Chương 206: LOG-197.

The room I'd been granted to complete my work in was, by all appearances, some kind of styling chamber. Decently decorated, with some kind of machine in the corner that looked like it was meant to adjust lightforms, and an occasionally glitching, but nonetheless functional holographic Pearl performing smooth motions that were clearly meant to show off potential outfits, but now only served to contribute towards the faintly eerie mood of the silent compartment.

"A lot of things have broken down over time but… not quite all of it has gone to scrap. For example, the dance demonstrator still works! Well, after a fashion. There's a second one nearby that shows us proper poses and movements, we use that unit for practicing. This one just displays lightform alterations." And yet despite it all, I couldn't find myself looking at anything more than Shell's eyes, and the myriad emotions contained within those soft grey pupils.

The affection she feels for me is real, no matter how much I want to deny its existence. Ignoring a vulnerability so blatantly displayed before me is an inherently illogical decision born of- With a growl, I isolated the foreign thought and squashed it, filing away the signs of its presence for later analysis. Logic, dismissal of emotions, ruthless exploitation of weakness. Those were the hallmarks of the other, and I would not forget them. Still, later.

There remained a larger than average Pearl warily staring at me as I paced back and forth after all, digesting both what she had told me with her voice, and what she had told me with the information her little thoughtless expressions had unconsciously displayed.

"Fire prisms." Shell nodded hesitantly, her hands moving to wring each other in a way that painfully reminded me of Vermilion- focus. Now wasn't the time!

"Yes, Overseer. They were intended to be a derivative of the traditional light prisms used by supremely exceptional wartime Hessonites in times of great conflict, a way to transmute and empower the broad spectrum of their capabilities into a… specific elemental expression, I believe. To my understanding, Moissanite Beta was infatuated with the thought of using heat itself to completely clear terrestrial conflict zones of enemy units."

I waved my destabilizer at her even as I brought up a hand to smooth back my hair, taking in a sharp breath to steady myself. No mask was needed here after all, and my apparent instability would only serve in further unnerving the person that had once controlled the Reef. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Yes, I'm aware of that. What does it have to do with Pearls? That's how you know about it, right?" Still, instability or not, I was also starting to seriously dislike how the echo of our voices was raising my metaphorical hackles. I'd need to get a better grip on myself at some point, unless I wanted to start flinching at shadows.

"…Military science isn't at all something under your purview, but your systems were evidently in communication with other Atolls, including this one. Explain to me why I found myself confronted by a burning, screaming sky of melting faces when I first found myself here." My counterpart visibly hesitated at that, and I found myself stepping forward and raising the weapon in my hand, earning a flinch from the Gem before she raised her hands and shook her head.

"I am unaware as to why you were confronted by…melting faces. But previous reports from this Atoll's Shell indicated that Batches of Pearls were being produced to act as…test subjects." She glanced around the room, pausing for a second before closing her eyes.

"Evidently, whatever was being tested did not go as planned. This colony was abandoned before even Yellow and Blue Diamond existed. Relatively, it is closer to Era Zero than it is Era Two." Frowning at the confirmation of one of my previous positions, I made to ask another question, only to pause as I was once again distracted from my task by a now irritatingly familiar sensation. The phantom feeling of being watched. Something I'd chalked up to letting my own paranoia over horror movie scenarios get to me, but… …

No. This is no trick of the mind. It has repeated several times and I have enough control over my own subconscious reactions that they would not keep firing off in such a manner, not if there wasn't any true danger. My eye twitched at the foreign thought proving ever so helpful once more, but the fact remained that it was more than likely right. I was being watched. Not just by Shell, but by someone else. Or maybe by something else.

Carefully, without altering my posture or turning my head, I shifted my attention to a portion of the wall set right above the posing holographic Pearl, the crystalline 'eye' nestled within my hair focusing upon a specific shape. Namely that of yet another of the Atoll's surveillance visors. A powered down machine, nothing more. Or was it?

Keeping a careful focus on the device, I spent a few moments precisely calculating the required movement and positioning required to play out what I had in mind, even as Shell began to awkwardly shift from one foot to the other in the face of my continued silence. Then, in a single bound that drew a yelp from the Pearl, I threw myself toward the wall, shooting a hand with splayed talons forward at a specific angle. … There.

A faint, very faint, but still undeniable flash within the crystalline structure, moments before it was shattered. I could literally see the power that had once been in it evacuating through cabling that led into the wall, even as pieces of the visor fell to the floor around me. Shifting my gaze from the fragments and back to Shell, I exhaled slowly, relaxing my posture and leaving the claws of my free hand to fall back at my side.

"Evidently, you don't have all the information I want." The white Gem nodded hesitantly in affirmation of the statement, and for a moment I debated just lunging forward and discorporating her form again. She could always be unbubbled later, when I had need of her. But… no. From everything I had observed, even if she wanted to work against me, which was something she didn't even seem all that sure of herself, the Pearl remained an individual who was used to having an entire Reef at her beck and call.

Walking was enough of a challenge for her, even with programming to aid her steps. She wouldn't prove to be any real trouble. Her local counterpart on the other hand… well. Mm, that settled the matter then. It was finally time that I paid the supposedly burned Shell a personal visit.