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Chapter Text

Venomous Moon 01

"We've matched Strigoi-3's speed and rotation," Will reported mechanically, more out of habit than necessity. The Evantai's quantum computer did most of the work--calculating the target moon's movements and plugging those numbers into the thousands of equations that ran through its busy qubits--which allowed Will to simply pull on the Evantai's controls to bring the ship close to Strigoi-3’s rocky surface.

"Any sign of that rhenium?" asked the technician on the other end of Will's radio.

Will peered through the front window at the holographic overlay projected by the computer over the moonlet's topography, which otherwise would have been too dark to see. He found only the usual pits and ridges that characterized ninety-nine percent of the moonlets he'd surveyed. The readings scrolling across the overlay--rapidly shifting rows and columns of orange numbers to indicate distance, materials, gravity, atmosphere, and a variety of other sensory inputs--didn't change much, either. 

"I'm not picking anything up," he responded. "But it's not a big rock. We'll find it." With a length of only 637 kilometres from one end of its lumpy, oblong shape to the other and a width of 493, Will would only need a few hours to pass over and map its surface. Judging by the strength of the magnetic force picked up by the observation satellite orbiting Strigoi, it wouldn't be difficult to find the deposit on the tiny moonlet.

He set the Evantai to autopilot and leaned back, fingers lacing in the short, straight brown hair at the back of his head. His gaze lifted to the velvety black space above them and Strigoi's striped green curve glowing in one corner of the window. He sighed, relaxing into the embrace of his padded seat.

"Been a while since we've been out here," he said, swivelling to glance at his companion.

Robot, standing quietly behind the other pilot's seat, didn't respond. At least not overtly. But the peaceful blue-white stars of his face pulsed gently. Agreement, Will guessed. 

After months of working as a consultant for the automated mines on the Proxima Centauri B colony, Will had snapped up the chance to fly a five day long survey mission to another planet in the tristellar system. Did it have anything to do with his recent breakup with his girlfriend? Maybe. But the moment Command had issued the request for volunteers, Will had put in his name and then girded his courage to call Robot.

His relief at seeing Robot at the space port had nearly knocked him out at the knees, and he was still, two days later, kicking himself for ever letting them drift apart.

Did Robot feel the same way? Was he as happy to reconnect as Will? 

"Have you made any new art?" Will asked, racking his memory to try to recall what Robot had been doing over the past year. He'd spent that time forcing himself not to think of Robot--occupying himself with his job, his ex, his family, and his friends--and he'd lost track.

Robot's head dipped in a nod. 

Will waited, hoping for Robot to elaborate, but he held his silence. When he opened his mouth to ask for more information, his voice died as he picked up a faint sound.

A low, quiet beat steadily grew in volume, matching Will's pulse. As soon as he detected it, it sped up slightly. 

A crash of noise made him startle and then laugh as a wave of complex rhythms cascaded over him. Robot's starry face formed a scintillating aurora to match the song. The electronic beats swelled, joined by familiar human instruments and eerie, inhuman tones. A high pitched voice hummed a vaguely familiar melody and then it dropped to a deep, shaking bass that made his heart skip.

The song built in soaring, triumphant crescendos, descending valleys of minor chords, and slammed to a halt with prickling, plucked notes, like the specks of distant stars. 

Will was left breathless, hands gripping his armrests and staring at Robot's swirling face.

"Robot," he gasped. "That was amazing ! When did you learn how to make music?!"

Robot shrugged.

"How did I not know this?" Will sighed, sinking into his seat and thudding his head against the back. Conflicting emotions fought in his chest--regret for lost time, determination that it had been necessary, uncertainty of the decisions that had led him to calling Robot, fear that he might relapse--

The computer trilled an alert, jerking Will out of his thoughts. A bright orange blob pulsed on the holographic overlay, the numbers beside it jumping from the third decimal place to the thousands as the Evantai swooped nearer.

"Sweet," Will said, grinning in excitement. "The Robinson duo do it again." He smirked over his shoulder and his elation sharply dropped. The faster they completed their mission, the sooner they would return to their separate lives...

With somewhat less enthusiasm, he switched the Evantai to manual and piloted it down to the moonlet’s shadowy surface for a closer look. He toggled on the powerful forward spotlights and Strigoi-3's rocky outcrops, gorges, and impact craters jumped into view. He slowed their passage to watch the geography with interest. It didn't matter how many planets, moons, asteroids, or other celestial bodies he surveyed, they were all unique and held their own surprises.

But perhaps not this kind of surprise. 

For, as they approached the target growing on screen, the lights delved into a deep crevasse and illuminated the unmistakable straight lines and metallic gleam of a ship.

Will gnawed on his lip and let it pop out thoughtfully.

"Well," he began, shutting off the blinking indicator telling him that they’d arrived at the rhenium deposit. "At least we won't have to dig for it."

**

The ship had seemingly crashed and lodged itself nose first into the crevasse. Unlike the round ships that Will was used to, this ship was long and narrow, more like a rocket or airplane. It may have been grey, but the dust made it difficult to be certain. The crash damage had been extensive--one wing had shorn off, taking a chunk of the hull with it and exposing a jumble of cables and jagged metal. On the undamaged side, Will’s light played over a hexagonal insignia. He couldn't determine a colour other than shades of grey.

"Do you recognize that?" Will asked. 

Robot’s stars swirled negatively. 

"Didn't think so." 

Will pulled the Evantai back to a clear area and landed carefully. As the dust settled, he considered the strange ship.

"We need to call this into Command," he said slowly. He rubbed his jaw and the stubble that had grown over the past day's travel. "Although… maybe we should check it out first." His breath had picked up and his hands dampened against the Evantai’s controls at the thought of being the first to discover something, with Robot at his side. "Just like old times?"

For a moment, Robot stood so still that Will thought he'd object, and perhaps say "Danger" to remind Will that they should stay safe. 

Instead, Robot turned on his heel and thudded toward the airlock.

Will laughed, jumped to his feet, and jogged after him.

**

"I guess we know what made them crash," Will murmured, shining his light around the ship's cockpit. The two pilot's seats were empty and the control panel looked like it had been clawed apart by something, all torn steel and frayed wires and scorch marks from an electrical fire. Under the panel, Will spotted what looked like a pile of fabric. Only when he glimpsed a thatch of yellow hair did he realize he was looking at a corpse.

He hurriedly stepped back and bumped into Robot. "Oh," he grunted, swallowing a surge of bile. "They--they were probably trying to fix it when they crashed."

That could have been him and his family. The number of near death misses he'd experienced woke him up some nights, but he had survived. Not so this poor soul crumpled under the console, forever struggling to save themself and their ship.

The rest of the ship rested in silence. The floors slanted uneasily, dust coated every surface, bits of debris had washed up against the lower walls. Will strode carefully, lightly dragging his fingertips against a wall to keep his balance in the low gravity. The rasp of his breaths in his helmet brought back memories of other times, other adventures. The thud of Robot's steps grounded him, and he was grateful that the ship had sealed itself when it crashed, retaining most of its air. It wasn't breathable, but at least it carried sound. 

He passed by several empty rooms--bunks, a galley, storage--and finally paused at the medical bay. He’d found the rest of the crew.

Three bodies lay about the room amongst toppled furniture and debris. One of them, in plain clothes, was strapped to a medical table that had fallen on its side. Their short black hair suggested a man, though the desiccated state of the body didn’t give any hints either way. Two bodies in uniform lay amongst the contents of a smashed storage cupboard. They must have been thrown violently in the crash, and at a distance Will could see the unnatural angles of their arms and legs. 

The shadows around the room seemed to jump and flicker, and Will realized his arm was shaking.

“We should go back to the Evantai and report this,” he whispered, feeling his stomach rise in his throat. For all the danger he’d faced in his youth, he hadn’t had to deal with many corpses. The excitement and adventure had completely drained away. 

A quiet, brittle scrape of glass against metal snapped Will’s head up. He aimed his light into a corner of the room, heart hammering. Had something moved?

“Is something over there?” he asked weakly.

Robot stepped past him, increasing his glow to brighten the room. The light revealed nothing more than broken medical and scientific equipment, and evidence of a fire in the black scorch marks licking up two of the walls.

But nothing should have moved in that still, dead place.

Will followed in Robot’s footsteps and then passed him, focused on that corner of the room. But as he neared, he found nothing unusual. Broken glass, twisted steel–

His boot kicked something and a metal canister rolled away from his toe, crunching over the glass before coming to rest against the wall. Curious, Will picked it up and rolled it over in his glove. It appeared nondescript: the size of a large thermos and made of some kind of steel alloy, fastened by four locks around the lid. Interesting.

Robot churred, drawing Will’s attention to where he was bent and examining the black-haired corpse. Will slid the canister into his side bag and carefully padded across the ruin to join him. “I wonder what happened here,” he breathed. He could only glimpse the corpse’s face beneath the hair, but they looked like they had been dead for a long time, their grey-brown skin taut and pulled away from their grinning teeth. He looked away. “Come on. Let’s go back. We’ll call this in and see what Command wants us to do. We can’t help them, but maybe we can figure it out and lay them to rest.”

**

“We don’t have that insignia on file,” said the Command technician, sounding as troubled as Will felt. “They might have come from another Earth organization. We weren’t the only ones making the attempt to get to Alpha Centauri. It’s just very unusual that such a small ship would be out here alone.”

“Yeah.”

“Hold your position, Evantai. I’m going to report this in and relay your new orders. Stay by your comms.”

“Roger.”

The call completed, leaving Will in the quiet of the cockpit. He stared into the darkness beyond the Evantai’s window, mulling over what he'd seen. He'd shut off the forward lights and all he could see was the greenish glow of Strigoi, but he was still uncomfortably aware of what lay out there.

At least he hadn’t gone alone.

He sought out Robot’s still, contented form back behind his own chair and sighed in relief. Since he’d found Robot those years ago, he had never ceased to be a source of comfort. If Robot was with him, he would be all right.

So why didn’t they spend more time together?

You know why , he quickly scolded himself, ducking his head so Robot wouldn’t see his frown. You fixate on him. How long did it take for you to admit that he could make his own friends? How long did it take for you to stop imagining him when you and Jenn–  

He cut off his own thoughts, shaking his head roughly. What the hell was he doing? He’d just stumbled on some unidentified human corpses and he was still thinking about–

No wonder his therapist told him to minimize their time together.

Maybe this mission had been a bad idea.

He bolted to his feet, desperate for something to distract himself, and his side bag thudded against his thigh. The canister! At least that was something to do.

“I’m going to see what’s in here,” he said, perhaps a little too loudly. He drew out the canister, startled by how warm the metal felt against his fingertips. He’d only handled it with gloves on while running himself and the contents of his bag through the entry decontamination protocol, and now he experienced a little surge of unease by the warmth emanating from the smooth metal.

Robot’s head turned sharply and the easy pulsing of his face sharpened to pinpricks of anxious stars. “Danger,” he said.

Speaking of warm, smooth metal…

Will blinked and shook his head again. “I’ll open it in the lab,” he assured his friend. “Fully quarantined. It’s probably just someone’s coffee, anyway.”

In the “lab” – in reality a single work table in the medical bay equipped with a plexiglass shield, biological safety cabinet, fume hood, and spectrometer – Will inserted the canister into the cabinet and carefully closed it. He slid his hands into the cabinet's thick rubber gloves and worked the fingers into place. Robot stood in the doorway, glowing and making the occasional electronic hum, his presence wary. 

“Did you take cream in your coffee?” Will joked as he carefully unfastened the four locks around the lid. They were stiff, but not impossible, and soon enough he had pried the canister open and set the lid aside. He tilted the canister to peer inside and saw nothing but shadows. He completely inverted it and nothing came out. He shook it.  Nothing. Not even dust. Was it empty, after all that? “Well, that’s a bust,” he sighed, disappointed. He set the canister down and pulled his arms out of the gloves. “Maybe my dad wants a mystery space thermos for his birthday.”

He reopened the cabinet, retrieved the steel thermos, and leapt back as it seemed to jump in his grip and suddenly warm black goo oozed all over his bare hand. 

“Ah!” he shrieked, dropping the canister and shaking his arm. “Shit, shit, shit!” 

Robot was at his side in three huge steps. He clawed gently at the tar-like substance and attempted to pull it off. The goo clung to Will's hand, though, barely affected by Robot's efforts. It slurped at his claws and then resumed its slow expansion up Will's arm.

"Get it off," Will hissed, scrambling to jerk his sleeve up so the thing wouldn't disappear under his clothing. 

Don’t be afraid .

The thought came from nowhere--an abrupt, discordant sense that everything was going to be okay . His hand beneath the goo felt fine, he could flex his wrist and fingers without any trouble. He was startled to feel his muscles relax, as if he'd just slid on a warm glove.

"Is it some kind of toxin?" he asked weakly, recalling Judy's warnings that some poisons and toxins could cause a warming sensation while the paralysis set in.

But he could move. There was no pain or discomfort. It felt. Good.

Robot scratched at it ineffectually, trying to dig under the creeping edge, until Will gently pulled his arm out of his grip.

"I don't think it's going to hurt me," he explained, trying to smile encouragingly. He held up his hand, clenched it into a fist, relaxed, and clenched again. A bright white rectangle on the back of his hand made him wonder if the thing hadn’t been designed . "It might be technological. Maybe it's nanotech. Some kind of clothing alternative?" It had reached his rolled up sleeve and crept over it, slowly engulfing Will's flight suit. "A space suit in a can?"

Something like that.

Will spent the next hour in the medical bay / lab trying to analyze the goo. He X-rayed his arm (the radiation bounced off, making his arm look like nothing but a void), tried to pull pieces off with tweezers (it just melted away from the grasping pincers), tried to cut it (it was like cutting oil), and tried to scan it under the spectrometer (no matching substance in the database). The only attempts that had some kind of result were the ultrasound, which made the entire surface shiver and revealed that his arm seemed perfectly fine beneath the goo, and the electrode, which made the goo harden and for some reason sent a tingle down Will's spine despite being used on his middle finger.

He dropped onto the edge of an examination table and gusted a sigh. "I have no idea."

It had reached his shoulder and chest and covered about half of it, a gentle pressure against his shoulder blade and sternum. He should have been worried--it had crept around the base of his neck, who knew what it would do when it encountered any kind of orifice? But he just couldn't shake the sense that the entire situation was nothing to worry about. 

Except that he was starving , his stomach aching with sudden, sharp pangs.

"I'm going to go eat," he continued to Robot, who stood by in a state of watchful calm. "And I should use the washroom before I lose the chance."

In the ship's narrow galley, Will hunted through the sealed travel foods, finding it strangely difficult to decide on something. He was so hungry that he should have grabbed the first thing and just inhaled it, but when he read the label–”BEAN BURRITOS”--he gagged at the thought of eating it.

He passed through several more, his one-handed fumbling getting frantic, and then his eyes landed on "GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE" and his goo-coated hand lashed out, tore open the package, and had snatched up a handful of the thick, dense cake before Will had a chance to figure out what was going on.

The bittersweet smell of chocolate hit his nose and Will's lips parted in a powerful, helpless hunger, and then the goo was in his mouth , shoving cake into him.

"Oh god," he moaned, crumpling to his knees, overwhelmed by the taste and sensation of chocolate scorching across his tongue and down his throat. He devoured the piece, licked every last crumb from inside the package, and dug into the cupboards to find more. 

Whoever had stocked the Evantai was an angel and Will was going to find them and hug them and offer them both his first born and his prize rock collection because they had included ten chocolate-based desserts for his five day trip. He consumed all of them, his arms moving mechanically, shuddering from an intense relief and joy. He was so hungry.

When he'd polished off the last package, he leaned back on his hands, panting. He rubbed his mouth on his wrist and was startled to see the goo. On his other arm.

"Oh no," he breathed, looking down at himself and watching the goo flow over the tip of his boot. From the neck down he was completely enveloped. 

He scrambled up to his feet and pulled at the substance sheathing his chest. It felt like… almost like rubber, but stretchy and warm and thin and strangely comfortable. A white symbol sprawled across his chest–some kind of arachnid, maybe, with an oblong body and eight jagged legs zigzagging to Will’s sides. Somehow, the goo managed to look muscular? Though it felt thin and snug, the bulges of Will’s clothing didn’t show.

"Ooookay," he said slowly. "Now I'm wearing the suit. How am I supposed to pee?" 

The goo pulled away from his stomach and groin, exposing his clothing. 

"Psychic space suit. Right. I guess I've seen stranger." He glanced up at Robot and smiled fondly. He had found a psychic alien robot, so a psychic nanotech fabric wasn't that far out.

Robot's stars swirled and sharpened and Will could almost hear him say, I don't like this.

"Yeah, it's weird," Will agreed. "It's not hurting me, though, and maybe it will listen to me." He held up his arms. "I need my hands free."

The substance immediately slid up to his elbows and Will's smile brightened into a grin. 

"Cool."

The trill of an incoming communication caught his attention. He bolted for the cockpit, but the first step launched him into the air. He slammed into the side of the doorway, bounced off, and landed on his ass on the floor, gasping and staring at his legs. 

"What the hell?"

Robot crouched next to him, his deep churr of concern making Will's heart swell with appreciation. His gentle arms went around Will's shoulders. 

"I'm okay," Will assured him, proving it by jumping back to his feet and stretching out his arms. "Not a scratch on me. I just, I think the suit is--"

Another trill cut him off. 

"Damn." Will stepped quickly but carefully down the corridor to the cockpit.

"Evantai here," he answered, settling gingerly into his seat. 

"Is everything all right?" crackled the tech's voice. 

"Um." Will glanced down at his gleaming obsidian body. "Yeah, sorry for the delay. I was in the galley."

"Command is assembling a crew and sending a ship to your location. Estimated arrival in twenty-three hours. Stay on Strigoi-3 and wait for them. Do not board the unknown ship. They'll need to ensure there are no contaminants on board before investigating what happened."

Heat crept up his neck. "Of course," he chuckled nervously. "I'm not an idiot."

"We know," replied the tech. "So just hang tight. Relief is on the way."

"Great, thanks. Evantai out."

Will toggled off the communication and sighed. Twenty-three hours to figure out what the hell he'd gotten himself into. 

**

"Off," Will said firmly. "Get off. Deactivate. Return. Go in the can. 离开. выключенный." He cursed and grabbed at the substance. He was able to pull it away from his chest for about a second before it liquified, oozed through his fingers, and snapped back onto his jacket. Getting it back in the canister was apparently impossible. "Damn it," he growled. "How can I hide this?"

And before the words had left his mouth, the black goo slithered under his clothes with a warm, tickling sensation against his skin. All over.

"Ah!" he shrieked again, scrambling in a circle, tearing open his jacket and pulling up his shirt. "Where did it go? Where did it go?!"

He found only the smooth planes of his hips and stomach.

"Robot!" he cried, spinning to face his friend. "Do you see it?"

Robot’s head shook side to side.

Will ripped off his flight jacket, and then his shirt, and then sat to unfasten his boots. He pulled them off one at a time, checking each for that oozing black substance, and found nothing but scuff marks and the fine pink powder residue left over from the decontamination procedure. Nothing under his white tube socks except fluff and toes and that one toenail that grew out crooked ever since he almost crushed his foot during a mining expedition. 

His panic increasing, Will jolted to his feet and stripped out of his trousers. When he'd kicked the garment off of his foot, he spread his arms and spun in front of Robot. “Anything?!” he demanded.

Robot stared, his stars pulsing rhythmically, his colour deepening to dark violet. His clawed fingers curled and released. 

Heat crawled with prickling feet up the back of Will's neck and into his cheeks and ears. He looked down at himself and realized that he was standing in nothing but his briefs and a blush. "Um."

A thud jerked his head up and he found Robot standing very, very close to him. Close enough that goosebumps rose on Will's stomach and chest, the hairs on his arms and legs lifted. His heart throbbed in the base of his throat and it wasn't just from fear. 

Was he always this shiny? he wondered vaguely, head tilting back to take in each gleaming, dark blue plate and shining bronze edge and perfectly fitted seam. 

Robot leaned in. He reached out a single finger and slid it into the narrow gap between Will's hip groove and his waistband. The sensation of articulated metal sliding against that sensitive skin made him gasp and freeze. He strangled on a breath, muscles locked and trembling, his body reacting so quickly that the rush of blood to his groin made him dizzy. How many times had he dreamt of Robot touching him? Thousands? Every other night since he was an awkward, too-excitable teenager lusting after an alien robot father figure--

Robot pulled the fabric away from his suddenly damp skin and rapidly swelling flesh. 

"I don't think it's under there!" Will squeaked, reflexively smacking at Robot's arm. 

He expected the smack to bounce off and sting his own hand. 

Instead, the blow landed with a loud clang . Robot's arm juttered sideways as though struck by something extremely powerful. Like a Chariot. He recoiled, catching himself on his back foot.

Will stared at his raised hand and the black goo seeping back into his skin.

"Oh shit," he whispered. 

At least now he knew where it had gone. 

"It's inside me." Will met Robot's stare. All of his misplaced desire had vanished, replaced by sickening realization. What was it doing? Eating him away? Poisoning him? Replicating inside him? Was he going to explode with nanobots or alien tapeworm spawn?!

Nausea burned the back of his throat. He dropped to his knees and leaned over to vomit.

His stomach clenched.

We're not done digesting that. It's chocolate, don't spew it on the fucking floor.

Chocolate. 

Right. 

He didn't want to throw that up. There wasn't any left on the ship. 

Will wiped saliva from his chin and mouth with the back of his wrist. He sat on the cool steel floor, rested his forehead on a raised knee, and released a shaky breath. 

Something brushed through his hair. Robot's claws, so deadly and strong, but so delicate when he stroked Will's scalp, conjuring a shiver across Will's shoulders. 

Will lifted his head. He met Robot's tender gesture and questioning white stars with a weak smile. "I think I'm okay," he said hoarsely. "It hasn't killed me yet, anyway. I didn't mean to panic, it just..." He watched his own hand open and close again. "I can't understand something I can't see."

Then you will see.

As if summoned by his thoughts, pinpricks of black welled up in the pores of his hand and arm. They grew, met, and merged until the black substance had once again formed a full, skin-tight suit. 

"This is insane," Will breathed, fear fading beneath wonder. "It must be nanotech. Maybe it, uh, just stays in one of my epidermal layers when it's not on?" He slowly climbed to his feet. He worked his arms and legs. Bent and twisted. Hopped in place. Flexed his biceps. He had always been about average in the physicality department, but with that suit on he felt… energized. Powerful. Strong enough to accidentally jump across the galley and smack Robot’s arm away.

He glanced around the galley and his gaze lit on the two steel tables bolted to the floor. Curious, he padded to one of them, gripped one side with a single hand, and gave it an experimental tug.

The table screeched out of the floor and four bolts scattered around the room. Will jumped back, startled, and laughed in disbelief. 

"I didn't even try," he breathed in awe. Shaking his head, he added, "I, uh, I should probably fix this…"

After finding three of the bolts and finger-screwing the table back down, Will's amazement had grown into excitement. The longer he wore the suit, the better he felt. 

"Let's go test it out," he suggested, patting Robot's arm. 

Robot trailed behind him to the ladder down to the bottom level. At the top, Will gazed down the shaft and considered the five metre drop. How resilient was this suit…?

You have no idea.

His right foot seemed to move by itself, jerking forward into nothingness. Will wobbled, arms pin-wheeling, and suddenly he was free-falling. The lights and panels of the shaft blurred past, and then he was at the bottom, legs bent to absorb the impact. He barely felt it. 

Robot whirred and his pale stars appeared in the opening at the top.

"I'm okay," Will called cheerily. “Come on down!” 

He backed away as Robot descended and turned to survey the empty cargo hold. His steps were silent on the floor grating, but the clang of Robot’s feet on the ladder rungs echoed in the wide space. Other than the crawler and surveying equipment strapped and netted in place to one side, the floor was clear. No bins of ore samples. He would have been disappointed that his survey mission had resulted in an empty hold, but it seemed that he had found something greater than rhenium. 

And the bodies , he reminded himself sternly, disappointed in himself for forgetting. People died out there. 

If you'd known those assholes, you wouldn't be so fucking sad.

What? Will shook his head roughly, confused by such a random, inappropriate thought. 

Not everyone's a good guy. Don't mourn them. Go check out how strong we are. 

Blinking, Will tried to shake off the bizarre inner monologue. 

He padded to the survey equipment and eyed the largest geotechnical drill rig--a four metre long, telescoping machine meant to be mounted on the crawler and driven out to wherever Will needed to take samples. Most of it was in one piece, but the auto hammer came stored separately. Will carefully freed the 136 kg, two metre long piece of iron and boron, slid his hands beneath it, and lifted. Like the galley table, the auto hammer put up little resistance and he was able to heft it to shoulder height.

“Incredible.”

Will turned to grin widely at Robot, who had arrived in the hold and hulked at the bottom of the ladder. With one hand, Will raised and lowered the auto hammer as if it was a hand weight, without so much as breaking a sweat. He tossed it to the other hand, missed to catch it in the middle, and fumbled it as its weight unbalanced and it started to fall.

His suit somehow became sticky and Will found himself holding the expensive equipment with just his palm, mere centimetres before one end of it struck the floor.

"Okay…" Will breathed out slowly. He carefully set the auto hammer down. "Maybe I won't juggle the machines. How about…" He bent over, planted his sticky palms on the floor, and lifted his legs. They rose and, as easy as breathing, suddenly he was walking on his hands. "Judy could do this when she was in gymnastics," he said conversationally. "For about ten seconds, anyway. The suit seems to be supporting my core and correcting my balance." He could feel it banding across his stomach and back, and the slight tugs against his thighs and calves. "Incredible." He pushed against the floor and sent himself into a somersault. When he landed in a crouch, he shook his head. "I can't believe this. Can you?"

Robot swirled, looking pensive. 

Will's eyes narrowed as an idea occurred. Robot had to be the strongest being that Will knew. How would Will compare to him…?

“Can I… try something?” he asked, approaching carefully. 

Robot’s head tilted, but he didn’t object as Will drew near.

Your heart rate is picking up. Interesting.

Yes, of course his heart rate was spiking. It had been since the moment Will first met Robot. Even as a child, he had been fascinated, awed, adoring. As a teen and adult, those feelings had grown over time to something else. Something… forbidden.

This adrenaline. It’s delicious. Move closer.

Delicious?

Will paused mid-step, confused again by the odd turn his thoughts had taken. Since when had he thought of adrenaline as delicious?

Adrenaline is excitement, adventure. It feeds us. 

Yes. Adrenaline. Excitement and adventure. Something that had been missing from Will’s life for the past year. Or more. Since he’d tried to cut Robot out of it.

But now, there they were, on an unexplored moonlet next to a crashed vessel, Will wearing some kind of technology with mysterious abilities and an unknown origin. It felt good. An adventure. Just without the danger of immediate death to himself or his loved ones.

Will stopped a foot away from Robot and examined the swooping curves of his chest plates and the ridges of his shoulders. He held up his hands and hovered them close to that rounded, alien metal. He swallowed to work moisture back into his suddenly dry mouth. “May I?” he asked, his voice dipping into a low whisper. 

Robot’s hands lifted and covered Will’s, pressing them gently to his chest.

Will drew in a sharp breath through his nose at the contact. If his heart had been racing before, it was beating furiously now. His fingers shivered from their desire to skim upward and explore each bronze edge, to reach up and caress that violet cosmos. He splayed his hands wide, savouring the warmth emanating from within Robot’s core.

And then he grinned. “Try not to let me push you, okay?” 

Will braced his feet and shoved . For a moment, nothing happened. Pushing Robot was like pushing a rock wall. Then the black suit tightened all over his body, flexing like a muscle. Robot's feet screeched against the floor as he was forced backward, leaving deep gouges in the steel. 

Will whooped and hopped back on his toes. "I'm as strong as you now,” he crowed, punching the air. “You don't have to look after little Will Robinson any more."

Robot released a disgruntled electronic growl. 

“What’s wrong?” Will laughed. He stared down at himself again, stretching his arms, rolling his shoulders, testing the stretch of the suit. It seemed like it could accommodate any movement he wanted. He crouched and fluidly leapt up and back, twisting into a backwards somersault, and landed lightly, barely making a noise on the steel floor. “This is amazing! I don’t know where this came from or what happened, but we have to get it back to the colony. With this kind of strength and speed enhancement, we wouldn’t have to rely on so many machines.” His smile curled ruefully. “Current company excluded. I’ll always need you.” He clapped a hand over his mouth and his face heated. “I can’t believe I just said that,” he mumbled into his palm. “Sorry.”

Robot steamed thoughtfully and strode in measured paces around his friend.

Will watched him, embarrassment quickly fading back into amusement. Robot looked worried. But what could he be worried about? The suit was… it was perfect. Will could be independent and strong, a true partner to Robot instead of a burden. 

“When we get back to the colony, they’ll figure out what this is,” Will offered. “The equipment there is better. Until then…” He skimmed his palms over the arachnid-like symbol. “Let’s find out what this thing can do.” A gurgle made him grin and press his stomach. “Ah, after I get some more to eat.”

**Art!**

Some adorable and hilarious doodles by Wimby:

Chapter Text

Venomous Moon 02

After Will had eaten every meat- and potato-based meal and then exhausted every lift-able, push-able, and break-able item in the Evantai, he finally made his way to his berth. Robot watched him closely, monitoring his human vitality indicators. His heartbeat was faster than normal, as though he had been running since the black substance contaminated him. His temperature, too, had risen by nearly a degree. Something had increased his metabolism. 

Whatever that substance was, it was not nanobots, as Will had suggested. Robot heard no electrical or radio frequency output. It seemed more similar to an organic entity than manufactured. The way in which it enhanced Will’s physical strength and resilience, too, made little sense. In all the information about humans that Robot had consumed, he had never come across anything that would increase a human’s kinetic output to such an extent.

Something was wrong.

Robot could only hope that they would return to the colony before something happened to Will. At least Will seemed to be in good health and pleased with the discovery. Though his grin and declaration that Robot would not have to look after him anymore had conflicted with Robot’s desires. Robot wanted to look after him.

So Robot stood at Will’s door and watched him prepare for his rest cycle. 

Will disappeared into the small ablation and washing room attached to his berth. When he returned, the black substance had retreated once again and his skin gleamed with moisture. He wore only his small white undergarment and a towel draped over his head. He scrubbed his face and the very short facial hair on his jaw and cheeks. When he looked up, his eyes widened as though he was surprised to see Robot standing there. As though Robot didn’t always guard his door. 

“Y-you know,” he began, dangling the towel over his bare abdomen with one hand and lifting the other. “You don’t need to protect me anymore.” His raised hand turned black, flexed, and then the substance soaked back in. “See?”

Robot’s circuits flickered in annoyance. Robot wanted to protect him. Nothing else satisfied the needs of his deepest, most critical programs. “Will Robinson,” he uttered, hoping to get his point across. “Danger.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Will sank onto the edge of his bunk. He leaned his elbows on his knees and bowed over his hands, lacing and unlacing his fingers. “I know we don’t know what it is or what it can do to me. But there just isn’t anything I can do about it now. And I’m so damn tired.”

The low light under the shelf next to him highlighted the dips and ridges of his spine and the sharp juts of his shoulder blades and the lean planes of muscles. Robot committed the images to memory. Will usually wore his colony uniform or a flight jacket – this vulnerable, exposed image was rare enough that it tickled along Robot’s sensors. He wanted to touch that fragile skin, feel its smoothness and softness, watch it react to his touches.

Will's head shot up. He stared at Robot, his eyes widening and irises thinning to delicate coronas around his swollen pupils. The capillaries beneath the skin of his cheeks, throat, and chest dilated, giving him a pink hue. His tongue slid out, wet his lips, and disappeared. He grabbed his towel and balled it up in front of him.

"Um, Robot?" he said, his voice pitching higher than normal. "Is something wrong?" He blinked and glanced away, his brows twitching together. 

Something shivered along Robot’s sensors--a signal not unlike the faint waves he occasionally detected from Will. But different. 

"No, I don't think he wants anything," Will muttered to himself. His expression shifted and he scrubbed his face again, fingers pressing into his shadowed eyes. "What's going on in my head? I… I need some sleep."

Robot stepped in and stroked the backs of his claws over Will's bare shoulder. When Will jolted away, blinking rapidly, Robot gestured at the bunk. It was there for a reason.

"Yeah," Will uttered hoarsely. "Good idea." He stood, his towel in hand, and turned toward the washing room.

Before he could take a step, Robot plucked the towel from his grip. He leaned past Will and pulled down the dark grey blanket to expose his cushion and pale violet sheets. 

Will flashed a smile and blood flushed into his face again. "Okay. Good night, Robot." He finally sat and slid under the sheets.

Robot carefully tugged the blanket up to his chin, only satisfied when he could no longer detect the escape of any of Will's precious thermal energy.

"Robot," Will chuckled. "I'm not a kid anymore." 

Robot ignored him. He strode to the washing room, hung the towel on its hook, and thudded back to the main door. He looked over Will one last time and, satisfied to see him safely stretched in his bunk, resumed his position just outside. 

The lights in Will's berth dimmed. Shortly after, the rest of the Evantai entered its energy-saving mode. Robot allowed himself to do the same, shifting down into a recuperative defragmentation and memory storing process.

Some time later--approximately thirty-six percent of the way through Will's sleep cycle--a faint slithering noise brought Robot’s attention back to the room. He scanned Will and tracked his leg moving beneath his blanket as he slept. He sighed and rolled over onto his stomach. A bare foot slid out.

It looked cold.

Moving carefully, Robot dimmed his photon emissions and stepped into the room. He bent and gently lifted the blanket and cupped the errant foot to slide it back under cover. 

Will murmured and his foot stretched in Robot's hand, and Robot paused. He stared at the extremity. He had downloaded information about human anatomy, but that knowledge did not compare to the experience of warm skin, the subtle vibrations of fluid travelling through narrow channels, the tiny muscles tugging on thin tendons to turn the lump of organic material into an intricate mechanism of motion. Carefully, he poked the bulbous end of the smallest toe with a curious claw and wiggled it, amused by the way it tucked in under its neighbouring toe. It was like the Will Robinson of toes: the smallest, but just as important for ambulation as the others.

He moved on to the other toes, wiggling each one to determine their range of movement. He tapped the useless blunt nails tipping each toe. He palpated the meat of the sole of the foot, and scratched lightly at the thick skin of the heel. That skin had thickened over time, changing in response to Will's age and activity. It seemed that, with every step, humans transformed and redefined themselves. 

Fascinating. 

Touch us.

Robot froze at the unexpected command. He looked up, scanning for the speaker. The signal had been at the low, faint frequency over which he received Will's thoughts and intentions. But the tone of it had been different. Hungry. Demanding. 

But the only figure in the room was Will. 

Had it been an artefact of his sleeping mind? From Robot's understanding, human brains processed simulated scenarios when they slept, and some were extremely divergent from the human's actual experiences--dreams. Since meeting Will and establishing their connection, Robot had glimpsed these dreams. He'd received images and sensations like twisted versions of reality, often of ships, humans, and robots like himself. Will's emotions and thoughts often spiked, from terror to joy to simmering, uncomfortable need.

His dreams had never spoken directly to Robot, though. 

He made the quiet, organic-like purring noise that he knew Will liked, hoping to elicit a response and discover if Will was awake or asleep. 

Will murmured sleepily and stretched, shoving his foot toward Robot until his toes pressed against Robot's chest and his shin and calf rested in the cage of Robot's hand. 

I know you want to, metal man. I can hear it. Go ahead. Touch us. 

Robot trailed his claws around the juts of Will's ankle and up his calf. He memorized the coarse, seemingly superfluous hairs, the line of his peroneus longus muscle, and the firmness of his gastrocnemius, which had been strengthened by wearing heavy boots. He reached the dip of his knee joint and lingered, fingertip pressed to the pulsing popliteal artery.

"Mmm," Will hummed, burrowing deeper into his pillow and blankets. His hips shifted back and forth and Robot sensed that deepening, electric emotion across their connection. He was enjoying Robot's exploration?

Encouraged, Robot ventured further up the back of Will's leg. He explored the line of the semitendinosus, and then swirled his claws toward the vastus lateralis that stretched taut down Will's inner thigh.

Will jerked, kicking Robot’s chest with a dull clang. He groaned and mumbled thickly into his pillow, "That’s nice." His hips rolled more sharply and Robot could see him moving beneath his blanket, rolling onto his side. His entire leg tensed under Robot's light touch. "God, Robot–" 

His warm voice suddenly sharpened. "Robot?" he repeated. "What are you doing?" He pushed himself to sit and brought up his knees.

Ah. He hadn't actually been calling to Robot after all. 

Robot remained crouched at the side of Will's bed, abruptly aware that perhaps stroking Will's leg while he was asleep might not be well received. Slowly, Robot tugged Will's blanket back into position. He hadn't been touching Will without invitation, no, he had only been straightening the covers to ensure his dearest friend and fragile human didn't get cold.

"Uh, th-thanks," Will muttered. "I thought you were, ah, never mind." He squirmed and glared down at his knees. "God, those fucking dreams… How am I going to get back to sleep?"

Not a dream, though, was it? purred that unfamiliar signal. 

Robot scanned Will again, hunting for that presence. 

Will's gaze snapped up to Robot. In the dim light cast by Robot himself, Robot could detect Will’s pale cornea, hazel iris, and deep pupil, and then the sudden, stark white of some other type of eyelid nictitating over Will’s eyes. 

And there it was.

“Robot?” Will whispered. His temperature and the speed of his pulse had already risen again. Triggered by something. “I…” He swallowed hard and his palms skimmed up and down his shins. “No. Never mind. I think I’d better just go to sleep. Um. Alone.”

Robot nodded in agreement–a mannerism that seemed to put his human friends at ease–and stood. With a last scan to ensure Will wasn't in immediate danger, he stepped out of the room into the Evantai’s brightening corridor. 

The door slid shut behind him. The sense of being cut off from Will sent a discordant unease through Robot's circuits. They should not be apart. Being apart never resulted in a beneficial outcome--over the years Will had been attacked, Robot had been trapped, and worse when they separated. Even in the safety of the colony, when Will decided they should not be in constant proximity to each other, Robot had been able to sense his unhappiness. 

Robot would need to show him how important it was that they stay together. 

After he dealt with this new threat and found out just what, exactly, had gotten under Will's skin. 

**

When Robot returned to the Evantai’s airlock, his processors spun rapidly through scenario after scenario on how to deal with the black substance-- the symbiote. The crashed ship contained a database full of information, now downloaded into Robot's memory. He had discovered that the crew had hoped to use the symbiote to support their exploratory space travels. 

The symbiote had disagreed.

And now the symbiote had found a new home.

Robot keyed in the airlock code, stepped into the increased gravity of the Evantai, and began the decontamination procedure. Pale pink foam--a caustic antimicrobial chemical--puffed all over him. Boiling water sprayed from jets in the floor, walls, and ceiling, washing the foam and any resistant microbes off Robot’s plates. Lastly, hot air blasted him dry. Robot increased his internal heat as well, burning away anything that might have infiltrated the seams of his armour.

The automated procedure completed, the inner door control panel glowed green, and the door slid open.

Still steaming, Robot strode forward. 

He rocked to a halt when Will stepped into his path, surprised. He hadn't felt Will's approach. Hadn't even known he was awake. Something was blocking their connection.

Will, once again enveloped in the symbiote from neck to toe, crossed his arms and frowned up at him through mussed bangs. "Robot," he said softly. "Where were you?"

Robot considered him, calculating the chances that the symbiote would hurt him before Robot could rip it out. 

Will’s eyes flickered with that other white eyelid. “You went to the crashed ship.”

Robot nodded. 

"What did you find, metal man?" hissed the symbiote, its voice distinct now that Robot knew what it was. 

Robot had found exactly what he needed.

“I’m quivering in fear.”

“Ugh, my head.” Will scrubbed his face and leaned against the side of the door. “It’s so… so fuzzy. What did you do over there? Were you looking for something?" He sucked in a breath. "You didn't plug into their computer, did you?"

With nothing to hide, Robot nodded again. 

"We’re going to get in so much shit now. The investigators will see you've been in the system."

Robot shifted his shoulders, emulating a human shrug.

"Robot… Command still has a hard enough time trusting you as it is. You can't just ignore their orders."

"Finally, we're getting pissed."

Will stepped closer, crowding into the airlock. His frown had deepened into a scowl, his brows furrowing and the thin skin below his eyes darkening. "You have to promise me. You have to follow their orders!" 

Robot hadn't made a promise to Will since they'd landed at the Proxima Centauri colony seven years earlier. He wasn't about to start. Promises were a human concept, an attempt to bind other humans with verbal, symbolic constraints. Robot would do what was logically and objectively correct to protect his human, regardless of "orders".

"No," he said.

"No?" Will repeated, his voice rising. His fists clenched at his sides and his jaw worked--an indication of heightened emotion. "No?! After I fought so fucking hard to keep you? I'm not going to let you throw it all--" His voice cut off and he grasped his head in both hands. His breath came in harsh pants and his heart beat a rapid tempo. "What's wrong with me?" he gasped. "Why am I so angry?" He peered at Robot with glossy red eyes. "Why am I angry at you ? You're my best friend. I should be angry at myself. Ah!" He dropped to his knees as though those fine ligaments in his legs had snapped. He cried out in pain and bowed forward, bracing himself on the floor grating. His hands fisted, crushing several rows of the grate. The symbiote bubbled and boiled across his shoulders. 

Enough.

Robot crouched and pulled Will to his shaky feet with a gentle grip on his arms. He gazed into a face contorted in pain, the eyes white, the skin a dark grey.

Before the symbiote could do any worse, Robot used what he had learned from the crashed ships database. He triggered his voice coils to emit a clear, 69 decibel, five-thousand hertz sound. 

Will stiffened and shrieked . The symbiote roiled and thrashed over his body. Will's face flickered, overlaid by toothy, large-eyed features. 

With unexpected strength, Will threw off Robot's hands, jerked away, and leapt at the airlock's external door.

Not anticipating this response, Robot's reaction was not quick enough to stop Will from keying in the exit code and starting the five second timer. The inner door closed.

Robot strode toward the control panel, intending to stop the opening sequence, but Will, still screaming and flickering, slammed into his chest and knocked him back. Robot reached for him, knowing that in less than a second, the airlock would become deadly for the human. But Will stumbled away, dropped into a cower against the external door--

And was sucked out before Robot could grab him. 

Will tumbled out into the airless, deep cold of space with a rush of air. 

Terror burned Robot’s circuits as he watched Will– his Will –roll down the Evantai’s ramp onto the dusty blackness of the moonlet’s surface. He shifted into his more agile, four-armed configuration and leapt with all the strength in his actuators, every fibre straining, desperate to reach Will before asphyxiation and the frozen nothingness could turn him into a husk of organic decay.

He neared, extended an arm, but even as he moved he had performed the calculations and simulations to know that he would never reach Will’s small body as it bounced and twisted away. The gravity out there was too low, Robot wouldn't be able to descend quickly enough.

He tried, though he knew he would fail. He reached .

Will’s tumbling brought his face into view. Robot glimpsed his wide eyes, his pale skin already rimed with ice, the bulge in his throat–

And then the black substance snapped up and over his neck and head like a helmet. Huge white eyes gleamed over his face.

Black tentacles exploded from his back, lashing out to latch onto rocks on the moonlet’s surface. Will’s mad flight slowed and stopped with those tentacles holding him in place above the ground. He hovered for a moment, clawed toes pointed, arms hanging easily at his sides, those bright eyes watching Robot come to a halt in the dust. 

Robot analyzed the symbiote's new structure, found it as inscrutable and unfamiliar as before with this new behaviour. Will was in there. He could hear Will’s heartbeat. But this was not congruent with human physiology – he should be dead.

"That's right," the symbiote growled. "He'd be dead without me. Just another human corpse littering space."

Robot's flexible feet dug into the rocks below him, crushing them in frustration. His glow turned the slowly settling dust into a red storm.

"We can stay out here as long as we need to. When the next ship gets here, there'll be as much gullible food as we can eat. Give it up, metal man."

Robot considered his options, running through the simulations. The symbiote had several advantages over him out there on the moonlet’s surface: 

• With his tentacles, he was more mobile. 
• With no atmosphere, sound could not travel, negating Robot’s attack. 
• The symbiote contained Will and Robot would not hurt him.

If he attacked, the symbiote might flee, might hide itself somewhere on the moonlet’s surface. And although it claimed that it could survive indefinitely, Robot had no guarantee that this was true.

"I'm not unreasonable." The symbiote's tone gentled from aggressive to persuasive. "I've made agreements with humans before. I've… appreciated my human hosts. This one is a good match for me. I want to keep him. As long as we're well fed, we will thrive for a very long time. Longer than a typical human lifespan. But if we fight over him…" It trailed off. 

Robot’s circuits lit up. The symbiote would increase Will’s life span? It had increased his strength and gave him the ability to survive with no atmosphere. Would it… protect him?

"In ways that you never could. I can regenerate him. Annihilate any disease or contamination that dares to enter this body. I just need to feed."

Feed on what?

Memories rushed into Robot's processors. An experience of pleasure and relief as Will bit into chocolate cake and then, a fainter memory, the sensation of teeth shearing through a hard skull and a long tongue scooping out soft, jelly-like brain tissue.

The colony contained ample chocolate, but Robot doubted the colonists would donate their brain tissue. 

A wisp of an image floated through his sensors. Judy Robinson in her lab in the medical centre, talking about growing heart tissue to transplant into an ailing colonist.

Did that come from Will? A potential solution?

"I like this one," the symbiote chuckled. 

Robot liked him, too.

And it seemed that the best option for keeping him was to accept the unexpected passenger.

Robot dipped his head in a nod and allowed his photon emissions to fade from scarlet to cool white.

The symbiote's large eyes shrank to curved slits--mimicking a human smile? It retracted its tentacles and sank to the ground. Once on its feet, it crouched and jumped above Robot and back to the ship. 

Robot spun and sprang after him.

**

Will regained control over his body once the decontamination procedure had completed, the inner door opened, and oxygen-rich air flooded the airlock. 

"We can breathe again, human," muttered his passenger, peeling away from his face.

Will gasped and staggered against the wall, tilting his head back and panting the sweet, humid air into his burning lungs. He had been suffocating, but the creature had somehow kept him alive--

"Good thing your robot let us in when it did. Regeneration takes energy, and we are hungry…"

"When he did," Will corrected automatically. "His name is Robot Robinson."

"Our name is Venom." Will sensed the broader reach of that statement, and knew the creature-- Venom-- had meant for Robot to hear it as well.

At least he knew he wasn't crazy. His thoughts over the past several hours had been chaotic and strange, and he experienced a bizarre comfort that the cause was an alien parasite.

"Symbiote," Venom snapped. "A parasite provides nothing to its host. Whereas I am a goddamn gentleman and hero."

Will smiled faintly. "Symbiote," he repeated. "Sorry." His gaze moved to Robot, still in his four-armed mode and hulking in the centre of the airlock, and his smile grew. "Are you okay, Robot?"

Robot's stars swirled pensively and Will could sense his perturbation. He was not happy. But at least he hadn't attacked again.

Will pulled away from the wall and approached Robot's tense form. He lifted a hand and Venom must have sensed his intention, for the symbiote soaked into the skin of his hand, leaving it bare. He laid his palm on one of Robot's lower arms and stroked a thumb across the runes etched on the inward edge. "I feel fine," he said reassuringly. "I don't think Venom wants to hurt me. He needs a host. And, ah, it wouldn't be the first time I've met an entity very different from myself and accepted it for what it is."

Robot’s other three arms closed around him and pulled him in. Will leaned against Robot’s smooth plates and released a long sigh. It didn't matter that he was a grown ass man and he'd barely spoken to Robot over the past year--the immense comfort of being inside the circle of Robot's arms had not faded.

Everything would be fine. They would find a way to take care of Venom.

"This is the first time a host wanted to 'take care of me' and didn't mean it in a 'find a fucking cure' kind of way," Venom chuckled. "Looks like I picked up a weirdo."

"It's been a weird couple of years," Will grumbled. 

"I can see that." Venom paused and then added, "I'll take care of you, too. But I'm starving."

"We're all out of chocolate and meat," Will said.

"That's not what I meant. I need your… excitement."

"Oh." Will felt a tingle low in his pelvis, erupting into a fizzling sensation that trickled down the backs of his legs. His stomach twisted. Before it got worse, he edged out of Robot’s grasp. "Are you doing this?" he whispered.

"Maybe. I want to show you something."

"Um." What other choice did he have? Or perhaps Venom would listen if Will did say no. The only times he had taken control of Will's body he had been either desperately hungry or in danger. Otherwise he restrained himself to whispering in Will's mental ear. "Yeah, okay."

Venom flowed back over Will's hands, and then his warmth crept up and over his face.

Will’s senses sharpened. He could see more clearly, hear every rumble of the Evantai, and taste the chemicals, the human residue, the metallic, burnt ozone flavour of Robot. Strength rippled through his limbs. 

"Come on," Venom purred, glancing over their shoulder at Robot as they stepped out of the airlock.

Venom strode through the Evantai’s corridors excruciatingly slowly. Will tried to urge him to run or leap or claw or something to relieve the energy building within him, the prickling in his legs and gut, but he maintained their measured pace. They passed the windows of the med bay and galley, and Will caught sight of their reflection: their sleek and muscular body, their white symbol and white eyes bright against a black as deep as the velvet void between stars. 

"You can say it," Venom murmured. "We're fucking hot."

Will shuddered. God, his body, it was shaking and hungry, but not for food. "Can we, uh, go faster? I need to move." His voice should have been muffled, his breathing restricted, but Venom’s mask seemed perfectly permeable.

"Oh, we'll move. We just need some space."

They arrived at the ladder to the cargo hold and Venom dropped them down into the sample room. They stretched their arms and groaned. 

"I need a certain chemical to stay active," Venom explained. "Without it, I'll go dormant. Your brain creates this chemical when you're stimulated." They moved to the centre of the room and gazed about in satisfaction, hands on their hips. 

"Stimulated?" Will repeated. "Like, uh, with a good book or physics problem?"

"Great, you're a nerd."

"Yeah, kinda."

"Not by a book or physics problem," Venom scoffed. "Stimulated by the three Fs: Flight, Fighting, and Fucking." They turned to regard Robot as he stepped off the ladder. "There's nowhere to run and I don't think he's going to want to fight us."

Will froze with shocked embarrassment as he realized what Venom meant. "Oh hell no," he wheezed, fighting against the rapid tightening across his abdomen and clench of lust at the base of his throat. "We're friends. I can't do that to him. Stop making me feel this way!"

"I can't make you feel something that isn't already there, human. And does he look like he's going to argue?" Will hesitantly met the dark purple glow of Robot's face and a sensual shiver travelled through his body. "The metal man has been hot for you since I got here."

Will struggled to swallow. "What?"

"Can't you hear him?"  

"N-no?" 

"You're a shitty liar. Don't forget, I'm in your head. I know what you want." Venom’s mask slowly split and Will experienced the bizarre sensation of their shared face stretching into a toothy grin and a long, long, long tongue sliding out between his fangs. "I know what we want."

**Art!**

Even more adorable art by Wimby.

Chapter Text

Venomous Moon 03

“Venom,” Will said worriedly within the pocket dimension of their physical form. “I don’t want to force him into anything…”

Venom’s grin widened. 

The human was sweet like milk chocolate, receptive, his thoughts sensitive, his body reactive to Venom’s suggestions. It made sense–he’d been sending and receiving signals with a robot for a decade without being fully aware of it. What didn’t make sense was how he could be in such denial. Robot had been feeling him up only hours earlier. He had surrendered to Venom in order to protect Will. There would be no “forcing”--

Well, maybe a little bit of forcing. That was all part of foreplay, wasn’t it?

Venom stretched and built up their bulk as they regarded Robot and Robot’s ten foot frame. Robot seemed to catch the direction of their intentions, as his four arms widened and his claws snapped warningly. His face, though, did not flash into aggressive red, and the constant needy signals that Venom had detected since waking in Will’s body did not stop. They strengthened .

“This is going to be fun,” Venom murmured.

“Oh god,” Will choked, and Venom tasted another rush of heady, intoxicating adrenaline and phenethylamine. 

“You’re right. Let’s just do it.”

Without warning, Venom crouched and leapt forward on all fours. Robot tensed to meet them, claws poised to strike, and Venom lashed out with four thick tentacles. They slammed into Robot’s four delightful arms, pinning them to the wall an instant before Venom landed on his chest and dug their claws into Robot’s chassis. They stared into Robot’s violet, starry face, fascinated by the pulsing and flow of each speck of light. They streaked from a place so deep it was like the centre of the galaxy.

Robot's arms strained against the hold and nearly broke free. His strength thrilled Venom’s thirst for a good fight. 

The human heart in their chest beat furiously. They faced this strange inorganic creature… and hungered for it. For him . They wanted him. Had wanted him for so long that they were mad from it.

Robot’s signals flickered across Venom’s mind. He seemed wary, confused, anger edging his interest. "Will Robinson," he said in a flat, electronic tone.

“We are Will,” Venom assured him. "And we are Venom." They leaned in and licked a long, exploratory path up Robot’s chest plates, leaving a trail of glistening saliva. They let the flexible tip of their tongue dip into crevices and ridges, tasting the blood-like tang of metal. 

Robot flinched as Venom’s tongue found the heat beneath his plates, and Venom heard his confusion and surprised pleasure. A concept sizzled across Venom’s awareness: the transfer of codes and information. The idea was electric with a sense of long-awaited relief, arriving with an image of data flowing, a deep throb of intimacy that Robot had been craving.

“Transfering codes,” Venom growled, ducking their head to lick again. “If that is what you call it. Our new physiology has some other ideas.” Their hands slid down Robot’s narrow torso, to clench around his legs, pulling hard to align their body with those warm plates and smoothly mobile joints. They groaned from the sensation of metal against the human flesh swelling beneath their outer coating. “We want to feel you,” they rasped, raising a leg to hook around Robot’s waist and lifting themself to get even closer. 

Robot growled and his aggression returned. Memories pushed into Venom’s mind, of robots battling robots, pitting strength against strength to determine supremacy and… desirability? The right to reproduce their programming?

Searing heat blasted from Robot's upper hands, burning away the two tentacles pinning them. The hands snapped down to burn the other two tentacles as one of his prehensile feet lifted and kicked Venom away.

Venom flipped backward and landed in a crouch. They retracted their singed tentacles and laughed. "This got more fun."

"Just watch out for the equipment!" Will wailed. 

"What am I, an idiot?" Venom snapped. They stroked their chest and lower, where Will throbbed pleasantly. "Your equipment is OUR equipment."

Will cursed, but couldn't say more as Robot surged across the room and attacked. 

They clashed, tentacle to robotic arm, claw to claw, long fangs to spiked armour, toothy grin to glowing face. Robot used his red hot hands to sear away Venom's tentacles and his inner heat prevented Venom from infiltrating his armour. However, he never struck Venom’s body with that deadly heat and he refrained from emitting that awful noise . Venom returned the favour by not slicing into the walls and Will's precious equipment to find electrical or incendiary weapons.

Regrettably, this put them at a disadvantage in those close quarters, and it wasn't long before they'd been pinned beneath one of Robot's feet, two of his toes split around Venom’s neck, the other two bracketing their chest. Robot crouched, glowing upper hands raised in warning, ready to incinerate any attempt at a tentacle.

Venom chuckled breathlessly. "You win." They gripped Robot’s foot and half-heartedly attempted to shove it off. "Are we strong enough?"

Robot's upper hands immediately cooled and his lower hands cupped Venom’s face. Venom didn't need to be psychic to know what he wanted. They pulled away from Will's head, leaving the skin bare to Robot’s sight and touch.

Will, still breathing hard, paralyzed by excitement, gazed helplessly into Robot's face. He whispered throatily, "You really want me?"

"Of course he fucking wants you!"

Robot's claws lightly stroked over Will's scalp, his cheeks, his lips, his jaw, his neck, raising goosebumps on the hot skin. 

"Will Robinson," Robot churred and removed his foot from Venom’s chest. He gathered Venom into his four arms and straightened.

"Our Will Robinson," Venom corrected.

"Our Venom?" Will suggested. 

“Shit, I cannot handle this. You are going to give me cavities.” Despite the complaint, Will felt a tickle of pleasure from Venom. He suspected that, being a symbiote and fully reliant on his hosts, he was more vulnerable than he let on. 

Robot’s grip shifted, his lower hands sliding down to support Venom’s hips and ass and encourage their legs to wrap around his waist. His upper hands continued their exploration of Will’s body as the black symbiote rippled and oozed away from the skin, though not before thin tendrils rose to coil teasingly around Robot’s fingers and wrists. A single claw rested against Will’s Adam's apple and rode out the bob as he swallowed. He petted the lines of lean muscles and ridges of bone, exploring with an intense focus that made Will shudder.

Venom, their hands alternating between symbiote and human, cupped Robot’s head. Will had never been brave enough to touch Robot’s face before, but there in Robot’s arms, with Venom’s strength and hunger in his veins, he let his thumbs stroke the edges of Robot’s glowing face. He had thought it would feel like glass, but the surface was smoother, warmer, and it prickled with energy. Dark purple and bright white stars clustered beneath Will’s fingertips and followed the caress.

Will, feeling bold, pressed his lips to Robot’s face. His tongue flicked out to taste, and he hummed as it tingled. 

Robot's hands drifted lower and Will squirmed and flinched at every ticklish skim and stroke over his ribs and sides and stomach. He ground his butt into Robot's palms, trying to tighten his legs and press himself against Robot’s ridges. Venom had made this movement seem predatory and sexy when they came on to Robot earlier, but Will just felt desperate and needy. God, he was so turned on. He'd never felt this way before with anyone, a feeling like he might explode if this went on too long.

"He is taking his fucking time," Venom growled. "You do not need to be careful, Robot. You will not hurt us. The human is going to cream his shorts."  

To illustrate, Venom exposed Will's white briefs, now straining and damp.

"V-Venom!" Will squawked, wrenching his hands down to cover himself and his embarrassing state. Bad enough that he had feelings for his friend, but to be this far gone already--

Two tentacles lashed around his arms and forced them back up. "No hiding," Venom chuckled. 

Robot massaged a path down Will's shivering thighs, his grip tightening as he seemed to realize that Will wouldn't break. He clawed back up from knee to hip, leaving burning, stinging lines that immediately tingled from Venom’s regeneration. 

"Ah!" Will hissed and gasped from the powerful sensation. When had pain become something good ?! 

Robot once again slid a single claw into the waistband of Will's briefs. This time, Will could do nothing but shiver and flinch at the cool touch, and huff out an apology. "S-sorry, Robot, I guess I always--" He cut off at the sound of fabric tearing and watched in dismay as his briefs split down the centre and revealed his swollen, glistening erection.

"Now we are getting somewhere." Something slick slithered down Will's spine, squirmed between his ass cheeks, and wrapped around the base of his cock, revealing itself to be one of Venom’s thin tendrils. It squeezed and Will choked and thrashed from the unexpected spike of pleasure. 

Robot buzzed and made a high-pitched noise--not quite at Venom’s four-thousand hertz limit, but high enough to serve as a warning. 

Venom chuckled darkly and retracted the tendril. "He is yours. For now."

Robot’s hands should not have felt so good on his sensitive flesh, but the sensation of those deadly claws stroking up and down his length, following his veins, tickling at his tip, and sliding across his weeping slit had him nearly sobbing with need. 

"God, Robot," he panted. "Please, please." He strained at Venom’s bindings around his wrists, desperate to touch himself. He struggled to rub against Robot's body, but Robot held him immobile and just continued torturing him with those delicate, stinging ministrations. "Are you doing this on purpose?!"

Robot’s face tilted up and the expression of swirling joy and the emotion of desire that crossed their connection jolted directly into the base of Will’s cock. Will groaned as his abdomen tightened and his hips jerked. Half ashamed, he tried to close his legs and breathe deep, but he was unable to stop it. Heat coiled in his spine and pulled on the tendons and nerves in his legs. His cock pulsed and his wet release spurted over Robot's hands, leaving him sagging and flush with embarrassment.

"Mmm," Venom sighed. "That will do for an appetizer, anyway."

"Oh damn. I… I'm sorry." Was he sorry? Should he be sorry? How could he have come from just that? Just the excitement alone of having Robot’s hands on him...

It seemed like a major let down.

Robot touched his fingertips to the white fluid smeared across his palm. 

"It… it's my genetic material," Will explained, blushing harder. 

Robot’s stars spun in annoyance. Will received a push of information--Robot downloading extensive information on human anatomy and behaviour. His version of "I know."

“You are in so much fucking trouble,” Venom laughed. "He is going to tear you apart. But do not worry, I have us. It will take more than a mechanical hand job to finish us off."

And already Will could feel the tell-tale tightening--his body telling him he was getting ready for another round. 

"You can regenerate this, too?" he asked, incredulous. 

"I get a buzz every time you get off. Hell yeah I am going to keep you coming."

"Oh."

Robot caressed Venom's skin, both symbiote and human, and appeared to be thinking. His stars formed a glowing series of loops before stilling into his usual swarm. He seemed to come to a decision, as his chest plates began to slide smoothly together, making a soft clinking, hissing noise. Slowly, fluidly, his chest split down the centre, revealing his glowing orange inner self, and the blue and black cables seething within.

Will watched, fascinated, as the cables pulsed and moved against each other. Though he'd seen them before in numerous disconnected robot body parts and the drive engine, he'd never thought that Robot would choose to expose them.

When several of them peeled away from the rest and aimed their glowing ends at him, Will shivered in comprehension and Venom chuckled again. 

"Mm, you are more than you appear. Looks like we have something in common." Black tendrils rose from Venom’s chest and shoulders to meet Robot’s cables, winding around them coyly. A spark shot from one of the cables to Venom’s skin, and Venom shuddered as the mild electric shock tingled through them. "Shit, okay, our robot boyfriend is going to wreck us both."

More cables rose and played over Venom’s body, trailing delicate little shocks wherever they went, until Venom was writhing in Robot's palms. They allowed Will’s arms to fall so he could cling to Robot's shoulders and their tentacles embraced Robot's huge frame. 

" This is a code transfer?" Venom groaned. "Fuck."

Two inquisitive cables passed Will’s parted lips. They explored his mouth, twisting around his tongue and poking into the spaces behind his teeth. He gagged when they tried to go down his throat and they retreated apologetically. 

Robot manipulated Venom so their legs were forced wider. Those thin, warm cables wrapped around Will's newly hardened and dripping cock, and Will and Venom both gasped. His hips rocked, trying to shove into that electric grip. Robot's upper hands continued to tease and sting Venom’s back and Will's scalp, his lower hands massaged their ass and thighs, until the sensations mixed into a dizzying, overwhelming flood of ice, heat, and that electric crackle. 

With every spark, Venom felt a rush of second-hand pleasure from Robot, amplifying their own. Robot wasn't just pumping them full of current, he was shooting a load of information all over them, fulfilling a deeply encoded, primal need.

With Robot tightening around his swollen, weeping erection and the sensory overload from Venom, Will could do nothing but moan and hold on. He gripped the sharp, dangerous spikes of Robot's shoulders until his palms burned and pressed his trembling lips to Robot’s face. He surrendered to another climax, his hips jerking helplessly and knees tightening around Robot's waist. 

A flicker of disappointment crossed their connection as Robot's cables retracted from their trembling, sweaty body. He hadn't quite finished--

"We are not done yet, you greedy sex machine." Venom shook their head and their symbiote skin rippled. "There is more that you can do with a human body than fiddle with its cock."

"Wh-what?" Will uttered dazedly.

Venom straightened away from Robot and leaned back into a netting of their own black substance. They let their legs fall open and grinned lazily at Robot's curious swirl of stars. They pulled their symbiote skin back to expose Will's thighs, momentarily flaccid cock, and the shadows beneath.

With slow intention, a slick black tentacle slithered up each of Will's thighs, aiming for the dark crevice between his buttocks.

"What are you doing?" Will squeaked, his attention sharpening back into focus.

"You know exactly what I am doing."

"Ack!" Will gasped at the first probing touch of a tendril against his hole. It lapped at him, wet and hot like a tongue, making him clench and squirm and his cock jump back to life.

Robot growled and tried to claw at one of the tentacles, and the other one smacked his hand and waggled at him. 

"Patience! I am getting us ready for you."

"Getting us ready?!" Will squirmed as the lapping continued. It didn't hurt, but it was… was so weird, and slimy, and stimulated a part of his body that just shouldn't be stimulated that way.

"You will love this."

Will struggled to pull his legs together and his arms down, but Venom and then Robot gripped his wrists and thighs. "H-how do you know?" His voice rose as he slipped into a panic. "Don't you know what that opening is for?!"

"I bonded with six humans while the Life Foundation worked on me. I picked up more than they realized." Venom’s voice deepened, gentled. "I will not allow you to be hurt. Neither will he. This will feel good. For both of you."

Will’s gaze caught on Robot's face. He fell into the endless cosmos of him and allowed himself to feel the signals that Robot had been transmitting. Not just friendship or obedience, but a true desire for closeness and intimacy, whatever form it might take. 

"You really want to do this?" Will asked weakly, still shivering as Venom moved against him. "With me?"

"Yes," Robot said. Although his robotic tone was flat, strong affirmation flowed through their connection. 

"O-okay." Will sank into Venom’s grasp. 

"Relax," Venom murmured.

"I'll try."

Will heard his own heart thumping wildly, and it was only as a thin tone danced over the beat that he realized Robot was making music again. The low throb sank into his limbs.

The first of Venom’s tendrils slid past Will's clenched sphincter and he let out a shocked huff. He stiffened in discomfort and the tendril slipped out. As soon as he released a breath, it intruded again, deeper.

"Ah?" Will whimpered, confused by the stimulation. 

"Good, yes?" The tentacle worked in and out with a wet slick-slick . 

Will wanted to answer, but he was having trouble forming words. Venom was all around him and inside him, and Robot's music and glowing face were in his mind, and everything was slippery and rhythmic and dizzying. 

He jerked, startled and gasping, when Venom sank deeply enough to hit some kind of extremely sensitive nerve. 

“There it is,” Venom murmured. 

"V-Venom--uhn--what are you--" Another tentacle joined the first and Will whimpered from the sting as they both pushed inside. 

Robot’s music cut off and he whirred in concern.

"It is okay," Venom rasped. "We like it. We can take it."  

And Venom’s regeneration warmed and relieved the discomfort, replacing it with only an increasing pressure and fullness and a smooth, constant stimulation of that hidden nerve that had Will’s eyelids fluttering. Robot's music began again, a counterpoint to the wet squelch of the alternating thrusts of the tentacles.

“This should be enough. We will let Robot have a go, shall we?”

The tendrils pulled out, leaving Will empty and open, liquid cooling between his thighs and cheeks. 

Robot bent over them, his cables once again trailing all over their body. They went everywhere, exploring, caressing, once again leaving behind those little shocks. This time, though, they wended their way lower, following the path that Venom had made, and slid adventurously into Will’s entrance. 

“Oh god,” Will choked as Robot writhed inside of him and buzzed against that extremely sensitive nerve . He clenched everything as the sensation crackled through his body and even Venom muttered a garbled string of “Fuckfuckfuck” . 

Through slitted eyes, Will watched more of Robot’s cables emerge and wrap around each other to create a thick, knobby appendage. 

“Oh shit, is he going to do what I think he is doing?” Venom’s tentacles snapped up to wrap around the appendage and ooze their slick slime over it. “Lubrication!”

Robot churred appreciatively and lined up with Will’s entrance. As soon as Venom released him, he began to push in.

A moan ripped out of Will’s throat at the overwhelming intensity as Robot forced himself past the tight ring of muscle. Stars flickered behind his eyes. 

The mix of pain and pleasure, fear and desire turned into a heady, uncontrollable mix. Caught in Venom’s hold and the strangeness and otherworldliness of the symbiote, the fear of losing all control fluttered in his breast. Robot, a counterpoint of comfort and trembling excitement, thrust in and out, sliding deeper, filling him until he thought he’d come apart. Whether it was Venom’s influence, or Robot’s, or his own forbidden desires finally being allowed out, he felt himself falling, losing himself until he was just a shivering, twitching, sweating mess suspended between symbiote and robot. 

Robot’s claws gripped Will’s thighs tighter until Venom’s darkness welled up beneath the points. His flow of energy increased and his stars flickered wildly. 

Wracked with sensation, all Will could do was try to hold on as he built higher and higher. 

Venom’s dark laughter wrapped around him as their tentacles wrapped wetly around his cock and a thin tendril slid into his slit. He felt it slither into his urethra--again, a sensation where no sensation should be, sharp and startling. It slid in and out, delving into him until he wanted to sob from the fullness, and the shock of it triggered another climax. Robot whirred and the last of his code burst across Venom’s skin and into their body as Will cried out in disbelief and ecstasy and Venom roared. 

Will collapsed in Robot's arms, panting and trembling, and Venom retracted to a quiet, contented glove of dark warmth sheathing his human. Robot played a low, soothing melody as he reeled in his cables. He didn't seem concerned by the copious amounts of human and symbiote bodily fluids now coating his inner workings. 

When Robot's chest had once again laced back together, he pulled Venom against him. "Will Robinson," he murmured. "Venom."

Venom shivered over Will's skin. He had gone from the despair of rejection from his own people, to captivity by humans, and the oblivion of dormancy to… this.  

He rested, sated by the rush of emotions that his host had experienced, the spikes of phenylalanine and adrenaline like a feast. Will alone would not be able to feed him--he needed an external source so he didn't eat the human away from the inside--but at that moment he could just be.

Robot stroked their spine and Venom could not recall a single moment quite like it. His hosts did not allow him to emerge during intercourse. He was shoved away, excluded, made to watch in silence. He had never been an active, accepted participant.

He would have thought he’d perished, folded in on himself, and transported to an alternate dimension of eternal rewards if the robot hadn’t attacked him and he hadn't felt the painful pangs of hunger upon waking.

So this was real, but it seemed… too perfect. 

The man who’d woken him hadn’t panicked at his presence, hadn’t immediately tried to cast him out. Instead, he’d enjoyed the strength and speed that Venom could provide and then offered to take care of him . When had anyone ever wanted to take care of him? 

"Never, that is when," Venom muttered to himself.

"Huh?" Will mumbled. 

"Nothing. Go to sleep. Robot boyfriend, take us to bed."

A rush of amusement from Robot made Will smile against his chest. Robot smoothly rose to his feet, cradling Venom in his upper arms. With the lower, he ascended the ladder to the Evantai’s upper level and carried them to their bunk. 

"We can get used to this," Venom said as Robot tucked them in.

"I guess I can, too." Will watched Robot crouch down next to his bunk. "I'm going to have to move out of my parents' house, aren't I?" 

"You bet your ass."

Robot's stars swirled in agreement.

Chapter Text

Epilogue

The Elita-1 touched down next to the Evantai and Judy Robinson was the first to cross the airlock chute once it was established, locked, and decontaminated. She knew that Will was safe--he had just been speaking with the Elita-1 over radio, he had Robot with him, and he hadn't even boarded the crashed ship--but she couldn't shake the feeling that something had happened to him. 

Will met her in the entrance to the Evantai’s airlock, an easy smile on his face and arms loosely folded over his civilian clothes. Behind him, Robot loomed and glowed. 

Judy's medic's eye swept over him, noting how he glowed with vitality. He filled out his long-sleeved grey shirt with more lean muscle than she had expected, and his posture was more relaxed than she had seen since he first started dating his girlfriend. Her concern must have been completely unfounded--he looked better than ever.

"Hey," he said. 

Judy smiled in response and moved in to wrap her arms around his chest. He didn't have their father's breadth, but he was almost as tall, and she relaxed to feel his solid presence. Sometimes she forgot that he was an adult and accomplished pilot, explorer, and geologist, and that she really didn't need to worry about him.

When she pulled away, she reached up to pat his cheek. "Please tell me you forgot to shave and you're not trying out Dad's goatee style."

"Wh-what!" he squawked, stepping back and rubbing his patchy blond attempt at a beard. "So what if I am? It's okay to try something new."

Laughing, Judy shook her head. "Yeah, it is. Keep trying." Her smile faded as she brought them back to why she was there. "So you found something weird, huh? Classic Robinson."

"Yeah." He ruffled his hair and blew out a huff. His expression shifted into a smirk and he glanced to the side. In an amused undertone, he murmured, "Yeah, I know." Then he flashed that boyish grin at Judy's again. "Hey, do you have any chocolate on board? Maybe we can catch up over a snack?"

"Chocolate?" Judy could not remember the last time he’d requested a dessert. "Yeah, probably?"

"Great!" He linked his arm with hers and tugged her back toward the Elita-1. Robot fell into step behind him. 

Judy dragged them to a halt. "Wait, uh, the rest of the crew isn't really comfortable with…" She trailed off and rolled her eyes at Robot. "Having him on board."

"You're kidding me." Will's brows pulled in, one of them a smidgen lower, and his lips parted to reveal his front teeth as they ground together. He wouldn't want to hear it, but it was the expression their father made when he was disappointed. "He's been living in the colony as long as we have."

"Some of them are new arrivals, some were on the Resolute when he… you know. It's hard for them. You know that." Judy shook her head. "Or maybe you don't know that. When was the last time you went to visit him? He's been cooped up in his house for most of the past year."

A wince made his face spasm and he rubbed the furrow between his brows. "Really? Damn. I… I thought he'd make new friends or spend more time with the rest of you." 

All Judy could do was continue shaking her head silently. 

Will groaned and twisted away. "I know," he whispered sharply to the corrugated steel wall of the chute. " I know . I feel like enough of an ass, you don't need to rub it in."

"Will?" Judy touched his elbow.

His quick spin back around startled her into a little jump. He smiled widely, but Judy didn't miss the appearance of dark shadows around his usually warm eyes. Her concern began to return, sliding down her spine like tiny fingers of ice. 

"Yes?" he said. "What's up?"

"Um." Judy started to point at the wall, but let her hand drop. "Never mind."

"Okay, cool. Come on." Will continued toward the Elita-1. 

Judy's mouth opened to remind him about the crew's discomfort with Robot, but Robot chose that moment to thud past her and she remembered that between Will's stubbornness and Robot’s indestructibility, the two were basically unstoppable. She snapped her jaw shut and hurried after them.

"Oh, hell no," she heard an angry female voice drawl as she followed Robot into the Elita-1 airlock. 

Judy eased past Robot’s arm and offered an apologetic half-smile to the woman in a dark blue uniform standing in front of the inner door. "Captain Chen, you know my brother, Will Robinson. And, uh, Robot Robinson?"

"That thing won't step a damn foot on my ship." Captain Chen rested her hands on her hips, not being subtle about the weapon holstered on her left.

"Captain--" Judy began, but cut off as Will suddenly pushed himself backward, pressing his knuckles to his mouth, his face blanching. Robot allowed him to pass and then followed as he hurried back down the passage, nearly doubling over as if about to be sick. "Er." Judy turned back to the captain. "Captain, Robot is a part of our family and the colony. Without him, we wouldn't have even gotten to Alpha Centauri."

"And that's fine for you, but how about the rest of us? When that thing reverts back to its factory default settings?"

"Okay, first…" Judy lifted a finger, but her voice trailed away as she realized she didn't really know how to explain. Will always stepped in to launch an explanation about Robot’s feelings, his evolution, and his inherent awesomeness, and usually people either grudgingly agreed or just gave up and made their escape. Except that he had fled back to the Evantai. "Um, okay. For now. Excuse me, but I need to get a few things."

Captain Chen's eyes narrowed, but she allowed Judy to pass back into the Elita-1. 

Some minutes later, Judy boarded the Evantai, wondering what she might find. Was Will sick? Was that why he'd run off? 

"Will?" she called. "Are you all right?"

She picked out a distant voice and followed it to discover Will in the galley, pacing around the table, which looked tilted for some reason. His hands moved as he spoke and his gaze rested on the floor. He was talking to… himself?

Robot stood just inside the room, watching, seemingly at ease, so Will wasn't in any physical danger. But Judy didn't know if he knew enough about human mental health to be a good indicator of Will's well-being. 

"It'll take time," Will said, his tone gentle, sounding very much like he was trying to soothe someone. "And patience, and you can't eat people just because they're afraid."

"Will?" Judy called again, lingering in the doorway. "What was that about eating people?" She began to think she should get him a sedative. Solitary travel could do strange things to a person, and Will had experienced enough stress through his young life that it wouldn't be a surprise if he suffered a break even in adulthood.

"I'm not angry," Will continued, seeming not to have heard her. "I understand. I've dealt with this for almost a decade. And it's not fair, it's not right, but biting off their heads won't fix it."

Poor Will , Judy sighed inwardly. He's been fighting so hard for Robot all these years. No wonder he had to step back from their friendship. Was it a mistake for them to go on a mission together? "Will?" Her training keeping her voice calm even while her throat was squeezing with pity. "Everything all right?" She stepped carefully toward him, reaching to touch his arm.

Six fingers closed around her wrist, firm if not hurting her, and Judy jumped, staring up at Robot in trepidation. Robot didn't look angry; his white stars spun and pulsed at regular speeds and in his normal patterns. Memories of moments when he hadn't been on the side of the humans flashed through her mind. She hated that she still felt that old fear, but just couldn't shake it off when he was so inscrutable and deadly.

"Robot?" she croaked. 

He released her, but swept her back a few steps. "Danger," he warned softly. 

" What?! I would never hurt my brother!"

His head tilted toward Will, and Judy had the worrying impression that he wasn't talking about her.

"Um, okay." Judy reached into her side bag. "Will, I brought the chocolate you asked for." The vacuum sealed package gleamed silver as she wiggled it back and forth.

"Chocolate?" Will stopped and his head snapped around. He reached her in four swift steps and started to snatch the package out of her hand, but stopped an inch away. "Ah, thanks, Judy. I think this will help."

"Yeah, no problem. I've never prescribed chocolate before, but there's always a first time."

Will sat at the tilted table and tore the package open. Without waiting for Judy to join him, he took a large bite of the brownie inside, closed his eyes, and moaned faintly.

Judy's brows twitched upward at the uncharacteristic and slightly unsettling behaviour. The sound of her little brother moaning was definitely near the top of her list of Things She Never Wanted To Hear Ever Again. "Um, did the Evantai not have enough food?"

Will shook his head without opening his eyes. He finished eating quickly and, when the brownie was done, seemed reluctant to put down the wrapper. 

"Will?" Judy prompted when the silence dragged.

Flinching, Will glanced up, almost guiltily. "Uh, no, I had enough food. It’s…" He sighed, looked at Robot standing behind him, and then toyed with the empty wrapper. In a low voice, he asked the piece of rubbish, "Do you remember how I found out Robot was dangerous and I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want them to panic?" 

"Yes…?" Judy's stomach sank. Had Robot done something?

"I don't want to do that again. And we're going to need your help."

"Okay, well, whatever Robot did, we'll figure it out--"

"What? No. It has nothing to do with Robot." Annoyance etched the frown back on his face. 

"Then who is we ?" Not appreciating the run-around, Judy let her own irritation show. "Just tell me what's going on."

"Okay." Will took a deep breath and Judy's irritation quickly faded when she saw the worry tighten around his eyes and mouth. "Okay, I'm going to show you. But--" Will held up a finger before Judy could demand more answers. "I need you to do two things for me. Don't be afraid, and don't use the P-word."

Swallowing hard, Judy tried to joke, "Telling someone not to be afraid just makes it worse. And what P-word?"

Will leaned forward and whispered, "Parasite."

"Oh my god, Will, what have you gotten into?"

A black, oily substance suddenly spilled out of Will's eyes, skin, and clothes. Judy gasped, leapt to her feet, and scrambled back until she came up against Robot. 

Will grew huge; long, curved white eyes glowed in his face; his mouth became an enormous, gaping maw filled with fangs, a long pink tongue unraveled from between his jaws. He folded his clawed hands over a white symbol on his broad chest and lifted his clawed feet to the table top, crossing them at the ankle. 

In a deep, gravelly voice, he said, "The better question is, what has gotten into him ."