Fighting Back
folder
M through R › Red Dwarf
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
5
Views:
2,327
Reviews:
11
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
M through R › Red Dwarf
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
5
Views:
2,327
Reviews:
11
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Red Dwarf, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
By the time Lister and Kryten managed to get back to Rimmer the hologram slipped further into his strange state. They found him lying on the floor, curled into the small ball, not moving, not breathing and, for once, not responding to anything that was happening around him. No matter how hard Kryten shook him and how loud Lister called out for him to snap out of it, he reminded defiant to any treatment. Finally the robot straightened and motioned for Lister to stop.
“I’m afraid it’s useless Mister Lister, sir. Mister Rimmer is totally catatonic, the sooner we get him to the sickbay the better.”
Their way there was quick and easy, Rimmer, as made of light, no matter how ‘hard’ the light seemed to be, didn’t weight more than few pounds. Neither of them spoke as Kryten put Rimmer down of the medibed he himself occupied only two weeks earlier, while the rest of crew fought for his (and theirs) life, stuck in VR. The sense of déjà vu was so strong that Lister had to bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from voicing out what he believed the both of them were thinking- that the virus somehow found the way into Rimmer’s system. As soon as Lister realized what was he thinking, he pushed that thought away. There were hundreds of possible answers- stress, perhaps depression, maybe some problems with his hard-light light bee, Legion after all was quite insane, there was no need to think about the worst. Illogical or not, he still hyperventilated every time he saw a hand.
He let Kryten to hover over Rimmer, constantly plugging in and out some weird devices Lister was sure he didn’t see before. 20 minutes and one annoyed and tired Cat later, Kryten finally stopped, put down the last ‘thingy’ and sighed loudly.
“Well, sirs, I think I’ve managed to detect what is happening to Mister Rimmer.”
Cat yawned loudly, more to manifest his discontent than from actual weariness “So, what is wrong with Goal post head? And can I go back to sleep now?”
Kryten’s fingers started to play anxiously with one of the wires attached to Rimmer’s head “I’ve managed to localize and name the problem, it’s a holovirus known as LN4/WM” Lister felt that his head begun to spin but before he could say anything, Kryten continued “Furthermore, I have some good and some bad news.”
“Hit me with good first, I’m saving best for the last!”
Lister shot Cat a mildly dirty look but said nothing. Reasoning with Cat had always been as successful as trying to convince Adolph Hitler to shave his moustaches, besides his nerves reached its peak, damn the sequence, he just needed to know.
Kryten coughed, his eyes involuntarily checking for Lister’s approval before beginning.
“The good news is that it isn’t the same virus that had attacked me few weeks ago. The bad news… it’s something much worse.”
Cat grinned “Well, I see that interrupting my beauty sleep wasn’t so pointless. What is it then?”
“And, more important” It was Lister’s turn to speak now “where did he catch it. As far as I remember since that unfortunate quarantine incident we’d been very careful not to expose him to any sort of viruses- holo or not.”
Kryten turned to face Lister, his no-existing lips forming a worried line “I’m afraid that Mr. Rimmer wasn’t exposed to anything. This virus had been manually inserted into his light bee and programmed to spread slowly. It has Simulants’ signatures everywhere, they could as well post it to us.”
Lister felt like if a rather large hand squeezed his stomach. Simulants were cruel and vicious, their hatred towards the mankind was legendary, if they in fact were the ones that had infected Rimmer and if they did it deliberately, that could only meant that they wanted to cause as much pain as possible.
“So what is it then and what can we do?”
If it was possible, the fingers toying with a wire started to move quicker. “Um… I’ve checked all the databanks we had and I’m afraid I don’t know. The only thing I could find was that the human equivalent of this virus had been singed into the, so called, Red List as extremely dangerous. All the data had been destroyed and like I said, I only have it’s ID: LN4/WM but that could mean anything. I tried to find out on my own by studying this particular case but it might take weeks and that much time we don’t have. I’m afraid we don’t even have hours.”
“Smeg!” Lister clenched his fist around the edge of the medibed so tightly that his knuckles turned white. His brain cells were working so intensely that he could hear humming under his skull. The seconds stretched into minutes, all of them trying to figure something out on their own. Even Cat became quiet, although neither Lister nor Kryten knew was it because he was thinking or fall asleep.
When finally one of them spoke up, it was so unexpected, that Lister nearly jumped.
“Have you tried the database of that Whateverhernamewasbitchtriedtokillus doctor? You know, that one that turned canyon nostrils into a psycho the last time?”
Lister threw Cat a resigned glance. “Come on, Cat, I bet that’s the first place he searched, right Kryten?”
The stunned silence that followed his question, made Lister blink. He blinked once, twice and the third time, just in case. He was sure that any second now he’d wake up from this nightmare, he could believe in anything- pregnant male, super hero Rimmer from another dimension even planet shaped as someone’s mind but not that Kryten could be that stupid.
“Kryten” he begun calmly “if you don’t want my fingers to clench at your neck, you better either tell me that you did or start searching now.”
Another long second of silence and before he could carry out his threat, Lister saw Kryten connecting himself once again to Starbug’s main computer. Robot said nothing, which considering his ever-apologizing character, which right next to unconscious Rimmer and Cat having a good idea was another prove that the situation was deadly serious.
“Oh dear” Kryten turned around so suddenly that he himself looked a bit shocked. “Erm, Sirs, Mister Cat was right, the virus is in Dr. Lanstrom database. I’m so sorry Mister David, sir, I’ve been so preoccupied with…”
“Save it Kryten, you’ll have plenty of time to apologize later and now” stressed Lister “what is it, what does it do and how can we stop it.”
“Well, sir, it seems that this virus is fourth in a row of similar viruses, all of them created to confuse its victim and by this, to make it helpless. Unfortunately, while the other three worked as planned, this particular one had been so devastating to the victims psyche, that, like I said, all the research had been stopped and almost all data destroyed. Simulants must have found it somewhere and decide that it’s a useful… toy.”
“What do you mean ‘devastating’, what does it do?”
Kryten looked at Rimmer motionless body almost like he was making a point “LN4/WM is a working title, it shows what the virus do. LN means ‘living nightmare’, that’s how the creators called the original one and its successors in general; four, because it was fourth and WM… it’s a short from ‘worst memories’. I’m afraid that as we speak, Mister Rimmer is forced to relive, as the name states, all his worst memories.”
Cat’s eyebrows shot up “Prepare the forks, guys, Goal post head is cooked!”
Tbc…
By the time Lister and Kryten managed to get back to Rimmer the hologram slipped further into his strange state. They found him lying on the floor, curled into the small ball, not moving, not breathing and, for once, not responding to anything that was happening around him. No matter how hard Kryten shook him and how loud Lister called out for him to snap out of it, he reminded defiant to any treatment. Finally the robot straightened and motioned for Lister to stop.
“I’m afraid it’s useless Mister Lister, sir. Mister Rimmer is totally catatonic, the sooner we get him to the sickbay the better.”
Their way there was quick and easy, Rimmer, as made of light, no matter how ‘hard’ the light seemed to be, didn’t weight more than few pounds. Neither of them spoke as Kryten put Rimmer down of the medibed he himself occupied only two weeks earlier, while the rest of crew fought for his (and theirs) life, stuck in VR. The sense of déjà vu was so strong that Lister had to bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from voicing out what he believed the both of them were thinking- that the virus somehow found the way into Rimmer’s system. As soon as Lister realized what was he thinking, he pushed that thought away. There were hundreds of possible answers- stress, perhaps depression, maybe some problems with his hard-light light bee, Legion after all was quite insane, there was no need to think about the worst. Illogical or not, he still hyperventilated every time he saw a hand.
He let Kryten to hover over Rimmer, constantly plugging in and out some weird devices Lister was sure he didn’t see before. 20 minutes and one annoyed and tired Cat later, Kryten finally stopped, put down the last ‘thingy’ and sighed loudly.
“Well, sirs, I think I’ve managed to detect what is happening to Mister Rimmer.”
Cat yawned loudly, more to manifest his discontent than from actual weariness “So, what is wrong with Goal post head? And can I go back to sleep now?”
Kryten’s fingers started to play anxiously with one of the wires attached to Rimmer’s head “I’ve managed to localize and name the problem, it’s a holovirus known as LN4/WM” Lister felt that his head begun to spin but before he could say anything, Kryten continued “Furthermore, I have some good and some bad news.”
“Hit me with good first, I’m saving best for the last!”
Lister shot Cat a mildly dirty look but said nothing. Reasoning with Cat had always been as successful as trying to convince Adolph Hitler to shave his moustaches, besides his nerves reached its peak, damn the sequence, he just needed to know.
Kryten coughed, his eyes involuntarily checking for Lister’s approval before beginning.
“The good news is that it isn’t the same virus that had attacked me few weeks ago. The bad news… it’s something much worse.”
Cat grinned “Well, I see that interrupting my beauty sleep wasn’t so pointless. What is it then?”
“And, more important” It was Lister’s turn to speak now “where did he catch it. As far as I remember since that unfortunate quarantine incident we’d been very careful not to expose him to any sort of viruses- holo or not.”
Kryten turned to face Lister, his no-existing lips forming a worried line “I’m afraid that Mr. Rimmer wasn’t exposed to anything. This virus had been manually inserted into his light bee and programmed to spread slowly. It has Simulants’ signatures everywhere, they could as well post it to us.”
Lister felt like if a rather large hand squeezed his stomach. Simulants were cruel and vicious, their hatred towards the mankind was legendary, if they in fact were the ones that had infected Rimmer and if they did it deliberately, that could only meant that they wanted to cause as much pain as possible.
“So what is it then and what can we do?”
If it was possible, the fingers toying with a wire started to move quicker. “Um… I’ve checked all the databanks we had and I’m afraid I don’t know. The only thing I could find was that the human equivalent of this virus had been singed into the, so called, Red List as extremely dangerous. All the data had been destroyed and like I said, I only have it’s ID: LN4/WM but that could mean anything. I tried to find out on my own by studying this particular case but it might take weeks and that much time we don’t have. I’m afraid we don’t even have hours.”
“Smeg!” Lister clenched his fist around the edge of the medibed so tightly that his knuckles turned white. His brain cells were working so intensely that he could hear humming under his skull. The seconds stretched into minutes, all of them trying to figure something out on their own. Even Cat became quiet, although neither Lister nor Kryten knew was it because he was thinking or fall asleep.
When finally one of them spoke up, it was so unexpected, that Lister nearly jumped.
“Have you tried the database of that Whateverhernamewasbitchtriedtokillus doctor? You know, that one that turned canyon nostrils into a psycho the last time?”
Lister threw Cat a resigned glance. “Come on, Cat, I bet that’s the first place he searched, right Kryten?”
The stunned silence that followed his question, made Lister blink. He blinked once, twice and the third time, just in case. He was sure that any second now he’d wake up from this nightmare, he could believe in anything- pregnant male, super hero Rimmer from another dimension even planet shaped as someone’s mind but not that Kryten could be that stupid.
“Kryten” he begun calmly “if you don’t want my fingers to clench at your neck, you better either tell me that you did or start searching now.”
Another long second of silence and before he could carry out his threat, Lister saw Kryten connecting himself once again to Starbug’s main computer. Robot said nothing, which considering his ever-apologizing character, which right next to unconscious Rimmer and Cat having a good idea was another prove that the situation was deadly serious.
“Oh dear” Kryten turned around so suddenly that he himself looked a bit shocked. “Erm, Sirs, Mister Cat was right, the virus is in Dr. Lanstrom database. I’m so sorry Mister David, sir, I’ve been so preoccupied with…”
“Save it Kryten, you’ll have plenty of time to apologize later and now” stressed Lister “what is it, what does it do and how can we stop it.”
“Well, sir, it seems that this virus is fourth in a row of similar viruses, all of them created to confuse its victim and by this, to make it helpless. Unfortunately, while the other three worked as planned, this particular one had been so devastating to the victims psyche, that, like I said, all the research had been stopped and almost all data destroyed. Simulants must have found it somewhere and decide that it’s a useful… toy.”
“What do you mean ‘devastating’, what does it do?”
Kryten looked at Rimmer motionless body almost like he was making a point “LN4/WM is a working title, it shows what the virus do. LN means ‘living nightmare’, that’s how the creators called the original one and its successors in general; four, because it was fourth and WM… it’s a short from ‘worst memories’. I’m afraid that as we speak, Mister Rimmer is forced to relive, as the name states, all his worst memories.”
Cat’s eyebrows shot up “Prepare the forks, guys, Goal post head is cooked!”
Tbc…