In an organized and empty spaceship, a peculiar and cold Peridot was checking for old colonies.
Every Peridot had to fulfill a demand.
While most would become kindergartners or researchers, Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-5XG had the important duty of conducting maintenance on older and decaying Gem colonies.
At first glance, it seemed like a great responsibility. Her eyes had shone when the Diamond ordered her to fulfill her purpose in her first years of life.
But after repeating the same tasks for three thousand years, her frustration grew more and more.
This was a waste of her intellect.
While fixing systems was interesting, doing the same thing for years without variety was killing her inside.
Yet, Peridot still followed her orders.
In front of her, a large green screen flickered.
This device was responsible for analyzing the nearby kindergartens and all the remaining tasks.
But apparently, everything seemed stable.
Peridot expanded the range of her information to more distant kindergartens.
"What is this...?"
A point was appearing and disappearing on her detection system.
Seeing the anomaly, Peridot focused on the location of the point.
[Name: Gamma Kindergarten]
A familiar name reached her ears. It was her home planet.
This point had been registered but marked as obsolete.
As the core was weak and most of the energy drained, it wasn't possible to create new gems.
But the fact that it was weak didn't mean it was absent.
The gems of the new era would store old core planets and use them to foster the empire.
That wasn't one of her jobs, but as Peridot was free of tasks, this now fell within her scope.
"Mhm..."
The only options she had were to investigate the anomaly or return to her homeworld and request more boring, stressful tasks.
In the end, there was only one option.
Investigate, of course.
Peridot directed her spaceship to the location of the old kindergarten.
At the same time, a dense dark substance condensed in space, forming a wormhole to the destination point.
The sight of a desolate planet appeared in her view.
"What happened here?"
The radiation level had increased, and it was not possible to detect the planet's magnetic fields.
No tectonic activity was being registered either.
All these aspects were symptoms of a planet whose core was weak or absent.
Gamma Kindergarten had a weak core but should have lasted a few more good years before reaching such a deplorable state.
"Weird..."
It was improbable that her documents or devices were wrong.
Peridot was using one of the most advanced gadgets from Era 2.
Judging from her ship wouldn't yield the best information to solve this mystery.
In a typical case, she would send an Eye, an independent ship that worked as a drone to collect helpful data.
But Peridot was only on a small and independent ship. That was enough for locomotion but not for thorough investigation.
"I need to do it myself."
While her decision seemed abrupt, it wasn't irrational.
The planet was already registered in her database, and no organic life should exist there.
Her radar also couldn't detect any illegal spaceships for many light-years around.
By logic, the planet should have been empty.
But being cautious, Peridot exposed her location to her homeworld and activated the combat mode on her spaceship.
With preparations made, she entered the planet carefully.
Flying over the atmosphere, she saw the cold and barren surface. This was her home, but Peridot didn't care much about its condition.
The kindergarten had already served its purpose, and the planet's degradation was just a small consequence for a good cause.
The only thing she regretted was how the materials were wasted there. They were old but still recyclable.
It was a shame her spaceship was small, but at least she could bring a bit of material in case of emergency.
After landing on the planet, the anomaly was already resolved.
The planet didn't have enough energy to sustain the tracker on the core.
The cause was a mystery, but in the end, her duty of identifying the anomaly was "complete."
She just didn't leave yet because the planet was full of injectors.
The material could be condensed and reprogrammed as long as they weren't too old.
Peridot gathered the best injectors scattered across the planet.
She only stopped when another anomaly appeared in her sight.
"Is that a drill...?"
Several drills were spread across the ground, and strange tubes lay around.
All the pieces of the injectors had been used and were now useless to Peridot.
But for obvious reasons, she couldn't just ignore the area.
The device before her didn't exist on Homeworld, and the mechanism followed a new pattern.
"Eject."
Peridot ejected from her ship.
There were limits to how much she could analyze through her personal ship.
She extended her limb enhancers toward one of the destroyed drills.
"T-This is crazy!"
Peridot could barely keep her stoic expression after the short analysis provided by her device.
These drills used energy in a way she couldn't comprehend.
Yet gems could manipulate energy they couldn't directly sense or see dark matter.
To create new things they would manipulate it through gem devices specifically made for that purpose.
All the injectors had a defined pattern created through careful observation.
There were clear foundations for manipulating dark matter.
And the drill before her followed none of them.
That meant this wasn't created with Homeworld devices but by a foreign entity.
How was that possible? Only Diamonds could manipulate this energy at will, but her supreme and beloved Yellow Diamond wasn't involved in such matters.
They only provided the pattern, and Peridots were tasked with using it efficiently.
The appearance of a new pattern was revolutionary because every Diamond sought to maintain a well-defined and unchangeable system.
Her eyes shined for a moment, but suddenly lost their hope.
"This is trash."
The pattern still showed inconsistency. The result would be a powerful explosion due to the erratic energy flow.
But as a diligent servant of Yellow Diamond, Peridot followed her task to the end.
She noticed every drill had a different pattern.
It seemed like experimental work...
It was impressive to analyze each of those drills. She couldn't fully understand the process, but just looking at it sparked her curiosity.
Peridot examined it like a mad scientist. She wanted to dissect the system, even knowing it was beyond her capabilities.
"What a shame..."
Seeing all this old material used in such creative ways ignited her curiosity, but ultimately, it was useless.
She was only wasting time. An irrational behavior for someone like her.
Peridot looked down at the piece of the drill in her hands with regret.
"I should go now—"
Thud.
Without realizing it, the piece slipped from her hands and hit the ground.
In front of her was a massive Warp Pad with several tubes connected.
"W-W-What?!"
Peridot ran toward the strange structure with excitement.
These tubes weren't made of simple organic material but gem plasma from the injectors.
The injectors were designed to absorb and convert energy from the surface, so theoretically, the same logic could be applied for other purposes.
But who would be crazy enough to tamper with such a well-defined structure this way?!
"What a genius..."
Peridot couldn't hold back her praise.
Not only the tubes but also the Warp Pad followed modified and new patterns, distinct from the Diamonds' systems.
Analyzing the structure, it was clear that the creator wanted to absorb energy to activate the Warp Pad in extreme conditions.
It was eccentric and unnecessary to create such a system under such conditions with poor materials.
In other words, it was pure art.
The Warp Pad was also fascinating, modifying the basic system and removing the connectors to simulate a global warp.
Ordinarily, it would be impossible to extend the range of a common Warp Pad like that.
No one would be able to use it either without special materials.
Peridot was mesmerized by the data she was analyzing.
"M-More... Is there more?!"
Anyone watching her would have mistaken her for a drug user.
This only demonstrated how magnificent the technology in her hands was.
Her steps quickened as she searched for any more materials around.
Fortunately, a huge drill—bigger than any she had ever seen—stood before her.
The only problem was its condition.
It was in worse shape than the other drills.
With a worried expression, Peridot connected her limb enhancers to the drill.
Unlike the others, the formula was stable.
It was as if all the previous drills were merely prototypes for creating this one.
There was no doubt—this was the real deal.
Tears dangerously threatened to spill from her eyes.
It was so beautiful and fascinating.
She had never seen anything so incredible.
She spent hours analyzing the work of this genius, but...
"Where is the end?!"
It was as if her favorite series had been canceled right before the last season. Peridot struck the drill in frustration.
She would never be able to guess the conclusion on her own, but all the final parts were destroyed.
Looking at the formula, it was perfect.
The only problem was the materials used. They weren't good enough to allow the pattern to shine in its best form.
"You clod drill!"
Peridot hit the drill repeatedly, trying to relieve her frustration.
She had already tasted the forbidden fruit, but there wasn't enough to satisfy her greed.
Only after a long and pointless act of hitting the drill did Peridot come to her senses.
"I need to report this."
This technology was obviously out of her scope. It was even far beyond her era.
If they could understand it, a revolutionary technological era could begin.
A tool of this caliber couldn't go unnoticed.
"Whoever did this..." she said, staring intently at the drill's inner workings. "The Diamond Empire can't lose such a genius."
Her eyes were full of greed.
After all, like any Peridot, she had been born with a significant sin.
Avarice.
*
It was a night like any other in Beach City.
While not being targeted by corrupted gems, the city always had a peaceful and warm atmosphere.
The Crystal Gems, a group of gems fighting in the name of mankind, were responsible for keeping the city and the world at peace.
In the past, the group had hundreds, even thousands, of gems.
They were known as rebels in Homeworld, refusing to live under the dictatorship of the Diamonds.
However, now the group consisted of only three gems.
Pearl, a meticulous and skilled spear fighter.
Amethyst, the youngest and sometimes unreliable whip fighter.
And the leader of the group, Garnet.
Being a fusion of a Ruby and a Sapphire, Garnet was gifted with great physical strength and a sharp mind, capable of predicting pieces of the future.
She was the backbone of the group and made the final decision at every step.
This same composed and strong figure was hiding worrying and dangerous information from the others.
"The future is a mess..." she muttered, covering her eyes with her hands.
Garnet suffered from episodic future visions. The future wasn't a fixed path but a variable formed through probabilities.
Among the many possible futures, the most probable outcome could be identified based on how much she intervened.
These visions were often out of her control and could be more confusing than helpful.
The problem lay in the variables. Garnet was the only variable on planet Earth, so her visions were more accurate there than in Homeworld.
But now, the main line of the future had split into countless pieces, changing every minute.
Garnet looked at Steven, sleeping peacefully in his bed, her face expressionless.
Before bed, Steven had a nightmare—an event she hadn't predicted.
He spoke of a red figure trying to communicate with him in broken words.
Most people wouldn't pay much attention to a child's dream, but Garnet couldn't afford to ignore this one.
Because Steven was the son of Rose Quartz, the previous leader of the Crystal Gems.
Rose, who had the ability to contact others in their dreams.
It was strange that Steven's nightmare coincided with her disrupted visions.
There was a high probability that this dream was connected to her problem.
"A new variable."
Everything would make sense if a new variable was responsible for it.
Steven had connected with this new variable, and in the process, he too became a variable.
Only Diamonds and Sapphires were typically able to become variables.
But in Steven's dream, the figure was red and black—colors not associated with either Diamonds or Sapphires.
The possibility that this variable was a typical gem from Homeworld seemed slim.
Because gems don't sleep.
Sleep was trivial to gems. Most were unfamiliar with the concept, even though they could do it.
A simple human being couldn't alter her visions unless they possessed prior knowledge of the future.
Throughout history, many humans claimed to be seers.
Garnet had once visited some of them, but they were just like any other human, their only skill being a flair for storytelling.
Another possibility was corrupted gems, but they didn't have a state of mind so advanced to have dreams and coherent thoughts.
And all the gems from the Earth were corrupted at the end of the Gem War.
The only possibility was another Sapphire or a new type of gem from the modern era.
All gems were somehow connected to Homeworld, but the fact that this gem could sleep indicated she had a basic understanding of humans.
How long had another gem been living right under their noses?
If not for Steven's dream, Garnet might never have noticed.
She needed to find this gem and determine whether she was a threat or an ally.
If she turned out to be an ally, Garnet would consider taking her under her leadership.
Their numbers were few, and any member would be welcomed.
But if she was connected to Homeworld, the answer was clear.
Silence her before she exposed their existence to Homeworld.
Her mind was set. There was no more time to waste on hesitation.
It was time to gather the Gems and search for this variable.
The lines of the future shifted even more with this decision.
Garnet had disrupted the status quo and had now become another strong variable in her own visions.
As for how this decision would affect the future...
Only time will tell.
*
Author note
After the next chapter, I will pause for 20 days. I need to accumulate chapters.