Life in Red... • RED DWARF • Arnold Rimmer x OC story

6. Disorderly Conduct - part 2

All of my credits were repossessed and my crimes were written on a digital file, making it nearly impossible to pay for a way out.

I spent the first day before court trying to find a way off Mimas, even though I knew that evading imprisonment would only lead to more punishments, more trials and inconvenience if caught, that is.

The second day I gave up and accepted my fate, stumbling aimlessly into a bar at lunchtime to try and get the bartenders to give me a drink, the last drink I'd have had for the foreseeable future. 

I was thrown out of course, mostly for not having an expendable dime on me. 

By chance, by pure coincidence, one of employees from a mining vessel 'RedDwarf' got tossed out near the same time that I did for causing a brawl over a bowl of peanuts that were apparently 'insulting his mother'. 

The employee, I'd come to learn after meeting him, called himself Selby and he had a drinking problem that left him in a near permanent state of undiagnosed idiocy.

I was walking down the street from the bar in a stupor when this Selby person collapsed on the sidewalk outside. He'd cursed the bouncers with a bloodied nose, slurring and swearing with the same contempt that I felt. In the midst of his outrage, he'd called out to me, asking for help to stand up as he crawled on his hands and knees towards me.

"You! Y-Young man," he stumbled and fell onto his side.

"No." I backed away, glaring at him.

"What's the t-time?" he squinted up at me.

"...Seven-thirty pm." I lied, looking down in contempt as the man's blood stained chin swung open and dripped red droplet and saliva onto the already unkempt pavement. It was maybe only 12:30 at the latest, but I wasn't entirely sure either.

"Ah, shite! I'll pay you five credits if y-you get me a b-bloody cab!" He managed to sit himself up, pawing at his breast pocket for the bulge of a wallet. "I'll tell ya lad, if I don't get back to the bloody 'Dwarf I'll be castrated, I-I tell ya!"

The thought of receiving five credits for something so menial sent a momentary pulse of optimism into my otherwise cold veins. There was a pause, a long one, as I near drooled at the sight of the man's wallet and his shaky hand pulling out a few bills that could've been mine.

"Fine, I'll help you." I went to the side of the road and began to wave up to the hoppers and cabs as they passed by us without stopping.

"Hurry!" he spat, tripping over again as he attempted to stand. "I gotta... I gotta get to w-work!"

After a few minutes, one of the taxi-hoppers pulled over for me and I quickly swung the back door open, pointing to the inside to try and initiate some constructive action from Selby the drunkard.

"C'mon now, Mister. There's a cab here." I walked toward him expectantly, nudging him with my boot to try and get him to stand. "You're gonna be late, man." I rolled my eyes, trying to snatch the fiver from his sweaty, stubby fist.

"Oi!" he barked, lifting his hand for me to grab. "I n-need you to get me into the hopper, boy. Go on, help me up." he whined, a bit like a child.

I reluctantly took hold of his arm and used more and more of my lackluster strength to get his pickled, languid body into the taxi. He cursed at me for taking to long, and I threatened to steal his wallet. By the end of it, I was dragging him on his stomach by the ankle into the hopper's door, rolling him at an awkward angle just to get his torso inside.

"Where you off to, then?!" the driver yelled, irritated with the delay.

"Uhh..." I began to feel the trickle of nervous sweat peel from my creased brows. "Hey, man." I poked at the man's rosy, scruffy cheek. "Where is it you're off to again?"