"Thank you. I'm sure you'll make us proud."

Evandemilaki closes the channel.

And Elilandemilaki resumes production according to the original plan.

Some of her people were getting attached to the humans they interacted with. She assigns these people to the subproject of relocating humans away from the kindergartens. There's no reason to start a conflict early by telling the humans their entire planet is going to die; coaxing them into leaving the areas she wants to develop is cheaper and easier than evicting them by force.

As the project continues, she reassigns some of her people onto or off of Earth, usually because she wants their particular skills deployed on a particular task, sometimes because of personality conflicts with other Gems under her command. It's all in the written reports that she files regularly. Earth is back on track.

A little more than one local year after she resumed production, Earth's interstellar warp pad becomes inexplicably inoperative.

Lisandemilaki doesn't think twice about Elilandemilaki's relocations. If there's one thing she trusts her fellow Diamond to be absolutely competent with, it's people.

She is the first one to notice the warp pad's malfunction. She leaves it be, for a while, assuming that something was damaged on Earth and shall soon be repaired.

The first thing Evandemilaki notices is that the scheduled time for the latest report from Earth has come and gone and no report has materialized. This is concerning; Elilandemilaki is far too organized to let a deadline slip by like that. Something must have happened.

She makes a private call on the Diamond channel. The channel sends back an automated message indicating that Elilandemilaki is out of her office at the moment but will be returning in four hours. Evandemilaki is content to wait.

Four hours later, Elilandemilaki calls back.

It's obvious that something is wrong from the moment her image appears, although Evandemilaki can't quite pinpoint exactly what gives her that impression.

"Elilandemilaki. Your latest progress report is now almost half a day late."

"I know," she says.

"I'm seceding from the Gem Empire."

Evandemilaki is stunned speechless.

"My reasons are not relevant and I don't believe you'd understand them if I explained. I wish you all the best and don't intend to initiate any conflicts, but I claim this star system and everyone in it. I've prepared technical notes on a cover story you can use to minimize the disruption to the empire. It's very plausible. A previously undiscovered quirk of the planet's composition caused magma breakouts at all our significant construction sites, destroying our warp pads and kindergartens, killing everyone on the planet, and rendering it unfit for further use. You can declare the star system a memorial site and forbid anyone from visiting."

"...Why?"

"It really doesn't matter. Goodbye, Evandemilaki."

She sends the file on the cover story and then closes the channel.

Evandemilaki sits quietly for several minutes, gathering her thoughts.

Then she calls the other two senior Diamonds.

"Yes?"

"What is it, Diamond?"

...After a few seconds, she realizes she isn't going to be able to explain. She plays a recording of her conversation with Elilandemilaki instead.

"WHAT!?"

Lisandemilaki is stunned as speechless as Evandemilaki was.

"I... don't understand what she is doing," says Evandemilaki. "But I believe her when she says she doesn't mean us any harm."

"You must be joking. How could this do anything but harm?"

She frowns slightly and shakes her head. Perhaps Lisandemilaki will understand well enough to explain.

"If Elilandemilaki meant us harm, she had a thousand better means of doing it. Given what she is doing--her actions, not her motivations--she has taken every step possible to minimize the harm to the rest of us should we accept it."

"You're not seriously considering it."

"If we do as we suggested, there will be... minimal disruption to the Empire. If we contest her claim... the disruption will be immense."

"In the short term. Do you really want to set the precedent that anyone who makes it troublesome to go after them can defy the Diamond Authority with impunity?"

"Elilandemilaki is a Diamond, whatever her actions. And if we--allow this--no one will ever know to allow it to set any more precedent than we wish."