Holo-Man

I'm Dying to Save a Life

While everyone else was preoccupied with cleaning, sleeping and watching the television, Aria left to go to Zaggit Zagoo, a bar on the planet Zog where her adoptive father once went to. She frequented there a lot when she felt lost, and at the moment she was. She needed a place to think. Using her vortex manipulator, she went back in time and went to the bar when it still existed. It was usually teaming with alien species, the likes of which the Red Dwarf crew had never seen. Rimmer would probably flip his lid. This time there wasn't many customers; just her, a "friendly" Zygon and the bar's usual customer, an Adipose. She watched it stagger around the bar top, slightly sniggering at it.

She sat there, contemplating what to do. The only effective way to make sure Rimmer would be okay is if they all thought Aria died. She could just up and leave, but there was the off chance they'd find her. Then again, Lister had been looking for Kochanski for a while now and had no luck so far; maybe she would be lucky.

She found a few candidates; Alpha, a moon once used for mining purposes only, but was recently inhabited by an unknown alien race, New Earth, which would put her a few billion years into the future, or the last option: Go back to her own timeline. It would be nice to go back. She was getting tired of hoping around different timelines constantly. However, she couldn't take the risk of them finding her. It was decided: She would go to Alpha: The last place any of them would look.

Aria traveled back to Red Dwarf to gather a few things. As she strolled down the corridor to her sleeping quarters, she sang, and slightly danced to the tune of Don't Lose My Number by Phil Collins. No one would be able to tell from her chirpy disposition that she was about to leave, and she wanted it that way. That and the song was in her head ever since she left the bar. It temporarily made her forget the sad fact that she was leaving her favourite moron behind. She was just starting the second round of the chorus to the song when she turned the corner and nearly smacked into the moron himself.

She screamed a bit from being startled, and hastened to say, "Sorry." She then did one of his silly salutes.

Rimmer had a look of disdain. "Are you mocking me?"

She pursed her lips. "No, sir. Not at all." She actually was mocking him. "Why are you wandering around? I thought you were resting."

"Everyone left me to my own devices. There's nothing to do!" Rimmer griped. He looked at her with hope in his eyes. "Want to play a board game? I'll let you win."

Aria slowly shook her head. "I'm not really a fan of board games."

He glanced down at the floor, thinking. His face lit up when an idea came to him. "I could show you my photo collection of 20th century telegraph poles!"

"You've already shown them to me."

"Hike in the diesel decks?"

"Arnold," she chortled. "I really don't have time for this now."

He was utterly dejected. He was bored, and just wanted to spend more time with her. "Right. I'll just... smeg off, I guess." he mumbled, and started to somberly walk away.

Aria sighed and muttered under her breath, "Oh for the love of..." She couldn't believe what she was about to say next. "Rimmer,"

He stopped in his tracks but didn't turn to face her. It was probably for the best. This way he wouldn't see her slightly crying.