Chương 112: LOG-105.

"And I just-I didn't think you would talk to me, you know? I'm just some Atoll Pearl, there's tens of thousands of us aboard the Confluence. It… it made more sense that you would talk to fellow Reef products, I guess." Gently rubbing my hands against the nervous visitor's shoulders, I looked up, glancing around Hessonite's office. Still empty, with its owner off managing some debacle on the other side of the entire district. Excellent.

Huffing back a small laugh, I pat the chocolate brown Gem in front of me (Bistre Pearl order Twenty Five C) on the head, idly pulling her long hair back behind her shoulders as I did so.

"Now now, just because you weren't made in the Reef, doesn't mean you aren't worth talking to. Tell me about how you've been doing, any interesting tasks?" It was fascinating just how surprised and pleased Bistre looked at the question, a small, hesitant smile contorting her features just as it had the other fifteen Pearls I'd seen today.

"M-me? You…you want to know about what I've been doing?" Well, for all that the Confluence had days, at least. The dwarf planet turned station was rogue, after all. That meant no sun. No moon. Just stars, and only if you were on the upper levels, exposed to the cosmos around you.

"Of course, you must be working very hard, no?" Fingers trembling slightly, the Pearl nonetheless nodded rapidly, ever so eager to gain some small scrap of my approval, for whatever reason.

"I-I have! My Agate sent me out to send messages to some of her counterparts, so I have a bit more time now, but we were very busy while she was organising the latest supply convoy heading to the developing colonies?" Idly trailing a finger through the lithe Gem's hair and enjoying just how distinctly soft it felt (slightly rougher than my own, though), I nodded along.

"Oh? That must have been a lot of work. I presume you had an important role in that too? I wouldn't expect less from such a capable Pearl like yourself." Bistre blushed, and I continued to slowly style her hair as she spilled her owner's secrets, mentally noting down what interesting leads I'd pursue later, and what didn't really matter to me personally, but might prove useful later. —"H-hello Viridian!"

"Hello Glitter.

"Sorry I've got to leave so soon, I need to get this datapad to a pair of Larimars Hessonite is relocating! Goodbye!"

"Of course, see you soon, Glitter." I stared as my old Batchmate strode out of the doorway leading to our mutual owner's (for now) office, before hastily making her way past me and running down the hallway, and eventually out of sight. Then I glanced left and right, and quietly made my way inside, reaching into my gemstone and pulling out a maintenance probe I'd snagged from a rather talkative Peridot's workstation during my last concert.

"... Stars, they really are concerts… hmph." Shaking my head, I stepped inside and moved towards the newly refurbished table, narrowing my eyes at it as I lifted the probe, mimicking the motion its owner had made while using it. The device was supposedly meant to detect irregularities in previously established architecture. Bunched up wires. Foreign matter. Other tools, usually accidentally displaced during maintenance work. The works.

A light hum sounded out from the thing, a light indicating it was working as I waved it around the table, trying to find- Beep beep beep.

"Found you." Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Reaching forward, I felt around the side of the piece of furniture, blindly grasping at the error until I felt my hand wrap around something rather distinctly poking out of the nominally flat surface making up most of the holographic interface.

A light yank followed by the distinct noise of something sticky being pulled from its place, and I watched in fascination as a small, almost pill shaped object materialised in my palm with a shimmer of light. It was the third I'd found so far. One in a seemingly random hallway. Another in the very room most of the Pearls in this part of the district met up to gossip, and now this one, right here in the local administrator's office.

I still couldn't be sure what they were exactly, but considering I'd stumbled across the first one while looking for decent spots to plant my own makeshift listening devices (small, spiky things that I'd convinced a technician to fabricate for me, with the excuse being that I wanted to see how my voice sounded from different points in some of the larger locations I tended to perform in), I was somewhat beginning to suspect that they were for monitoring the goings on of the Confluence.

Slowly leaning down, I gently pushed the little pill back into its previous place, eyes widening as it promptly disappeared from my view, just like the other two had. With luck, whoever owned them wouldn't mind my little inspection, so long as I left them where I'd found them- Swish. My head snapped to the side, in the direction of the doorway, right as something clattered to the ground a few feet from the table.

"Hello?" The singular word slipped past my lips without hesitation, even as I began to step towards the source of the noise, the feeling of my claws just waiting to manifest a steady comfort in the back of my mind. And yet, nothing appeared. A quick lean forward, followed by glancing out of the office and into the hallway revealed no one. Just the small, rectangular object that had seemingly been chucked through the doorway. Suffice to say, I hesitated for a long moment.

But eventually, curiosity won out over caution (coupled with the fact that I was confident in the knowledge that I was, at least according to protocol, exactly where I was supposed to be) and I approached the thing, ducking down and scooping it up. Turning it around revealed it to be… what I assumed was some older model of datapad. Blockier. More 'solid' than the types I'd grown used to while running around the halls of the Retaliator and the Confluence respectively.

Yet for all its seeming age, the device functioned exactly like its newer counterparts, a singular tap bringing the tablet to life. A brief boot up sequence settled across the screen, a bar slowly filling up until it flashed, replaced with a simple white circle. I stared at the innocuous shape, before reaching out with my free hand for the door's controls, sealing myself inside the office. For now at least. Another few seconds passed, before the circle flashed.

Once, twice, thrice, before some kind of terminal analogue appeared. It was… like a chat room in layout, almost. There was a pair of icons above everything else, simple circles in differing colours. One white, the other black. And then, right below said symbols… Gem glyph. Ardent is typing… Tilting my head, I waited for whoever Ardent was to finish up their message, idly inspecting the rest of the screen for any other details while I did so. But there was nothing.

Just the icons and the text presumably meant to go beneath them. The datapad had been stripped bare, practically down to the framework most likely. Perhaps I could figure out more if I brought it to a Peridot… but something told me that likely wouldn't be the best of ideas.

Regardless, the text eventually appeared, next to Ardent's white circle, and I spared a second to plant my green butt atop the edge of the table (specifically in such a way that my back was facing the office's usual surveillance equipment) before reading it. [How did you feel, when your Emerald fled the Empire?] I paused, eyes narrowing slightly at the question, before slowly swiping my hand upwards, bringing up the standard glyph interface. My response was almost painfully neutral, but I had to be sure.

The Empire wasn't exactly known for cloak and dagger stuff like this, so the idea that I was speaking to a devout loyalist was a hesitant one at best, but a small, paranoid part of me still insisted on maintaining some level of cover. [I felt surprised.] A long moment, before Ardent began typing once more. I noted down the fact that my own username had apparently been set as Star. Cheeky little shits. [Do you miss your Emerald?] This time, I didn't need to hesitate.

Even if it was for entirely different reasons than most would think. [Yes.] A few seconds, then more typing, then the next message. [If your Emerald had fled while you were present, would you have followed?] I couldn't really sweat in the traditional organic sense, not without some very specific shapeshifting of certain glands, but I still somehow felt weirdly clammy as I slowly typed out my response. [I would have followed her.] A gamble, to be certain. But if I was right…

[Blue Diamond demanded that the admiral's crew be Harvested as punishment for her failure. Do you believe this was just?] Biting the inside of my cheek, I glared at the datapad, glanced up at the doorway, and typed out an answer. [I do not.] Turning back, I stared at where I knew the little pill was hidden, before focusing on the tablet once more. [You believe that Blue Diamond was wrong?] … [I believe the Diamonds are wrong in a number of matters.] Whatever Ardent might have been expecting, it evidently wasn't that, because they went silent for the next few minutes, long enough that I was beginning to debate the merits of tossing the communication device and leaving the room. And then… [That is not a common sentiment among most Gems.] I wasn't sure why, but the sentence tugged my lips upwards into a small grin as I sent back my response. [I am not like most Gems.] Rebellion under the Empire was inevitable.

Rare, perhaps, but it always arrived due to the fact the system Gems operated under was an inherently cruel one. The only issue was that most 'defective' individuals were stamped out before they could realise they were rebels. [Then I believe we have much to speak about, Star.] Evidently, whoever Ardent was had lasted long enough to get sneaky about things.

My latest show was scheduled for another time, my next few hours instead being dedicated to streamlining some of Hessonite's datawork, even as I used a free hand to continue chatting away with my brand new penpal.