"There's something on the psi-scan, Sirs! It appears that there is indeed a lifeform on this ship after all."

The ship in question was another derelict that they'd come across – an abandoned Simulant ship that was sure to be stocked to the gills with food and other supplies. It wasn't as though they really needed too much of anything since the nanobots had recreated the ship, but as they'd gotten closer, they had picked up a faint distress signal coming from somewhere inside the vessel. It didn't seem to be originating from it, however. Whatever was generating the signal was likely on board. They'd taken out Starbug and docked in one of the many landing bays, much to Rimmer's chagrin.

"I still say this is a trap," Rimmer said, hands clutching his bazookoid as the foursome cautiously walked through the ship. "There's probably some simulant just waiting in the wings to take us all out. Either that or aliens."

"It's always aliens with you, Rimmer," Lister commented. The Scouser was also wielding a bazookoid, but he seemed a little less jumpy with it than Rimmer. "How many times has it ever been aliens? None."

"The lifeform appears to be human, Sirs, and I believe it's this way," Kryten declared after consulting the psi-scan again. He began to lead the way down another hallway

"Human..." Lister mused softly, picking up the pace. "Guys, it could be Kris! She could be in trouble!"

Cat sniffed around. "I'm not smelling Bud-Babe anywhere around here," He informed them. His nose was never wrong.

They came across another set of landing bays and this one held a Starbug as well. Lister pointed it out, practically jumping up and down at the sight.

"Look! That must be where the distress signal originated from! It's Kris! It has to be Kris!"

"You're forgetting one vital piece of information, Listy. When Kochanski legged it, Kryten said she took a Blue Midget – not one of the Starbugs." It was just like Rimmer to try to bring Lister's ever hopeful optimism back to a screeching halt.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Rimmer is right, Sir," Kryten told him apologetically.

"Uh… Buds..." Cat began, staring up at the green vessel. "Didn't we come in on Starbug 1?" Sure enough, as they all looked to the ship and noticed that the number was printed on the side of this Starbug as well.

"So it's Lister on the ship then? A future Lister?" Rimmer deduced, seeing as how he was the last human. "Or an alternate version? That's just what we need."

"Shut the smeg up, will ya?" Lister asked of him. "It's not me. What makes you think it could be me?"

"You're the only one left, Listy!" Rimmer was gloating. Oh, how he loved to gloat. "It's just like you to get yourself captured and leave us to come to your rescue." He was practically bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, enjoying every moment of it.

"It sounds exactly like you," Lister corrected him. "How many times have you gone and gotten yourself kidnapped?"

"It wasn't my fault!" He indignantly insisted, the smug grin gone from his features. "It wasn't ever my fault!" That definitely wasn't true.

"Sirs!" Kryten interrupted. "I must insist that we keep going. The life signs are not coming from this Starbug, but further down the corridor. I believe that these rooms up ahead are the torture rooms," Kryten helpfully supplied, but the others didn't seem so eager about the sound of that. Still, the four carried on, leaving this other Starbug to be explored later.

"All of these are torture rooms? Smeg..." Lister said, looking down the corridor. There were about a dozen different doors in the hallway, all with metal doors.

Kryten led the way to the room the psi-scan detected was occupied. He looked through the slot on the metal door and saw the outline of a brunette woman slumped against a wall, her leg chained at the ankle with a heavy chain, allowing her no more than a few feet of movement around the cell. There was a toilet, a sink, and a barren cot and not much else to be found in the room. "Sirs! It appears to be a female!"

Lister practically pushed him out of the way and aimed his bazookoid at the door to blast it open. "Everybody stand clear!" He ordered. It had to be Kochanski.

"Wait!" Rimmer shouted. "Try the smegging door first you gimboid." He knew it would do none of them any good to save the woman by blasting her to bits along with the metal door. He reached over and pulled it open, using some force, since it was quite heavy. "Kryten, help me," He ordered the mechanoid, who obliged, helping him pull it open.

Lister was the first one in, rushing over to the woman's side. He looked at her, finally able to see her face. "It's not Krissy," He said, both with a mix of defeat and relief. As much as he wanted to see her again, he certainly wouldn't have wished it this way. The young woman looked far too thin, like she'd been there a while alone or that someone had been starving her intentionally. "Someone come and help me get her free," He called out.

Kryten and Rimmer were the first ones over to help, with Cat standing as the lookout, just in case a simulant had decided to come back. He had his bazookoid in hand.

"Smeg! Would you look at this," Lister said, pointing to her tattered khaki uniform. It was JMC standard issue. Still, that wasn't what caught his eye. It was the embroidered name patch near the pocket. It read Rimmer. "Looks like it wasn't me after all," Lister told Rimmer, who paled a little at the sight.

The young woman stirred a little as the dwarfers helped her up after getting her freed from the chains. She opened her eyes and she leaned heavily on the hard light hologram next to her. "Arnie?" She softly asked, her voice hoarse from disuse. "Is that you?"

"Arnie?" Lister repeated, hardly able to believe it. So maybe she wasn't an alternate version of Rimmer, but who was she?

"We must get her back to the ship. She needs medical attention," Kryten reminded them.

Rimmer put an arm around her, keeping her steady and upright. Her arm went around his waist, staying closer to him than any of the others. It was a bit uncomfortable, but what else could he do? He and the others helped her back the way they came towards the landing bay where they'd first arrived.

"We have to get Starbug," She insisted. "Please Arnie, we can't leave it behind." She was semi-coherent enough to know that they were leaving.

Rimmer looked helplessly around to the others. He was truly at a loss for words, something that rarely happened. They would have all savored the moment if it weren't for the situation they found themselves in.

Lister sighed. "We could use a spare around since all the others got knicked," He mentioned. "Cat, you and Krytes go see if it's functional," He instructed them. "We'll follow you out." It was obvious that the young woman wasn't letting go of Rimmer anytime soon, clinging to him like her last lifeline. Lister had to admit, his bunkmate was handling the situation a lot better than he had expected, considering his experience, or rather, lack there of with women. Still, Lister did his best to help him out.

The pair got the young woman back to Starbug despite the fact that she was going in and out of consciousness. It was more well lit inside their craft and they could finally see the extent of her injuries. Fading bruises littered the parts of her skin that were visible and there were a few cuts as well. They shone stark against her pale skin. She also looked gaunt, as though the simulants had left her for quite a while alone and chained to that wall.

"Lister," Rimmer said, drawing attention to the injuries. He was practically carrying her himself since she was still clinging to him despite being out cold. "I'm getting her to medical." There was a small medi-bay on board Starbug that would have to suffice until they made it back to Red Dwarf.

"Go on, man," Lister encouraged. "I've got it here." He was able to make contact with Cat and Kryten aboard the other Starbug and after getting the all clear, they went one after the other back to Red Dwarf. They docked their respective Starbugs and joined each other in the landing bay. Kryten quickly made his way on board their Starbug to assist Rimmer with the young lady's care. Cat exited the new Starbug after him and met Lister in the landing bay.

"Hey, Bud! You'll never guess who we found on board!" Cat enthused, handing him a watch he'd found. Holly – the blonde female version – was on the watch face.

"Dave? Is that you?" The AI asked. "Were you able to find Rachel?"

"Her name's Rachel? Rachel Rimmer? Like Rimmer's inflatable doll?" He asked incredulously.

"Gordon Bennett! You don't know who she is? I was afraid of this," Holly admitted to him.

"Afraid of what?"

"You're not our Dave. This isn't our universe, is it?" The AI realized. "Should have known when you looked so much older. Just thought maybe it was the lighting in here, but no. Is Arnold alive?"

"He's a hologram. Our version of you brought him back when I got out of stasis years ago after the radiation leak," He admitted.

"Smeg. Can you upload me to the mainframe? Let me link up with your version of me?"

"That's the thing, Hol. The skutters are still drying him out. Nearly drowned him," He admitted almost sheepishly.

"You what?"

"I didn't mean to leave me bath running for nine years," He said apologetically. "It just sort of… happened."

Holly rolled her eyes. "I'll just have to work here for now then," She decided. There really wasn't any other way.

Rimmer was still standing by the young woman's bedside when Kryten entered. "Sir, there's something on the other vessel you must see. Allow me to carry the young woman to the medi-bay."

"She seemed pretty insistent I stay," He mentioned, sounding a bit unsure as he glanced down to her.

"Sir, I must insist you look in the other Starbug," Kryten told him.

With a sigh and one more glance towards the woman, he left. As he was heading towards the other ship, Lister caught his eye.

"Whatcha doin, man?"

"If you must know, Kryten said there's something on board that I need to have a look at," Rimmer told him.

"They found a version of Holly," Lister admitted, showing him the watch.

"Arn!" She said, seeming happy to see him. "How is Rachel?"

Rimmer looked flustered for a moment as his nostrils flared and his cheeks reddened. How dare the first thing that senile computer asked about be his inflatable doll?

"Calm yourself," Lister told him, seeing riled his bunkmate was getting. "That's the woman's name," He said.

"The one we found? Her name is Rachel Rimmer?" His anger had quickly dissipated into confusion.

"Let's just see what's on her ship," Lister suggested, leading the way.

Rimmer was the first to spot the box in the corner once they were on board. Dark camphor wood contrasted against the metal interior of the ship. "My chest! Why does she have my chest?" He rushed over to it and pulled it away from the wall, seeing that it was complete. There was no guitar sized hole in this one. He lifted the lid. "It's here… it's all here..." His books, his Napoleon figurines, his stash of dollarpounds, everything that Lister had burned was all there.

"What's this then?" Lister asked, reaching into the trunk. He pulled out a framed picture that he didn't remember seeing years ago. The photo was of Rimmer and the woman they rescued. He looked to be over twenty years younger in the photo – about the age of the woman they'd found. The pair looked happy and they had their arms around one another.

Rimmer stared at the photo in Lister's hands, studying it. It certainly looked like him, but the younger version of himself in the photo looked happy, content even. Arnold J. Rimmer couldn't remember a time when he seemed so carefree or when he looked so comfortable around a woman.

"She doesn't look much older than this photo now," Lister said to him, pulling him away from his thoughts. "Say, ya don't think she's the human version of your blow up doll, do ya?"

"Well, I didn't..." Rimmer muttered with a frown. Still, stranger things had happened to them over the years.

Lister seemed to contemplate it for a moment as he looked down at the photograph. "Nahhh... She can't be your blowup doll," He stated with an air of certainty. "She's not old enough."

Rimmer looked back down to the trunk and moved a few more things aside, ignoring LIster's joke. There were some things there that even he didn't recognize. "These must be hers..." There were a few trinkets, books, and a small jewelry box scattered there in the chest along with his things. Without warning, he snatched the photo from Lister and put it back inside the chest, shutting the lid on it. "We shouldn't be going through her things," He seemed to have decided. "Let's gather this and anything else we think she might need and get it back to the sleeping quarters. She's going to have to stay here a while."

Lister gave a nod and didn't say anything. He'd known Rimmer for years, but he couldn't quite get a read on him like he normally did. Still, he helped him without complaint, gathering a few of the woman's possessions with Holly's guidance. The pair of them carried the trunk back to the living quarters, leaving it in one of the empty rooms at Rimmer's insistence.