stairs was taxing on anyone. "So…it's been just the three of you for all these years? I imagine that must have been pretty lonely."

"Hey, it's better than what I'm used to." Yooperlite sat down next to Emerald. "I was a cargo pilot before all this, carryin' goods back and forth between Homeworld and colonies. Most of the time, it was just me and anyone within communicator distance, which more often than not was nobody. I won't lie, it's been tough being stuck in one spot for so long, but at least I got people to talk to this time!"

In that moment, Emerald imagined what things would have been like had she been truly alone on this world. Emerging from her hole with no way of knowing what had happened, nobody to talk to, well and truly abandoned by Homeworld. A shudder ran through her when she realized this very well could have happened to other Kindergartens and on other planets. "Yeah, it definitely beats the alternative. And how does that saying go? 'Misery loves company' right?"

"Yup, and we got plenty o' both!" joked Yooperlite, getting back to her feet. "Ready to finish this off?" Emerald followed her back into the basement, where they found that Lefty hadn't made much progress with the generator.

The machinery sparked as she tweaked some wires; the Peridot jumped back and swore at it. "Diamonds-damn piece of shard!" She kicked it, which didn't do much aside from making it spew more sparks. Calming herself, she began sorting through her tools.

"No luck?" Yooperlite filled her container once more, lowering the water in the room to a manageable level.

"What's it look like?" said Lefty, leaning against the wall. "This would be going a lot faster if somebody came down to help once in a while…" It was obvious from her tone who she meant, and it wasn't Emerald or Yooperlite.

"Welp, I'll ask her about it once I'm back up there," Yooperlite said, carrying the water upstairs. "You need anything else, just holler!"

More grumbling and muttering from Lefty. "I'll be doing a lot of hollering in a minute… If I don't get this thing up and running before the next storm, it'll rip the tower outta the ground like a sandscamper does a burrowfish!"

"Uh…like a what with a what now?" asked Emerald.

"...I've been on this planet too long," Lefty Moaned. "Just some local organics, don't worry about it."

Emerald stepped over to observe her work. "But I am worried. I mean, not–I think it's great that you have such a passion for organics. I doubt that's something many other Gems think is important, but I agree with you that we can learn a lot from them. If you–oh, here, do you need a hand?"

Lefty was struggling with holding up a panel, which Emerald did for her. "Th-thanks. Tanzanite and Yooperlite listen to my ramblings on occasion, but I can tell they aren't really interested. Not enough to ask about 'em, at least." She worked as she talked, and Emerald could tell she seemed a lot happier when speaking on the subject. "I love the both of them, don't get me wrong, but it's nice to have someone on the same page for once."

They didn't have much else to talk about, and Emerald was legitimately curious. "I'd like to hear more, if you'd be willing to tell me. About the creatures local to this planet–the burrow-thing, and the sand-whatever. …My knowledge on the subject is a bit limited, if you couldn't already tell."

"Clearly," Lefty chuckled. "I've floated the possibility of including organics in the topics pre-loaded into Gem memory banks, but it was shot down each time. Not many Gems care about that, as you said. But anyway, a burrowfish is a small aquatic aquatic lifeform that occasionally slithers onto land. Its long, slender body allows it to wriggle into the sand on the planet's beaches, hence the name."

While she explained, Lefty seemed to be working on autopilot. Her hands dexterously carried her tools over the generator's interior, playing the variety of bolts and screws like an instrument. She barely even had to look once she had gotten started.

"Then you have the sandscamper, which preys on burrowfish. It hops, or scampers over the sand, looking for buried burrowfish to eat. It digs them up out of the ground, hence my comparison with the tower and the storm."

It still didn't exactly make sense to Emerald, but could at least now grasp the meaning. "And when you say one creature 'preys' on the other, what does that mean exactly?"

"Oh yeah, you probably don't know what eating is, huh?" Lefty pondered a way to explain this to the other Gem. "Us Gems get all the energy we need through absorbing background cosmic radiation, but organics don't have that luxury. In order to remain functional, they need to periodically consume other organic lifeforms to recharge. Think of it like…whenever Homeworld creates a new colony, we take apart the planet and keep what we can use, and set up shop on whatever's left over. Something like that."

Although vague, Emerald could picture one organic eating another. "Ah, that makes sense. Though that doesn't seem like the most efficient system, having to sacrifice some of your units just to keep the other ones active."

Lefty put one of the panels back, almost finished. "Yeah, well, it doesn't exactly work like that. Could I get a jolt?"

"Of course." Emerald placed her right hand inside the generator, laying her palm against the circuitry. As she electrified the interior, Lefty glanced at her gem. Something seemed to cross her face, but Emerald couldn't get a good read on what she was thinking. Before either of them could ponder more, the shield generator was up and running again.

"That should keep us safe for another few days," Lefty said, sealing it up. "Thanks for your help. Things should be a lot easier now that there are four of us."

Emerald nodded. "I have to help out somehow. It's the least I can do."

She noticed that look on Lefty's face again. "...So, I know protocol is kinda out the window at this point, but would you mind if I ran some post-emergence diagnostics on you? There's not really any point, but…it's what we would have done if things were running as they should. Humor me?"

With everything that she had learned recently, Emerald had completely forgotten about her diagnostic. "Oh, right, of course, of course. Just lead the way." Lefty led her back to the top floor. "So, what exactly did you mean by 'that's not the way it works?'"

"Oh yeah. Well, unlike Gems, the organic life of any given planet isn't one big system," Lefty explained. "I mean, it is, but not in the same sense. Each of the different lifeforms are actively working against each other, rather than with. There are a few that have evolved to cooperate, but most of the time, it's every Gem–er, organic for itself, sometimes even among the same type. Imagine if the Empire was one big war between Rubies, and Quartzes, and Ambers, and Pearls, and Peridots, and what have you, all struggling for survival, with plenty of infighting. Here, hold out your arm."

As Lefty hooked her up to a machine, Emerald couldn't help but think that such a scenario would be terribly skewed in favor of the Diamonds. "That sounds like a terribly chaotic existence," she observed. "I'm glad I'm not an organic."

Lefty smiled as she observed the results. "Me too. And yeah, there's definitely a randomness to it, but that's the beauty of it, you know? Even with all that chaos, there's just enough order for the system to sustain itself. Organics are hardier than we give them credit for–I think that's why we liked them so much."

"You and Righty?"

"Yeah." Although she was still smiling, there was an undeniable emptiness in Lefty's eyes. "Yeah, me and Righty. Okay." She disconnected the nodes from Emerald's gemstone. "Everything here is…fine, and I already know your powers work. Do you think you can summon your weapon for me?"

Getting her electricity to work had been second nature, so she was sure summoning her weapon would be just as easy. "Got it. Stand back, it could be big!" Lefty did so. Emerald closed her eyes to concentrate, and held her other hand over her gem to grab the handle once it emerged. But although her gemstone glowed, no weapon appeared. "...Huh. That's weird…"

"Try it again," said Lefty, undeterred. "Some of the Quartzes I've worked with said it can be tricky the first time. Give it a bit more force."

She did. She imagined pulling her weapon out of a stone, taking all her strength just to get it to budge. Her gem glowed brighter, flickers of an indeterminate shape bubbling to the surface.

"There you go! Just a bit more!" cried Lefty. "Wait for it to take shape, then yank it out!"

"Like a sandscamper does to a burrowfish!" Emerald said. With one last flex of her arm, the shape emerged. Her hand instantly shot down to grab it, only for her to recoil back and cry out, something sharp cutting into her fingers. The shock of the injury caused the weapon to fully appear, loudly clattering to the floor.

Tanzanite, who was working nearby, was unbothered by the sudden noise. Emerald and Lefty, meanwhile, stared curiously down at the instrument at their feet. The blade that had cut Emerald sat at one end of a curved pole, oddly positioned next to a spearhead on the same side. It was rather strange-looking, and not what either of them expected. "So, is that…is that it?" asked the weapon's owner.

The Peridot bent down to inspect the tool. "I think it's a halberd," she said, poking the bladed end. "Still, I've never seen one with a blade like this. Or only one blade. Or bent."

Emerald was rather disappointed by this development. Personally, she had been hoping for a mace, or some similar kind of club. But even a regular halberd would have been preferable to whatever it was lying on the floor. "Was the blade supposed to come out first like that? I thought usually the handle's supposed to be first."

"Usually, but it's not unheard of for some Gems' weapons to be a bit unorthodox," Lefty told her. "I once heard of an Agate who could shoot knives out of her gem. Of course, her gem was on her palm. It's a bit different when it's on the back of your arm…"

"Yeah, and halberds are a bit harder to shoot at things than knives." Emerald gingerly picked up the weapon. "Especially when they're weirdly curved like this. …Hang on, do you think it's like a boomerang? Like, it's meant to be thrown and return to you?"

Lefty had gone back to the data collected from Emerald's gem. "It's a possibility," she said absent-mindedly. "I'll have to go over this a bit more before I get back to you. But once everything's sorted out, I'm sure I'll be able to–"

The relative silence in the tower was broken by a shrill warning siren blaring from Tanzanite's terminal. Lefty stopped what she was doing immediately to look over. Emerald pointed the awkwardly-shaped polearm in the direction of the noise.

"Oh, no, no, not this soon!" moaned Lefty, rushing over. Emerald joined her, a sneaking suspicion she knew what that alarm was for. "Please, Tanzanite, give us some good news!"

"Our early-warning system has been triggered–even Yooperlite can not phrase that as a positive," said Tanzanite. With the push of a button, a holographic display showing a map of their location appeared above her computer. A large, swirling shape was heading towards them from the east.

Exactly as Emerald had dreaded. "Storm warning?"

Lefty nodded gravely. "Storm warning."

Just then, Yooperlite frantically ran into the room. "Storm warning!" She scampered over to the other three. "How bad is it!? Please tell me it's only a cat-one!"

"I am afraid not," reported Tanzanite. "Given the wind speed, barometric pressure, and heat displacement…we are looking at a category four."

"Another cat-four? This close to the last one?" said a bewildered Lefty. "B-but that can't be right. That would mean that…that…"

"That the planet's atmosphere is further destabilizing?" said Tanzanite. "I can see no other explanation. And it is indeed a category four. My equipment does not lie."

"That's what you always say!" complained Yooperlite. "Maybe it could be telling a little fib, just this once? Just a little one?"

Lefty stood up and headed over to the window. When Emerald looked out as well, she could see a faint hint of dark clouds on the horizon. "How long do we have?" asked the Peridot.

Tanzanite checked the data. "The storm will be upon us in approximately twenty-point-two-two hours," she said.

"Hmm. Not a lot of time for a cat-four, but we've got another hand this time." Lefty looked over at Emerald. "You ready to help us survive another day, rookie?"

A determined smile crossed her face. "I'll do whatever I need to do!"

"You heard the lady–let's get started!" As all of the Gems rushed to prepare, Lefty couldn't help but chuckle to herself. "A Peridot calling an Emerald 'rookie'...only on a planet like this!"