With Stevonnie's new gadget, they could interact with their Homeworld surroundings in a way they could never before. They immediately returned to Homeworld, and set off in a new direction, through the long, dark, blue hallways.
This new direction terminated in a large station. A large sign in Homeworld's tongue marked the entrance of this place; Stevonnie could hear and speak in Homeworld, but they could not read or write.
Notwithstanding, Stevonnie explored the circular place. About ten stories tall, a series of large pale blue circles adorned the walls. Stevonnie walked up to one, and rapped their knuckles against it. A dull, hollow sound rung out. Stevonnie set their ear against the cold metal. Nothing.
Just to the left of each large circle a small pale blue rectangle jutted out. The shape roughly reminded Stevonnie of the pink hand shape at the Moon Base. Imitating Steven's actions then, Stevonnie placed one of their hands atop the pale blue rectangle.
The entire shape smoothly transitioned from pale blue to purple to brilliant red. Stevonnie removed their hand; the rectangle returned to its blue color. Several more tries yielded no different results-the rectangle would not operate.
A Chrysocolla entered the terminal. Noticing Stevonnie's struggles, she approached Stevonnie.
The Chrysocolla placed her hand atop the rectangle. It blinked twice, and the large blue circle opened, revealing a tunnel containing into a small transparent globe. "There it is," said Chrysocolla, gesturing at the transport pod. Before Stevonnie could enter, the Chrysocolla commented: "You must be new here."
"Really?" Stevonnie chuckled. "How could you tell?"
The Chrysocolla replied, "You haven't entered your physical form's ID into the register yet. If you had, that circle would have opened for you."
"So…how do I register?" asked Stevonnie.
"It's simple," said the Chrysocolla. "Simple leave the Terminal, take a left, then a right, and finally go straight at Pink Diamond's statue."
"Pi-nnnnnnkuhh!" blurted out Stevonnie, stopping themselves at the last moment. The Chrysocolla raised her eyes, her chin descending into her absurdly large collar. "Sorry," said Stevonnie. "I just…ah…"
The Chrysocolla's eyes flicked down to the translator Stevonnie wore. She let out a scoff, and walked over to a different blue pod, shooting Stevonnie a last look.
Stevonnie withdrew into the pod, and settled in one corner, wondering how offended the Chrysocolla was. "I wasn't scoffing or anything like that. I was just stumbling over my words, I-" Stevonnie continued along in this vein as the Vein Lift departed from the station, hovering through a thin blue vein.
The Vein Lift ended at another station, completely colored in varying shades of white. The change in color and mood dazzled Stevonnie; Blue Diamond's area had been dark, decked out in shades of blue. This place was amply lit with brilliant white lights lined along the ceiling, and in white lines snaking through the walls and floor.
Another contrast: Blue Diamond's Court had a more dignified air, with only a few Gems here and there to be seen flitting through the hallways. When Stevonnie left their pod, they landed in a sea of Gems, several of whom really wanted to get into Stevonnie's pod. From the sea of faces, a knobbly hand grabbed Stevonnie and tugged them out. Several of the waiting Gems immediately took Stevonnie's place, jostling to board. The sheer amount of traffic in the hallways and corridors boggled Stevonnie. Not a single place was without a Gem.
Stevonnie followed the traffic along for a while, descending the building as the traffic became less and less. As Stevonnie descended, they noticed their surroundings became more and more constricted; eventually, the halls terminated in twin spiral staircases, down and down. Stevonnie chose one and descended.
"I wish there was a rail…" muttered Stevonnie aloud. "I could go-WOOSH-right down the bannister-like a BOSS-"
The staircase terminated in a 10 foot diameter circle. The only noticeable feature of the room was a trapdoor. Stevonnie hooked their fingers underneath, and lifted it up. The staircase continued, this time it spiraled down to a floor 50 feet below. Huge machines filled the space between floor and ceiling with the sound of hydraulics. As they hurtled down the staircase, taking the steps two at a time, Stevonnie gazed at the massive machines and wondered what their purpose was.
Homeworld writing graced the white sides of the machines, and here and there the machines bared a glimpse of metal. Other than that, Stevonnie could not tell why the machines were there, or why they were so huge.
Stevonnie wandered through the maze the machines made, sword drawn. After a little while, they came upon a strange outline set in the white metal wall behind the machines. Staring at it, Stevonnie had a sudden flash of their dad, Greg.
A long time ago, in Steven's memories, Greg had been dancing wildly inside the newly constructed Beach House. Steven perched atop a box, and laughed incessantly, pointing at Greg and hooting. "I'm fabulous, aren't I, Steven?" boasted Greg, attempting a tap dance.
The way Greg flailed his arms and bounced on his legs like a demented crab was so amusing, Steven laughed even harder. Greg added a series of tiny jumps, then careened around and around on one leg, fanning his hair out. "Ta-daaa!" shrieked Greg, voice begninng to grow hoarse.
Greg finished his routine with a complex series of moves called "Chase of the Lion and Zebra". A complex dance routine of Greg's own invention, Greg zoomed around and around Steven, whooping and twirling like a top. Steven tried his best to follow Greg, spinning around and around and losing balance. He fell off the box. Greg stopped abruptly striking a fabulous pose. He suspended his arms above his head like a ballerina and arched his back, thrusting a leg behind him-CRASH-right through the freshly painted wall.
"Eep." Said Greg. Steven screeched with laughter.
"Stew-ball!" said Greg in reproach. "Sorry, Dad," twittered Steven.
"G-get me some white paint and wallpaper, OK?"
"Okie." Steven rushed to do his father's bidding, and returned promptly. Greg accepted the materials, and hastily stuffed the wall up with scraps of carpet, ends of sawed boards, twisted lumps of tape that had touched itself before use, and good old crappy jeans. Greg put the icing on the garbage cake with tough old booger-colored masking tape. "Great!" crowed Greg. "And now…" He dipped a wiry old paintbrush in the dirty white paint, and covered everything up.
Greg stepped back. "What do you think, Steven?"
Steven gazed at the patch job. The paint had started to run down off the tape, like melting ice cream. "I can see it, Dad."
"Kggrh!" grunted Greg. "Stupid old wall!" Greg dashed away, and returned soon with a careful cut piece of white wallpaper. Greg slapped it over the gap, and held it in place.
"Ok. Now Stew-ball, come over here."
Steven did.
"This is the most important piece of the operation. Take that paintbrush and slowly paint over the walpaper edges. Think you can do it?" Steven nodded again, and slowly painted over the edges, while Greg provided a constant stream of encouragement. "Ok, ok, very good Steven. Very good-oh! Put a little more of there-yeah, right there. Great! Now the other side…".
The tape let the wallpaper cling to the wall, and once the paint dried, the wall almost looked normal. Steven could still see where the paint connected the wallpaper to the wall…
…Just as Stevonnie could see the messy patch job of a chunk of metal sliced from the rest, and careful put back. Stevonnie approached the wall, glancing over their shoulders to make certain no one had snuck up on them. Stevonnie took a fingernail, and dragged it against the messy line. White flakes of paint (if that really was paint) tore off the messy line easily. Stevonnie used all ten of their fingers to rake off the paint from the metal. Soon they could see a hairline crack, running up…across…then down. Stevonnie blew the flakes from the crack, and stepped back.
Stevonnie's fingers could not fit in such a crack as they normally were. Stevonnie set their fingernails against the crack, and willed them to shapeshift. Nothing happened. Stevonnie tried again, thinking of flat metal sheets and how they really wanted their fingers to become flat metal sheets. The tips of their fingers turned gray, then slowly elongated. "Yes!" gasped Stevonnie, excited.
As soon as their fingertips became long enough, Stevonnie inserted her fingers into both sides of the crack and leveraged the plate out. The left side began to inch out; the right side stayed put. Stevonnie focused all their attention on the left side, and soon, the metal slab opened smoothly, like a door opens. Stevonnie's fingers stopped lengthening dramatically, but continued to grow, micrometer by micrometer. Stevonnie did not stop to shift their fingers back; they were too excited. Unsheathing their sword, they bounded into the hole in the wall.
The hole in the wall blossomed out into a large laboratory; its sides narrowed into a short table. A short, lustrous, silvery-white Gem stood just behind the door. Her hands rested upon a flat iron slab. As Stevonnie entered, the Gem spun around swung the slab into Stevonnie's waist.