LOG-039.

  Time almost seemed to be moving faster, from Emerald's perspective. She knew the rest of the crew were still busy on the bridge or at their own stations, covering for her brief absence. Even now, one of her Citrines was likely doing her level best to ensure any scavenging of drifting wrecks was going smoothly, likely with the assistance of a Peridot or Rutile for matters beyond her own expertise.

  "She's just too...big. One of the Peridots figured maybe she was some weird kind of Pearl at first. But...it just doesn't make any sense, you know? The proportions are off. There's something wrong about her."

  Gathering up their impromptu batch of prisoners had been...both simpler and more complicated than expected. The escape craft had been capable of picking up Imperial communication signals, which had prompted the short idea to offer up a chance to surrender peacefully.

  "What about the Lazuli? I still remember seeing that wave streaming towards us before it hit...she's not gonna be able to get out of there, right?"

  Remembering just what the fiends had done had utterly sullied that path in her mind, however. The graveyard of ships around them stood as a sharp testament to that particular fact. And so the orders had remained the same as when she'd first given them.

  "Nah, confiscated her little water container along with the not-Pearl's physical garments. She won't be pulling any tricks anytime soon. Plus we set up some actual physical restraints for the meatbags. Should keep the whole lot in line till we get what we want from 'em all."

  Pull them into the hangar. Pry them out of their little ramshackle life rafts and lock them up in the brig. By White Diamond's dead Star, it was practically a courtesy compared to just leaving them out to gather dust in space like they damn well deserved.

  "Good. Almost tempted to head in there myself and teach the clod a lesson or two. Especially after what she did to the Pearls..."

  The first part of that plan had gone off without a hitch. The escape pods had only the barest hint of navigational thrusters, which in turn had been far too weak to overpower the Retaliator's own tractor beams. Three distinct craft had been pulled aboard, necessitating a slight shifting of the cruiser's remaining fighters just to make room for the wretched things.

  "So it was her?"

  Cutting the three pods open had been its own situation to deal with, because of course it had. The first had been easy enough. Absolutely packed with visibly tired, shaken organics, they had been overwhelmed by some of the Quartzes waiting outside for them before they could so much as squawk with their ugly little beaks.

  Their distinct lack of armour and weapons compared to the boarding party that had originally assaulted her ship had most certainly helped in that regard.

  "Yeah, she was yelling about whether Viridian was here or not when we dragged her to the brig in between all the other noises. Damned traitor must have questioned her. Poor thing. Though...she was also asking about a Vermilion, from what I heard."

  The second pod had largely been the same, albeit with the caveat of a Citrine waiting on board as well. That particular encounter could have been described as a number of things, swift and violent highest among them. The crew of the pod had been emboldened by their rogue Gem's charge, and had attempted to sally out in turn.

  "Vermilion?"

  One of her own Citrines had disabled the reprogrammed fighter with a well placed destabilizer strike, with the rest of the organics being beaten into compliance shortly afterwards. Sure, a few wings had been broken here and there in the process, but it wasn't her job to care about the frailty of organics. Especially that of those who had wronged her personally.

  "Yeah...maybe she meant Sixteen A? The colour would match..."

  It was the third and final escape craft which had caused the most trouble. The Peridot that had volunteered to cut a hole through its side had been poofed immediately upon completing her work, gemstone and limb enhancers clattering to the floor as a small wave of water had lanced out from the new entrance, lashing out at her gathered warriors.

  "It would. Rogue Gems probably don't even understand cuts and facets. Must be what they called her."

  The Rubies had proven integral there, effectively pouring into the pod and beating back what water the Lapis Lazuli had managed to keep on hand with their own inherent pyrokinetic abilities. A few burns to resisting organics and the third confirmed Gem managing to dodge several subsequent attacks before getting effectively bounced around by two squads worth of footsoldiers later, and they'd completed their capture mission.

  "...Almost makes you feel bad for em, you know? I mean, imagine if our Kindergarten had been taken over by a bunch of 'ganics way back when. Could have been us in there, getting reprogrammed..."

  Which finally brought her here...standing around the corner of the main hallway leading to the brig and...waiting. Hesitating, almost.

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  "Mmph. Let's not think about that."

  She'd been so confident coming here, strutting down the halls of the ship to the admiring and thankful eyes of the crew before finally getting to where she'd wanted to be.

  "Right, right. Probably for the best."

  And now...she was struck still. Wondering just whether she was actually going to get any real answers out of the Retaliator's new 'guests' or whether she'd simply been better off ordering their pods vaporized instead.

  Well, just waiting around wasn't going to achieve anything, so...

  Resisting the urge to bite her lip, Emerald finally pushed off against the wall she'd been leaning against and turned the corner.

  Facet 2L4J, Cut 7XD and Facet 2L4J, Cut 7XE met her eyes, respectively. Good soldiers, even if they didn't tend to stand out very much compared to some of their fellows.

  Regardless of their lacking of any truly distinctive features, their reaction time was pretty much instant, the two Jaspers that had been yammering away snapping into attentive stances, arms rising up into the standard Diamond salute.

  "My Emerald!"

  The disgraced officer considered them for a moment, before slowly nodding. Internally, part of her wondered whether they were even allowed to perform such a gesture, considering they themselves were technically rebels now.

  "At ease. I'll be making my way inside to interrogate some of the prisoners personally. Is there anything I should be informed of before I do so?"

  The two Quartzes relaxed, one of them crossing their arms even as the other allowed her hands to rest behind the small of her back, nodding firmly.

  "Yes my Emerald. From what the Peridots gathered while making sure none of the organics expired...they don't speak even a hint of Gemish. You probably won't get anything out of them beyond all the squawks they keep letting out from behind the bars."

  The admiral's eyes flicked to the Jasper's counterpart, narrowing slightly.

  "I see. And what about the rogues we managed to secure?"

  The other Gem straightened slightly under the attention, glancing at the door behind her.

  "Should all be ready to go. The other two are sitting in their own cells and the Citrine reformed pretty quick. Might be defective, but she's still built like a proper Quartz."

  Nodding once more, Emerald waved a hand.

  "Very well, open the doors and remain on guard for any complications. And contact some of your packmates, I want extra security present in case of some potential half baked escape attempt."

  "Yes, my Emerald."

  ---

  Her first conversation partner was an interesting thing. And part of her couldn't help but think back to what 7XD and 7XE had discussed before she'd shown herself as she regarded the rogue's lightform.

  "One of the Peridots figured maybe she was some weird kind of Pearl at first."

  Emerald could believe that, considering the small bit of elegance the Gem held, even in her roughed up, slightly burnt state. The lightform outfit hidden beneath the artificial fibers she'd been wearing was a fairly practical looking thing compared to the pretty dresses a proper Pearl would wear, even if any hint of Diamond imagery was (rather predictably) missing in favour of an entirely different symbol.

  It almost looked like a sharp pair of wings. If one squinted. How quaint.

  But that wasn't what truly took up the majority of the admiral's attention. No, that honour was reserved for the prisoner's gemstone.

  It was a dark, shiny looking thing. Almost constantly shifting between blue, green and violet beneath the dim light the cell provided. Smooth like a Pearl's, yet as one of her Jaspers had said...the proportions were just slightly off.

  Namely in that it was decidedly larger than it should have been.

  Ignoring the harsh glare hidden behind a rather malicious looking smile being sent her way, Emerald could just about spy the hints of bared teeth, even as the middle of the not-Pearl's lips remained sealed behind the rather unluckily placed gemstone.

  It was an...unfortunate position for such an important thing to manifest itself in, that was for sure. Yet judging from the near silent breaths escaping the sides of her mouth, it likely only hindered speech, rather than truly prohibiting it outright. She'd test that little theory soon enough.

  Advancing forward resulted in a quick step back from the unknown Gem.

  Good, she was well aware of her situation then. Saved her the trouble of explaining.

  Adopting a stern expression that she usually only reserved for the members of her crew who required a long timeout in the now since repurposed brig, Emerald glared right back down at the prisoner, thinning her lips.

  The result was simply an even more scathing glare, and a widening of that nasty little smile, the uppity little thing visibly tensing up as Emerald loomed over her.

  Clenching her own fists and stoically resisting the urge to start yelling out demands, the admiral merely let her voice come out as a low, threatening rumble instead.

  "I am Emerald Facet 2M7G, cut 8XS. Admiral and captain of this vessel. You will answer my questions. So..."

  She gestured to the gemstone keeping her captive's lips quite literally sealed. Partially, at least.

  "Who...and what are you? Some form of overcooked Pearl, perhaps? Is that why you were hiding your form beneath that ridiculous looking fabric? Or are you some other form of mistake, forged by ignorant organic talons and feathers after they stole you from your true owners?"

  The response was immediate, and Emerald just barely held back a pleased smirk as the Gem snarled, the sides of her mouth visibly lengthening and distorting in a minor but no less impressive display of shapeshifting, giving her just enough wiggle room to bite out an utterly hate-filled sentence.

  "None of your crackin' business, Imperial."

  Finally letting a smile stretch her own lips apart, Emerald stared down at the seething Gem in no small amount of satisfaction.

  "So you can speak. Good, that gives me a third avenue of information. Now...I'm going to ask you some more questions. Rather pressing ones, at that."

  In a flash, the admiral flew forward, snapping her open, grasping hand onto the prisoner's neck before effectively slamming her into the wall behind her. It was almost impressive, the way she tried to dodge the attack with rapidly widening eyes, but to keep pace with even a lesser Emerald was something very few combat dedicated Gems could truly manage, much less whatever this one was supposed to be.

  Leaning forward in order to remove any hint of distance the not-Pearl might have imagined was between them, Emerald kept the writhing thing pinned up against the wall, slowly lifting her arm until the unknown Gem's toes were just barely touching the floor.

  A clawed hand (interesting) moved to try and pry at her fingers, only for her hand to take a firm hold of it, squeezing.

  The pained, wheezing wreck of a sound escaped the sides of the prisoner's mouth in a long hiss, even as Emerald repositioned slightly to prevent a repeat of that particular bit of resistance. Finally secure in her new position, the fleet admiral let a small sigh out, before fixing her gaze on to her ever angry conversation partner once more.

  "Question one."

  There were dedicated punishment devices in certain areas of the ship (not that she'd ever really needed to use them, to her pride) that she could likely repurpose if she needed a leg up in interrogating these renegades, but for now she'd see just how far she could manage solely on her own. She'd always been a little old school compared to the others, after all.

  And so, the Gem writhed once more in her unyielding grip, almost looking ready to spit at her.

  And so in turn, Emerald squeezed.

  "I know you had them. What did you do to my Pearls?"