#slavery implication

Moonstones are inherently unusual gems, in that their skills do not lead to an obvious job. This one, however, is old enough to have existed when the structures of Homeworld were a little more flexible. As such, she gets away with a lot of things other gems couldn’t.

Her shipping business that pre-dates the creation of Diamond Authority, for example.

It’s still active, and, where Sun-Moon Corp. is concerned, entirely above board. Moonstone has a fleet of ships which, when ordered accordingly, travel to various planets to collect equipment and resources which are too large to use the warp network, and deliver them safely to new hands. More often than not, her ships bring the first civilians to every new Front Line of the Empire of the Authority. The military have their own transport, but it is Moonstone’s ships that move the reporters, building resources and technicians before warp-pads are built.

Lots of people are confused by Moonstone’s crews: they do not contain the traditional sailors, or even a mixture of those and other declassified gems, but rather collections of gems from all strata and walks of life. There are a disproportionate number of Pearls working for her, especially given the status of ship-yard gems. It is not common knowledge that she offers protection to any gem abused or abandoned by their superiors, although certain circles know. Collectively, and amongst the other pilots, they are known as ‘Moony’s Girls’, and Moonstone is known to ensure ‘accidents’ occur to any who harm them. She has been known to work with the law enforcement services - for example, during the raid on the laboratories of a Peridot who was conducting inhumane experiments. In return for providing intel and raw labour, Moonstone was paid handsomely, and also was allowed to take into her service all of the surviving test subjects.

Not everything is above board, however. Shipping, and even mercenary work, isn’t really what she specialises in. Moonstone also functions as a smuggler, supplying weaponry and heavily taxed items to the lowest levels of society. She refuses, however, to transport gems. The first time she acted in an illegal measure was when she was employed to transport a group of defective gems, as well as political prisoners, to reprocessing. Horrified, Moonstone filtered out as many gems as she could and would survive, delivering only the minimum to not arouse suspicion. All that remain, she offered either work or free passage off world. Since that day, she has also run a smuggler to fund her ‘rescue’ missions.

Hematite was created after the rebellion of Rose Quartz, and so cannot tell you what truly happened. She can, however, tell you a thousand different stories about it, and a hundred more variations on each of them. Hematite has read many of them, and discussed with colleagues others. Afterall, from the moment of her creation she was employed by White Diamond to ‘correct’ all published information which did not meet the required standards.

She saw many things wrong, but spun the tales as she was commanded. As a reward to herself for years of service, she decided to use her savings to purchase a Pearl to carry her belongings on days when she was at Court as opposed to working. The process went smoothly until she was returning from the collection point - as it was her first Pearl, she had no others to send to collect her new servant.

The first Hematite knew of something being wrong was when the Pearl pushed her to the floor. About to scold her purchase, the Courtly gem looked up to see a band of thug-ish rubies encroaching. It was a very short period of time before the Pearl, programmed to defend her master at all costs, was poofed. Hematite was not a warrior, and could do little against the gems. However, a figure she was familiar with only from news reports appeared. Tall and slim, and unnaturally fast, she recognised the other as a Moldavite - and not just any. The costume she wore immediately showed the other to be a well known outlaw.  Moldavite defeated the Rubies, but poofed within moments of doing such - her gem cracked. Moldavite, thankful for her life, collected her Pearl and the Moldavite. For the first time in her life, Hematite lied to her superiors. She claimed ignorance of who the cracked gem was, only that she had saved her, and so insisted she be fixed. It was done, and Moldavite escaped before her exact identity was revealed.

Over the rotations, Moldavite would visit Hematite on her rest periods. In time, they went from friends to lovers and fusionmates, although always in private.

And then, Hematite slipped. It was inevitable really, but her Diamond caught wind of her relationship. She was very suprised when a small, young peridot arrived on her doorstep, saying that White Diamond was going to destroy her for subversion, and she should probably leave now.