Fragments of the Reclaimer

It Was Hours

Fourteen months had gone by. The Dwarfers had been through quite a lot; impersonating as a crew for the S.S. Trojan, meeting Jesus then finding out it was a different Jesus, getting attacked by a Simulate death ship and fighting off that attack,  and Rimmer was promoted to officer: Temporarily.

Rimmer was also taken by Expanoids, a race of cyborgs who, unlike most Simulants who were built for war and were genocidal, desired to enslave humanity rather than simply making them extinct. The "spokesman" of the Expanoids, Four of Twenty-seven, hailed Starbug and proposed a trade, whilst also revealing that the artifact the Dwarfers salvaged was the Casket of Cronus, and of great importance to the Expanoids. Weeks ago they boarded the A.S. Thanatos. Looting the derelict, they found a mysterious glowing artifact, although entirely unaware of it's true purpose or significance, the gang simply used it to prop up their wonky pool table. Lister asked why they wanted the Casket, and Four of Twenty-seven told him that it contained the spirit of one of his batch brothers, Twenty-three of Twenty-seven.

In exchange for the Casket of Cronus, the Expanoids would return a hostage - a certain whiney hologram named Rimmer, even though Rimmer was still on Starbug at the time. It was revealed that they had a very scared Rimmer prisoner on his bridge, and Kryten deduced that it must've been a Rimmer that they had taken from the future and brought back into the present. Four of Twenty-seven said he would not betray the Dwarfers since he was a "warrior and high born", nothing like that dishonourable Three of Sixty-three. Lister then ejects the Casket of Cronus out to the Expanoid ship.

"Now, what about the hostage?" Rimmer asked. Suddenly he was engulfed in light and was taken away.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rimmer soon found himself on the Expanoids' ship. It was grey, dismal and had a slightly disturbing aura to it. He was being dragged away to a cell. For some strange reason he acted out of character and decided not to be the scared and silent type as he usually was. "Do you have any idea who I am?!" he demanded. "I'm stand in, acting senior commanding officer of Red Dwarf, and let me tell you miladdos, taking a man of my calibre hostage is... is..." Flustered, he scrabbled for a fitting word, "Bad!" The guardsmen stopped walking and dragging Rimmer. "Ah! I thought that might get your attention." He smirked as though he won. He couldn't be more wrong. A cell door slid open and the Expanoid guards threw him inside. The door whooshed shut, and Rimmer was left to his own devices.

It was during this time that Kryten would subtly send a distress message. He knew someone would have gotten it - and someone did. Though the message wasn't for the crew, it was for Rimmer. Kryten had a feeling he wouldn't be able to get himself out of his predicament, and even though he'd deny the help to seem tougher it was badly needed.

Hours had passed. Rimmer sat on the floor with his knees pressed against his chest. He was scared, lonely and even slightly bored. He wondered why they didn't at least give him a magazine to read. It was just common courtesy. The cell door unexpectedly opened, causing Rimmer to jump. The lights from the corridor blinded Rimmer, but he could still make out two eerie silhouettes of a significantly large Expanoids.

"Get up, Hologram. Your presence is required." one of the guardsman boomed.

Rimmer was taken to what seemed to be a torture room. The usual devices hung on the walls and were strewn about on countertops. It was nothing that would have an affect on Rimmer, a hologram. He wondered why he was brought here. "Maybe to make idle threats." Rimmer thought to himself. He was thrust down into a rather uncomfortable, steel chair, facing a cold, metal desk, and was strapped in by a guardsman.