6 Pearl

Pearl has been following me for like a week. Even following me to the island I landed on. I knew she wasn't following me on Rose's order which left Pearl doing it on her own. She was overly protective of Rose. With the habit of acting for the better without thinking.

I stepped onto the warp pad. With pearl running over getting on it with me. She said nothing, only warping with me. Her silence was only temporary sadly. Her voice spiked as we arrived at our destination.

"The communications array! What ar-"

"Fixing it, and also upgrading it."

Ignoring her I began walking over to some broken pillars. Returning to my previous work I begun altering the signal. Pearl walked up behind me before pausing. "Wait are you changing the signal?"

I nodded, "In a way, I am changing the data it sends into a virus. The goal of the virus is to halt spaceships trapping them here until I unlock them. I've also spread the anti-virus to all the technology around the bases and human internet. Finally the data packages the array sends will act as large scale detection. Giving out a negative signal which makes us invisible to them while making us detect them."

Pearl gasped, before sitting down watching the process. "You really are good with technology."

I nodded, "I was made for war. To make weapons from ancient reserves and design new ones to counter and destroy others."

Pearl picked up a wrench, "Are you sure you can do all that?"

I nodded, and she walked over to a fallen pillar. "I'll help, just know this is to protect earth."

I looked at her, "You mean protect Rose's interests. Its whatever though, unhook all the panels and pull out the green wires. Disconnect the tether lines and I will change the signal frequency to match the new one. After that its just as simple as downloading the virus source into the array."

She nodded and begun taking off the bolts that held the planning panels in place. We worked in silence until Pearl begun to hum. I let her it wasn't like it was a problem. In fact she was a rather decent singer. Though she could never truly harmonize since she is a pearl.

Now that I think about it, this Pearl wasn't very color coordinated. From my records Yellow and Blue Diamond had a pearl that matched their own colors. "Were you a Permutation Pearl before serving Rose?"

She looked up in surprise, "How did you know."

I raised an eyebrow, Permutation pearls were essentially left in a basement with other permutation Pearls their jobs were simple calculate, an essentially living super computer working together with a few dozen other types of gems. Pearls were used as nodes in the computer and just passed information on-wards.

I paused, thinking for a second before deciding to probe Pearl a bit. "So how did you go from serving Pink Diamond on this colony to betraying her and serving a Rose quartz."

"You know you aren't as smart as you think. Rose has told me that you already know the truth of the matter."

I sighed so the Pearl was in, but couldn't talk about it. Fine, "That didn't really answer my question. Why do you serve?"

She blinked stopping her work behind me. I could sense her stare at me, heck if I wanted I could see her stare at m. Though I kept my eyes on what I was doing and my sensors focused intently.

Pearl shook her head, "I suppose probing is your way to get to know someone better. So i will answer your questions only if you answer mine."

I gave a non-committal response, "I could answer a thing or two."

Pearl started, "I am a Pearl to serve is my duty. Why else would I? How much data do you know about Pink Diamond?"

I yanked a pair of wires out before responding, "Two questions how lovely, because Pearls aren't made to serve nor are they made like other gems. Essentially every Pearl is an off-color, just look into the formation of natural pearls on earth here. Second Pink Diamond is Diamond I have he least info on simply because she was very young when I was conceived and the data was collected. Also..." I paused a moment before looking at her in the eyes.

"My question remains the same why do you serve? It's not love, you might try that one. However in my brief time here the only one who has love is Garnet. Which I have no problem with nor will I get involved. You though you don't love Rose and she doesn't love you. You aren't leader and subordinate either. Rose is an awful leader, and you... Well your a replacement for something that was tailored made for Rose."

Pearl's expression was something in between anger, grief and desperation. It seemed I struck a deep nerve in her. I feel like this might be a common occurrence, after all the crystal gems were not warriors. They may have won their little war and rebellion. Except meeting them, they were anything but.

I shrugged, "Answer if you want, or ask a question."

Pearl frowned and clicked her tongue. "You are a truly awful person aren't you?"

I looked at Pearl, blinked and took the question. "I wish for you to face your problems. The moment you do, you are less likely to disappoint me when I fight home world. After all I have a mission and if the crystal gems ruin that mission due to their inner demons it will make me.... disappointed."

Pearl's expression remained inconsistent, she shook her head. "Are you really trying to say you are trying to help?"

I shrugged, "Why not."

Pearl looked down and decided to just focus on the communication arrays going back to her humming. Her tune was a sadder one, but seemed to keep the same tune as before. I returned to my work.