The Last Woman

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The Red Dwarf crew had been having a rather boring day. None of them had had any excitement for a while save for Kryten but that was only because he enjoyed cleaning much.

When Holly detected the distress signal it has made their day- even more so when they found out there was a human life sign too.

Kryten was the first to board the abandoned and dust ridden ship he went to the main control room and made sure all the life support was restored so the rest of the crew could board.

This also triggered the stasis pod to open on the deck below.

Zora gasped for air and shook her head. A smile broke across her face upon realising that she had a chance. Of there were people here there was another ship. What she couldn't account for though was whether they were friendly.

"I knew I should've bought a weapon with me," Zora huffed stepping out of the pod slinging her small bag of belongings over her shoulder.
Stepping cautiously through the ship she wondered how long she'd been in stasis for dust was piled on practically every surface in sight.

"Ew dust!" The voice gave an animal like screech.

"Relax Cat its not that bad." A scouser replied.
Zora tensed up she couldn't remember the last time she'd seen people. She grabbed a pipe off the floor feeling its heft she felt satisfied it could do some damage if she needed it to.
"I can't believe it we're on the Solaris 1." The voice was full of excitement.

"What's so amazing about that?" the first voice questioned.

"What so amazing about that!? It's the Solaris 1 it was supposed to be lost in space no one knows what happened to it. It was one of the biggest unsolved mysteries." The third voice explained.

Zora honed in the voices as they continued to bicker amongst themselves. She kept moving towards them until they were on view.

They were an odd bunch to say the least and she didn't know whether to trust them or not. So she went with her first thought. Swing and ask questions later. Zora twisted out of the doorway and swung the metal hard. It passed straight through the man dressed in green and crashed against the wall.

"What the f-"

"Woah, woah, woah. Calm down love!" The scouser cried.

Zora gazed at the man dressed green with wide eyes. She passed her hand through and felt and strange buzz.

"Excuse me but can you get your filthy hands out of my projection," The man said quirking and eyebrow and looking at the woman disdainfully but the look didn't last long. From there they all wore similar expressions except for the strange looking mechanoid.

"Umm why are you all looking at me like that?" Zora backed away slightly.

"I believe it has something to do with you being a woman ma'am," The mechanoid answered."Now why don't you come with me and we can explain."

Zora nodded and followed the mechanoid.
"What's your name?"

"My name is Kryten Ma'am I'm a series 4000 mechanoid." Kryten opened the door back onto their ship which was on far better condition than her own.

"Hey wait for us!" The scouser yelled as heavy clanging of feet against metal filled the air.

"Wait series 4000?" She asked feeling a wave of panic wash over her.

"Last time I heard they were only on series 3000. How...how long was I in there for?"

"I think you might want to sit down for that."

                                   ***

"Wait no no this can't be right." Zora passed about the room as the two men watched her with concern. "You're telling me I've been in stasis for over three million years!"

"Give or take a few centuries," Rimmer added.

"Not helping," Lister berated the hologram which was something else Zora was attempting to get her head around.

"So I've been lost in deep space for over 3 million years. And in that time my ship became a legend and a mystery and I have become the last ever female?" She slumped down on the lower bunk bed in the room.

For the past hour Rimmer and Lister has been trying to explain all that's happened to Zora whilst Keyten went to make her something to eat and the Cat went to change into a new outfit for am unknown reason.

"I know its a lot but it gets better," Lister attempted to comfort the tense woman.
"It is a whole bloody lot to take in but I guess there's nothing I can do but accept it besides if I don't do that my only other option is to go insane and I don't quite feel like doing that at the moment." She laughed.

"Well that's good to know," Rimmer said
Both men were still smiling at Zora which is when I clicked into place. She was the last woman and she was also the first woman these people had seen in years. Zora sunk back into the bunk more feeling more uneasy than she had before. Of course it wasn't really their fault.

Kryten came in carrying in a tray of food and asked Zora to follow him. He led her along the corridors to another room which was completely clean and void of any former crew members belongings.

"You can stay for now miss Zora and we can find you some more suitable quarters if you would like them."

"No these are fine Kryten, thank you."

The nice peaceful moment didn't last long as shouts and crashes could be heard along the corridor. Lister and Cat came tumbling though the doorway whilst Rimmer walked in after pretending as if he hasn't been racing down the corridor with the other two.

Before any of them could get a word in the square headed mechanoid was already shepherding them out of the room rambling on about how Zora needed to eat and rest not get harassed by three hooligans. She never got to say it but Zora was very grateful. She took the time to est and them did her best to sneak around the ship making notes of things she could fix or just play around as she was always so fond of doing. A few times she had nearly walked in on Rimmer, Lister and Cat talking about her or rather arguing who should be able to date her.

One day it became to much and she burst in on the three.

"Alright that's enough!" He yelled commanding the attention of all in the room. "I've had just enough of you three bickering over me and eyeing me like some prized pig!"

Her chest heaved as she eyed them all angrily before stomping out of the room back to her own quarters. She huddled herself.in the corner of the top bunk facing the door of the grey painted room. At the moment all she wanted was a friend but it seemed none of them had that on their mind save for Kryten.

A little later on Lister entered the room a little timidly trailed after by Rimmer and Cat.

Zora raised an eyebrow at the three but didn't speak.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot so we thought you might want to join us for a drink and we all promise that it is all in the name of friendship," Lister said smiling kindly at the brown haired woman.

The emerald dressed man nodded his head in affirmation where the Cat looked confused and in complete disagreement until the others glared at him at which point he agreed rather disappointed causing Zora to laugh.
She jumped down from her bunk her shoes meeting the ground with a small thud.

"Sounds good to me."