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

14. Cats in the cradle - pt 2

"What was that thing?!"

We sped into Lister's room. The door wheeled shut behind us.

"You're asking me?!" Lister shouted. "Holly? Holly?!"

"What's up dudes?" Holly checked in on Lister's screen.

"Holly! There's a g-ghost on the ship." I stuttered.

"Not a smegging ghost, Hammond." Lister shoved past me, standing in front of the computer with his hands searching in his pockets for a cigarette that wasn't there.

"—You mean a non-human organism on Red Dwarf?" Holly asked with surprising nonchalance.

"Is there such a thing, Hol'?" Lister asked.

"If you mean the non-human organism aboard this ship, than yes."

As if a long cold finger drew it's icy tendrils down my spine, I shuddered on cue.

Lister and I looked to each other, both of our faces blanched and pale.

Lister's door wheeled open and we both shrieked again, this time practically jumping into each other's arms.

Rimmer stopped at the door, staring at Lister and I with a peculiar expression.

"What the smeg are you doing?" He cringed.

I shoved Lister away. "You didn't lock the door?" I hit him. "What if Rimmer was the terrifying organism?"

"What terrifying organism?" Rimmer stepped inside, walking through the space between me and Lister towards Holly.

"The terrifying organism on Red Dwarf, I suppose." Holly said with aching indifference.

"—An alien?!" Rimmer jumped to his own conclusions. He pretended to be scared, but he was also too excited at the proposition of an extraterrestrial being.

"It's not an alien, you manky git." I stepped beside the loopy hologram. "It's obviously a ghost."

"Ghosts don't have DNA, Hammond." Lister scoffed.

"It's an organism." Rimmer's eyes gleamed, "An inhuman organism. One with technology way in advance of our own."

"Gross," I shrugged both of them off, taking my rest on Rimmer's bunk.

"Holly, when did it get here?" Lister questioned.

"The non-human entity? Quite a while, I suppose. It's twenty years old give or take. I have it on me radar right now—"

"Twenty years?! Why didn't you say anything?" Rimmer turned his attention towards me, his panic faltering within a second. "...Hammond. Out of my bunk."

"Is that really the issue here, Rimmer?"

Lister, somehow acting as the voice of reason, spoke up above the rest of us.

"—He have to find out what this is. Right? It can't just run around the ship."

"Uh, yes it can, Lister. I mean, we've only just noticed it. If it was hostile, it'd probably already be using our innards as sausage casings." I said.