Yellow Pearl
"I do not care about break downs or system malfunctions. I will accept absolutely no more delays on this project. The trade route must be functional by the end of this CentiCycle. Is this understood ?"
Yellow Diamonds glared down at the assembly of emeralds, who were all nodding and saluting desperately.
Except for one. Her eyes were wide— a common expression for any Gem in the overwhelming presence of a Diamond. Except this Emerald wasn't actually looking at Yellow Diamond, but rather, staring at something past Yellow Diamond's shoulder.
It was a terrible disrespect, but Yellow Diamonds remained calm. She fixed her gaze on the guilty Emerald and said, "Speak."
The Emerald jumped a little. "My Diamond," she said, once she had gotten ahold of herself. "What is that ?"
She pointed, and Yellow Diamond considered reprimanding her for her forwardness— it was not an Emerald's place to inquire about the identity or function of anything within a Diamond's private quarters. But Yellow Diamond was feeling patient just then, and so turned to follow the Emerald's pointing finger.
There was a bubble.
A tiny yellow bubble. Iridescent and fragile, no bigger than a ruby's head. Just floating there, in the middle of the Yellow Diamond Control Room.
"What is it?" repeated the first Emerald.
"Where did it come from?" asked another.
"What's inside it?" asked a third.
Yellow Diamond did not know the answer to any of the question, and so said nothing.
Instead, she regarded the bubble for several long moment. Then, carefully, she reached out a finger, and poked it.
It popped.
Immediately a hundred tiny things fell to the ground. The emeralds shrieked and scattered.
Yellow Diamond just stared at it, inspecting the objects from afar. After the debris has landed, she did stop a few of the emeralds from approaching.
"It's… a laser gun?" voiced one of the Emeralds.
"Was a laser gun," corrected a different one, prodding delicately at one of the crushed pieces. "It's completely broken now."
"I don't care what it is," snapped Yellow Diamond. "I shall not have garbage in my presence. Someone fetch a coral to clean it. The rest of you, get out of here. And finish that trade route!"
"Yes, yes my Diamond," the Emeralds said in a chorus, saluting and bowing and scraping and racing off. Yellow Diamond turned away. She did not know know what just happened, and she did not particularly care. She had more important things to worry about.
oOoOo
Five Cycles later, Yellow Diamond was overseeing a report from her highest ranking Morganites, when it happened again. A single yellow bubble, appearing the Control Room.
Everyone stared at it. None of the Morganites were so foolish as to voice a question, but their eyes were all on it, curious and calculating.
Again, carefully, Yellow Diamond reached out a finger and popped it.
What came out was not the broken remains of a laser gun. Instead— it was tar.
Tar , thick and black and foul, it fell down directly onto Yellow Diamond's control panels. Sticking to it, burning through it, dripping onto the floor. The stench was disgusting.
Yellow Diamond did not let her revulsion show. She did not react at all. She continued with the report as if uninterrupted. Occasionally she caught sight of the Morganites glancing at the tarred controls, but she ignored it.
She dismissed the Morganites. Or most of them. She pulled one of the Morganites— the most senior, the most intelligent— aside. "Find out what those bubbles are. Find out where they're coming from," she ordered. "And stop them."
oOoOo
The Morganite experimented and studied and tested, but could not fulfil her orders, because five Cycles later, another bubble appeared.
Again, Yellow Diamond was in a meeting. Whatever was creating them had an uncanny ability to interrupt her at the worst possible times.
Yellow Diamond resolved to not even address it. She'd learned from last time. She would finish her meeting, and send her subjects out, and then have a coral deal with the bubble and any nasty contents it might be carrying.
The, on the opposite side of her head, another bubble appeared. And then another. And another. And another. And another.
In barely no time at all, the entire Control Centre was filled with the things. Dozens of them. The Spinels present paniced, and soon the bubbles were popping left and right, sludge dumping everywhere. Yellow Diamond tried to remain still, but even just the slightest turn of her mighty head was enough to set off a chain reaction, and soon she could feel the vile goo dripping down her neck.
She screamed .
oOoOo
Yellow Diamond moved to a different Yellow Diamond Control Room, in a Diamond base, in an entirely different System. It did nothing. Still the bubbles came. They did not appear anywhere else. Not in the corridors outside. Not in the quarries, or the laboratories, or the communication centres, or the Kindergartens. Only to her Control Rooms.
She considered contacting another Diamond. Asking if they were having similar problems. But no. She could not show such weakness.
oOoOo
She assigned two more Morganites to the task of stopping the bubbles.. Then some Prehnites. A pair of Bismuths. A squad of Peridots.
Scientists, philosophers, builders, technicians. None of them could figure out what was causing the bubbles. None of them could discover a way to prevent them.
Yellow Diamond had them shattered for their incompetence.
oOoOo
For the most part, Yellow Diamond stopped holding meetings. Too much risk of rumours. Too much risk of humiliation.
For the most part she delegated, or else communicated held meetings via holographic conference.
She made an exception for her Painite. As the chief General for all her armies and soldiers, Painite was perhaps her most trusted advisory. Their discussions had to be held in person, and Painite knew better than to talk idly.
So it was when Painite was delivering an update on the training of the newest batch of Fire Agates, of course, that another bubble appeared. This one much larger than any of the others.
Painite did not even need to be told. Yellow Diamond moved back, while Painite reached up and took the bubble herself. Lowered it carefully to the floor, then popped it.
Something heavy thudded to the ground.
It was a statue. Or part of a statue. The head of one. A beautiful face sculpted out of pink rock: a face with sharp cheeks, long nose, pointed hair.
Pink Diamond. Her visage long degraded by age. Her eyes, deliberately chiselled away.
Painite froze. Yellow Diamond, too, stared.
They both knew a threat when she saw one.
oOoOo
A dozen star Systems away, a Pearl sagged against the wall with exhaustion.
Bubbling was not particularly difficult. But that had been a big one, and sending it such a far distance took something out of her.
The Pearl was tired. She was tired almost all the time now, and she hated it. Only little, petty things seemed to alleviate it. Things like imaging the expression of pure rage on Yellow Diamond's face.
Once, it had not been like this. Once the Pearl had served proudly at her Diamond's side. She had been a good Pearl. Prompt. Professional. Painstaking. Perfect.
Yellow Diamond had not seen it that way. Dismissal after dismissal, threat after threat, tantrum after tantrum…
Pearl had been left with no choice.
So she'd ran away, like a coward. Thrown in her lot with defects and discards, failures and flaws.
She served the traitors like how she once served Yellow Diamond. She organized their reports. Scheduled their meetings. Calculated their supplies.
There were no more dismissals. No more threats. No more tantrums. The traitors appreciated her. Maybe, on some level, the Pearl even appreciated them.
But she did not like it there. Stuck in some far flung galaxy, on a long-abandoned planet, surrounded by rejects. She thinks, often, of the position she once held at a Diamond's side.
She collected trash. Garbage. Refuse. Other traitors knew to collect it for her. The Pearl would bubble it up, and send it off to the place which despite everything, she still considered home.
oOoOo
Author's Note: And finally, Yellow Pearl appears! (The April Fools chapter not withstanding).
Sorry for the gap between updates. Between preparation for the holidays at work, and then family stuff during the actual holidays, it's been pretty busy. Plus, I've also been working on other fics- including a new collaborative piece called 'Selaginella Lepidophylla', which I'm really excited about.
Also, big shout out to my friend CoreyWW who wrote a spin-off piece based of the first chapter of Little Rebellions, "How to Talk to Pearls at Parties".