Crystalline

The transport van rumbled and jostled it’s occupants as we made our way down the narrow mountain pass. I’m glad I wasn’t seated on the left side, I’d probably throw up at the view outside the window. The drop was at least a mile or so down into nothing but jagged rock and ice. If the transport faltered, we’d surely plummet all the way down.

I shivered as the gruesome scenario crossed my mind, and kept my eyes forward at the large maw of the cave we were soon to enter. The last strip of the path was my least favorite, it went down at a 35 degree angle and always felt like we were about to fall from the snow-spackled cliff face.

A sigh of relief sounded to my right, most people in our crew hated the journey down into the cave, but I knew where the sound originated from. Izara, one of the only friends I had in our mining crew, sat next to me looking rather pale in her dark olive skin.

“You alright?” I nudged her as she sat with a cold sweat, looking ahead as I did. As much as I hated the descent, Izara was tripled in her fear.

She nodded, but it looked more like a shudder than anything.

“We’re here, we’ll be alright now,” I tried to reassure her.

“Until we have to return. I don’t want to leave, just keep me here.”

I chuckled, “Iz, if the wardens hear you talking like that, they might just keep you here forever.”

She gulped, “Alright, alright, fine. I don’t ever want to come back though.”

I gave her a sympathetic smile as the transport came to a halt, “Me too, Iz.”

A horn sounded as the transport door opened, and we all mechanically stood up to shuffle out into the cave. It was cold as we stepped into the large entry chamber of the cave. Fire sconces hung from the walls and some stood in the center to illuminate the cavern. Towards the top, the cave remained dark where the fire’s light could no longer reach.

“Alright maggots, you know the drill. Mine out your assigned areas. If you find something interesting, grab a sample and give it to the Appraiser.” Our warden spoke as we went into the line to grab our gear packs.

“Head out with your quartets when every member gets their equipment. Dismissed.”

I grabbed my pack from the handler and caught up with Izara, who was waiting with the rest of our quartet, consisting of two males named Driek and Lophan.

“You all ready to chip crystals?” I asked rhetorically as I slapped my hard hat on and flicked my headlamp on.

“Ready as always,” Lophan quipped sarcastically as we headed into the tunnels.

“We’re finishing the second half of section 341 on Route B, just a little bit further down than we were yesterday,” Driek pointed out on his map. He was our ‘lead’ as the wardens appointed each quartet with one. Apparently we needed someone to keep us in line.

We had half a mile trek down into the mountain with nothing but hollowed out caverns and fire sconces to mark the way. It wasn’t the worst. The further down you go, the warmer you get. Unfortunately, that only proved to be more painful when you finally got to work. At least the blocks of ice in our canteens provided an ice pack for the first half of the day to keep you cool.

We knew we were getting closer to our destination when the illumination turned into more of a white hue, rather than the orange of the firelight. Other quartets were already at work, chipping away at the glowing power crystals that lined the floor, walls, and ceilings of the numerous caverns.

Water flowed through some of the passageways, making the trek that much more unbearable with soaked shoes. At times, the water could get deep enough to soak us up to the knees in our tan jumpsuits.

“Alright guys, we’re here. Our assignment today is from this spot to that far wall over there,” Driek pointed to where we stood and then over to the end of the tube shaped cavern a good 35 yards or more to my left.

We nodded and got to work, setting our packs down in an empty space and getting to chipping away at the crystal clusters. It wasn’t boring work by any means. The crystals were beautiful, but hefting a three pound pickaxe over your head over and over again wore out your shoulders to no end.

Four and a half hours went by until our lunch bell finally rang. All that could be heard were the metallic thunks of pickaxes dropping onto stone, and the sighs of relief as everyone sagged down.

“Arden, you still human over there?” Izara asked as she dug out her food container and canteen from her pack.

I finished chipping out the football-sized crystal cluster I had been working on. “Unfortunately, yes.” I swung one last time and got it loose enough to pry out, before I finally dropped my pickaxe.

“I’m going to look like you if we don’t get the hell out of here soon,” she knocked her hand into my arm as she handed me my food and water.

I snorted and accepted it from her. She was talking about my stark white skin and hair. I looked a bit like an alien with my ice blue eyes. At least with all the dirt and dust from the cave, I just looked grey all over.

“How’s you and Osten? I heard he got bumped up,” I asked as I ripped a chunk of my jerky off with my teeth.

“Fine. His promotion created a bit of a rift between us for awhile, but at least with this new data filing job, I’ll maybe be able to get out of here soon. I’m sure I could help you out too.”

I smiled, knowing she was saying it as a nice gesture only, "I’d appreciate it, but I’ll be alright. Thank you though.”

She smiled back softly. We both knew that our fates weren’t our own. They belonged to and were controlled by the Pellucid Council; the species who ransacked Earth and brought us to Gavatris to be their “unpaid workers”. They called us that because we weren’t slaves, we had a chance to prove our worth and help better their society and create a new life for ourselves.

The audacity of those assholes.

Lunch ended and we got back to work. All was mundane and quiet, save for the clinking of pickaxes and the heavy breathing and grunting of my fellow miners. Until, a tremor went through region 340. The ground shook, and small stones loosed themselves from the peak of the cave. The others were lowering their pickaxes, looking around at what could possibly be the source of the rattling.

“What the hell was that?” Lophan asked.

Driek glanced up and scanned every cave surface around him, hunting for cracks and fissures to make sure we hadn’t accidentally exploited a weak structure in the cave. “I don’t see anything,” he said, “Carry on.”

Izara and I were a bit weary, but shrugged and continued chipping away. After mere minutes had gone by, another tremor hit, this one longer.

“Driek, something is definitely going on, we can’t stay down here if there’s going to be a cave-in,” Izara tried reasoning with him.

The shuddering stopped again. “It’s probably nothing, just keep going, we’re almost done. Arden, move on to the back wall,” he commanded.

I nodded and stepped through the small clusters on the floor, taking a torch with me to light the way. I was just as concerned as Iz, but abandoning our post meant a fate worse than being impaled and smooshed under a bunch of stalactites.

I took one swing at a crystal set perfectly in the center of the wall, and when my pickaxe met stone, another tremor hit. Stone groaned around us and the ground shuddered so violently I could barely keep my feet planted. I looked behind me to witness the cave’s ceiling crumbling between myself and the rest of the quartet, as well as the wall I had just been facing. A new cave mouth opened in front of me as my way out began to close.

“Arden, come on! You can make it!”

I tried to make a run for it, but rocks kept crumbling down in heaps. There was no way in hell I was going to be able make it back to the rest of the quartet without a stalactite coming down on me. I saw my pack within reach and lunged for it. Chittering sounded over my head, along with yelps and screams from the quartet. When I glanced back up, I saw cave spiders spilling out from the newly formed hole by the tens.

"Run Arden, go!" Driek yelled through the rubble as the spiders came down from both sides. Their grey and tan bodies, beady maroon eyes, and clacking pincers gave me motivation to get the hell out of dodge.

Slinging my pack onto my shoulders, I crawled through the new tunnel opening and loosened a chunk from the opening's peak behind me to block those bastards from following on my tail. They were the size of a beagle with creepy, fuzzy legs. Said angular legs were squirming through the cracks in the rubble and I abandoned my efforts while I still had a running chance to get away.

The cave was almost pitch black, save for my head lamp and a small glow of light at the opposite end. I hefted my pack and made ready for a long trek. This area was quite obviously unexplored and untouched, with good reason. There were cave spiders that probably dwelled somewhere in the depths of this black void. In addition, it lacked any crystals good enough for mining, save for whatever was at the end of the cavern. That glow had to be something.

It was about to be a long night.