Pearl dug through the lime green recesses of Peridot's ship, biting down her gasps every time her fingers brush against something that sends millions of minuscule, mostly unusably vague information to her gem. Around her were chunks and pieces of the space pod, strewn about the floor in a circle around her legs.

It was about time that she took this thing apart. It had been sitting there, in front of the kitchen counter for quite some time now. Maybe later she could dump some of the pieces to Amethyst's room. She certainly wouldn't mind, and some parts labeled as interesting and potentially useful, Pearl could run by Garnet.

But for now, all she wanted to do was to get this blasted thing out of Steven's room.

Just as that thought passed her brain, she grabbed hold of a cord that immediately shocked her, shooting her wrist right against a tiny sticker-like track pad. The small discoloration lit up, and immediately images of other Peridot-like silhouettes floated behind Pearl's eyelids. A seamless chamber opened up beside her shoulder, size similar to a glove compartment in cars.

There was a smooth, milky stone inside.

Pearl's face lit up in interest. But before she could move a muscle to claim her finding, a smaller, chubbier palm wrapped around it and pulled it out of her field of vision.

"Steven!" she yelped. "Put that down right now!"

"Why?" the boy replied cheekily, eyes bright and innocently curious. He threw the stone up in the air and caught it deftly with one hand, smile widening. "Oops! C'mon, Pearl! Come and get it!"

"No! Steven!"

Steven tucked the rock close to his chest as he ran around the ship with Pearl close on his tail, laughing all throughout. They continued this a couple of rounds, just because Pearl was too afraid of accidentally making him drop the stone if she tackled him. It seemed like this was going to turn into an overly-long gag before a gloved hand lifted Steven into the air by the back of his shirt.

"Whoah! Haha!" he laughed, but then took a look at Garnet's amused yet condescending look, and groaned. "Fine," he sighed, and handed the smooth white stone over to Pearl's awaiting palm.

"Thank you," she said curtly. Pearl promptly turned away after that though, making a beeline straight to the temple door, much too engrossed in poking at the rock's surface to hear Steven's small sigh behind her.

"I was just trying to get her attention... She spends too much time indoors these days," he shakes his head, staring forlornly outside the window, where the crescent moon hung serenely in the sky amongst thousands of twinkling stars greeting him with their shine. Garnet could only pat his back a couple of times in assurance.

-CP-

Much later in the night finds Pearl in the partial dark, half-submerged in the waters of her thinking room with the sign outside her door reading "DON'T DISTURB". Her eyes bulge in both concentration and lack of sleep as she very, very carefully guides the tip of a device she made out of a spare whisk and some jumper cables connecting to her gem, along the flattest part of the rock. It was supposed to simulate Peridot's finger, and for the past few ours Pearl had been cycling nonstop through all of Homeworld's one hundred and thirty-two alphabet characters. Twice each, through all three variations. None had worked so far.

Until now.

The stone opened up at the last stroke, thrusting solid rays of white into the darkened room like probing searchlights. Pearl grunted and jumped back from the fist-sized artifact just in case, taking cover beneath the tower of water that stood in the middle of the room. But nothing exploded. She relaxed her expression and warily peeked over the side of the liquid platform.

A two-dimensional holo-screen, similar to the ones they'd seen Peridot use as control panels, had been projected large into the room. And on it was a map.