Another Name (SU fanfic)

2. APATITE

The small gem backs off as much as she can looking terrified after spotting the metal arrows.

According to what Peridot knows, this kind of gems are replacements used by Homeworld when there aren't enough gems of a kind to do a job, they come in different sizes depending on their color, they might copy a single ability from gems near them, and keep it and use it until they copy another magic. Being teal, and in a scientific ship, she thinks this one is probably replacing a cordierite and must have an advanced measuring tool to do her job.
In conclusion, the little gem shouldn't be dangerous for her, even unarmed. She lowers her sticks and moves them back to the pod, which makes the apatite look less frightened.
P: "Ok, sorry. I got startled after seeing the footprints outside. What happened? And what are you doing in here?"
Apatite lights her navel gem and talks in a language Peridot can't understand. She seems to be asking stuff too.
P: "I'm Peridot Facet-1A12S Cut-5yU, and I don't want to hurt you."
The teal gem keeps talking looking anxious and frustrated. She gestures, but under the control panel there isn't much room for gestural expression, so Peridot stands and steps backwards to let her out.
Apatite crawls out, turns off her light, and also stands. Her new trip mate is much taller than her, she's 2'4" (70cm), and her 6'5" (195cm).
P: "Can you understand me?"
The teal gem talks in a higher pitch, walks around and points at the newcomer, the outside screen, and the door connecting the ship with the pod.
Peridot tries to communicate writing on a console. Apatite is amazed by what she does and pays all the attention to the symbols on the screen, but doesn't react to the word's meaning at all. She climbs using the controls as shelf, follows the lines with a finger, jumps down, and resumes her high pitched talking and pointing.
Next the green gem checks the registers and finds regular reports until three years earlier when all activity stopped. She plays the last diary entries:
A: <The ship's long range sensors detected an unknown kind of anomaly. I triangulated it relatively close to my position. It will only take a week to get there.>
Apatite doesn't seem to recognize her own voice, she looks for whoever is speaking. Judging by how worried she looks and how she talks to the speaker, she must think there's someone small in it.
She stops talking when the next entry begins:
A: <Here I am. The anomaly is beautiful, it looks like a dim light blue cloud sphere. The first tests show geons are out of scale while gravitons can't be detected. All the other measurements are within the normal range. I'll get closer to gather samples.>
The small gem taps the speaker and unsuccessfully tries to remove its cover.
When another part plays, she stops to listen respectfully:
A: <I've gathered, labeled, measured, and registered five standard samples. I'm experiencing difficulties keeping my form stable. Still, I think I should go deeper into the anomaly to fill one last container. There seems to be a little... I don't know... comet, or something, floating close to its center.>
Apatite turns to Peridot and she can see the teal gem wants her help to free the little being trapped in the speaker. She walks there to show her it's only tech when the last entry starts:
A: <Oh... that was hard. This anomaly made me randomly shapeshift out of control. Honestly, I didn't know I could get that big... Whatever, now I'm on my way out of the cloud I'm almost back to normal.> Happily <And I managed to take the sample. It seems to be some kind of condensed light, I'll run further tests on it once I set the course back to my original destination.>

It takes Peridot half an hour of to make Apatite understand there's never been anyone trapped in the speaker. She had to disassemble and reassemble it, then record and play her voice, and Apatite's voice several times until she recognized herself. After staying confused and quiet for about two minutes, the little gem tries hard to gesture what the green gem finally understands as 'before' and points at the speaker, so she plays the diary entries again.
While they play, Apatite looks like she's trying hard to understand what she recorded, probably unsuccessfully. She walks around nervous repeating something again and again until she glances up at the tall gem looking exhausted and points at the pod.
Though Peridot can't tell why she seems to lack energy, she thinks she wants to inspect her transport, so she smiles and invites her host to pass. The teal gem walks into the pod, climbs the seat, lies down on it, and remains inactive.
P: Talking quite loud. "You won't see much of it if you close your eyes."
The answer is a kind of quiet growl, not friendly, but not menacing at all. Further attempts to reactivate her end in a clearer message. Apatite wants to be left alone.
Peridot has no reason to keep bothering her for now. Instead, she tries to find some sense in the situation looking for evidences of what could have happened to the apatite. First, the samples mentioned in the log. The five standard ones are in the corresponding storage unit along with a broken empty container. Although the analysis report the samples as highly flammable, they don't indicate anything that could have altered a gem in such drastic ways. Still, the report of the sixth sample was never written and there's nothing like what Apatite described in the ship anymore.
The green gem deduces a basic chronology:
Apatite recorded the last diary entry.
Before she had time to write the sixth sample report there was some kind of explosion that caused the changes in the teal gem's behavior.
Some time later, an alien, who could have been like the ones who kidnapped the other gems left at her colony, found the ship, walked at least on the hull, took the last sample, but left Apatite there, probably because she was useless for them due the accident sequels.