Stars and Diamonds

Chapter 45: Push Comes to Shove

Orange huffed as she begun another lap around the outer perimeter of the base. Blue had at first found her 'little routine' silly, as if Orange was merely a toddler playing around, and this was simply another one of her games she had made up to entertain herself while Blue worked. That annoyed Orange, but she did not waste the effort to correct her. She knew Blue didn't have to work the way she did to build herself up to be better, it was something natural for her, she had been made perfect. Blue did not have the limitations she did, she couldn't understand. However, even though she didn't understand, she thankfully hadn't tried to stop her either. What she had done is assign her a bunch of guards, however, since she was going outside of the protection of the spire. Said guards had, at first, attempted to keep up with her, and Orange felt like she was almost training with the Topazes again. But eventually they realized she'd just be running consecutive laps around the large buildings, and upon her suggestion, remained waiting by the entrance, watching as she passed them every couple minutes. One had even taken to waving at her and another calling out what number lap she was on, which she appreciated, since she didn't have to focus on keeping count herself.

Rounding the back of the spire, Orange slowed her pace, staring as a large ship was beginning to touch down on the landing pad, obviously coming in when she had been rounding to the back of the compound. Orange stopped moving all together to stand and watch in interest as the entrance opened and a troupe of Rubies filed out, one after the other. None of them were even remotely notable, and Orange quickly wrote them off. She was about to restart her lap when more gems started to depart, a handful of Lapis Lazulis stepping off the ship, speaking with one another and staying close, as the Rubies guided them where to go.

They were interesting gems, all roughly the same height, but they were not incredibly common gems like the Rubies, and thus had minor differences in their appearance. Two stood out to Orange, one who was a darker blue than the others and the only one with yellow-gold markings flecked onto her skin. It made her look elegant, like she could have been a better made gem than the others. The one she walked with, the two of them smiling and laughing together, was more like the others, short dark blue hair, a soft face and eyes, a long dress a darker shade of blue than her skin that fell past her knees. The two stopped following the line of other Lapis Lazulis when the gold flecked one pointed in Orange's direction and the two turned to look at her. They stared at her, and she realized they must have noticed her staring at them. Hesitantly, Orange raised her hand, giving them a small wave of greeting. Goldie laughed behind her hand, rolling her eyes and grabbing her friend's hand and pulling her along when she could raised her hand to somewhat return Orange's wave.

Orange was confused by Goldie's reaction, her eyes following them as they rejoined the others. She had never had someone react like that. Then again, it was more common for people to fawn over her for simply being a Diamond, and while she welcomed the new interactions and responses of people as more and more new gems came into her life, she wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel about Goldie's reaction. Why had she rolled her eyes? Had Orange's staring been considered too rude? Was the waving offensive for their gem type or something?

"Weird." Orange mumbled, turning away from the retreating gems to look at the ship. In a split second decision, Orange walked towards the ship, noting that it blocked her guards view from being able to see her as she came closer to it. She looked around, no one was watching her and it didn't seem anyone was guarding the ship. The entrance was different, the ramp acting as the door instead of the normal double doors that had an extendable ramp as well, which Orange thought was more sleek. It wasn't too different from the other colony ships, simply a much smaller scale, obviously meant to be used for transport between the planet and moon base until the warp pads had been installed and tested for use.