Two Rimmers

Chapter 2: Who are you?

Rimmer looked at the simulant as she sat on the examination table, wondering where he may have seen her before. Where could she have been at the same time as him? On Red Dwarf perhaps, but where; she seemed way too young? Maybe she had been there before he died, but, if that was the case, wouldn't she be dead?

After thinking a while, watching Kryten speak to her, he remembered an event on the ship; an arrest had taken place around the time Rimmer was taking his Astro's a third time. It was significant as there was a fire a month later, but the convict ,the assumed Firestarter, was not found in their prison cell. The crew assumed they had either escaped or perished, to be honest, they didn't really care. There was someone else there too, but their memory had deleted itself from Rimmer.

"Were you arrested on this ship at any point?" Rimmer interrogated, not knowing why he asked it so suddenly; the others sharing his surprise.

The simulant removed their voice changing device and spoke in a normal English accent. They sighed deeply, "Yes, I was but wrongly. I did not commit the crime I was accused of."

"Well, the JMC give everyone a free trial. Even people who start fires." Rimmer said proudly, determined it was the simulant in front of him who started the fire.

"That's what I thought." She muttered, holding her chest tightly. She hadn't reacted to the fire comment at all. Maybe he was mistaken, no he couldn't be, could he?

During the conversation Rimmer was having, Kryten had been looking for something. He held a cable in his hand and seemed confused, swinging it around impatiently.

"Pardon me Ma'am but I cannot find a place to charge you." He said politely as possible.

"That's because I'm not a mech." she hovered her hand over a button on her shoulder and pressed it; doing so released the black, plastic outer shell of simulant clothing came apart and revealed a beige Red Dwarf uniform underneath. The crew seemed horrified at the fact that she had been on this vessel at some point and been a member of the crew (or so they assumed).

"Hey what are those?" Lister asked, examined the number of stripes on her uniform. He hadn't seen any like that before, not that number anyway. Not even Kochanski had that many.Not even Rimmer's officer uniform had that many.

"I am an Officer." She said, somewhat proudly,

"You? How did you become an officer? Did you nick the uniform or something?" Lister asked, thinking of a comment to throw at Rimmer (Rimmer knowing this).

"No, it's my own uniform. I got it myself by passing exams like everyone else." She paused and looked at Rimmer, knowing she was hurting him. Rimmer looked back over at her, squirming internally. He felt like she cared, but then again, he made that mistake before.

"How?" Rimmer asked, coming back into the conversation, almost completely ignoring her answer,

She didn't answer and continued to look at Rimmer sadly. She held her chest in pain and broke eye contact. She recognised him, but he didn't her for some reason.

"May I ask you gentlemen to leave a moment whilst I patch miss, erm, simulant, up?" Kryten said, not knowing what to call her. He had no name for her and couldn't make one up.

Lister and Rimmer waited outside, not saying a word to one another. They just looked at each other, knowing that something had happened between them. Rimmer had secluded himself from the others for about 2 weeks, and every time he came back, he seemed tired or frustrated about something. He had snapped at Lister a few days before, saying he never cared and only wanted sex. After around 20 minutes, the two of them returned. The simulant was sat on the bed, bandaged underneath the uniform, holding her wound painfully.