At this, Carnelian finally realized the extent of what they were doing. We're wanted. "They don't think the individual Pearls and I are that dangerous. We-we could use that."
"The Diamonds aren't mobilizing a strike force against us, but this message wasn't only addressed to Labradorite. And the fact that Labradorite still received the message means that they don't know we have her ship yet. How, I don't know: that should have been obvious. Melo Pearl isn't mentioned, either." Gray was beginning to wring her hands together, not realizing her slip in self-control. "I ... I think we need to get offworld, and fast. I can keep this ship in cloak mode if I can switch out the conduit crystals and change out the coolant fluid - or if I take it by myself, maybe with one other Gem. Any more than that and the power systems will be too strained with the weight to keep the cloaking up." She looked around at the others. "We should go and talk to Melon."
"We need to get back there anyway," Spinel says, with a glance at the Hematite that is with them. "We left people there, and my bag of tricks." She boosts herself up onto the pilot's seat in order to effectively see out the view screens. "It looks clear for right now. I'd say that we should jump into orbit, take a few passes, and come back down, but I don't know if these engines will handle breaking gravity given how many of us are in here."
"I have seen ships this size transport as many as thirty gems in emergency situations," Hematite offers, then considers the rest of the plan. "If I fuse once more with my twin, then we ought to be able to tell how many gems are currently in the air in this facet. We can tell when and how many gems are near, but being together extends our range considerably." Citrine had picked up Lavender's gem and as promised tucked it safe into her waist bindings, and now comes up behind Hematite, lingering in the hall from the cockpit so as not to crowd the tiny room. She tries to lean forward, to catch a glimpse of Melon's ship out of the front mounted viewscreens. "I don't like the idea of us risking our transports just for a feint, either. We all sure the coast is clear before we get outside?" "The only gems I can sense in the immediate area are the ones already accounted for." says Hematite, but waits for other confirmations as well.
Gray taps a couple controls on the main console and scans the readout. "Vicinity sensors detect no unaccounted-for Gems; long-range sensors show no direct movement in our direction that is not hidden by our surroundings. The short distance from our ship to Melon's should be unproblematic."
"Yes," agreed Gray, still tapping at the console. "I will set this ship to low-power mode, should we need to use it quickly." Finishing this, she stood up and also made her way to the door.
Hematite waited for the all-clear, then with Citrine managed to mobilize the rest of the Pearls - and Carnelian - to convince them it was safe enough to go outside and cross the hangar space to Tourmaline's ship. It was a much bigger vessel, made for longer journeys as well as breaking atmo when necessary to land. Hematite touched one of the faint scars on the vast metallic hide, almost reverently before going to go inside. Wrist Gem waited for her sister just inside the entrance. They studied each other for a long, tense moment, then Wrist broke the gaze to look at Citrine instead. "How did it feel, to fuse with one of us?" Citrine blushed the colour of rusting fire escapes. "Uh... it wasn't... it was amazing." The hematite who had remained on the ship nodded, unsmiling. "I thought so." Without saying another word to either of them, she retreated back into the interior corridors and rooms. Citrine's Hematite - and she had begun to think of herself like that already, because there was no other distinction she could make - let out a sigh and leaned her head against the wall, for the first time in her existence uncertain of what to do when it came to her gem-clone. Iron Pyrite had changed her more than either of them could have anticipated.
Gray walked into Melon's ship and had to work to keep herself from gaping. She had never had the opportunity to be in a ship like this. She was about to wander off and explore when she had a thought. Melon and the others would need to hear about the message from White Diamond. No time for exploring now. Gray looked at the small crew of Gems who had stayed behind, who were waiting for the rest of those who had gone to enter the ship. Baroque looked a little lost, and was standing off to one side, like she wasn't sure what to do with herself. In fact, most of the Gems who had stayed looked somewhat lost - Tektite was hugging a corner, doing something on one of her screens; Black Opal was ... hovering ... behind Melon (not literally - but there was no other word for the tension coiled into the advanced Gem); Gold Pearl had taken up a position somewhere between Melon, Wrist Hematite, and Black Opal, with a seeming slight preference for Black Opal - but she looked awkward as a newly-mined Gem. Wrist Hematite had come to the entrance to greet them - well, likely to greet her sister foremost. And Melon stood quite centrally in the bay, radiating confidence. The others were mostly behind her. Head Hematite and Citrine had headed the group up, and they had just spoken briefly with Wrist Hematite. Smoke, Rose, Melo, and Rita were just behind Gray, and Spinel had taken up the rear, just in case. No one had popped out to attack them, and the bay door slid shut behind them as Spinel entered the bay. Everything was quiet for a moment. Gray could tell that Rose, for one, was on the verge of dissolving into panic. Before Citrine and Hematite had herded them all out of the little stealth ship, Spinel had told the other Pearls about the contents of the message - though they had all easily guessed it was nothing good, just based on the expressions of those who'd directly read it. Smoke looked like she was in shock, Rose was hugging herself to keep from trembling, Rita was chewing on her lip nervously, and Melo just looked troubled. Everyone was grim-faced. "We intercepted a message from White Diamond," Gray began, coming towards Melon. She would have continued, but she was interrupted.
She was so done with light, bright colors. Lavender began regenerating with a flash of light. She hadn't spent as long on her new form as she thought after all but she changed around just enough to make it work, a few changes in color, and spitefully, changed her dress into a short crop top and a chiffon skirt with tiny shorts underneath. Amethyst had hated the way other Pearls were running around barely clothed, had called it undignified. She was free. She could be as undignified as she wanted. and right now that meant she was making her clothes as short as possible. She also put her ribbon belt back on and fingerless gloves instead of her usual. After her form had manifested she opened her eyes, slowly, looking around at scared and shocked faces. "O-oh... w-what happened?" she stammered out, suddenly anxious that she had done something wrong. Was her form too daring? Were the colors too dark? Had she forgotton to add a nose? What was wrong?
Citrine had carefully taken Lavender's gem from her belt and set her on the ground as soon as she had noticed the other gem glowing. Now she scooped Lavender up in a strong embrace - but not too tight, she was scared of poofing her again - and hugged her close. "You look amazing!" she told her, with a big grin that she mostly felt. "Nothing's wrong with you, don't worry about it for now."
Lavender squeaked lightly but hugged back, blushing harder than she thought she could at Citrine's compliment. "O-oh stars, th-thank you!" She liked this hugging thing so much! It felt like some of Citrine's amazing strength and energy was running through the quartz's skin right into her whenever she was pulled close. The thought made her blush harder.
Citrine laughed, blushing as well when the Pearl hugged her back. She was very used to hugging people - it was in her nature - but getting hugged back all the time was only recent to the past couple of days. (Stars, wasn't that a thought - two days ago all she had thought of was getting through basic training and maybe being assigned somewhere with properly hateable bad guys.) "Well, it's true." she told her, not being in the least inclined to put her friend down until told to do so. "Are you really okay, Lav? I was kinda worried I might've hurt you, you poofed so suddenly."
"A-ah, no, I-i-i'm alright! I j-just tend to poof at the slightest provocation sometimes b-because I'm such a whimp." she tries to laugh. It feels a bit fake but as badly as when she pretended to find Amethyst's mean jokes funny.
"Wait, what?" startled, Citrine set Lavender down so she could look into her eyes, setting one big hand on her thin shoulder. "Man, the last thing you are is a wimp, okay? Wimps don't steal their friends out from under Diamonds' noses. Wimps don't fight, even in fusions. Lavender, you're not a wimp, okay? Just because you get scared sometimes doesn't make you a coward, and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise." She was utterly sincere and earnest in this, and not for the first time, she wished she had turned at bay in the Great Hall, right after she had knocked over Smoke, and knocked over Lavender's Amethyst for good measure. All these Pearls deserved so much better than the tiles they had been dealt. She thought for a moment. "You're really good at dancing, as well. Anything else you like doing?"
"A-ah... I l-like weapons. I was always tasked with picking out Amethyst's gear and I really enjoyed that!" she looked to the side, slightly embarrassed. And then her eyes fell on a vintage cannon. "O-oh my stars, they don't even make those anymore! Ninety-Thousand Lumen Blasters have been abandoned in ranged weapons tech for a while now because of their unreliable disincorporation rate the farther apart cannon and target are! Of course the relative usefulness against organics is very small so they eventually just abandoned the tech entirely and are working on different crowd control measures that don't rely on brute force so much now." She looks up, shoulders drawing up defensively. "A-at least I heard that?"
Gray, startled by Lavender's voice, turned around to see the Pearl regenerate, and watched Citrine greet her. Gray, in turn, smiled wanly at the purple Pearl. "I think you're correct, Lavender," she said. "As much as I hate to interrupt you when you're clearly interested in something, you and the others here need to hear the message we received from White Diamond." Gray turned back to Melon. "A covert operations team of unknown numbers has been authorized to disincorporate all of us who were involved on sight, though they don't know about the new Pearl we met on our stolen ship, and Black Opal is classed as a prisoner. ... they are also authorized to dissolve us Pearls in sodium hypochlorite directly after disincorporation." She glanced around the group. "We are in serious danger. I managed to shake our followers, but we need to get off Homeworld now."
Lavenders hands fly to her mouth, her eyes huge and tearfilled. "B-but why would they...?" she gasps out, trembling. This was so disproportionate. They were... just Pearls? Which kind of threat did they expect them to be, that they would authorize... that.
"Also, you and Rose are already supposed to be crushed. If anyone sees you and figures out that you weren't crushed, the Diamonds look like... like clods." Gray fought back the spike of anxiety. "Any evidence of our rebellion being successful is a direct threat to their authority. If we're dissolved and disposed of, then nothing is left to show that they failed."
