Fragments of the Reclaimer

Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen

There were a lot of things Aria missed while hiding. Walking for miles just to find one member was not one of them. She would've taken a lift but there was a note stuck on the door that said "Fired - For endangering a superior officer."

She rolled her eyes. "Only Arnold Rimmer would fire a lift." she thought. She chuckled and continued on, looking for Rimmer.

The crew, however, was one of the things she had missed. She saw Kryten on a fairly regular basis but had no idea what the others looked like until a while ago. It was baffling to Aria how much everyone had changed in the span of eighteen months, especially Rimmer. He looked older and tired.

He was in more than one sense of the word; he was tired mentally, emotionally and physically. No amount of recharging or holo-medication would help. Rimmer had sunk into a deep depression; it was worse than ever. He tried committing the hologrammatic equivalent of suicide five times in two months. Four out of the five failed. The fifth was somewhat sucsessful; he was essentially dead for hours before anyone noticed, then was brought back on by the others. He wondered why they even bothered and wished they hadn't.

Lister and Rimmer were in their quarters, arguing about what Rimmer saw back on the Expanoid ship of all things. Lister was really starting to question his sanity, even more than usual. Aria walked past and heard them. She stopped just off to the side of the door way, listening in.

"I know what I saw, Lister." Rimmer insisted.

"No one's saying you don't, man."

"No, but you all think I'm barking mad! I've seen it - the way you all avoid me―"

Lister interrupted, "We always avoid you."

He continued on without a beat. "The way you all look at me, as if you're afraid of me."

They were scared of him to a degree. Not as much as he was. Rimmer needed them more than ever, and they all but abandoned him. They might as well have done, or shut him down; it would have been kinder than ignoring him and brushing off any episodes of Rampancy he had, which were becoming more and more frequent and often without warning. They were worried about him, but nothing could be done. There was no cure for Rampancy.

"Rimmer, we're not afraid of you." Lister assured.

His projection flickered for a millisecond. "YOU SHOULD BE!!" Rimmer screamed. His voice was distorted. Just as quickly as the minuscule episode came on it stopped. He panted a bit, and gulped.

Lister sat still, staring emotionless. He was hiding the fear he had inside. He wasn't so much afraid of what Rimmer would do to him as he was afraid of what his condition would do to Rimmer.

Aria had moved from the hall to the door way. She been crying somewhat, listening to them. She slightly sniffled.

Her sniffling caused Lister to turn around; he finally saw her standing in the door way. "Hey. How long have you been there?"

She gave a Sisyphean smile. "Longer than you'd like."

Slowly, Rimmer drew his attention to her, blinking multiple times. Each time it made his vision blurrier. Still, from what he could see she looked at least halfway decent.

Lister looked her up and down. "You clean up nicely."

Aria had her hair up in a loose bun; she was wearing a purple floral nightie. It was all she had that wasn't dirty at the time; it was actually Kochanski's originally.