The Beyond: Chapter One

 Notes: OMIGOD I'M FINALLY STARTING IT! We're moving on with the Liminal Space universe, at last, and with none other than Robbie and Wyl (and Kyle and Isidore and other assorted characters). It's been so long, but this woman's just started her staycation and is raring to go, creatively speaking.

I'll try to post weekly, not sure exactly which day yet, but we'll figure it out.

ENJOOOOOY! 

Title: The Beyond: Chapter One

 

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The Beyond

Chapter One

 

Photo by Mark Sendra Martorell 

 

The first thing Wyl did when he woke up was make sure his husband was still breathing.

The coolness of his skin was almost unnoticeable at this point. All of them were cool verging on cold this far out in the Beyond, nothing between them and space except their heavily rad-shielded ship, its aesthetic becoming more Drifter style every time they pulled into a station for repairs. Cold meant they were saving money for other things, which was all right.

The stillness was even easier to understand—this was Robbie, after all. A former Marine, station security chief, and child of Mars, Robbie had grown up without ever having the space to really spread himself around. He’d been the sole member of his family to survive the cryosleep from the Home System to the New System more than five decades ago, and he’d chosen the military because it came with built-in orders and a decent income. No, expanding hadn’t been something Robbie indulged in until he and Wyl got together, and even then Wyl was willing to admit that he’d taken up more than his fair share of their space.

The breathing, though…the first time Wyl had woken up next to Robbie and found his husband cold and unmoving, no breaths moving inside his chest, he’d freaked out. Literally lost his mind—fierce and immediate horror had overcome all the expensive Regen treatments he got on the regular for his mental health, and he’d screamed and shaken Robbie’s shoulders until the man had woken up and brought his crisis to an abrupt and confusing end.

That had been three years ago. Wyl didn’t lose it like that anymore, but he couldn’t stop himself from checking. Moving slowly, because he didn’t want to wake Robbie up before he had to, he reached over to the bedside table and grabbed the miniature tab he kept there. He checked it was on the right settings, then held it within an inch of Robbie’s mouth. Keeping that same distance, he went all the way down to the center of his chest before accessing the readings with his implant.

Blood Pressure: 75/34

Temperature: 34 C

SpO2: 100%

Heart Rate: 30 bpm

Respiratory Rate: 2 breaths per minute

On anyone else, it would have indicated a coma. On Robbie, this was one of his livelier mornings lately.

Robbie shivered. If he hadn’t been looking at him so closely, Wyl would have missed it. As it was, he saw the minute tremor wobble across his chest and abdomen and had to forcibly resist the urge to shake Robbie awake. Whatever state the parasite inside of him was cycling through at this point, it was worse to interrupt it. Another lesson learned the hard way.

The cycles were lasting longer these days.

Still, he should come up in the next ten minutes or so. Watching Robbie wake up was like watching a resurrection, and it was something Robbie preferred to go through on his own.

“You don’t have to monitor me every single time,” he’d said a few years back when this was all still much more new and scarier. “I know you don’t like to watch it.”

“Who would?” Wyl had snapped. “That doesn’t mean I should leave you alone for it.”

Robbie had sighed and kissed his forehead. “Baby,” he’d said tiredly. “I’m not alone, and it’s not going to let anything bad happen to me.”

Wyl hadn’t believed that back then. It had taken several near-misses and one genuine miracle for him to see that Robbie was right. As long as he carried the parasite he’d gotten from Rory MacAllister, he had a built-in layer of protection that none of the rest of them did.

Wyl blinked, getting his mind back on track. He set the blanket to slowly warm up, because he might not like watching but he didn’t want Robbie shivering into consciousness either; it hit too close to waking up surrounded by dead people after his cryogenic mishap. He tucked it in close around Robbie’s shoulders, kissed him soft on the cheek, and frowned when he felt stubble on the skin. Robbie depilated regularly; even with a production boost from Regen, he shouldn’t be showing this much hair growth on his face so soon.

It was going to be time for a full check-up when they got to Cloverleaf Station. For all of them, but for Robbie most of all. They were lucky the place had such a discreet doctor. Gania had poured a lot of money into that station over the past few years, ever since LifeShip Industries had taken administrative control of it. It was a good place to rest and recharge, and this time around, Pence was waiting for them there.

Had it already been twelve standard months since he’d left? Shit, time flew.

Wyl stopped staring creepily at his husband and got out of bed. The floor wasn’t cold—he wore socks constantly, he was never going to have cold feet again, damn it—but the air was, and by the time he grabbed his clothes and got in the shower, he was the one freezing his ass off.

The cleansing unit cleansed…efficiently, was about the best he could say for it. They’d kept the ship they stole during their escape from Redstone, one that was made to house between six and ten people. With five of them, it had been comfortable; with four it was downright luxurious, everyone having the option of a room to themselves if they wanted it. Wyl used his for the projects that wouldn’t fit on the table in the mess.

He dressed quickly in a pair of dull gray pants and a thick, luxurious black wool sweater that had been a gift from Garrett for his last birthday. Then he pulled his hair back into a short tail, slipped on his untied boots, and headed out to go find breakfast.

Kyle was in the mess already, getting a cup of coffee from the machine. He glanced over and smiled as Wyl stepped into the room. “Hi.”

“Hey.” It was hard not to smile back at Kyle; Wyl didn’t even try to stop himself anymore. He had that impossible Alexander charm, just like his father had. It didn’t hurt that he had golden-brown hair in need of a trim, bright blue eyes, and a face that looked like it had been designed in a lab…because it had, but that wasn’t Kyle’s fault. The sort of genetic manipulation Kyle had undergone at the hands of his sociopathic brother was incredibly illegal, but not many things were actually illegal to the former president of the Alliance. Rot in hell, Raymond. “You’re up early.”

Kyle laughed, the way Wyl had intended. Honestly, there was no such thing as early in the Beyond; their circadian rhythms were wholly fucked out here apart from the time they kept on the ship, and that depended a lot on the kind of work they were doing. Mining paid well but required intense focus, so regular shifts of waking and sleep were essential.

The other work they did out here…that was way more variable, and way more important as far as Wyl was concerned, but they had to pay for it somehow. That meant mining for rare minerals, which was a hell of a lot easier with Robbie’s passenger telling them where to find the biggest hauls.

Wyl didn’t like to think too closely about that.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I ran inventory,” Kyle said as he put a new cup under the coffee machine and set it for Wyl’s standard order, which had three times the caffeine of everyone else’s. Then he headed over to the food prep area, where a pot had been unfolded, a random meal added—knowing Kyle, some sort of breakfast grain with added gritty, chalk-like powders for protein and vitamins—and the timer set to cook. It looked like it would be done soon, judging from the steam that escaped from the edges of the lid.

“How’re we looking?”

“Flush. We’ve got almost two tons of platinum-group metals, plus a decent amount of cobalt and nickel. Some pretty pallasite too, for the collectors.” He sipped from his mug, plain white that had been savaged with a brush so often parts of it had gone gray, and watched Wyl go through the motions of adding a teaspoon of thick, sweet syrup to his concoction and stirring it with a condenser until he finally sat down with him.

“Where’s Isidore?” Wyl asked. Isidore Cain, the fourth member of their crew, bunked in the room next to Kyle’s. He didn’t always join them for breakfast, but he had steadily regained his ability to socialize over the past few years, to the point where he didn’t wear any deadly mods in their presence. Going undercover at Redstone had done a number on the guy, but at least his time in exile was coming to an end.

“He was reading when I saw him.”

“New message from Pence?”

Kyle shrugged. “Or Garrett, or General Caractacus. He’s got a lot of friends.”

So do you. Only most of them didn’t know that Kyle was alive. Very few people left in the Central System had the clearance for that.

Two, specifically. And only one of them ever sent messages. The other had to be contacted directly from Cloverleaf Station.

“It’s going to be weird here without him,” Wyl offered in an effort to get Kyle to open up. Screw everyone who said he had no emotional intelligence, he knew a bid for connection when he saw one.

Kyle knew what Wyl was doing, of course, but he went with it. “It is. It was weird when Pence left, but it’ll be even stranger without Isidore.”

It really would. Pence, or rather Penstemmon Garaval III, and no wonder the poor fucker had shortened his name as soon as he’d gotten the chance, had only stayed in the Beyond with them for a year before he was able to negotiate a return to Central System space. He wasn’t welcome on any of the major planets, but he wouldn’t be arrested for hanging out in the Fringe, which he preferred anyhow. Wyl had kind of never expected to hear from the guy again, but apparently the friends with benefits situation he and Isidore had started up had more depth than he’d expected. Pence had done a lot of the legwork behind getting Isidore’s name cleared and his permissions to live and work within the Alliance reinstated—with Garrett’s help, of course. Once they got to Cloverleaf Station, Pence would meet them there with a ship, ready to whisk Isidore off to a whole new life.

And he deserved it. He did, but Wyl was going to miss him. Isidore, apart from being a good guy and a gifted engineer, was a stabilizing influence on Robbie. Wyl had his…moods, and Kyle wasn’t exactly a shining example of perfect mental health after everything that had happened to him, but Isidore had been surprisingly well regulated. He’d met Robbie beat for beat and maintained a sense of calm that Wyl could only admire from afar, and once he was gone…well, things were going to get a lot more complicated.

But we can handle it. We’re close to finding the answer we need. Just a few more forays into the Beyond, and hopefully they’d have found a way to free Robbie from the parasite that was riding him so diligently. Wyl wanted to hate it, and yet…

“We’ll be okay.”

Wyl looked over at Kyle, who had an understanding look on his smooth, handsome face. “Hmm?”

“You’re worried. I know it’s bad when you get that line.”

“What line?”

Kyle rubbed the spot between his eyebrows. “That one. But it’s going to be okay, Wyl. We’ll manage. You guys won’t be out here forever, I’m sure of it.”

But I might be went unsaid but heard. Wyl’s heart ached for the situation Kyle had found himself in, through no fault of his own.

“We won’t leave you behind,” he promised.

Kyle nodded. “I know you won’t.” The pot clicked, indicating it was done cooking. Kyle got up to dish it out into bowls just as Isidore came in from the hall.

Wyl took one look at him and laughed out loud. “Someone’s excited!” Isidore had dressed up in his nicest outfit, the fabrics soft and colorful, draping across his body in the suggestive style of Solaydor without actually giving anything away. His long, dark hair was braided, and the tips of his nails were painted silver, to match his eyes. “You look so nice. Dressing up for your beau?”

He blushed. It was precious. “Maybe.” He took the bowl Kyle offered him, then frowned. “Speaking of, where’s yours?”

That…was a good question. Robbie ought to have joined them by now. “I’ll go check on him,” Wyl said, standing up just as Kyle set his food down. “Keep it warm for me, I’ll just be a sec.” He walked back into their bedroom, the closest to the mess, and was surprised to see Robbie was still in bed. The air was warmer, blanket doing its job, but he was as still now as he’d been when Wyl woke up.

“Baby?” Wyl came over and sat on the edge of the bed next to him, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?” He could see Robbie’s chest moving now, at least. “Robbie?” A prickle of unease began in his fingertips and sped up his arms, penetrating his chest like tiny bolts of lightning. “Robbie. Wake up.” He was prepared to get louder, but just them Robbie’s eyelids fluttered. Wyl heaved a sigh of relief and leaned down to kiss him—

Then jerked back as he looked into eyes that had gone completely black except for the thin circle of brown iris within them.