There was quiet in the pod for about thirty seconds, before Coral spoke.
"Do either of you actually know how to get to Earth?"
"I never planned this far." Chessie glanced down, wrenching her arm from behind Coral to rub her knuckles over her gem.
"Yeah, kinda spur of the moment." Thistle admitted, shifting slightly, and Coral was pushed further into Chessie's side.
"Perhaps we should go back, formulate a plan-" She started, but Thistle gritted her teeth.
"No! We probably won't get another chance like this- I'm being shipped out tomorrow again, and who knows when I'll be back?" Thistle's thick fingers dug into the screen, static buzzing before the ship suddenly shot forward. "Aaah-! Oh geez that feels weird."
"Have you ever flown before?" Chessie asked.
"No, we always had a Peridot or a Nephrite to do it." Thistle admitted.
"Move over." Chessie elbowed her way past Coral and stuck her hands in the control panel, eyes lighting up with static as Thistle was shoved out.
"Hey! What was that for, pebble?"
"I've flown these pods beforeeeeee." Chessie's voice trailed off. "I... can... almostttttt-!" She yanked her hands out with a grin. "There. Autopilot."
"Did it tell you how long it would take to get there?" Coral asked, elbows pinned to her sides.
"Only three weeks!"
Thistle groaned.
"So. Seeing as we have three weeks to get acquainted, who wants to go first?" Coral asked. "Miss Amethyst, Miss Ruby?"
"Guess I'll go." Chessie said. "Not much else to say, though- I've seen too many good soldiers fall. I don't want to be a part of it anymore." Her fingers curled into a fist. "I want to meet other Rubies that won't get shattered."
"It's kinda similar for me, actually. We don't get shattered much, but sometimes one of my squad gets sent out and replaced. They tried to give us a Jasper- a Jasper! Jaspers can't have any fun, like, ever. She ended up complaining to Carnelian and getting shifted out. Yeah, I'm kinda sick of being treated as just a fighting machine. Especially when the aliens scream." She shivered at that. "They all look different, but the screams are kinda the same."
"At least you get to go places." Coral said quietly.
"Well, how about you, Pearlie?" Thistle asked, raising an eyebrow. "What ticked you off enough to leave your mistress? She ever try and crack you or something?"
"No, mistress Spinel was-" Coral stopped, taking a breath. "She was fine. No worse than any other Gem. She wanted me to be perfect, and that meant I didn't need to ever see the outside. To her, my place was within the apartment, nowhere else."
"If I had a Pearl, I'd show her off all the time." Chessie piped in.
"Yeah, me too."
"Well, mistress Spinel preferred to keep me home, so I could help guests. And so there'd be less chance of me getting hurt or lost, I suppose." Coral nodded slightly. "It... it's difficult to explain to a non-Pearl."
"What, you think we're stupid or something?" Thistle bristled.
"No, not at all!" Coral flushed. "It's just... just... you two had some form of autonomy. We... don't. I wanted what you two had." Softer, she added "What the Renegade had."
"You really believe that there's really a Pearl who disintegrated all those gems?" Chessie laughed. "There's no way. I'll believe that when I see it."
Coral's cheeks turned a deeper pink. "A pearl who decided to leave her mistress is sitting right next to you, so it's not as ridiculous as it seems."
The other two quieted at that.
