Holo-Man

You're Going to Be Spectacular

Rimmer sat in Aria's cold, empty room on Red Dwarf. He couldn't believe she was gone. He was left wondering what made her do it; he wondered if it was something he did. He couldn't understand why she would do something like that. Was he that horrible? Perhaps if he let Lister talk earlier he'd know; he just didn't want to hear it at the time. Still, he truly felt like he was nothing in that moment; he felt like a failure. What happened tonight proved it. He failed to help her; he failed to get to her in time. He was angry at her for saving him and at himself for allowing himself to get too close.

He went through her things, mainly because she did the same with his belongings, plus he was curious. He found a tape titled "Aria's 'On the Road Mix'". He stuck it in the player. The first song was Waves That Rolled You Under by Young Summer. He was sort of perplexed by it at first. He wasn't really into any other genre of music other than brass or Hammond organ music, but he was beginning to enjoy the song.

His head was killing him. He couldn't keep his eyes open, so he laid down in her bunk, just to close his eyes and try to feel better. He wound up falling asleep, while Aria's tape still played in the background. It made for some vivid dreams. He dreamt he saw her in one of the rooms on the ship. They didn't speak. They just held each other close, slowly dancing in the middle of the room.

Everyone had been looking for Rimmer, and finally found him fast asleep in Aria's bunk. That was the calmest they've seen him in the last 32 hours. Lister didn't believe Aria at first, but aside from the heightened emotional state he had been in, which was to be expected, it seemed as though he hadn't glitched at all like he did when she was here. In a way he actually was allergic to her.

Lister pulled a chair from the table over to the bedside. For a moment he stared at Rimmer. He'd never admit it to his face, but he felt bad for him; he felt guilty. Sure, no one knew she left, but they had an inkling she was going to. They just didn't know when. He hated himself for not doing more to stop her and he always would.

Lister gently placed a hand on Rimmer's shoulder and gently shook him. "Rimmer, wake up."

He was always quite the heavy sleeper; waking him wasn't going to be easy.

Rimmer stirred slightly. While sleeping he quavered, "Don't go."

Lister tried again, saying Rimmer's name softly.

Rimmer sharply inhaled as his eyelids shot open to see Lister's chirpy face, along side Cat, who was aloof, and Kryten, who had a look of slight distress over his well being.

"Oh, its you." He had a look of disdain. He hoped it was Aria somehow back from the dead. "I think I made it perfectly clear that I wanted to be alone."

"We were just checking on you." Lister said.

"Well, you've done that. Now you can go away." He sat up in bed, watching them not leave. He stared at them with derision. "Are you all deaf?"

Lister chose to ignore him, and he noticed the video tape he left on the table. He picked it up and looked at it. "What's this?" he asked.

Rimmer sighed. "It's a video message." he replied. "I haven't played it yet."

"Well, why don't we?" Lister wondered.

"It's from her. I know it is. I don't want to see it."

"You can't tell me you're not curious to know what she said."

"No, I'm not." He lied; he at least wanted to hear her voice again.

"Tough." Lister was about to take off with it to slide it into a video player elsewhere.