Greg woke up immediately when he felt a pair of hands on his back. He swung around, ready to land a punch at the intruder. His hand was grabbed and held steady.
"Calm down, Greg. It's just me." A familiar face greeted him. Marty. He smiled upon seeing his extremely pale features.
Greg felt a weight lift off his chest and he heaved a sigh. "I thought you were Heliotrope, or some other Gem," he said.
Marty sat down on the bed next to Greg. "About that…"
Greg stiffened. "What do you mean, about that? I'm not in trouble, am I?"
"Relax, Universe," Marty said, slapping him on the back. "She says that there's something she needs you to do." He got up and helped Greg to his feet. "And if I were you, I'd start hippity hoppitting you and your little lion's mane over there as fast as you can," he said.
Greg narrowed his eyes at Marty. "You don't need to make hair jokes right now, do you?" he said dryly, but was already reaching for a jumpsuit hanging on a rack. He slipped the brown garment on effortlessly. "And where is she?" Greg asked.
"In her office. God knows she never leaves it." Marty slapped Greg on the back. "Now head out!"
Greg nodded, feeling his chest tighten. He sighed and turned back to Marty. To relieve some of his thoughts, he gave a small salute to Marty before an awkward, terrified laugh.
Marty raised his brows quickly to motion that he really should be going. Marty was right, of course. It never paid to anger a Gem, and Heliotrope was no exception.
He ran through a cafeteria, where more humans, those who'd been working at ports and stations all night, ate in silence. Marty's son, streaked with dirt, poked at his daily rations. His mother watched the other end of the cafeteria blankly, paying no attention to the child. Greg stared for a second before shaking his head and keeping on walking.
Still, he was barely three. He shouldn't have been working at this age.
Heliotrope's office came into view quickly and Greg stopped a few feet before the frame. He sighed and glanced at the bright diamond insignia casting a light from the door's centre.
He pulled a few strands of his dark hair behind his head and knocked. "Come in," was the response after a few seconds.
Greg stood up tall and opened the door slowly. He closed it and stared at the gem in front of him. She had dark green skin with bright red patches up and down her arms. Greg knew he was tall, at least for a human, but could never get used to the fact Heliotrope was nearly nine feet tall. It showed, as she had to hunch her back over her desk. It made her look still taller.
"You wanted to see me?" Greg asked, voice strained.
"You have an assignment," she said, raising a brow. "I'm sure one of your… friends… has told you this." Her face strained at the word friends, like she never said it before. Figured. "An important Gem is coming to Earth in about an hour."
Greg cringed before composing himself. He struggled to keep still. The more important a gem was on Homeworld, the colder and more abusive they got. The most important Gem Greg ever had to serve was an Emerald technician, and even then she used him like a ragdoll.
"She'll be under a lot of stress, due to recent events." She made a diamond signal with her fingers and put them on her chest. She sighed. "And you seem to be the most of a pushover. You'll be taking care of her for her stay."
"What port is she coming in from?"
"Cygnus. Now…" She hunched over and pushed her chair back to look into her drawers. She pulled out two garments and put them on the desk so Greg could inspect him. "She's going to pay a good sum for her stay, so it's my duty to provide presentable slaves." It was a black shirt and pants, with diamonds on the shoulders. Tiny stripes shimmered over the chest area in a tone a small bit lighter than the shirt. "Go back to your bunker and put this on. I'll send my Pearl in fifteen minutes. Understood?"
Greg nodded, pursing his lips. "Got it."
The Pearl was there early, waiting in the doorway. And smiling. The gem on her chest was brightly polished. She had a jumpsuit like Greg's normal outfit. It was simple, only decorated with a yellow diamond and frills on her hips. "Gregory, it is?" she asked.
"Yeah, it's me," he said. "You're Heliotrope's Pearl, I guess."
"Yep! She asked me to come for you. Walk quickly now, your new mistress might not be too happy being kept waiting," she said sprightly, turning around and starting her walk.
Greg loathed that Pearls were a slave race among gems, vapid and brainless as they were. What he loathed more was that humans were below even them.
"I'm surprised she only got you, you know. Didgya know that she can command ten — no — ten thousand humans at once?" She stopped, definitely remembering she was talking to one of the humans and instead decided to talk about something else about Heliotrope.
"She's the most powerful Quartz I've ever met. Might be even more powerful than whoever's taking you in for the next little while." She kept talking on and on about Heliotrope, Greg starting to tune out her stupid babbling.
"Here we are," she said, stopping at the door to the outside. "Now remember, when you get there, you'll be—"
"Yes, yes, I know. Bathed and readied," Greg interrupted. The Pearl stepped back and blinked at his rudeness, but recomposed herself and put her grin back on. He grinned internally. Pearls didn't have a weapon they could summon, and obviously no training with them. Not to mention nobody would ever listen to them. Even if he was below her, she had no way of saying whether or not Greg acted just that bit more. He straightened his posture, finding himself a few inches taller than Pearl. "Now keep walking," he said. "We wouldn't want to keep her waiting." Sarcasm dripping off his voice, he decided to walk a bit faster.
They boarded a hovercraft, Heliotrope's Pearl taking the driver's seat and Greg climbing in the seat behind her. As soon as Greg closed the door, the Pearl accelerated the vehicle immediately. Greg gripped the seats so he didn't fall off. "Slow… down…" he said, gritting his teeth. He looked back at Heliotrope's base, flying away at whatever speed the hover was going. The Pearl didn't respond. Greg heaved a sigh and decided just to hold on for dear life.
"You've never been in a hover before, have you?" she asked, nearly having to shout over the whir of the fans.
Greg flushed. "Of course I have!"
"You don't act like it!"
Greg bit his cheek and continued grabbing onto the cushions. His knuckles were white and were already starting to ache. His hair flew out behind him, and Greg had to joke to himself so his nerves didn't make him nauseous. Twenty five years old was an alright age, he reasoned. Humans typically lived 'till they were thirty. Forty if they were lucky. He gave a hysterical laugh, ducking as a rock flew at the hover's windshield. Yeah. Twenty five was a good age.
The hover slowed down, the wind falling away from Greg's face. The Pearl hit the brakes, sending Greg forward. He turned to the side so his ribs only hit the seat in front of him. He swore to himself and leaned back. His hair itched his face.
"That wasn't an attack, was it?" This was the first time Greg had ever heard an edge to her voice, and Greg shrunk in his hair.
"Ha!" he said nervously. He looked for a weapon, just in case that she was ready to attack. "You just stopped, really suddenly." He pulled his hair out of his face, realizing it was screwing with his observation.
He looked up, but stopped at the realization of where he was. He had no idea what the Cygnus Port was before, but Greg never suspected it was an abandoned wreck. In the centre of a massive plains, there it was. It was tiny. It seemed that only one of the docking inlets was actually working. And even then, it looked like it was being rebuilt. At least five Peridots walked upside down over it, flickering lights and small robonoids to get it working.
Greg looked higher, expecting a tower, like all the other ports had. This one had no such thing, but Greg noticed a single ship circling above it. Just a blue dot in the sky, Greg had to squint to stare up at it. It was shaped like and arrowhead.
"Looks like they're ready to come down any minute now." The green lights stopped flickering and robonoids fell to the ground. The Peridots slid down the port and fluttered to the ground. One pointed her arm into the air and shot a flare.
"Oh my stars!" Heliotrope's Pearl said. "Let's get ready for her landing!" The hover stopped its engines, lowering into grass that went up to Greg's chest. She hopped out, already starting to glide down. Greg was forced to follow. It occurred to him that he could just turn elsewhere, running out and away. He looked at the back of the Pearl's head and her long, straight hair.
But what could he do? There wouldn't be any food around, and other gems would know exactly how to find a runaway human. He heaved a sigh, his side starting to hurt, and slowed down.
The Cygnus station got close, and Greg noticed the Pearl stopping. He skidded to a halt.
"She's a bit early," the Pearl mused. "Must've been cruising. Stars know why, though…"
The ship turned downwards by a few degrees. The bright blue lights shining from the bottom of it became more prevalent before completely blacking out. Whirs cut through the wind, sending down blasts of air. The hovercraft fell hundreds of feet before blue lights kicked back on. The hover slowly fell back onto invisible struts. Greg saw the ship was silver, decked in pink stripes. It pitched again, evening itself out.
Greg glanced back at the Pearl. She turned back, making barely audible, giggly, wheezy noises. "Yeesh," he muttered under his breath.
The yellow grass around him started to blow with the wind. It wasn't cold, like when the bunker got drafty, but the air was actually heating up. A lot. Greg started to walk backwards to get away from the heat. The ground started kicking up dust. Greg was forced to shield his eyes, squinting them shut. It still didn't stop the pinpricks of pain that happened every time a grain of dirt hit his face.
He held his breath, but realized that he didn't need to any more. Greg opened his eyes to see the hover. Its door was closed, but the engines were finally off. The Pearl was hopping up and down excitedly, making the strange giggles. Greg felt the pit of dread in his stomach once more. He'd forgot about it since him and the Pearl took a hover ride.
Then the hatch began to open. The Pearl composed herself, her ever-present grin now reaching to her eyebrows. Greg saw pneumatics release foggy air, and five silhouettes showed through it.
"Please," the Pearl whispered. "Allow me to introduce you to Pink Diamond." She brushed the ruffles on her waistline. Greg felt the pit in his stomach turn to a black hole. Oh god. No.
The silhouette in the centre stepped out to reveal a giant woman in a massive pink gown. "The leader of Homeworld."
