Hexium

Earth was named after the ground, for that is where its resources hid. Indra, was colonised for its skies. A familiar blue reigned over the planet, which was slowly being painted gold by the setting of its giant, red sun. Streaks of violet highlighted the valuable hexium gas pockets, staining the swarms of human ships that circled them. The foreign star birthed a light show that could help even the lowliest worker forget the ugliness of the surface. Yet, Tybalt allowed only a sparing glance for the beauty of it. He turned his gaze toward the titan wall of storm cloud instead. The seething mass of vapour was descending upon them at speed, and brought with it the only thing that Indra could use to defend itself from the invading humans.

“We still have time!” He yelled over the noise of the Ranger’s engines. The all terrain jeep was all but indestructible; its titanium and ultra-high strength steel components designed specifically for off-world exploration. He was not supposed to be driving one. It was probably worth more than he would ever earn in a lifetime.

“Better hope so!” Lexa shouted back, her long, blonde hair whipping across her face in the passenger seat. Ty had not thought to attach the roof. The set of her jaw and sharply drawn eyebrows sliced through the barrage of ruined braids, impossible to mistake for anything but fury. Even to his young eyes.

“Look! I’m sorry, alright! Is that what you want to hear? It was stupid. I was stupid. I just thought-”

“What!? You thought you’d take me out to the warrens, get me alone? Seduce me with your reckless and wild behaviour? Flash your bright colours? Father was right about you! Nothing but a miner’s son!”

Tybalt grit his teeth and bit his tongue for good measure. He fixed his eyes on the sandy plains ahead and tried his hardest to stop looking at the clouds. They boiled, rolled and growled in desperation to release. The only thing worse than being known as the guy that blew a date with Lexa, was to go down as the guy that got her killed.

He powered the huge wheels of the Ranger over the rocky, desert terrain. It was open in all directions, vegetation being non-existent on the barren planet. The air was breathable, but water had to be distilled from it with machines. Life needed both, and so the invading industrialists were the only thing moving on the surface of Indra. Ty pressed the accelerator down harder. The sooner they reached the tall refineries of the colony, the better for everyone involved. Lexa tutted and shook her head when he dropped over a large rock faster than he had intended, bouncing them in their seats. He sighed heavily, trusting it would be masked by the loud engine. Everything he did would be wrong, until they could get some space between them. The engine protested as he pushed it hard, then chugged when he slowed to avoid larger outcrops of red stone.

“You need to change gear when you drop the revs,” Lexa jabbed, “otherwise you’ll burn out the transmission and we won’t make it!”

“I’m doing my best! It’s not like either of us have a license, so don’t pretend like you know any better!”

“At least I’ve been in a Ranger before! I bet the colony is the first time you’ve even been off a starship! I was born on Indra!”

“We had simulators…I’ve probably had more hours behind the wheel than anyone you know…” Tybalt hissed.

“Whatever, you still need to-”

A crack of thunder, so loud that it vibrated the chassis of the vehicle, silenced them both. Ty saw the terror in the whites of the girls eyes, and suddenly her anger had a source. He took a deep breath, dropped his shoulders and turned to her to say in a loud, but gentle voice,

“Look, I’ll get you back, I promise. Its the least I can do for-”

The Ranger hit a rock at full speed, the engine screamed as the wheels left the ground with nothing to grip. Ty saw only metal, and felt nothing but air.

The young man spat dirt from his mouth, and pressing a palm against the sandy soil rolled himself onto his back with a groan. It was that exact moment, when Tybalt truly understood he was mortal. Blood smeared his hands, his ears rang and it felt like his brain wanted out of his skull. He laid there for a few minutes, making sure he was indeed still alive, until a thought dragged him involuntarily into a sudden sitting position. Lexa. He scrambled to his feet, regretting it instantly, as sharp pains speared his rib cage and he swayed as if he was about to go down again. He steadied himself against a tyre, then trotted around to the other side of the flipped Ranger. There, he froze, dropped his hands to his knees for support, and let out the entire contents of his lungs through his nose.

“You are the dumbest, most irresponsible, stain of humanity, to ever grace Indra’s surface!” Lexa screeched. She was sat on a nearby rock, nursing a shallow cut on her forearm and apparently unaware of the matching graze in her hairline. Ty wasn’t about to point it out. It probably wouldn’t scar…

“I’m glad you’re alright,” He said, standing up straight once more, “I was worried…thought you might be hurt…”

She looked away quickly, her lip quivering for just a moment, laying her own fear bare for another, almost imperceptible, instant. It was long enough for him to know her again. The girl that he had always seen in flashes. When she let the mask slip. Whilst the all the other kids, dragged off-world by their parents, assumed she was the terrifying, dominating daughter of the colony’s harvest master, he had only ever sensed a young woman as lost as the rest of them. Lexa alone amongst them, had to pretend she had it all together.

“I am hurt! Can’t you see?” She said, raising her nose to the clouds.

Ty followed her gaze, and the sudden memory of the storm struck him as hard as the thunder that exploded across the sky, shaking the aching bones in his chest.

“No time to wrap wounds, that’ll have to wait.” He said, striding toward to Ranger that lay peacefully at rest on its side. He bent his elbows and pushed upward against the door panel, grunting with the effort. Lexa cackled.

“You aren’t going to move it, those things weigh like, ten tonnes!”

He kept pushing, until just as he thought his arms were going to give out, the metal went first. The clips holding the door panel snapped and the sheet of hardened steel came free. He peeled the rest of it off and slid it down onto the sand.

“And what exactly are you going to tell my father now?” Lexa demanded, “That you not only dragged his little girl out here, injured her and totalled a Ranger, but added a little extra damage for good measure? Have you completely lost it!?”

“Do you see that!?” Ty rounded on her, unable to control his temper for another second, and raised a shaking finger at the sky, “You know what that is!?”

“What? The storm? I think you have more to worry about that a bit of rain!”

“That ain’t rain sweetheart…that’s a hexium storm. But I wouldn’t expect a princess like you to know anything about that. Locked up tight in the colony, never having to ride a ship into the clouds to collect the fuel gases.” He snapped. Moving as he spoke, he pulled a length of wire from the console and wrapped it around the metal sheet, tying it into a makeshift strap, “Hexium stays in gas form most of the time, but when a storm bank like that one passes over a deposit and the pressure is just right, the temperature cool enough, it’ll crystallise inside the clouds.”

“Oh my god…” She whispered.

“That’s right. That front breaks? We’re dead. Those crystals will rain down like bullets. Our only chance is to make it to the buildings first.”

“But it's getting dark…” Lexa said, her voice shaking as she stood and took a step toward him, “how will we ever find the way on foot…?”

“Hopefully we won’t need to find out. We move now, and fast. Beat the sunset.” He said, hauling the makeshift shield over his shoulders to cover his back and reaching out a firm hand. He stared Lexa in the eye. When she paused, he raised an eyebrow. She darted to meet his grip, and they started running.

The colony was built for refining gas. It was a home second. No one was ever supposed to stay long enough to care about being comfortable. Ty’s parents certainly weren’t planning on it. They were to make their money and run back to Earth where it was familiar, if not exactly any better on the comfort front. For that reason, there was no outdoor recreation, no night life, no streets even. Only giant square metal boxes that pretended they were buildings. But most importantly, no exterior lights. So it was, that as the sun dipped its last red farewell over the horizon, Lexa screamed in panic.

“WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO! We still have so far to go!” She screeched.

“Just keep moving!” Ty yelled, dragged her onward, intent on using every second of light they had left.

The darkness crept up on them faster than seemed possible, and all of a sudden, Ty couldn’t see the ground in front of his feet. He slowed to a walk, and scuffed his way forward, hoping he would carve some kind of straight line. There was nothing else he could do. Lexa’s hand dug into his own, her side pressed hard against his and even in the dire situation, he liked the warmth of it.

“I’m so scared…” Her voice, small, and sounding nothing like the girl he knew, crept out of the shadows.

“Aren’t you always?” Tybalt jabbed, wincing at his knee jerk reaction to snap back at everything she said.

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” She barked. There she was.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that, come on, just keep walking.”

“No. What did you mean?”

He sighed, but kept moving his feet, dragging her along. If he stopped, his own terror would start to win out. Then they would sink.

“You’ve been here longer than anyone. All us other kids, we come for a rotation and then leave. Your family has to stay, to run things. So of course, you have to be the way you are. If you let anyone in, well, there’s always that fear of the inevitable loss to come. Then there’s…your mother. I’m sorry she’s gone, by the way. Never got the chance to say.” She didn’t answer, so he spoke again, “What I’d love to know, is why you finally agreed to come out here with me? I was sure you would say no, like always.”

Silence. Lexa still didn’t respond. It drew so long that Ty began to wonder if he would get an answer at all.

“I said yes, because you looked at me, when you asked.” She muttered eventually.

“How could I ask without looking at you?” he chuckled.

“It was because you looked at me.” She repeated.

As she did so, a great arc of violet lightning shot through the sky above them, illuminating the entire surface for a spare, few seconds. All Ty saw, was the eyes looking up at him, and the hand holding his own.

“Shit…” He said, when darkness enfolded them once more, “Quick! Next time that happens, scan the horizon, find the colon-”

Another crack of electricity split across the clouds. Ready this time, Tybalt spotted the colony immediately, it was still ahead. They had turned slightly but he adjusted and put them back on course. He broke back into a run.

Every time the sky erupted in violence, the pair were closer to home. Ty did not voice through his heavy panting what he knew to be true…that they likely wouldn’t make it. The storm was right above their heads, the lightning and thunder coming faster and faster. It was imminent. The colony seemed within reach, yet in reality it was still so far. His legs were burning, his lungs struggling against the pain in his ribs and the metal on his back dug into his neck with every step. He could hear Lexa trying to keep up, feel every time she stumbled. But what could he do? Tell her to stop, to not bother trying? He couldn’t do that to her. No matter how sharp her tongue could be or how piercing her disapproval. She needed hope. She needed him. The next zap of purple cast a shadow in the ground nearby. One that was unusual. Tybalt waited for the next one and looked again. Still it took him a moment in the darkness to process what he was seeing. When the next strike hit, he veered them off to one side, changing direction dramatically and making for the strange shape. It was a chance.

He increased his speed, heard her groans of protest, but pushed them both forward anyway. As they ran, near sprinting, he heard a single, tiny thud hit the dirt nearby. Then, a few seconds later, another one. Worst of all, he heard the ring of metal and felt a pressure against his back, as something ricocheted off his makeshift shield. Lexa pinched his hand tighter. She heard it too.

The thudding of the dirt and stone around them began to increase in tempo, it was amazing, even at such a slow rate, that they had not yet been hit. A flash of lightning granted them one last sight of the strange world, and using it, Tybalt dragged Lexa into the maintenance trench and pushed her down into her back. He fell on top of her, straddling her with his legs and pinning her tight between his arms. The Ranger door panel on his back scraped down the walls of the muddy hole and jammed into the narrow space. They stilled then. Breathing hard, eyes wide. Silent.

“No! We can still make it…” Lexa breathed, “You don’t have to do this…we can still make it…Ty please!”

“It’s the only way.” He said, twitching at the sound of every thud into the surface beside him.

“No…” She sobbed, the lightning giving enough of a glow, even in the trench, to shine from her tears, “Ty…no…not for me…”

“Its already done.” He whispered, “It’ll be okay, it’s better than facing your father.”

They both chuckled without any heart.

“I’m sorry I ruined our date. I know I can be…difficult…sometimes,” She said, “Tell me…why did you want to come out here so badly anyway? The truth now.”

“I didn’t. I heard you talking once, how you loved the colours of the rocks. You thought they looked like a sunset made of sand. The warrens…they have this part in the canyons, where you can see all the layers of stone. It looks like a rainbow of red. I thought you might like to see it…stupid…I know.”

“You stole a Ranger, breaking all protocols and drove us out here in secret, knowing you would be punished for it…all to show me some pretty rocks?” She gasped.

“Well…yeah.” Ty said, just as another lightning strike illuminated Lexa’s beaming smile.

In the darkness he felt her breath on his lips. Then her kiss, as she reached up and rested her fingers against his cheeks. Their tears mixed over her fingers, they shared air for a moment, and Tybalt felt a giddy calm overcome him.

“Don’t leave me too…” She whispered.

A ringing echo of struck metal echoed through the small space. Ty’s eyes went wide, his breath hitched and Lexa let go, falling back into the shadows. He heard her cry out, but the sound was lost to his own heartbeat in his ears. Tybalt held his breath, and waited to die. Knowing it was worth it, to save her.

********

Lexa ignited the hexium fireplace, feeling the instant warmth that came from the fuel. It was still so valuable on Earth, but plentiful and commonplace enough on Indra, that it literally fell from the sky. Her aching old joints weren’t going to handle the cold night, so the fire was warranted. She still hated dipping into the harvest for their own use. It seemed wasteful. She pulled on another cardigan and pushed her ever thickening glasses onto the bridge of her nose, before walking to the kitchen to grab a fresh pot of salve. In her younger days she had cursed the cramped quarters in the colony, now it just meant a shorter distance to walk. As she tottered back into the lounge, she kicked a pair of legs from where they rested on the coffee table.

“Get your dirty boots of my furniture, you great lout!” She barked.

“I ain’t been out there all day replacing light bulbs on this damned old building, for you to be kicking me, Lexa! I’m an old man, let me be!”

“Oh, I’ll let you be, Ty, when you start acting like a man instead of a beast! Now get that shirt off and let's get this over with!”

She waited, for what felt like an eternity, while the man that she called husband wrestled his own damn shirt off. Once he had finally managed it, she set to moisturising the myriad of ancient scars on his back.

“I love you, you stupid dolt.” She smiled.

“Love you too, Lexa.” He laughed.