Laurier| Rimmer X OC story

Before The Fall part 2

"Cornelia Evelyn Laurier" The captain gazed at the file, her name printed next to a not so flattering photo of her on her first day of Z shift as well as short sentences detailing her role on Red Dwarf and her small set of skills "Toddhunter claims he caught you red handed tampering with the results of the Astro navigation exam" He looked up from her file and folded his hands on the desk, looking at her with an interrogating glare "you do realise that this a serious breach of ship law, if someone is given an important role and is not fully qualified, it could put all of us in danger" Hollister raised his voice at her and stood from his feet, succeeding in asserting his authority.

Laurier looked at the floor, understanding what problems her decision could have made and feeling a great sense of shame over the situation. The captain sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his free hand, his stress over the situation clearly showing "Explain yourself Laurier" She let herself meet the captain's eyes with a nervous glance, her arms firmly at her side still trying to hold her ground and not let her superior see how guilty she was, seeing her lack of answer, Hollister sat back down in his chair, still maintaining eye contact with her "Ok, well by what Toddhunter saw it seems the results you were attempting to change were Arnold Rimmer's results, now I don't know what would compel you to try and improve his impossibly bad score, but from the basic evidence I'm seeing, it would be safe to assume that you did not do this alone, so if you tell us Rimmer's involvement, he will be put it stasis and you will get off free" Laurier was shocked, 'stasis?' Rimmer wasn't even involved and yet he was being threatened with stasis? It wasn't fair in the slightest and she couldn't let Rimmer take the fall for her mistake, he was her best friend and it was just wrong "No, sir I assure you, Rimmer had nothing to do with this, it was all me, I did this on my own. I saw how stressed he was with finding out his results and I-I" she paused, trying to think of the actual reason why she did what she did.

The captain leaned forward slightly, indicating that he wished for her to continue with her sentence, which Laurier had no intention of finishing. The captain accepted there was no way that he could hear the end of the sentence and leaned back into his chair, still maintaining his authoritative posture "So you're saying Rimmer had no involvement what so ever?" Laurier shook her head vigorously "no sir" she said a bit too fast and with way too much enthusiasm "you do realise this means you will have to be put in stasis for the Remainder of the trip, and forfeit your remanding wage?" Laurier took a moment to consider it, a chance for extra money was the main reason she had joined Red Dwarf, losing that money would mean she could say 'bye-bye' to her dreams of drama school affect all of her future plans, it could be so easy to just let Rimmer take the fall and move on with her life...yet, it was Rimmer, he had been there for her most of Red Dwarf and they had been friends for so long now he couldn't just abandon him when it benefited her, he was the most important person in her life right now and she cared far too much for him to suffer the same fate she would have to.

"I-I will face the consequences sir"

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Laurier walked through the narrow corridor with Toddhunter in front of her leading her to to the stasis booth's, they had only left the Captain's office a few minutes ago and she felt exposed standing next to a member of authority especially since she perceived Toddhunter to be over six foot and Laurier wasn't exactly the definition tall, standing at roughly 5 feet and 6 inches herself, and the countless people looking at her as she walked through the hall and giving her a few dirty glances. Even though she was only going to be stasis for the next 17 to 18 months, she still felt a certain level of grief over the fact that this was probably the last time she would see any of the ship and most of her crew mates, including both Rimmer and McGruder. she let her yes wander up away from the floor to look at her surroundings and saw Rimmer standing in the door way to the infirmary, his usual uniform replacing the hospital gown he was wearing previously complete with tie around his collar and a watch around his left wrist, he was talking to one of the medics and she was unable to take her eyes off of him, once they had made their way closer, Rimmer straightened his posture at the sight of Toddhunter, but both his posture and face dropped when he saw Laurier following closely behind, they looked into each other's eyes and he watched as she gave him a small smile and weakly waved at him, he looked at her confused unsure of what was happening, if only he knew that that was the last time he would have seen her for a long, long time. She figured McGruder would hear the news of her punishment to compensate for the fact that she suddenly didn't have a bunk mate, but it still felt weird that she wouldn't be able to bid her fair well before going into stasis, other than Rimmer, she was one of her closest friends on the ship.

The two arrived at the stasis booth's and Toddhunter led her further into the ship, and they passed a familiar face waving at the glass in front of him, unable to move due to the stasis field, Laurier kept her eyes on Lister for a few moments longer, and in any other situation she probably would have laughed at his situation, but considering she would soon be in the same state in a few minutes, she chose not to laugh. "Right, here we are Laurier" Toddhunter alerted her, causing her eyes to snap back from the distant view of Lister In suspended animation and move themselves to take in what she was seeing, she looked at the large metal door, and felt slightly panicked at what being suspended would feel like, feeling a lump form in her throat she managed to form words "so...what does this...feel like? Does it hurt?" She said looking up at her superior with slightly frightened eyes "It doesn't really feel like anything. You see, time is unable to penetrate the stasis field so a few months here would be a split second in there, so you wouldn't even notice the change in time, so while you may exist you no longer exist in time, and therefore time simply becomes a construct for you" He looked down at her with a smile, which was met with a blank, confused stare "what?" She muttered, keeping her eyes on his face, unable to understand what exactly he just said "It will go by quick" he said eventually, which caused Laurier to give a satisfied smile and nose her head slowly.

Toddhunter opened the large metal door and gave Laurier a reassuring look before gesturing for her to step inside, she hesitated but reluctantly stepped inside, she looked around and saw the small, cramped space and gulped, giving one last hesitant took to her superior. The door closed with a loud "thunk" and she watched as Toddhunter said something, but the tightly shut door restricted what she could hear. Now, when you've been placed in stasis and have to be in the same position for months on end, you have to make your suspended...animation...ness memorable. So as she watched Toddhunter walk away, she gave a sly smile and quickly held her hand in front of the glass and gave the world the literal middle finger.