Missing Peace: Chapter 19

Homeworld, low orbit:

Beams of light streaked through the sky above Homeworld, as the two fleets of starships exchanged fire. Steven braced himself against a wall as White's head ship rocked under constant impacts. The front wall of White's chamber had become one massive viewscreen, allowing him and the others to see the battle unfolding outside.

From what they could see, it looked like the Facet 31 ships were outmatched. Most of them were dilapidated Era 1 saucers, and they were starting to feel the strain of the firefight. Many had already had large holes blown in them.

Facet 31 did have a few Sun-class ships, and one large Destiny-class, which were having an easier time. Steven winced as the Destiny Annihilator blew a large hole through one of the Diamonds' roaming eyes, which was left drifting helplessly in space.

"White, we've gotta get in there!" he said, sounding as determined as possible.

"Ok" replied White, sounding considerably more nervous.

"Sapphire, can you tell which ship Ruby is on?" asked Steven, really wishing he had Lars' experience with space battles right about now.

"One moment…trying to focus….I have her!" shouted Sapphire. Using her future vision to locate Ruby was difficult when the battle was constantly shifting, but as she herself was taking no action, it was still within her abilities.

She highlighted the ship on the viewscreen. It was a yellow saucer, moving somewhat more sluggishly than it had been at the start, and with a large hole blown in its side.

"We need to get her out of there!" exclaimed Sapphire.

"It's not going to be easy" replied Pearl. "Era 1 ships don't have warp pads, and even if they did, warping between moving ships is incredibly difficult."

"Then we need to do something besides warping" said Steven.

Once he had explained his plan, and waited for Pearl to finish her miniature panic attack at the thought of him doing something so dangerous, he made his way down to the entry hatch near the base of White's ship, taking Connie and Sapphire with him.

White got in and out of her ship using a bubble, but members of her court had to get in and out somehow. Hence, there was a physical door. Just as well, because it was the only thing making his plan possible.

On a small tablet-like device he'd been given, Steven could see that White had done her part. Her ship was now angled with the port aimed straight at the whole in Ruby's ship.

"You guys ready to do this?" he asked, looking at the other two.

"Ready when you are!" said Connie with a determined smile. Sapphire simply nodded.

"OK then" said Steven. With some effort, he formed a bubble which enclosed all three of them. Then, he spoke into the tablet: "Ok White, open it up!"

The hatch opened, and the air pressure blew Steven's bubble out of the ship like a bullet out of a gun, firing it in the direction of the saucer. They travelled through space for only a few seconds, but it felt a lot longer. Weapons fire streaked past them as they went. It wasn't aimed specifically at them, but they knew that even crossfire could take them out if they weren't careful.

Finally, the bubble flew into the hole in the saucer's hull. Steven and the others quickly rolled it through the first door they could find. Once the door closed behind them, and they had made their way to an area of the ship which still had gravity and atmosphere, Steven dropped the bubble.

"Ruby, we're here" said Steven, using his earpiece now. "Can you tell us where you are?"

"Yeah" replied Ruby, who had clearly used the confusion to get somewhere isolated where she could speak freely. "I'll show you." She looked down at a console, and brought up a map of the ship. Steven could still see a copy of her vision on the tablet.

"OK, I think we can get there from here" he said unsurely. There was no telling how much of the ship was still intact. Still, they had to do this either way; they had to get her back.

Before he had the chance to get any further, Sapphire grabbed him by the arm and sped off. He only just managed to grab Connie's hand before they were both yanked away at breakneck speed, as Sapphire dashed through the ship.

Miraculously the way to the chamber Ruby had showed them was still intact, though they had to take some detours to avoid being seen by Facet 31 crew members, who were desperately scrambling about trying to keep the ship from coming apart at the seams.

They made it into the correct room in just a few minutes. Ruby had been hiding in some sort of vent, but upon seeing Sapphire, immediately kicked it off the wall and jumped out with a huge grin on her face.

Sapphire released Steven's hand and ran across the room to meet her. She grabbed Ruby and pulled her into an embrace. A few moments of kissing and cuddling later, and Garnet stood happily in the spot where the two had been.

"Thanks you two" she said with a smile in Steven and Connie's direction. "Now, tell me the plan Steven."

"We need to get to Rose Quartz" replied Steven. "But… we should probably get back to White's ship first; I dunno how long this one's gonna hold together."

As if in answer to his statement, the ship rocked again as another blast hit it. Garnet tapped some commands into a console, and brought up a rear view image. The saucer was being tailed by a green hand ship, which was firing repeatedly from its outstretched index finger.

"Come on!" yelled Garnet, immediately taking charge. "We need to find the escape pods!"

Just then, another explosion rocked the ship, throwing everyone to the floor. Steven looked around frantically. If they could all group up, he could put them all in a bubble again, and they'd be fine no matter what happened to the ship. He reached out to try to grab Connie.

And then the rumbling stopped.

After taking a moment to come to their senses, Steven, Garnet and Connie shot each other confused looks. Heading back to the console, they saw that the hand ship on the monitor was no longer firing. In fact, it seemed to just be drifting.

Back on White's ship, the rest of the Crystal Gems were seeing the same thing. Across the battlefield, multiple hand ships and roaming eyes were losing power, or spinning off out of control, or rocking as explosions burst from localised points within them. The Gems looked on in shock.

"How is this happening?" muttered Pearl and White in unison.

But one Gem did know how it was happening. On the bridge of the Destiny Annihilator, Rose Quartz smirked.

"All according to plan..."