Library, Wednesday

[era_two_triangle]

The books were actually behaving themselves today, and so Peridot was making use of any of her spare time in the library by looking up the properties of Earth's metals. She wanted something sturdy, but lightweight, and preferably only faintly magnetic...

... Maybe capable of having an antimatter blaster built into it...

Not that she didn't enjoy being short, but she couldn't find the ladder again, and was having one of her 'I really miss my limb enhancers' days. If she could just figure out adequate replacements, maybe a ladder would be entirely unnecessary anyway.

Maybe. Hopefully.

Probably not.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[justice_undone]

"Is that other worlds as in other universes, or other planets in this system? I understand they are not inhabited and that the space travel isn't very... impressive."

Breq followed Peridot.

[era_two_triangle]

"Other realities, not necessarily Earth," Peridot explained as she walked. "The space travel capabilities of modern Earth's humans is laughable at best, though there are some books with photos from their occasional probes out into their own solar system." She actually laughed a little at that, clearly amused. "They have yet to send a human being out beyond Earth's orbit! It's actually kind of adorable."

If a bit depressing for a Gem who was stranded here.

[justice_undone]

"...not beyond Earth's orbit?"

Not that it showed in her face, but that was worse than Breq had expected.

[era_two_triangle]

"Oh, they've sent probes out there," Peridot merrily continued, "but they haven't gotten their own people out much farther than their own moon. Which I suppose they figure is a big deal. I think they're planning to get to the next planet over some time soon, but they're still figuring out logistics."

[justice_undone]

"Are there descriptions of their spacecrafts?" Breq asked. She wasn't prone to expressing herself by laughing, but it was funny.

[era_two_triangle]

"There are entire books with blueprints," Peridot replied, looking kind of delighted as she stopped by the section with the atlases. "Once we're done here, I can take you to see them, if you want."

It was so great, Breq. So great.

[justice_undone]

"Of course I'd like to see them," Breq said. She wasn't generally prone to mocking the technology of other cultures, especially when they had good songs, but having lost most of herself, she felt she was entitled to making fun of inferior spaceships. At least for now.

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot leaned up as if to whisper some great secret between them.

"They still use internal combustion," she shared. "It's really no wonder they haven't gotten anywhere yet."

[justice_undone]

"They should sort that out," Breq agreed.

She had had engines that could blow up half a planet.

"But I suppose it's going to take a very long time for them to even go outside their own solar system."

[era_two_triangle]

"Long by their standards, anyway," Peridot mused, reaching up to pull an atlas from the shelf and flipping through its pages before holding it up to Breq. "I suppose they get some credit for getting from flight to space travel all within a century, though."

[justice_undone]

"True, although that might just mean they were late to invent flight. Perhaps they put effort into other things. They do have goo music."

She leaned forward to look at the map. "Do you know where this island is located?"

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot nodded and flipped through the pages until she found America.

"Somewhere around here," she offered, pointing at the spot just off Balitmore, "but it's never guaranteed that these maps will have Fandom on them at all. It's like some versions of Earth aren't even aware it exists."

In fairness, the Earth of her reality had a large water-filled crater where Russia was supposed to be. That sort of thing just happened, sometimes.

[justice_undone]

Breq reached for the atlas and began to skim through the maps.

"There are enough different climate zones to support a large variety of species of plants and animals," she noted, not paying much attention to Fandom's invisibility on the map.

Quickly she made a few conclusions about how a Radchaai annexation would be made efficiently. She couldn't help it. She didn't even like it much. And she certainly wouldn't mention it to Peridot.

"If there is another species in this universe that do space travel, I think they would be quite an obvious target. Unless the species were dependent on another type of atmosphere."

[era_two_triangle]

Considering Peridot's people were just going to blow the whole planet up, she probably wouldn't have judged very hard for that one.

"They have so many resources here," Peridot agreed with a nod. "Homeworld was interested in Earth for that reason, a few thousand years ago. Atmosphere doesn't matter to us at all."

[justice_undone]

"You mentioned that, or at least that was the conclusion I drew," Breq said. "What kind of resources were your people interested in?"

But why blow up a perfectly usable planet?

[era_two_triangle]

Why? Spite. Almost entirely because of spite.

"Minerals, mostly," Peridot replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "The plan for Earth was to create a new series of Kindergartens to create more Gems in, and then when those resources were exhausted, turn it into another Gem colony."

She frowned a little, and then shrugged.

"That was before my time. The plan changed after that."

[justice_undone]

"How did it change?" Breq asked.

[era_two_triangle]

"We abandoned the planet and the Diamonds put it to a different use as a sort of... experiment," Peridot sighed. "One that would have destroyed it completely, but it never reached its final stage."

A fact that she was both thankful for and a little conflicted about.

[justice_undone]

"Destroyed it? What kind of experiment?"

That reminded her a little too much of Garsedd.

[era_two_triangle]

"A massive geoweapon," Peridot muttered, wrinkling her nose a bit. "It was... in poor taste, and made no rational sense."

To say the least.

[justice_undone]

"That sort of thing doesn't always make sense," Breq said. "Or it does, but for the wrong reasons. Why did they do it?"

[era_two_triangle]

"I... I thought it was in order to strengthen Homeworld," Peridot said, and now she was poking through the books some more, even though the atlas she'd pulled was already sufficient. "As it turns out, it was more... to satisfy a grudge, I think. There was a war. We lost."

[justice_undone]

"My... people did something similar," Breq said. "We were challenged for the first time, and our ruler ordered the complete destruction of our enemy. It changed us."

She closed the atlas.

"Is that why you are here? Because you refused to participate?"

[era_two_triangle]

"In part." Peridot wasn't looking up, now. "Originally I had come to Earth in order to check on the progress of the experiment. I ran into some resistance, and was unable to return home."

She had little problem talking about it, even if she wasn't making eye contact now. She wasn't proud of it, either.

"Now I can't return home because I had a hand in destroying it. The Diamonds would have me shattered if they knew."

[justice_undone]

Noticing the lack of eye contact, Breq asked:

"Do you think you did the right thing?"