Summary:
Steven, Dipper, and Mabel decide to help Pearl see the stars again, only for their starbound mission to quickly get out of hand once the very Gem they're trying to help gets involved.
"Whoa…" An awestruck gasp rose up from the kids the second the light surrounding the warp pad faded. The Gems had agreed to bring them along on their latest mission following their successful quest to reclaim the waterfall. Upon seeing how well Steven, Dipper, and Mabel had handled themselves then, they had few concerns about letting them come on this reconnaissance mission. In no small part because it would be simple, short, and most of all, safe .
"Welcome to the Galaxy Warp!" Pearl proclaimed, stepping on the pad first. Surrounding it was a vast collection of other warps, all damaged in some way or another as they sat upon a shimmering platform raised high above the open sea. "This hub was once used by Gemkind to quickly travel to and from Earth in a matter of mere minutes. Impressive, isn't it?"
"Yeah…" Mabel grinned, stars in her eyes. "And sparkly !"
"To and from Earth…" Dipper echoed thoughtfully. "You mean from Homeworld, right?"
"Er… yes," Pearl tensed ever so slightly. Behind her, Garnet and Amethyst exchanged a silent, apprehensive glance. "But they also used these warps to travel across the Earth more efficiently and-"
"How many Gems were on Earth back then anyway?" Dipper pressed, unable to quell his rising curiosity. Not now, not that he had the knowledge that the Gems were literal, actual aliens . "What were they doing here? And where'd they all go?"
"Dipper," Garnet spoke up, but her warning went largely unheard. Just like how Pearl slipping her hands over her mouth went largely unnoticed.
"What's Homeworld like?" he asked, narrowly resisting the urge to pull a pen and notepad out of his backpack. Despite the fact that he'd asked far more questions than he'd gotten any actual answers so far. "Is there still some way to get there–you know, aside from straight up flying there like Lapis did?"
"Uh," Amethyst finally piped up, cringing all the while. "Why'd you even wanna go there in the first place, dude? From what I've heard, Homeworld is a total drag ."
"Why wouldn't I–because it's a completely different planet, duh!" Dipper exclaimed, as though it was obvious. "Why wouldn't I want to go there?"
"Yeah!" Steven chimed in with a wide grin. "I bet it's full of all sorts of other Gems who are just as cool as you guys are!"
"Trust us," Garnet said staunchly, sternly. "It's not."
"Huh?" Steven exchanged a confused glance with Dipper. "But-"
"H-here's an idea!" Pearl suddenly chimed in with a stressed smile spread wide across her face. "Why don't we stop talking about Homeworld for a while and instead we focus on what we actually came here to do?"
"Ok!" Mabel agreed much easier than either of the boys wanted to. "Uh… what did we come here to do, again?"
"Eh, just to check if these things are still all busted or not," Amethyst shrugged.
"That's why I brought these!" Steven held up a stack of Crying Breakfast Friends stickers. "They'll help us keep track of the ones we've checked and they're scented!"
"Why do we need to check out all of these warp pads anyway?" Dipper asked as he gave one of the pads an experimental knock.
"It's just something we like to do every few centuries," Pearl explained. "Think of it as a… security inspection. We're going to make sure that all these warp pads are inactive."
"So… they aren't supposed to work?"
"No," Garnet answered simply.
"But why-"
"Ugh, geez ," Amethyst cut Dipper off with an annoyed groan. "You wanna can it with all the lame questions already? I swear, you've asked like, a million of them since we got here."
Dipper let out an indignant huff. While his tide of questions was stemmed (for now), he still couldn't stop himself from quietly, bitterly muttering to himself, "Well, maybe I wouldn't have to ask so many questions if somebody would finally answer them…"
"This one's inactive!" Amethyst announced after trying and failing to warp on one of the pads. Steven rushed over to slap a sticker on it, officially marking the pad as unusable.
"Oh man, I hope I have enough of these left," he fretted, counting over his small stack again. "I already used most of them decorating Lion's mane. He just ended up eating most of them…"
"Well, then it's a good thing I always carry some of these on me!" Mabel smirked as she pulled out her own collection of Crying Breakfast Friends stickers.
"Mabel, how are you always so prepared for things like this?" Steven asked, relieved.
"Eh, it's a gift."
"Inactive," Garnet called as she checked another pad, prompting Mabel to put a sticker on it.
"Inactive," Pearl frowned from her spot on a different one.
"Do we have to check all of them?" Amethyst asked, crossing her arms. "They're all still inactive, like always. Nobody would even be able to fix them anyway."
"We need to make sure," Garnet asserted.
"Why?" Dipper asked. He ignored Amethyst's aggravated sigh somewhere behind him in favor of posing yet another question anyway. "Wouldn't this be, like, your one way of getting back to Homeworld?"
While Amethyst had long-since turned her back on this conversation, Garnet simply stayed silent, her lips pressed into a thin line. That left Pearl to supply an answer this time; or rather, to once again lead them away from the topic of Homeworld altogether. "Er… well…" she looked away awkwardly. "That and… other Gem-controlled planets all over the universe." She finally managed a small smile as she stole a glance up at the endlessly starry skies high above the Galaxy Warp. "We would use them to travel to so many distant worlds, each more unique than the last…"
"Oo, like Pluto? Or Uranus?" Mabel asked, oblivious.
Pearl winced, uncomfortable. "Um…"
"If we can't go to Homeworld, can we use one of these warp pads to go to a different planet?" Steven proposed. "Please? Pretty please?"
"Uh, we could do that," Amethyst cut in. "If they weren't all busted."
"It's true…" Pearl sighed. "The galaxy warps have all been inactive for thousands of years."
"Can't we fix them?" Steven asked.
"No," Garnet quickly, firmly replied.
"Boo!" Mabel stuck her tongue out. "Why not?"
"Cause it's just like I said earlier," Amethyst said. "Nobody knows how to fix up these dumb old things, right G?"
Garnet only nodded as she began making her way back over to the only functional warp pad, their mission now complete. While Amethyst hurried to follow her, Pearl hung back, still gazing up at the night sky as she let out a soft, wistful sigh.
"Are you ok, Pearl?" Dipper asked as he turned back to her. Likewise, Steven and Mabel stopped short, sharing his concern.
"Oh, I'm fine," she let out a small, fake chuckle. "I'll always have my memories of other worlds. But now I'm here… on Earth… forever…"
"With us!" Steven exclaimed, smiling.
Pearl's already faint smile withered even more as she looked away from the trio. "Right. With you. Still, it really is incredible out there…" She sighed again as she lifted her sights to the skies again, to the stars she'd once traveled between so freely, all so close… and yet so very far all the same. "I wish the three of you could see it…"
"Stay tuned for another episode of Crying Breakfast Friends!"
"Ok, you guys," Dipper began as soon as the commercial break began. He glanced back at Steven and Mabel as they sat together on the former's bed, happily enjoying the bizarrely depressing cartoon. "We've been watching this show for several hours now, and I still don't really understand what either of you see in it…"
"Dipper, Dipper, Dipper…" Mabel shook her head. "Can't you appreciate fine art when you see it? Crying Breakfast Friends is the best modern cartoons have to offer!"
"If this is the best there is, then cartoons are kind of in trouble," Dipper muttered, critically eyeing the incoherently sobbing foods on screen.
"You gotta admit that it is pretty relatable," Steven countered. "Like in that last episode for instance. Seeing how much Sad Apple wanted to go home reminded me of Pearl missing space at the Galaxy Warp yesterday. She seemed really upset about it…"
"Who can blame her?" Mabel reclined back on the bed. "I'm all bummed out about it too. Going to space would be so awesome!"
"It would be, but you heard what the Gems said," Dipper shook his head. "We can't go anywhere as long as all those warp pads are broken. As if they'd even let us go, even if we could…" He finished a touch more quietly, a touch more crossly.
Steven heaved a heavy, disappointed sigh. "I wish there was something we could do to help Pearl see space again," he said, frowning. "If only there was some other way we could get to space…" He gasped, hopping off the bed as a sudden idea struck him–a rather brilliant one at that. "Wait! That's it! Dipper, Mabel, let's build a spaceship!"
"What?!" Dipper asked, taken aback. "Steven, we can't just build a spaceship."
"Why not?"
"Yeah, why not?" Mabel added. "It'll be fun!"
"And completely impossible ," Dipper crossed his arms. "I don't know if you guys know this, but it takes a lot to build a spaceship. We'd need several years, at least , plus a ton of resources that we probably wouldn't be able to get because we don't have any money to buy them, and the list goes on."
"Oh, come on, Dipper!" Mabel protested, pouting. "We could totally do it! After all, nothing is impossible if you work hard and set your mind to it! I read that on a cat poster once."
"I really don't think that saying applies to everything, Mabel," Dipper deadpanned. "Especially something as huge as building a spaceship."
"Yeah, but people have built spaceships before, and we're people!" Steven pointed out.
"You can't argue with that one, bro-bro," Mabel playfully elbowed Dipper.
"And Pearl would love it so much to see space again!" Steven zealously continued. "We have to at least give it a try for her. Think of how amazed she'd be if we built an entire spaceship, just for her!"
As soon as the pair struck him with a set of pleading smiles, Dipper's resistance to their idea quickly fell apart. Even if he knew there wasn't a chance that idea would actually work. "Fine, I'm in," he said, despite his better judgement. "But if you guys are really serious about this, then we're gonna need some help. We'd have a hard time trying to build this thing by ourselves."
"I'm way ahead of you on that one, Dipper," Steven said, resolved. "In fact, I just so happen to know not one, but two people who would love to help us!"
"So, wait…" Stan glanced up at the stack of money he was counting through at his desk. "You munchkins want me to help you build a… what exactly?"
"A spaceship!" Mabel reiterated cheerfully.
Stan stared at the trio for a long time, his expression awash with both confusion and disbelief. "A spaceship, huh? Alright, which one of you two came up with this harebrained idea?" he asked, looking between Steven and Mabel.
"Grunkle Stan, how do you know I didn't come up with the idea?" Dipper asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Because you're not that creative or crazy," Stan said bluntly, ignoring his nephew's disgruntled scowl. "Now, what makes you kids think I know anything about spaceships? I'm not exactly a rocket scientist, ya know."
"But you build all sorts of cool attractions for the Mystery Shack, Mr. Pines," Steven pointed out. "I'm sure you could come up with a really neat idea for a spaceship if you wanted to!"
"Yeah, well I don't," Stan said, turning his nose up at the kids. "And even if I did, I have better things to do with my time than work on some crazy pipe dream. Instead of bothering me with this spaceship thing, why don't you three get some boring brainiac to help you? Like Pearl, for instance. She's into nerdy stuff like that."
"Well, we would, but we're actually planning on doing this for Pearl," Mabel explained. "She'll be so excited when she sees the giant, beautiful, spaceship we're gonna build for her! And once it's done, we'll all get in it, and we'll fly into space, and we'll visit a bunch of other planets, and we'll have so much fun, and we'll-"
"Ok, Mabel, that's enough!" Dipper cut her off. "Long story short, Grunkle Stan, we're doing this so we can help Pearl see space again."
"Oh, well that changes everything ," Stan threw on a wide, fake smile. "You should have mentioned this was for Pearl. That definitely makes me want to help."
"Really?" Steven asked, surprised.
"Of course not, kid!" Stan's grin swiftly switched into a dry scowl. "The last thing I'd ever want to do is help Pearl out with anything, especially something as nutso as this."
"I know you and Pearl don't get along very well, Mr. Pines," Steven frowned. "But I'm sure she'd really appreciate it if you helped out! And besides, it won't be that hard, we promise!"
"Kid, do you have any idea what goes into building a spaceship?" Stan retorted. "First off, you need a bunch of money, which is something I'm not interested in investing unless I'm gonna have it at least doubled, if not tripled."
"Well, what about space tourism?" Dipper asked.
"Space what?"
"You know, space tourism? When really rich people pay a lot of money to go on short trips into space?"
"....How much money are we talking here?" Stan asked, suddenly fully interested.
"I don't know," Dipper shrugged. "Thousands, maybe millions."
That was more than enough to get Stan out of his chair, a huge grin spreading across his face at the prospect of earning untold cash. "Well, kids, I hate to say it, but you've sold me on this spaceship thing. I'll help you build it, but only if you let me use it for this 'space tourism' thing. If this scheme takes off, then I could retire early and buy my own island!"
"You got it, Grunkle Stan!" Mabel boldly exclaimed, shaking his hand to seal the deal.
"But only after we take Pearl up to space with it first," Steven clarified.
"Yeah, yeah, Pearl-schmearl," Stan waved his hand, unconcerned. "What are we still standing around here yapping for? Let's get this money-making, hunk of junk built!"
Unsurprisingly, it took far less for the kids to get Greg on board with their spaceship scheme than it had for Stan. As bewildered as he was by their proposal, he still drove the group all the way out to the countryside to somewhere they'd have plenty of space and supplies to get started. An old barn in the middle of nowhere, filled to the brim with all sorts of untold clutter.
"My aunt and uncle had a great love of aviation and each other," Greg explained, nodding to the portrait of his relatives hanging from the barn's far wall. "They cherished the years they spent together and they held onto every belonging they ever owned—kinda like me and my storage shed… I'm starting to think our family has a problem…"
"Ya think?" Stan kicked a nearby airplane rudder. "If I were you, Greg, I would have sold all of this junk for scrap metal years ago."
"Aw, I couldn't possibly," Greg said, scratching the back of his neck. "It's all precious family heirlooms."
"Yeah, 'precious'," Stan rolled his eyes as he glanced over at a busted TV.
"Dad, this stuff is so great!" Steven excitedly exclaimed. "I hereby declare this barn to be Universe, Universe, Pines, Pines, and Pines Space Travel HQ!"
"So… UUPPP?" Dipper asked, smirking.
"Yeah!"
"Oh, I'm so excited!" Mabel bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. "I'll start sewing us all company sweaters right away! We'll need them since I hear it's really cold up in space!"
"Well, we might as well start hauling all of these parts out of here," Stan turned to Greg as Mabel ran off to get her yarn and knitting needles. "But if I find something actually valuable in there, I'm not making any promises that I won't swipe any of this stuff and resell it at the shack."
"M-Mr. Pines! Wait!" Greg called as he ran into the barn after Stan. "My aunt and uncle would kill me if I got rid of any of their stuff!"
"And we'll work on designing the spaceship!" Steven volunteered, grabbing Dipper by the arm. "Come on, Dipper! This is gonna be so much fun !"
Dipper couldn't help but laugh, charmed by Steven's enthusiasm for this project, if nothing else. "Whatever you say, Steven."
Without any further ado, "UUPPP Space Travel" got to work. Using an old chalkboard salvaged from the barn, the boys began sketching up designs. While Dipper tried taking their endeavor seriously with charts and graphs, it wasn't long before Steven claimed most of the chalkboard with ambitious sketches of a fantastical spacecraft soaring through the stars. After sewing her own space-themed sweater, Mabel joined them, covering her brother's equations up with doodles of planets and aliens, much to his annoyance.
Meanwhile, Greg and Stan busied themselves with sorting through the countless parts the barn had to offer. Sure enough, Stan's experience building attractions for the shack came in handy as he pulled their supplies together to help the kids fashion their very own "spaceship". Or ar least, something that could be loosely called a spaceship.
Once their work was complete, Steven invited Pearl out to the barn to join them for a "special surprise". She didn't know quite what to expect as Steven covered her eyes and led her… somewhere. And even after she saw what awaited her, she still had no idea exactly what to make of it.
"Okay… now!" Steven took his hands off of her eyes for the big reveal.
Pearl looked up to see the sign hanging from the doorway of the barn first, before turning to the kids, confused. "'UUPPP Space Travel?'" she frowned. "What is this?"
"Only the most amazing thing you'll ever see," Mabel said, beaming.
"I… somehow doubt that, but alright," Pearl smirked, amused. "I'll go along with whatever this is, I suppose."
"Good, because you kind of have to for this," Dipper said with a halfhearted shrug.
"And what exactly is… 'this'?"
"We built a spaceship!" Steven brightly exclaimed.
"A spaceship?" Pearl asked, intrigued.
"A spaceship!" Mabel reiterated as she showed off their creation.
Pearl's interest quickly fizzled out as soon as she saw the simple "vehicle" sitting before her. Really, it was just a long wooden box on wheels, with a traffic cone nailed to the front and crude wings taped to the sides. A far cry from anything even remotely resembling the kind of space-faring craft she was used to.
"A… spaceship…" Pearl echoed again, utterly underwhelmed.
Even so, Steven and Mabel were eager to test the vessel out. They dragged Dipper into their maiden voyage, despite his anxious protests, as they pushed their ship up to the nearby hilltop. Pearl joined the group, watching warily as Stan and Greg prepped the intrepid group of "adventurers" for their journey.
"Alright, listen up, you three," Stan began as he finished securing a loose bolt. "Your job is to make sure this rust bucket is safe enough for customers down at the shack to ride as long as they sign a liability waiver. I don't want any parents suing me over 'faulty craftsmanship' when their clumsy kids fall out of it."
"But, at the same time," Greg added much more cautiously. "Remember that if you kids run into any trouble out there, you can always bail. There's never any shame in bailing."
"There is when my next potential attraction is at stake," Stan countered. "So don't let that thing crash, got it?"
"Contradicting advice—understood!" Steven saluted. "It's time to blast off!"
"Um, actually, is there any way I can bail in advance?" Dipper asked, worriedly glancing back at the makeshift spaceship.
"Nope!" Mabel firmly, cheerily exclaimed.
"Are you all sure this is such a good idea?" Pearl apprehensively looked between the kids and their ramshackle ship.
"Yeah, we are!" Steven heartily confirmed. "This is gonna be so great! Just think, Pearl: soon you'll be able to see space again, just like you said you wanted to!"
"…Right…"
"Are you kids ready?" Greg asked. He struck a match and held it up to the sparkler taped to the back of the ship, ready to launch at their leisure.
"You bet we are!" Mabel proclaimed. "Light the engines!"
"Roger that!" Greg laughed as he did exactly that.
"Next stop: outer space!" Steven cheered, raring to go as he shuffled around in the front seat.
"Or more likely, the ground," Dipper muttered uneasily.
"Oh, come on, Dipper," Mabel contered, confident. "Don't be so worried! There's no way this ship could fail! The only place this thing is going is up !"
Before Dipper–or Pearl for that matter–could protest any further, Stan gave the vessel a sudden shove with his foot. "Welp, there ya go!" he announced over the kids' shared surprise. And just like that, the test flight was off.
The "spaceship" rolled down the steep hill, quickly gaining speed toward the wooden ramp they'd set up at the bottom of it. That ramp was supposed to give them the momentum they needed to launch the ship to the stars. Or at least it would have if this plan didn't begin falling apart-literally.
As the tape on one of the ship's wings wore thin, it was torn off entirely, sending the craft tilting unevenly to the side. To make matters even worse, the hull's wooden side soon followed, along with a wheel, leaving the ship to rapidly grind against the grass.
"Uh, guys?! Now might be a good time to bail!" Dipper warned as the ship continued dangerously careening toward the equally makeshift ramp.
"No shame!" Steven shouted as he took the leap first. The twins quickly followed, and not a moment too soon either. Almost as soon as they were out, the ship struck a rock at the foot of the ramp, swiftly and violently tearing it apart.
"Whoa," Mabel sat up alongside the boys to look over the wreckage. "That. Was. AWESOME!"
While Steven simply let out a relieved laugh, Dipper flopped back into the grass with an exhausted, exasperated sigh. Meanwhile, back at the top of the hill, Pearl could only shake her head over the ship's doomed maiden voyage.
"Darn it! I told those kids not to crash it!" Stan scowled, disappointed.
"I… think your calculations may have been off," Pearl dryly noted.
Greg let out a sheepish laugh. "Well, they can't be off if you don't do any."
"Hm…" Pearl frowned as she looked over the chalkboard back at the barn. "These designs are… interesting." She raised an eyebrow at Steven and Mabel's outlandish, bizarre sketches. "I can certainly see where the initial concept derailed. Though these smudged formulas up here do seem to be onto something…"
"Oh, um, those were mine," Dipper raised his hand, bashful. "They aren't anything really important though; just some stuff on angular velocity and impulse momentum."
"Impressive…" Pearl grinned, though that smile quickly faded as she turned to Greg and Stan. "I imagine you two didn't bother to incorporate any of that into… whatever it is you helped the kids build, did you?"
"Hey, don't look at me," Stan shrugged. "I was only in this for the money. I'd like to see you do any better."
"Well…"
"Pearl, you know how to build spaceships?!" Steven asked, amazed.
"I know a little…" Pearl wiped the chalkboard clean before beginning to draw a much cleaner conceptual design. "First of all, you need smooth, curving surfaces, otherwise, you're never going to get enough speed to break through Earth's gravitational pull. Probably swept-back wings for supersonic flight, airtight cockpit with ejector seat, and we'll need some serious engines, or maybe rockets would be better."
"I vote rockets!" Mabel zealously exclaimed.
"Wait… like real rockets?" Dipper asked, suddenly far more invested in this project than he'd ever been before.
"Well, of course," Pearl nodded. "What other kind of rockets are there?"
"Rockets! Rockets!" Steven cheered.
Despite the kids' rising excitement, none of them noticed the bewildered glance Greg and Stan exchanged behind them. "Whoa, whoa! Hold on a sec," Greg cut in before the kids could get too carried away. "We're not actually talking about building something like this, right?!"
"What? This?" Pearl glanced back at her design, letting out a forced laugh. "Of course not. That would be ridiculous!"
"Aw…" the kids all sighed, their hopes abruptly dashed. But only for a moment.
"I mean, yes, theoretically, it's not a stretch…" Pearl thoughtfully continued. "You've got plenty of spare parts here, albeit for incredibly primitive propulsion-based space travel."
"Then let's do it!" Mabel encouraged as the boys nodded their agreement.
"Oh, but the idea is ludicrous," Pearl dismissively waved her hand. "It would never work! Although… several humans, a monkey, and a dog did make it into space…"
"I heard on the radio that some doofus once had a pizza delivered to him out there," Stan pointed out offhandedly.
"I don't even wanna think about the delivery charge on that one," Greg shuddered.
Pearl ignored both of them, largely in favor of her own growing fervor. "I don't know why I've never thought of it before!" she exclaimed, grinning. "This could actually work!"
"Uh…" Greg began to speak up. His worries were ultimately left unheard as Pearl went on with her passionate proposal anyway.
"I hear what you're saying, and I agree," she took to pacing around as the idea continued to solidify itself more and more. "It would be incredibly dangerous; a fool's errand! This couch is disgusting," she cringed as she pulled a bit of stuffing out of the old sofa everyone was sitting on. "But aren't the true fools the ones who don't seize an opportunity, despite the inherent risks? And just think, kids: you'll all be able to go where few humans have ever gone before, to see the wonders of the cosmos with your own eyes!"
"Like the moon!" Mabel readily rallied.
"And other planets!" Steven added, starstruck.
"And maybe even Homeworld?" Dipper eagerly suggested.
The way Pearl's smile swiftly vanished the second he so much as mentioned her former home was all but lost on him, and all of the others. "Er… well, uh…"
"Alright, if no one else is gonna come out and ask, I will," Stan spoke up. "Pearl, are you nuts ? There's no way you, me, Greg, and a bunch of kids can build an honest-to-god spaceship outta all this useless junk, and if you think there is, then you're even crazier than I already thought you were."
"It's not crazy , Stan," Pearl crossed her arms, turning her nose up at him. "After all, anything is within the realm of possibility for those who are willing to work hard and truly set your mind to it."
"That's what I said!" Mabel said. "Did you read that off a cat poster too, Pearl?"
The confused look Pearl sent her way was soon interrupted by Steven. "I'm so excited, Pearl! This is gonna be even more fun than building the first ship was!"
"I'm so glad you kids agree!" Pearl clasped her hands together, delighted. "And who knows? Maybe for just a second, from a distance, I could see what's been going on without me…" She looked to the skies once more, genuine hope taking the place of where only longing had once been. Hope to reclaim a part of her past she thought she'd never get to know again, no longer as far out of her reach as she once thought. "All right! Let's do it!"
As the kids all congregated around Pearl to continue hearing her ambitious ideas, none of them caught the uncertain glance Stan and Greg shared. Despite their growing list of misgivings, they couldn't very well voice them when the kids were so clearly caught up in the excitement of the moment. Especially not when Steven daringly rallied their ragtag team together as their lofty, starbound mission began anew.
"UUPPP Space Travel, go !"
To no one's surprise, Pearl took the lead over the second build of the spaceship project. With her experience and intellect, she guided the others through a detailed inspection of the barn to pinpoint exactly what tools and parts they might need. Even if they were rather rudimentary, she assured the team that they'd be able to fashion something workable out of them… somehow.
"Oh, these will work perfectly," Pearl smiled as she sorted through a box of old tools, picking out a drill from among them. "Greg, do you know if any of those plane parts in there are composed of any titanium or aluminum alloys?"
"Um… maybe?" Greg shrugged as he looked down at the discarded wing he and Stan were carrying. "They look like they could be made of something like that, I guess…"
"Well, no matter," Pearl said as she continued working. "We can always strengthen the hull with carbon fiber towards the end. How are things going with that washing machine, kids?"
"They're… going!" Dipper called as he strained to pry one of the internal parts off the old washing machine. Pearl had tasked the kids with taking the machine apart in the hopes of using some of its parts in the ship's cockpit. Steven had already pulled off all of its dials and Mabel was in the middle of beating the back of it with a hammer when she paused and noticed her brother's plight.
"Oh, let me get that for you, bro-bro!" She reached into the machine and easily broke the part off. "Hey Pearl, I got the twisty thing you wanted!"
"How did you do that?" Dipper asked, bewildered. "I've been trying to get that thing off for almost an hour!"
"I just pulled it right off," Mabel shrugged. "What were you doing?"
"…Twisting it."
"Well, there's your problem, Dippin-Dots!" Mabel laughed, tossing the part up and down. "You were spending all that time wearing your brain out overthinking something that was super easy!"
Almost as soon as she said this, the part slipped out of Mabel's hands, nearly falling to the ground until Pearl rushed in to catch it at the last second. "Careful, Mabel," she advised, handing the part over to Steven. "We'll need this agitator perfectly intact. It'll make a good basis for a small-scale test propeller."
"Can we help you build it, Pearl?" Steven asked.
"Well, of course!" Pearl beamed as she led the way back to the barn. "I'll need all three of you to help with every stage of construction. After all, this was your idea in the first place; I'm just here to help get it off the ground. Now, who wants to get started on our first scale model?"
The kids didn't hesitate to agree as they readily followed after her. Stan and Greg, on the other hand, were far less eager about what they'd seen so far today. "Again, I've gotta ask," Stan shook his head, incredulous. "She can't be serious about this whole spaceship thing, is she?"
"It's hard to say…" Greg said. "I mean, she did give me this book on advanced avionics and told me to 'study up'…"
"Yeah, well she can talk big and get the kids excited all she wants," Stan crossed his arms. "Just as long as I get a decent kiddie ride to put in front of the shack, we won't have any problems."
"Eh, yeah, you're probably right," Greg nodded. "We might as well let Pearl and the kids have their fun. Still," he frowned as he flipped through the heavy book she'd given him. "I really hope she doesn't expect me to memorize any of this stuff…"
"So we have to remember to factor in both wind speed and velocity, as well as the slope of the take-off area…" Pearl paced in front of the chalkboard as Dipper jotted down everything she said. With day two of the project already well underway, Steven and Greg had driven back into town to grab everyone some lunch. Meanwhile, as Stan and Mabel continued gathering supplies, Pearl and Dipper had taken to working through a handful of complex calculations that were essential to getting their ship off the ground at all.
"Gravity will also be a very important thing to consider…" Pearl tapped her chin, thoughtful. "Dipper, do you know anything about kinematics?"
"Um… a little," he shrugged. "Isn't kinematics basically all about geometry and motion?"
"It is," Pearl nodded, smiling proudly. "It really is impressive how much you know about all of these advanced concepts. From my experience, most humans your age usually have no idea how to solve parametric equations or how centripetal forces work, but you navigate those concepts with ease!"
"Oh, it's no big deal," Dipper let out a small, flustered chuckle. "Most of the other kids me and Mabel went to school with thought physics were boring and lame, but, I dunno, I thought it was kind of cool. So I guess I kinda just learned a bunch about it without even realizing it? I could have never guessed that I'd actually be able to apply any of it into building a real spaceship though."
"Well, I certainly appreciate your zeal for it," Pearl voiced her warm approval. "It's good to know that someone else is just as concerned with the scientific side of this project instead of just the idea itself. Just think, Dipper: the equations we're working on at this very moment will serve as the very heart and soul of our vessel! Without them, we might as well go back to that dinky little boxcar from earlier."
"Uh, no thanks," Dipper winced. "That thing was a disaster."
"Agreed," Pearl nodded. "Which is why we should hunker down and keep working on these formulas. Now, let's see if we can configure our ship's kinematic viscosity first…"
"Um, actually, Pearl, I do have one quick question," Dipper leaned forward a bit on the stool he was sitting on. "If the ship actually ends up working… where exactly are we planning on taking it?"
"Well, I'd figured that much would be obvious," Pearl turned back to the chalkboard to continue crunching numbers. "We'll use it to explore the vast, untamed cosmos, visit star systems humanity has never even dreamed of seeing before, and-"
"Maybe even… go check out Homeworld?" Dipper proposed, as much as he knew he probably shouldn't.
Pearl's hand stalled mid-equation, her eyes wide as she stared straight at the board ahead of her. She quickly caught herself, letting out a diffident laugh as she shook her head. "Oh, no, no, no," she said, wearing a smile that was a touch too wide. "That's completely out of the question."
"What? But why?"
It wasn't long before Pearl's fake smile flattened out into a anxious scowl. "Dipper, please, I'd really rather not discuss… that place any more than we already have-"
"Why not though?!" Dipper pressed, frustrated. "If Homeworld is where you're from, then why are you so scared to talk about it?"
"I-I'm not scared, it's just-"
"Besides," Dipper refused to back down, not now. Not after being denied the answers he craved far too many times to count. "You guys said you'd start being more honest with us, but so far, you haven't really done a great job at that. I mean, we had to find out that Homeworld is even a thing at all from Lapis instead of any of you! Why aren't we allowed to know about something as basic as your home-"
"Homeworld isn't our home!" Pearl snapped, finally reaching her limit. "It hasn't been our home in centuries and it never will be again!"
That was finally enough to silence Dipper altogether, especially when he noticed the first hint of tears starting to form in Pearl's eyes. If that wasn't a sign that he'd gone too far in his pursuit of knowledge, he didn't know what was. As a result, he couldn't quite ignore the guilt that suddenly swelled through him, along with the urge to make it right, in whatever small way he could.
So, after a long, heavy beat of silence, he finally cleared his throat and began again. "Pearl, I, uh… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"
"It's… alright," Pearl sighed, wiping her eyes dry. "I'm just… not quite ready to talk to you kids about this yet, alright?"
Dipper nodded, knowing he couldn't really argue with that. Whatever Pearl's thoughts on Homeworld were, they were clearly deeply personal. With that in mind, it all suddenly felt less like a mystery he needed to solve and more like a subject he should steer clear of. If only to save the Gem he looked up to and respected the pain of having to confront her clearly complicated past.
"Still," Pearl finally managed a small smile after another moment or two. "I have to admit, Dipper, for as… relentless as your curiosity might sometimes be, it is something to be admired all the same." Her smile turned a touch warmer as she rested an encouraging hand on his head. "That's exactly why there's no one I'd trust more to help me get these numbers just right to build the best Earth-built spacecraft there's ever been!"
Dipper quickly picked up the same smile, stars in his eyes. Because in all honesty, he wasn't quite used to this; to being praised and affirmed for his intelligence instead of overlooked and mocked. And for that praise to be coming from someone as brilliant as Pearl? It wasn't something he was about to pass up again in favor of questions that, by all accounts, he could wait to get an answer to. "R-right," he agreed, sitting just a bit straighter and smiling just a bit brighter. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get back to it!"
"Aaaaannnnd… You're done," Stan advised, looking over his niece's work. Mabel let out an excited squeal as she threw her welding mask up to see that the bars had been melted together seamlessly. Yet another exciting piece of progress on the glider Pearl had dubbed "mach 2" .
"Grunkle Stan, how'd I do?" she asked eagerly.
"You did great, pumpkin," Stan proudly patted her on the back. "And you get bonus points for not burning your hand off with that thing."
"Yes!" Mabel cheered, waving the still-lit blow torch around in celebration. The tip of the flame only barely missed setting her brother's hat on fire, much to his frightened alarm.
"Mabel! Be careful with that thing!" Dipper warned, taking his hat off to protect it.
"Whoops… Sorry!"
"Hey, Mr. Pines, can I give that blow torch a try?" Steven asked as Stan took it out of Mabel's hands. "I want to melt things together too!"
"Sure thing, kid, but only if you do me a favor first," Stan handed the torch over to him. "See that sandwich over there?" he nodded to the cheese sandwich sitting on the nearby workbench. "Bring that puppy over here and toast it up for me, will ya?"
"You got it!" Steven gave him a thumbs up as he retrieved the sandwich and began lightly grilling it.
"Yeah, that's right," Stan said with a hungry grin. "Fry it up nice and crispy, kid. And make sure to get both sides!"
"Grunkle Stan, are you sure you should be using a blowtorch to make a grilled cheese sandwich?" Dipper asked, frowning.
"I dunno," Stan deadpanned. "Are you sure you should be using your mouth to complain about it?"
Dipper crossed his arms, letting out an indignant huff, especially when he heard Mabel chuckling behind him. Steven, meanwhile, was in the middle of toasting Stan's sandwich when Pearl happened to walk into the barn with a hammer and a box of nails in hand.
"Well, Greg and I just about have the chassis built," she reported. "How's the glider go-" She stopped short, dropping her tools when she caught sight of what awaited her. "What are you doing?"
"Um… making sandwiches?" Steven said with an awkward grin.
"With a blow torch?" Pearl asked. She fixed her sights on the one she knew was truly responsible for this blatant disregard of safety. "Really, Stan?"
"Hey, I'm just trying to get a decent lunch here," Stan took a bite out of his grilled sandwich as he grabbed the blow torch. "Not that you'd know anything about that, what with your boycott on eating and all."
Pearl shot him a particularly sour glare, more than ready to unleash every harsh word she had to say at him. Or at least she would once the kids were no longer in earshot to hear them. "Steven, Dipper, Mabel, why don't you three go help Greg tighten the bolts on the cockpit?"
"Aw, but we wanna watch you guys fight!" Mabel protested.
"What?" Pearl shook her head. "We're not going to fight."
"Yeah, Pearl's just gonna nag at me and I'm just gonna tune her out, as usual," Stan said, smirking as he watched Pearl's eye twitch out of sheer annoyance.
"Kids, just… please, go outside, alright?" she insisted, pinching the bridge of her nose.
Defeated, the kids did so, leaving only a brief, awkward bout of silence between the pair they left behind. Stan was quick to break it as he fixed Pearl with a cold, expectant look. "Well?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Go ahead and let all that hot air out of your head. It's been a while since we've had a good yelling match."
"I'm not going to yell," Pearl said as patiently as possible. "I am simply going to speak in a very firm, very unhappy voice."
"Pfft, might as well be yelling, if you ask me."
"Stan, if you're not going to be taking any of what we're doing seriously, then why are you even here?" Pearl asked. "The kids are all dedicated to the cause and even Greg is being sincere about helping. So what's your excuse?"
"My excuse is that all this is kind of, oh, I dunno, completely insane?" Stan scowled over at the glider resting beside them. "To be honest, I figured you would be the first one to realize that and not just jump on board to such a wacky idea as gung-ho as you did. Guess I gave you too much credit."
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about this whole spaceship thing!" Stan exclaimed, exasperated. "You really don't think you're gonna be able to build a real one, right?"
"We're well on our way to that point," Pearl countered, crossing her arms. "But we'll never get there if you keep using our tools like they're simple cookware. Just give the torch to me and I'll finish this framework the right way."
"And what makes you think I can't finish this thing the 'right' way?" Stan pulled the torch out of her reach.
"Do I really even need to answer that? Really?"
"You know what? Why don't you just run back outside and hammer nails into wood with Greg and the kids?" Stan deadpanned as he lit the torch. "I've got this covered."
"Wellm, why don't you just head back to the Mystery Shack and continue fooling the innocent masses with all your tawdry sideshow attractions?!" Pearl challenged just as harshly as she reached for the torch once more.
"Oh, you mean like this stupid fake spaceship you're having all of us build?" Stan argued, shoving her away.
"It's not a fake spaceship! It's going to be a real one, one that will take us to the stars, and to-"
"And to the museum in the shack, 'cause that's the only place it'll ever be able to fly to!"
Pearl growled, angrier than ever, as she finally got a good hold on the blow torch. "By the time we're done, you'll be eating those words just like you did that disgusting sandwich!"
"Hey! I'll have you know that sandwich was pretty tasty!" Stan pulled back on the torch, trying to pry her hands off of it. "I mean, the kid burnt it a little on one side, but it was still decent!"
As they continued bickering over the blow torch, the group outside the barn sat in silence, listening to them yelling all the while. While they couldn't hear most of what they were saying, the sheer intensity and ferocity of their fight wasn't lost on any of them.
"Yikes… sounds like they're really getting into it," Greg frowned as he pulled his hammer back from the chassis.
"Should we go in there and stop them?" Dipper asked. "They are fighting over something that spits fire , after all."
"Eh, I've learned over the years that it's best not to get in between Mr. Pines and Pearl when they have an argument," Greg let out a nervous laugh. "Trust me; things usually get… pretty ugly when those two duke it out."
"But they shouldn't be fighting!" Steven exclaimed. "We're all here to build this spaceship together!"
"Maybe we should get them a big tee-shirt and force them to wear it together!" Mabel suggested. "That'll force them to get along!"
"I… think it might be a better idea to just let this run its course," Greg advised. "They'll calm down eventually. Either that or they'll end up burning the barn to the ground… B-but hopefully that first one will happen instead."
Those hopes were set to be dashed as Pearl and Stan's argument only proceeded to get even louder and harsher by the second. "Stan, give me that blow torch already!" Pearl demanded, still refusing to let up. Unfortunately for her, Stan was every bit as stubborn as she was.
"Why should I? I don't need you to do it for me! I can finish this rig on my own!"
"Like that's ever going to happen! Just let go of it!"
"No, you let go!"
"No, you !"
"No-"
Stan stopped short the second the blow torch went flying out of his hands thanks to their struggle over it. With its tip still aflame, it flipped over both of their heads, landing on the glider's half-finished metallic framework. It rolled down a bit from there, finally coming to land near a set of crossing pipes as the torch began to slowly fuse them together. Not that it mattered much to either Stan or Pearl.
"Now look what you did!" she scolded right off the bat. "That thing could have set the entire barn on fire!"
"Yeah, well clearly it didn't," Stan pointed out. "Plus, this was also your fault, so don't stand there trying to pin all the blame on me."
"Ugh… Stan, sometimes, I swear you act more like a child than any of the kids do," Pearl sneered as she began to reach for the blow torch. "Which is why it's a relief for me to relieve you of this."
"Wait! Don't move that!" Stan suddenly exclaimed, catching her off guard.
"And why not? It's not like I have to worry about it burning my hand like you would."
"It'd be a good bit of karma if it could," Stan scowled at her as he rushed for the blow torch himself. "But look at where that thing landed; that's the perfect place to fix those two bars together. It'll make the framework much more stable."
"Please," Pearl rolled her eyes. "That couldn't be any further from my calculations. Why, its-" She took pause when she looked for herself, her jaw dropping when saw that the positioning of the bars was actually ideal for the glider. "You… you're right… H-how did you know that?"
"Because maybe I might just know a thing or two about this sort of stuff myself," Stan informed her pointedly. "Not that you'd think so, Miss 'Supersonic Flight and Ejector Seats'."
For a moment, Pearl could only stand by, dumbstruck, as she watched Stan finish off the weld job with a level of skill she could have never anticipated. Every position he pinpointed was practically perfect, lining up exactly to make the glider as aerodynamic as possible. And all without the need to do so much as a single equation or consult a single blueprint. "How… are you doing that?" she finally decided to ask.
"What, welding?" Stan scoffed. "It's not that hard. Would've thought you'd already known for just how much you wanted to nab this thing from me-"
"No, I mean… How do you know where to attach the cross beams?" she pressed, still baffled. "You can't just be guessing; everything here is far too spot-on for that to be the case. So… how…?"
"Like I said," Stan didn't bother glancing back at her as he continued his work. If only to keep her from seeing the way his hand tensed around the blow torch, the way the shadows around his eyes darkened. The way 30 years of forcefully-learned experience was coming in handy in such a surprising way. "I might just know a little more than you think."
"I-I… yes." This time, Pearl was the one to catch him off guard when she actually agreed with him. Something that, to his knowledge, hardly ever happened. "It appears that you do." She cleared her throat as she slowly knelt down beside him to help him secure the rig. "I… suppose I owe you a bit of an apology. I think I might have blown things a bit… out of proportion."
"Ya think?" Stan retorted.
"I mean, maybe you're right," Pearl continued, shrugging. "Using a blow torch to heat up a sandwich really isn't that bad, I suppose."
It took Stan a moment to realize Pearl's angle here. To realize that she was actually being genuine with him for a change. It was a side of her he'd never seen before, something drastically different from every other bitter argument and heated interaction they'd ever had before. And, despite the age-old resentment he still wanted to cling onto, Stan slowly found himself deciding to meet her halfway.
This time, anyway.
"Ya know…" he glanced away after he passed the torch back over to her. "I could fry you up your own sandwich using that, i-if you wanted one, that is."
"I would take you up on that offer, Stan, but I don't eat, remember?" Pearl let out a small laugh. "Still, I appreciate the thought."
"Yeah… well, don't appreciate it too much," Stan crossed his arms. "Ya know, I still think you're an annoying, naggy stick-in-the-mud and no amount of 'teaming up' or 'working together' is ever gonna change that."
"And I still think you're a cheap, swindling scoundrel," Pearl countered just as playfully. "A scoundrel who apparently has a surprising knowledge of aerodynamics."
"What can I say?" Stan said with his usual, winning smirk. "Guess I'm more talented than I seem."
Pearl couldn't help but laugh again, unaware of the relieved smiles resting on each of the kids' faces as they eavesdropped just beyond the other side of the barn wall. "I guess so."
As hours turned into days, construction on the mach 2 model steadily marched on. It wasn't long before they had a working engine (one that, unlike all the others, hadn't exploded after an initial test run). And, after a few more days of continued construction and final tweaks and adjustments, UUPPP Space Travel finally had something to show for all of its efforts.
Mach 2 was, according to Pearl, the ideal prototype. It wasn't too much to look at–just a simple glider with a three-seated chassis and a surprisingly powerful engine. It was small too, to the point only the kids were able to take it for its inaugural flight in the dusky skies above the barn.
"Ground control to mach 2," Greg called to the kids via walkie-talkie. "Come in, mach 2. How are you kids doing up there?"
From their spot in the sky, the kids were only able to answer with a mix of exhilarated and terrified screams. Still, mach 2 cut through the air smoothly and gracefully, sailing straight through the atmosphere just as they all hoped the final ship would someday do.
"Yeah, that sounds about right," Stan remarked as the kids kept on screaming. "Told ya you should have put a windshield on that thing," he said to Pearl.
"I'll be sure to make that a footnote on the next model," Pearl smirked as she scribbled on her clipboard.
"Uh, don't you guys think we're taking this a little too far?" Greg asked, wary.
"Oh, we're not even close to being done," Pearl shook her head.
"We're not?"
"How much longer is this whole horse and pony show gonna take?" Stan asked impatiently. "I've already had to close the shack for almost a week now because of all this!"
"I can assure you both that it will all be worth it in the end," Pearl assured before she addressed the kids through her headset. "Ok, you three. Go ahead and bring her down slowly ."
With this, the kids began their descent, though they did come in a bit too fast. Fortunately, they managed to avoid injury as the prototype screeched to a rough landing on the ground, ejecting its passengers safely onto the ground nearby.
"Mabel, she said bring it down slowly," Dipper eyed his sister critically.
"Sorry! I just got excited and I couldn't help it!" Mabel grinned. "That was so amazing!"
"It so was !" Steven exclaimed. "We were-"
The sound of a sudden explosion quickly cut him off. Sure enough, Mach 2's engine had burst into flames as the glider wings collapsed behind them. It wasn't lost on any of them just how lucky they were that this had happened now instead of while they were still in the air.
"Woo!" Steven cheered. "Let's do the whole thing again! Especially that last part!"
"Was it supposed to… fall apart like that?" Greg anxiously asked Pearl.
"And catch on fire?" Stan asked, suddenly concerned.
"Don't worry," Pearl said, perfectly calm. "This was just to test my engine concept. I'll work out the kinks in the next one."
"Hang on, next one?!" Greg asked, alarmed.
"You do know we only have so much useless junk in that barn to make a spaceship out of, right?" Stan asked. "We'll run out of supplies eventually."
"Not if we conserve them," Pearl pointed out. "By the way, do either of you know if there's a shop in town that carries F-1 single-nozzle, liquid-fueled rockets?"
"You really are serious!" Greg gasped. "All this time I thought we were just doing this for fun, but you really plan on building this thing, don't you?"
"Of course!" Pearl exclaimed, as though it was obvious. "Oh, and we'll also need a space suit for each of the kids so they don't freeze or explode."
"W-what?" Dipper started. "You never mentioned anything about freezing or exploding before."
"Can my space suit be pink?" Mabel asked regardless. "And covered in glitter?"
"I want my name on the back of mine!" Steven added just as enthusiastically.
"Um, Pearl?" Dipper cut in between the two of them, frowning. "Just for reference sake, what are the odds of someone, I dunno… actually dying in space?"
"About… 1 in 100, I'd say," Pearl estimated. "But still, it's definitely worth it!"
"Whoa there, Armstrong," Stan stepped in between Pearl and the kids. "You're not taking the twins into space. Especially not with odds like that."
"And Steven's not going either," Greg firmly placed a hand on his son's shoulder.
"Aw, what?" Mabel asked, dismayed. "But Grunkle Stan, we wanna go! Right, Dipper?"
"I'd wanna go more if there wasn't a 1 in 100 chance that we'll die out there, Mabel," Dipper muttered. He changed his tune, however, after his sister elbowed him hard in the side. "Ow! I mean—y-yeah, we totally want to go. And preferably, not die in the process."
"I don't care what you two want!" Stan shot back. "Your parents would kill me if either of you ended up freezing or exploding out in the middle of space!"
"Well, that's not going to happen," Pearl stood her ground. "I'm taking all three of the kids into space and nothing is going to happen to any of us and that's that!"
"No, it's not!" Greg protested. "We're not allowing it! This is crazy , Pearl, and you know it!"
"Crazy is just another word for brilliant," Pearl said dismissively.
"But Dad, why can't we go?" Steven asked, fixing his father with a pleading look. "Isn't this why we founded Universe, Universe, Pines, Pines, and Pines in the first place?"
"Steven, you're grounded," Greg asserted, crossing his arms.
"What?!"
"No, I mean you're grounded . You don't get to leave Earth."
"Oh. What ?!" Steven exclaimed, even more distraught by this news.
"You two can't possibly be serious!" Pearl scoffed. "What about all of our hard work?! You can't just throw all that away!"
"Uh, I think I can," Stan sternly countered. "Do I need to remind you that I'm the one funding this little project?"
"But Grunkle Stan, all of our supplies are here at the barn," Dipper pointed out. "Did you even actually pay for anything?"
"Quiet, kid!"
"Well, I don't need your supposed 'funding' anyway," Pearl turned her nose up. "We'll still be able to build a suitable spaceship on our own, right kids?"
"No, you aren't," Greg contented before the kids could even try to chime in. "As C.E.O. and supreme space commander, I hereby cancel this mission."
"Aw man!" Steven exclaimed, disappointed. "Stupid company bylaws."
"They ruin everything!" Mabel added in equal despair.
"Hey! Who made you C.E.O.?!" Pearl asked, appalled.
"They did," Greg nodded over at the kids. Based on the sheepish smiles on their faces, it was apparently true, much to Pearl's already peaked frustration.
"Fine!" Pearl shouted, livid. "If none of you will help, then I'll just do it myself! Not like it'll be much different..."
"Pearl, wait!" Steven called after her as she stormed off. He exchanged a downcast glance with the twins, each of them realizing the exact same thing at the exact same time. Their plan to help Pearl see the stars again, however innocent and altruistic as it may have started, had ended in complete and utter failure .
"Tch, yeah right, like she'll be able to build an entire spaceship all by herself," Stan sneered as he walked away. "If you need me, I'm gonna head back to the shack and have Soos rig me up a real fake spaceship for the tourists, like I should have done all along."
"Sorry, kids," Greg sighed, trying his best to console them. Even if it didn't really work at all. "But sometimes, you just gotta know when to bail."
Night fell upon the barn softly, bringing with it a radiant, starry sky. Though Stan had driven back to the shack hours ago, Greg agreed to stay the night back at the barn with the kids. Tomorrow, they'd begin cleaning up from their failed project, but for now, they slept soundly in a makeshift "campsite" not far from Greg's van. At least until someone crept over to quietly nudge them awake.
Steven opened his eyes first when he felt something lightly poke his cheek. "Wha-?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. "Pearl?"
"What's going on?" Dipper asked in tired confusion as he sat up next to him.
"Ugh, is it morning already?' Mabel groaned, brushing her hair out of her face. "Where are the pancakes?"
"Shh!" Pearl quieted them. She glanced over at the van to make sure Greg was still asleep before she smiled and whispered, "Do you three want to see something really cool ?"
Unsure of what she might have in store, the kids got up and followed her back into the barn. What awaited them inside, however, was far beyond anything they could have ever anticipated. "Alright," she pushed the barn doors open with a daring grin. "Presenting the brand-new, ballistic flight capable… UUPPP Mach 3!"
The kids were stunned stiff as a sharp, equally awestruck gasp escaped them all. Standing before them was a spaceship , through and through. A far cry from any of the prototypes or test models that came before it, it stood almost as tall as the barn itself, with a strong, sturdy hull and wide, graceful wings. It truly was massive, solid, sleek, and utterly impressive in every single way.
"So?" Pearl happily took in the kids' dazzled reactions. "What do you think?"
"Spaceship!" Steven and Mabel loudly cheered as they ran toward it.
"Wait, you two!" Pearl chuckled. "Keep your voices down!"
"Pearl, how did you build this so quickly?" Dipper asked, baffled. "I thought you said we weren't close to being done yet."
"Oh, well it was actually quite simple," she shrugged. "I just reworked a few of our equations, welded the hull together, reconfigured some old plane wings, rebuilt mach 2's engine on a larger scale and, viola! The final model!"
"I love it!" Mabel hugged the side of the ship. "It's so big and shiny!"
"And it even has the logo from the van!" Steven laughed, noticing the "universe" label from his father's vehicle.
"If Greg asks, we'll just say we borrowed it," Pearl smiled. "Now, I wasn't able to find anything that said 'Pines' on it, so I just wrote it on the side in permanent marker." She nodded pointed to word "pines" out to the twins, scrawled in elegant cursive under the label. "You're welcome."
"Whoa, look at all the buttons!" Mabel exclaimed as she climbed into the high cockpit. "I wanna press them all!"
"Uh, that might not be the best idea, Mabel," Dipper warned. He stole a glance at the barn's entrance, just to make sure Greg hadn't heard them. For as amazing as Pearl's ship was, the last thing they needed was to be caught playing around in it after how firmly both Greg and Stan had shot the project down earlier.
Pearl, however, had other ideas in mind.
"You know, if you kids wanted… we could always take her out for an engine test…" she offered with a mischievous grin. With a quick flash of her gem, she transformed her usual outfit into a form-fitting spacesuit. "It'll be quick…"
"Yes!" Steven immediately agreed as he clumsily fell into the cockpit. He landed alongside Mabel, who was already bouncing up and down in her seat, beside herself with excitement.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! What are we waiting for?! Let's go right now!"
"Well, if you say so!" Pearl laughed as she climbed into the cockpit herself.
"We're… not actually going to space in this thing, are we?" Dipper asked as he hesitantly joined them.
"What? Of course we're not! That would be ridiculous!" Pearl scoffed. None of the kids noticed when she crossed her fingers behind her back. "Now, let's just start up the engines and… we'll be off!"
Despite Pearl's efforts to keep the spaceship hidden, its noisy, powerful engines gave it away the second they roared to life. The violent rumbling they caused was enough to easily scare Greg awake. As startled as he was by all of the noise, he was even more alarmed to find his van's tires and custom logo were inexplicably missing.
And it didn't take him very long at all to figure out why .
"Pearl!" he shouted, rushing to get up.
Of course, she hardly heard him. Instead, she was focused on making sure all three of the kids were securely fastened into their seats for the trip ahead. "Alright," she grinned, pushing forward on the thruster. "Ready? Here we go!"
With a loud rev of the engines, the ship shot out of the barn with a powerful boom, rocketing across the yard as it lifted into the air just as quickly. The force of the blast was enough to knock Greg off his feet as he ran behind it. He didn't need to think twice about whether all three of the kids were on it or not. But if he had anything to do with it, and if Stan had anything to do with it, they wouldn't be for long.
Still keeping the ascending ship in his sights, Greg scrambled to dial up the Mystery Shack, impatiently waiting as the phone rang before Stan finally picked up. "Hello?" he answered, clearly groggy on the other end of the line.
"Mr. Pines, you need to get over here now !" Greg practically shouted, watching with wide eyes as the ship disappeared into the clouds. "We have a big problem!"
"Greg? What the heck is going on?" Stan sullenly asked. "It's 3 in the morning for crying out loud!"
"It's Pearl. She built the ship on her own and she's taken the kids with her! We gotta do something!"
Stan was silent for a moment, before he ultimately let out a bone-tired groan. "See, this is exactly why I didn't want to get involved in this mess," he grumbled. "I'll be there in a few."
Greg didn't have time to thank him before he hung up. Without wasting a beat, he grabbed his binoculars and his walkie-talkie, hoping against hope that he could convince Pearl to abort this dangerous mission and safely return the kids to the ground.
Meanwhile, high up in the air, Pearl steered the spaceship with confidence. She wore a proud smile as she watched the kids stare out the window, amazed as Gravity Falls grew ever smaller and more distant the higher they got.
"Wow! Look! You can see the temple!" Steven pointed the structure out.
"And there's the Mystery Shack!" Mabel added, just as excited.
"Mm-hm," Pearl nodded. Her smile turned a touch more coy as she thought about how such mundane, earthly landmarks would pale in comparison to the interstellar wonders she was about to show them.
"S-so, we do have a plan in case something goes wrong, right?" Dipper asked as he gripped the sides of his seat like a vice.
"There's no reason to be concerned, Dipper," Pearl reassured. "Nothing's going to go wrong. I built this ship strong enough to withstand anything."
"Yeah! How else would she have finished it so fast?" Mabel smirked over at her brother. He didn't get a chance to question her obviously faulty logic before the ship's intercom crackled to life.
"Hey, can you hear me?!" Greg's voice rang through the com, stressed and frightened. "Where do you guys think you're going?!"
"Hey, Dad!" Steven cheerfully greeted. "Guess where we are!?"
"I know where you are!" Greg exclaimed, still watching the ship through his binoculars. "It's where you're going that concerns me!"
"Oh, don't worry, Mr. Universe!" Mabel chimed in. "We're just going on a fun little test flight! We'll be back down in a few!"
"Uh, no. I think you'll be back down NOW!" Stan's voice came in through the intercom this time. He'd only just jumped out of his car, but he didn't even need any briefing from Greg to know that this had to be stopped as soon as possible.
"Uh oh… We're in trouble," Dipper exchanged an anxious frown with Mabel. Because regardless of how lenient Stan may have been with them this summer so far, there was no way he'd let them off the hook for this one so easily.
"Mr. Pines, how did you get here so fast?" Greg asked, staring at his former boss in bewilderment.
"I have my ways," Stan quickly replied. He turned his attention back to the walkie-talkie as he ordered a stern, furious order up to the passengers on ship above. "Now listen up, Pearl! You better bring those kids down here right now , or so help me, I'll-"
"Stan, please, calm down!" Pearl evenly interrupted. "This is perfectly fine. The kids aren't in any danger whatsoever. We're just going to pop over to the nearest star system for a quick visit. I'll give them back in 50 years."
"50 years?!" the kids all exclaimed, shocked.
Their alarm was perfectly mirrored on the ground as Greg and Stan exchanged a horrified glance. "What?!" Greg shouted. "We'll both be dead in 50 years! Pearl, you have to land the ship! Or we'll-"
He was cut off as Pearl abruptly turned the ship's intercom off, succinctly ending all radio communication between them. "Hello?" Greg shouted at the walkie-talkie, only to get fuzz on his end. "Hello?!"
"That's it!" Stan stormed off, livid. "If she won't bring that ship down, then we will !"
"H-how?!"
"I don't know! We'll build something to disable its engines or something! Do I look like I know how to bring a spaceship down, Greg?!" Stan retorted harshly, desperately. "But we're gonna figure something out, because I'm not about to let that crazy broad take my niece and nephew into space for the next 50 years! Now, come on!"
Back up in the air, the kids were busy with plenty of panicking of their own. Panic that was all but lost on Pearl as she continued steering the ship ever closer to the stars. "Pearl, they sounded really mad!" Mabel worriedly exclaimed. "I don't think we're supposed to go!"
"You think?!" Dipper scoffed bitterly. "I told you guys this was a bad idea, but you didn't listen, like always!"
"Pearl, I thought you said we weren't going into space!" Steven pressed, though Pearl was hardly listening to any of them. In fact, the only thing she was paying any attention to at all was the vast, terrifyingly distant destination that awaited them above.
"Oh, this is so exciting!" she trilled as she tinkered with the ship's controls. "You kids are going to love it up there!" Gracefully, Pearl ran her fingers along the piano keyboard she had rigged to control the engine, hitting a loud, dissonant key that revealed the primary thrusters on the wings.
"Hold on tight!" she exclaimed, pushing the ship into a sharp, 90 degree angle. As the vessel rocketed upward, everything on the ground became even more miniscule, not that any of the kids noticed. Instead, they clung on to Pearl to brace themselves against sudden intense rattling of the ship all around them.
Still, Steven was the first to take a glance out the window, only to see a piece of metal fly past the ship in a sudden blur. "W-what was that?!" he asked, though he soon got his answer as the ship's warning alarm began to blare.
"Uh, Pearl?" Mabel asked, just as concerned. She looked out of the other side of the cockpit to see more small pieces of the ship's exterior beginning to break off. "Is that supposed to be happening?!"
"We can make it," Pearl said, resolved. She paid little attention to the grating, growing warning signs as she pushed the ship even harder. As she pushed herself even harder along with it. "We're almost there."
As the ship approached the atmosphere, more and more bits and pieces began to peel away from it. The hull was starting to wear drastically thin, to the point that its internal engines were soon left exposed as thick, black smoke began to pour from each of them.
"Pearl, we have to stop!" Dipper shouted over the ship's endless rumbling. "The ship can't take much more of this!"
Of course, Pearl knew that, but it hardly mattered to her. Nothing did right now, other than staying the course, breaching the atmosphere, and reaching the stars. Her eyes shone with emerging tears, but she kept her sights skyward, even as the kids desperately tried to get through to her.
"Pearl!" Steven grabbed her arm and shook it.
She responded only in a whisper, more to herself than any of the kids as she simply said: "I'm gonna show it to you…"
"What do we do?! What do we do?!" Mabel panicked over the resounding alarms.
"We gotta get off this thing!" Dipper began looking around for an escape hatch, finding none.
"Yeah, but what do we do after that?!" Mabel pressed.
"We… uh… we should…" Dipper stammered, seizing up. After all, none of the countless calculations he had worked on to help make this ship possible could have ever prepared him for something like this .
At the same time, Steven took the first option he saw. He haphazardly pulled a lever labeled 'hatch release, sending the cockpit's roof flying clean off. While the kids braced themselves against the high winds and frigid air, Pearl finally broke out of her obsessive trance at long last.
"Steven! What are you doing?!" Pearl gasped as she gripped the ship's yoke tight.
"We need to go, Pearl!" Steven shouted. "We're not gonna make it!"
"But we're almost there!"
"Yeah, but we'll die once we get out there!" Dipper argued as he and Mabel clung onto each other for dear life.
"But… but I-" Pearl trailed off as she looked up to the sky once more. They were so close, so close to what she'd spent centuries dreaming of returning to. To the stars, the galaxies, the cosmos and all of the wonders therein. They could do it, they could make it , she knew they could. If they could just press on just a little further-
"Pearl!" Steven caught her off guard as he forced his gaze back down to him. Pearl started when she saw just how genuinely, utterly terrified he was, how all three of the kids were. By how that terror was only there because of her . "I know you miss space and I know you worked hard," Steven continued his distraught, desperate plea. "But sometimes… you just gotta know when to bail."
A shaky breath slipped out as Pearl stole yet another glance at the sky. The stars shined so brilliantly up here, every bit as brilliantly as they did back when she was among them herself so long ago. Back then, the sheer beauty of the cosmos had bewildered her, inspired her, liberated her in a way few other things ever could. Being there, among the stars, the planets, the galaxies, the universe, was a feeling that she couldn't possibly begin to describe, one that she longed to know again. Over the past several days, she'd come to want to share that feeling with Steven, with Dipper and Mabel too, to watch their eyes light up at each new discovery the way hers once had eons ago.
And yet… she knew. Perhaps from the very start, she'd always known. She couldn't do this to them.
She couldn't endanger them like this. She couldn't tear them away from everything they'd ever known. She couldn't ruin their painfully finite lives in favor of satisfying just a fraction of her own. She couldn't and she wouldn't . She cared about all three of them far too much to even try, which meant…
It was time to bail.
Before she had a chance to change her mind, Pearl reached down and pulled the lever under her seat. Not skipping a beat, she grabbed all three of the kids and pulled them close, holding onto each of them as tightly as she could. They made sure to return that desperate embrace as the seat ejected from the crumbling ship and began its descent back down to Earth.
They'd bailed not a moment too soon, either. Only seconds later, the ship's failing engines finally gave out, resulting in a violent explosion that tore the entire ship apart in an instant. The fiery blast was so immense that even from their spot on the ground, Greg and Stan could see it clearly.
"No!" they both screamed, torn between horror and emerging despair.
Frantic, Greg used his binoculars to scan the skies, praying for what he hoped to somehow find and dreading the very real possibility that he wouldn't. "Please, please, please, please, please," he pleaded for what felt like forever until he finally spotted it. A parachute-bound couch slowly, safely floating their way. "Oh, thank goodness! They're ok!"
"Let me see!" Stan took the binoculars. He could hardly hold back the sigh of relief that slipped out when he saw them, before he crumbled to the ground alongside Greg. "Geez, these kids are gonna give me a heart attack one of these days!"
"Tell me about it," Greg muttered as he lay down in the grass to try and ease his frayed nerves.
It took some time for the group to land gently back on the ground. Once it finally did, Pearl hesitantly released the kids from her embrace to let Stan and Greg take over for her.
"Oh, I'm so glad you're ok, Steven!" Greg cried, pulling his son close. "Maybe now you'll listen to me about going on crazy space missions. You know, I feel like that's something very few other fathers even have to say."
"Heh, yeah, I'm sorry, Dad," Steven rubbed the back of his neck. "Still, I think you were right. Maybe we would have been better off just building a fake spaceship for fun instead of a real one."
"Eh, well you kids had your hearts in the right place," Greg shrugged. "Right, Mr. Pines?"
"Sure, whatever," Stan deadpanned. His tone turned deadly serious as he pushed the twins away from him, glaring down at them both. "But if you kids ever pull anything like that again, then I'll make sure you two stay grounded by fixing you both up with a pair of cement shoes, got it?"
"Um… got it?" Dipper frowned, concerned.
"Aw, Grunkle Stan, you care about us!" Mabel gushed, smiling as she hugged his leg again.
"Yeah, right," Stan shook her away. "I just didn't want to deal with the trouble that would come my way if either of you two yahoos exploded."
"You care about us!" Mabel cheerfully teased all the same. "You care about us!"
"Stop saying that!" Stan scowled, finally settling for letting her swing on his arm.
"Um, kids?" Pearl spoke up. She hesitated, nervous and guilty, especially when everyone–kids and adults alike–turned to look her way. "I'm so sorry. I almost got us all killed…"
"I think we're getting used to almost getting killed on a regular basis," Dipper said, shrugging. "Not that that's a good thing, but still, it's not as crazy as it used to be."
"And Greg, Stan? I'm sorry to the two of you as well…" Pearl continued. "I… might have gotten a bit… carried away with things…"
"A bit?" Stan raised an eyebrow.
"Pearl, you nearly took the kids into orbit," Greg pointed out.
"Y-yes, well…" Pearl trailed off, flustered. "I'm still ashamed over how I blew up at you two earlier. I hope you can both forgive me."
"Sure thing, Pearl," Greg said, smiling.
"Yeah, fine," Stan gruffly agreed. "But you owe me another sandwich for making me come all the way out here this late."
"That seems… fair enough," Pearl chuckled.
"Pearl, we're sorry we couldn't help you get into space…" Steven said, looking down. "But we'll get you there someday, we promise."
"Yeah! And it'll be in an even bigger, and fancier spaceship!" Mabel exclaimed. "Oh! Maybe we can even plan a quick trip over to Homeworld. Just to say 'hi!'"
" Or ," Dipper cut in. "Maybe we shouldn't ." He sent Pearl a knowing look, one that she couldn't help but return with a grateful smile. That smile only widened as she knelt down to all three of the kids, wrapping her arms around their shoulders.
"You know, I think I'd rather be here on Earth," she said warmly, fondly.
"With us?" Steven asked, hopeful.
"Yeah," Pearl agreed. Because at the end of all of this, now she knew. Everything she wanted wasn't somewhere far off in the distant stars. Everything she could ever want, everything she could ever need… was right here on the humble planet she was proud to call home.
"With you."