Holo-Man

Rimmer Is Dead, Dave

They hit the mother load; they got plenty of food, medicine and they even found some extra curry, which made Lister immensely happy. Aria and Lister were the first to step off of Starbug and onto the landing bay of Red Dwarf. Kryten was the last to come on board.

As soon as Aria got inside, she took out a portable monitor from her pocket and checked the video feed of the medical bay. She didn't trust Cat to do his job, so she brought one with her to watch Rimmer as she went with the others.

"Huh..." she uttered.

"What's wrong, Ari?" Lister asked.

"Rimmer is gone." She tried not to panic. She always kept a calm demeanour, but deep down she was as anxious and neurotic as Rimmer was. "He was there 30 minutes ago." she thought.

Cat screeched and strutted towards them. "Hey hey, buds!" He pointed to Aria with both hands, making finger guns. "Lady bud. What's happening?"

Aria couldn't hold it in anymore, or she'd explode. "He's gone, that's what's happening!!" she snapped. "You're supposed to be watching the bloody monitors!" She pulled back her arm to swing a punch but Lister stopped her.

"Calm down." Lister exhorted. He turned to Kryten and asked, "Can you scan for signs of him?"

"I can give it my best." A few bleeps and bloops later, he found that Rimmer was nowhere on the ship.

"Well, he couldn't have just vanished. Scan again. Maybe he's in soft-light mode where you can't read him?"

"I don't think it works that way, sir."

"Just do it!" Aria demanded. She was becoming hysterical.

He still couldn't find any sign of Rimmer anywhere.

A voice boomed, "Welcome back, lady and gentlemen." It was Rimmer, but his voice sounded different. He almost sounded like he did when he had a holo-virus years ago.

Lister couldn't tell the difference. "See? He's still here." he insisted.

"But, sir, I scanned twice. He's not on board the ship." Kryten said.

"Okay, so we ask him." Lister walked over to the com unit on the wall, and pressed the button to talk with him. "Rimmer, where are ya?"

"Who?" Rimmer asked. It took a moment to register. "Oh, yes. It isn't here."

They found it odd that Rimmer was referring to himself as "It". The whole situation was odd, but at that point it was just business as usual.

"Then who are we talkin' to?" Cat asked.

"You are speaking with Red Dwarf." The way he said it made it seem like they should have known who it was.

Aria leant in by Kryten. "How much access does he have of the ship?" she whispered, low enough for "Ship Rimmer" not to hear her.

"As much as it pains me to say it, Mr. Rimmer has full access, ma'am."

"Where are you going with this, Aria?" Lister wondered.

She ignored Lister's question. "What about his holographic presence? Can it be transferred?" she asked Kryten.

"I suppose it's possible, but—"

She interrupted, "Where's the projection room?"

"Floor 592, Ms. Harkness."

"Right." She pointed to Kryten. "You're with me. You two go look for him."

Aria bolted into the HP Suite, heading for the controls. She thought that if he could somehow transfer his holographic presence, it could explain at least how he was all of a sudden Red Dwarf. They just needed to reverse it. It turned out that Kryten was right: He was gone. When she looked up Rimmer's hologram files, the screen had big red letters that said, "Offline". If he was still on the ship, he was untraceable.