Chapter Seven: S.O.S.
Yooperlite hauled Tanzanite up onto the rig, pulling herself up after. She was followed by Lefty, and then by Emerald, who took a moment to dry themselves off. Yooperlite had no time for this, as she hurried to bring Tanzanite inside and set her down. As before, she was followed by Lefty, and then by Emerald. Not a word was spoken between them for the longest time.
After a little bit of fiddling with the site's main console, Lefty got the station's power working again. The three of them were finally able to see each other clearly, both the murky ocean and the dark night making this difficult before. When the silence was louder than anyone could bear, Lefty finally spoke. "I, ah, got the power working." They could see that. "...which was obvious. Ahem…" After some more awkward silence, she went back to the console. "Yoop, think you could search this place for anything useful?"
"Huh? Ah. Yeah. Sure." She didn't leave immediately, as she didn't want to leave Tanzanite unattended. It was only when Emerald joined her by her side that she felt it was safe to go looking. As Yooperlite left, Emerald sat down beside Tanzanite.
She was unharmed, at least physically. She certainly couldn't see any marks. So why did she feel so guilty? Rather than wallow in self-pity, Emerald tried to make small talk. "So…can't believe we made it, huh? All those thalassa-things, for a moment there it seemed like we were goners."
Lefty shook her head. "I can't believe it either. You really…pulled us through that one. We wouldn't have thought to go this way or made it without you." Something in her tone seemed uncertain, but Emerald ignored it.
Walking over, Emerald tried to make sense of all the data Lefty was sorting through. "So, are you trying to get this place up and running?" she asked.
"Nah, that's more her thing," Lefty said, gesturing to Tanzanite. "Right now, I'm completing my analysis on you, actually. Some of the stuff from our last test wasn't exactly adding up, so I wanted to double-check some things."
It was hard for Emerald to believe that her entire existence could be diluted to a screen full of blinking numbers and symbols, but Lefty certainly seemed able to navigate it well. "Like why my weapon's all…janky?"
"Partly, but there's more to it than that," Lefty explained. "There's something about the way you were formed. Like your GNA, the shape of your gem, and of course, the weapon… I hate jumping to conclusions, but I think you might be an–"
Whatever she was suspecting Emerald to be, her point was interrupted by Tanzanite's sudden awakening. With a gasp, she sat up suddenly, as though jolted to life–an ironic comparison, considering why she was unconscious to begin with. "...I see we have escaped from danger," she said observing her surroundings. After briefly looking herself over, she stood up and walked over to join them.
"Hold on, are you sure you're alright?" Emerald said, hurrying to her side in case she was to suddenly collapse. "You took a …pretty nasty shock." She looked aside after bringing that up, hanging her head in shame.
Tanzanite's face flickered into what could have been a sympathetic smile for the briefest of moments. "I assure you, I am perfectly fine. I was not harmed by your electrical discharge–in fact, I warrant it was thanks to your decisive maneuvers that we were not devoured." She offered a brief nod before joining Lefty at the console.
This made Emerald feel a bit better, though she still decided to be more careful from now on. Without much to offer in terms of help with activating the site's communication features, she decided simply to observe. The process went much faster once Tanzanite got involved, and before long, there was a groaning overhead as the transmission antenna shifted into place. "We are ready to transmit," she reported.
"This place held up really well, all things considered," Emerald observed. "I'm surprised it hasn't been uprooted yet with all these storms."
A small chuckle from Lefty. "You and me both. It's honestly a miracle this thing works at all, let alone that it's in one piece." In the process of pulling a lever, she snapped it off of its hinge. "I, uh, I can fix that."
Ignoring her, Tanzanite prepared a microphone. "What should I say?" she asked.
"Um, probably something about how we're stranded here, and need pickup," suggested Emerald. "But who exactly are we going to be sending this to? This thing doesn't exactly seem powerful enough to reach a colony."
"It doesn't have to reach a colony," Lefty said. "This place sends out non-targeted transmissions to any Gem settlement in range. As long as they have something to receive it with, we should hear back from them before long."
The two of them stepped back so their conversation wouldn't drown out Tanzanite's message. "To anyone receiving this message, this is Tanzanite Facet M8L9 Cut 88C transmitting from Moridius. We have survived the initial colonization attempts and were stranded during the evacuation. Requesting evac for four survivors, repeat, evac for four survivors. Please respond."
Emerald looked to the skies through the window. "Hopefully someone's getting this out there," she said.
"I wouldn't get your hopes up," said Lefty. "It might take a while for anyone to reach us, and that's assuming they get our message. There isn't a whole lot of activity in this sector–it probably won't reach anybody important."
Blue Diamond's Flagship, neutral space.
Blue Diamond collected her thoughts as her flagship drifted through space, preparing to receive the transmission. She wasn't entirely happy with the meeting that was about to take place, but it was necessary for what was to happen going forward. A Peridot on the bridge alerted her of the incoming message: "My Diamond, the Imperator is attempting to contact us."
"Send him through," she said. Due to their long-standing status as trade partners, Homeworld was essentially automatically allied with the Talutar Imperium once the war began. The TLM being largely anti-Gem in general helped this position, but Blue herself couldn't help but think this entire war was a waste of time and resources. The Imperium had only existed for a few hundred years, so finding some new allies if it were to fall would not take a terribly long time. Nevertheless, the Imperator was a very persuasive man.
The image appeared on the holoscreen. He was a tall and thin, aged Talu, wearing a blue robe almost like the Diamond's own. With his hands clasped together, he offered a slight bow while wearing a large insincere smile. "Blue Diamond! I can't tell you how lovely it is to see a friendly face at this hour–I do hope your day is going better than mine?"
"Imperator Moloq. What might be the reason for this sudden contact?" Although Blue was nearly certain her dislike for the Imperator was known (and was almost as certain he did not feel too fondly of her), both leaders did their best to maintain a facade of civility towards one another. "I can only imagine how badly things have deteriorated to warrant you seeking me out."
There was a brief twinge in Moloq's facial muscles. "As a matter of fact, that is exactly the case. The Liberation Movement's activities have severely disrupted our trade routes, particularly those running through our outer sector. Your sister is already assisting our forces in the assault on Djeroh, but I'm afraid we have made little progress."
Blue resisted the temptation to roll her eyes–by 'we,' Moloq clearly meant Yellow and her armies were doing all the work. Why her sister had any respect for this coward, she would never know. "And I imagine you want me to speak to her about pressing the attack further, yes?" She had enough on her plate with finding prospective colonies, so she had no desire to tell Yellow how to do her job.
"That…is the case, yes, but the more pressing matter here is that of our material goods. You see, with our trade routes as constricted as they are, we would need to send our ships through Gem-controlled space to maintain distribution efficiency–not that you won't be properly compensated, of course! I know how valuable our plasmatic energy cores are to you."
Moloq wasn't exactly being a beggar or a chooser, but Blue still felt that his request came off as the same. Still, White wouldn't be happy with her if she ruined such an 'important' partnership. "I'll have to take that up with my sisters," she said through her teeth.
While Blue and Moloq were engaged in their discussions, just about everyone on the bridge was intently watching their conversation. As such, none of them noticed when another transmission came in on the secondary line. None but Blue Diamond's Pearl. Turning away from the two increasingly-aggravated leaders, she went over to a nearby console to receive it. "Yes?"
The message came through, but barely. It likely wasn't being sent from a very high-end equipment or network. "...this is Tanzanite Facet M8L9 Cut 88C transmitting from Moridius. We have survived…Requesting evac for four survivors, repeat, evac for four survivors. Please respond…" The words were occasionally interrupted by static, but enough came through for Pearl to tell whoever it was needed help.
"Hello? This is the official Blue Diamond Communication Network, who is this? Speak up, please." Blue Pearl fiddled with the receiver to try and get the transmission to come through a bit clearer. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to have much effect.
"...atmospheric conditions growing worse, not sure how long…Emerald gestated successfully. Resources, intact, I repeat, resources still intact…Not sure how much longer we can hold out…" From here, the message deteriorated into more static.
Blue Pearl turned some dials to try and clear it out. "My Diamond?" she said.
"Not now, Pearl, Mummy's working," her Diamond said, too engrossed in negotiations with the Imperator. Getting no help from her, Pearl returned to her efforts.
"Tanzanite, this is Blue Diamond's Pearl. Are you receiving this?" She got no reply, only more requests for aid. "Can you give me your coordinates? I may be able to send a small craft to you."
Eventually, the transmission cut out entirely. Strangely, it wasn't as if Tanzanite had ended it on her end, but as though it had been intercepted or interrupted by a third party. This was likely due to mechanical errors, presumably on their end. Perturbed by this odd message, Blue Pearl archived it for later consideration. Perhaps someone else could make better sense of it than her.
Blue Diamond was about ready to end her transmission as well. "We will see what we can do," she said. "One of us will get back to you soon. For now, continue using neutral space routes."
"Thank you, thank you, I can't thank you enough, truly!" Moloq gushed. "I knew coming to you about this was the right call. You won't be disappointed with the results, I can promise you that!"
"Mm-hmm." With that, Blue ended the call. She let out a heavy sigh as she stood up and exited the bridge. "Pearl, be a dear and organize the rest of my meetings for today. I apparently have some urgent matters to attend to."
Pearl glanced at the screen, about to bring up the message they had just received. "Um…" But before she could say anything, Blue had already left the room. "Yes, My Diamond."
Back on Moridius, Tanzanite was doing much of the same, as something was causing interference with the signal. "Hello? If anyone can hear this message, please respond. I repeat, is anyone there? Is anyone–" After a while, she gave up. She ended the transmission, retracting the microphone and standing up from the console.
"Why'd you stop?" asked Emerald. "Someone was bound to answer eventually. It's not like we're on a time limit or anything."
Tanzanite hung her head. "The signal strength was too weak," she explained. "Even if anyone received the message, it would likely be too distorted to decipher. I fear it may be some time before anyone comes to our rescue…assuming we are rescued at all."
Sensing the fallen mood, Lefty tried to lighten it a bit. "Hey, th-that doesn't mean we're gonna be stuck here forever, right? It's probably just some interference from a meteor shower or something–this antenna is pretty old, it could use some maintenance. How about we try again in a bit, maybe after fixing this place up a little? It's like Mera said, we've got all the time in the world."
"That sounds good to me," Emerald said. "We did make it past the thalassaraptors, after all, it would be a shame to give up–wait, 'Mera?'"
"Yeah, Mera, as in E-Mera-ld," explained Lefty. "That's your new nickname. I figured Tanz, Yoop and I each have one, so you deserve one too. You like it?"
Emerald didn't want to disappoint Lefty, but… "Eh, no, not really. Why Mera, anyway? Why not 'Em' or something like that?"
Lefty waved her off. "Ah, every Emerald has a nickname like that! Tanz, how many Emeralds are called Em?"
"Approximately thirty-seven-point-two Emeralds use the nickname 'Em' or variants thereof," she reported. "A name such as 'Mera' does have precedence. One of the Tanzanites in my old unit went by the moniker 'Zani.' She did not live up to this name."
"Alright, Mera it is," said Emerald with a shrug.
The group were soon joined by Yooperlite, who had finished her search of the facility. "Aww, did I miss the message?" Her disappointment was short-lived, remembering what her search had yielded. "Hey guys, you're never gonna guess what I found down in–" Whatever she had found, her report was interrupted when the station suddenly quaked.
An explosion from above caused the entire facility to violently shake, almost throwing the four of them to the floor. More like them followed the first, seeming to originate from the antenna overhead. "What's going on? Did we overload it?" shouted Lefty.
"Impossible–something else must have triggered it," said Tanzanite. She hurried outside, closely followed by the others.
Although it was difficult to hear over the explosions, Emerald was certain she could make out a low humming sound circling the station from above. She wondered if they could be connected, and once they made it outside, her suspicions were confirmed. The antenna was ablaze, heavily damaged not by being overloaded, but from an outside source: the sky was periodically lit up by flashes of light as a flying object orbiting it.
"What the void?" whispered Yooperlite. "Is that…a ship? What's it doing here? Why's it shooting at us?" Tanzanite looked for a moment like she wanted to correct her that it wasn't shooting at them, per se, but the difference was negligible at this point. In the process of demolishing their one method of escaping this planet, it rounded the station so that it was almost directly above them.
Once she got a closer look, Lefty recognized the ship. "That's a Talu attack shuttle," she said in disbelief. "That doesn't answer the other questions, granted, but…no, seriously, why is it here? We're not even close to Imperium-controlled space!" The facility shook violently again, making them retreat inward.
The attack shuttle seemed to take a break from its campaign of destruction to descend close to the floor of the base. "What's it doing?" asked Emerald, unable to see from her current position. None of them could. After a moment, it flew back up to resume its original mission, sans at least one passenger, considering the figure walking in their direction.
He was a Talu, as was probably expected. Not only was he much larger than was usually seen in this race, he was also decked out in tactical gear, more than prepared for what was to come. After scanning the room, he soon caught sight of the Gems. From underneath his visor, he flashed a smile, reaching for his blaster.