One of a Kind
Twenty-five year today, it was hard to believe it had been that long. Other times it felt like it had been far longer since Arnold died. John looked out the window and sighed. So much had changed during the past twenty-five years. He'd been married twice, divorced once and widowed once. He'd taken his second wife's name, having no love for the Rimmer family seeing how twisted family, especially his parents and aunt and uncle were. He had no children during either of his marriages, having no desire for children which was what had caused the breakdown of his first marriage.
He'd watched his brother Frank, and wife Janine have several miscarriages and two stillborns over the years. It was heartbreaking to see his brother desperate to add to his family and failing each time. After thinking they would never have children, they now two sons and four grandchildren.
Howard had died in an accident sixteen years ago, he married but didn't have any children. His wife had moved on having nothing to do with the family after her husband's death.
Mother was still alive and out of her mind in a nursing home with dementia. He and Frank used various excuses to avoid visiting their mother. She always thought John was his father, Frank their Uncle Frank, and Frank's youngest Jonathan their deceased brother Arnold. Seeing mother treating Jonathan how she'd always treated her youngest son had been the turning point for both himself and Frank. It hit home that Arnold was treated different from them and that part of Arnold's behaviour had been a cry for attention.
John turned away from the window back to the young the new recruit to the program. God was cruel sending him someone that looked like Arnold did on the anniversary of his death. Finally composed, he turned back to the man. While he looked like Arnold, he didn't act like him in the slightest. Arnold had always been nervous and fidgety. The young man was calm and composed.
"Son, what is your name?" John asked the young man.
If he passed the interview, John would be training him for a long distance space mission. A space mission which was practically a suicide mission. The men and woman would be in stasis for ten thousand years at a time onboard the ship SS Mayflower. Woken for maintenance checks and a survey of nearby planets before going back into stasis for another ten thousand years if they didn't find a suitable planet to colonise. It was a one-way trip, no going back home. After the first stasis stint, there would be no one to supervise that they were actually following mission directives.
"Corporal Michael McGruder, sir," the young man introduced himself, saluting, the traditional military salute. John had almost been expecting his brother's fancy salute, a salute he'd ridiculed his brother for and now missed.
John was convinced that Michael was possibly his son from a past liaison. He'd had a number over the years, before he settled down and married. Michael looked so much like his nephew Jonathan and his brother Arnold that he was convinced this young man had to be related somehow even if he wasn't his father.
"How old are you?" John asked an age confirmation would confirm if he was possibly his.
"Twenty-seven," Michael replied promptly. Considering the mission at hand, this was a question that he asked all the new recruits.
At that age, McGruder could be his. While John had never dated anyone with the name McGruder, but that didn't mean his mother wasn't a past one-night-stand he'd forgotten the name of or possibly even taken a step father's name. Or possibly even one of his cousin's children. He hadn't spoken to Sarah or Alice in years, he didn't even know if they had married or had children. There was also a possibility that the young man was Howards, his father's and uncle or even Arnold's since they were still alive twenty-seven years ago. His father and uncle had not been faithful in their marriages. Frank was the only one he assumed wouldn't be the boy's father. He'd been faithful in his marriage, unlike their parents, unless he'd been stupid when he and Janine were struggling to start a family.
"Tell me about yourself, why do you want to take this mission? It is a volunteer mission; you can turn back any moment until you step in that stasis booth on board the ship. Don't you have family or friends that would miss you?" John asked, curious to find out who his mother is without directly asking him.
"I don't have any family left, sir," McGruder explained. "Both my parents died when I was a baby. I was raised by my grandparents on my mother's side, they've been gone for a few years now. As for my friends, I don't want to see them again." He tone shifted, more bitter, that reminded John all too much of Arnold.
"Are you sure that it's something that you cannot mend with time? A simple misunderstanding that you can fix?" John enquired.
"It's pretty hard to misinterpretation your girlfriend in bed with your best friend, sir," Michael replied in the same bitter tone, his facial expressions even mirroring Arnold's. "I have no one else that I'm close to."
"If your grandparents were still alive, is this a mission they would approve of. Would your parents approve this mission if they were still around?" John asked. He tried to picture his best friend in bed with his first or second wife, it was all too easy to picture. Growing up with his parents who were always unfaithful to one another.
McGruder looked thoughtful, considering his words carefully before he replied. "My grandparents wouldn't approve. They didn't approve of me joining the Space Corps and working in space. Papa wanted me to be a professional boxer or anything that didn't involve me working in space, never leaving Earth. I wasn't allowed to go on school trips to the colonies. I left Earth for the first time when I completed high school. Nana and Papa meant well, my parents both died in space, they were afraid they would lose me the same way." McGruder smiled. "I'd like to think my parents would be proud of me, for taking this step. To explore the deep reaches of space. A small part of me hopes that I get to see the ship they lived, worked and died on while I am in deep space."
"What ship would that be?" John asked, finally a step closer to who this young man was.
"The Red Dwarf, sir, it's a ..."
"JMC mining vessel, I'm aware of it." John turned back to the window. He knew who his father was now.
Captain Larry Saunders, who was to lead the mission once they went into space gave Michael a knowing look. "Sorry to hear that Corporal. General Carter and I were both first responders to the accident. It's the type of thing that stays with you forever. Old Johnny boy here has not been the same since the accident. Never seen him have a break down on a mission before or since the Red Dwarf incident." Larry slapped him on the back.
Larry had always been a little bit to laid back when it came to dealing with him, even in front of subordinates. They'd been friends since school back on Io, gone through the academy together and worked in the same unit. It had taken years for Larry to stop calling him Rimmer after he married his second wife. Even now Larry still slipped up.
"It was twenty-five years ago today," John said, lost for a few moments in that day, when the word of the accident come through and his brother had been confirmed deceased. It had been even longer than that since he'd last seen Arnold. John turned back to Michael, who looked upset, trying to mask his feelings.
"I know," Michael whispered before finally composing himself.
"You are certain that you want to do this mission?" John had to ask. "Even knowing the dangers? That you might die in space in an accident like your parents?"
"Yes General Carter, sir," Michael confirmed, standing back to attention. "I have never been more certain of anything in my life. I would not have signed up for this mission if I didn't want to be in deep space."
John pondered for a moment before making a decision that was out of line. "I'm going to give you a side mission. It is classified from even those you are doing this mission with else other than Captain Saunders. Do you understand?"
"You have my word," Michael replied. He happily signed the non-disclosure agreement, John handed over before he continued.
"There was a survivor on the Red Dwarf," John said. He stood up and walked to the file cabinet and opened the draw. It was the second file in the draw. The first belonged to his brother. The third file was the Captains, and then in order of importance and department.
He placed the file in front of Michael, which had a picture of the only survivor, Dave Lister. "He has been put into stasis the morning of the accident. He brought a non-quarantined cat on boards the ship. If the accident never happened, he would've been let off at the next port the ship. If you ever come across the Red Dwarf, if the radiation levels have subsided to a safe level, you are to get Third Technician Dave Lister out of stasis."
"Understood, sir," Michael saluted.
He finished up the meeting with Michael, dismissing the young man. Once he was gone, he picked up Lister's file and placing the file in the draw.
John rubbed his temples, letting out a heavy sigh. "Is there anyone else for today?"
"No, he's the only one," Larry confirmed. "What has you so upset? Why did you tell him about my secondary mission aboard the Red Dwarf, even if his parents worked there?"
John opened up the top drawer of his desk, pulling out a framed photo. It used to don his desk years ago, along with his wedding photo to his second wife and another photo with himself, Frank, Janine, their kids and grandkids. He glanced at the photo and then decided to pull out the photo of him with Frank and the kids. He glanced at both photos for a moment before handing the second one over to Larry.
"That boy, he looks just like Corporal McGruder. Who is he?" Larry asked.
"That in the photo is Frank's son Jonathan," John replied, handing over the second photo.
"What is this?" Larry asked. "I mean, my god, I didn't realise McGruder looked so much like you. This has to be an ancient picture. He's the splitting image of you. The young man standing next to you, who is he? I don't think I met him. I'd say he was your slightly younger clone."
"My youngest brother, Arnold. That is the last photo of him with the rest of the family before he died."
"Last time I saw Arnold he was still a teenager when he was dating Jenny. I didn't know he'd died. I knew that Howard passed away. I mean, you never talked about Arnold even when he was alive. When?" Larry asked.
"Twenty-five years ago today," John replied.
"He worked on the Red Dwarf, no wonder that mission affected you so much. I didn't know. Why didn't you ever say anything?" Larry asked.
"Because I didn't want to believe he was dead. I think that Michael may be his. Look after him, Larry."
"I will John," Larry promised.
- Red Dwarf -
Once Larry had left, John went raiding through the files he'd kept from the Red Dwarf, looking for anyone with the name McGruder. He found only one McGruder who worked on the ship. An Officer called Yvonne McGruder who worked on the diesel deck of the ship. Female boxing champion. She seemed every bit of a tom-boy. From her hobbies and duties on the ship. She seemed to be Arnolds type in looks; brown eyes, dark hair, tanned skin and lanky. Sharing similar features to Fiona Barrington, Jennifer Saunders and their sister-in-law Janine who he knew for a fact Arnold had always liked, even before she and Frank had got together. John started at the end of Yvonne's file, working his way backwards. She had to be the right person, she'd left the ship on maternity leave for a year and had only returned in the months leading up to the accident. She had a couple of relationships mentioned, but none of them as the father of her child Michael. In fact, Michael had no father listed at all in his mother's records.
John almost dropped the file in shock when he saw a listing of sexual assault raised against Arnold Rimmer had been dropped. It hadn't been raised by her, but her roommate. John read through the full incident report. This report was not in his brother's file which he'd read from back to front many times over the years. Arnold had always been different and didn't have much compassion for other people, but he still couldn't imagine him sexually assaulting anyone. He'd always freaked out about sexual contact, it was why his relationship with Fiona or Jenny hadn't worked out. Arnold wanted to take things too slow for Fiona's liking, and he didn't know what happened with Jenny.
It was a little disturbing reading about his brother's sexual encounter. The video surveillance on the ship had proved that Arnold hadn't assaulted Miss McGruder. At the time of the incident, he'd been admitted to the medical wing for an anxiety related breakdown. McGruder was in the wing with a concussion. Both thought they were other people at the time of the incident. Arnold didn't even know what had happened till he'd seen the video evidence as proof. All charges were dropped. McGruder had left the ship five months later and returned when Michael was a year old. DNA tests had been done on Michael and her boyfriend at the time who wasn't the father. There was no doubt in his mind that Michael was Arnold's son.
- Red Dwarf -
"Mother remembered that Arnold was dead the other day," Frank complained as he paced around Johns office. "I had to listen to her all day telling me about how he was her favourite."
"She had a funny way of showing it," John replied dryly.
"Mother never was the maternal type. Do you remember when Arnold and Howard were both still really little, and she fired their nanny because they thought the nanny was their mother." Frank laughed a bitter laugh. "It's not right; they were the babies of the family. We shouldn't be outliving our kid brothers, and by so much. Both of them were gone too soon. I'm getting worried that I will outlive my children, that would kill me if I outlived my boys."
John nodded along in agreement. He hated that they'd outlives their brothers and had the same concerns about Frank and his children.
Frank continued ranting. "Mother never disciplined us either. We could have literally murdered Arnold, and she wouldn't have battered an eyelid."
John led Frank out of his office, while his brother was still ranting.
"The closest we ever got to killing him was the time Howard, and I got into Father's gun safe and put a landmine in the sandpit. All because we thought that only babies played in sandpits and didn't want him to be a baby. I mean he was six years old. That was a normal activity for a six-year-old. It blew up in his face and mother didn't even take him to a hospital at first. She just yelled at him for crying and walked off leaving him outside screaming. He was screaming because he couldn't hear or see anything and in a lot of pain. He's lucky it was only temporary. What would our parents have done to him if it was permanent?"
"Probably used him to get sympathy and leave him in the care of someone else the rest of the time," John replied and then pointed Frank to in the direction of his distraction the past few days. "Look at the young man over there."
John pointed to Michael who was talking and laughing with two of the girls who were going on the long-term mission. He didn't get his social skills from his father. His father had the social skills of a potato.
Frank turned to John, furious. "What is Jonathan doing here? My son is not going to be a part of your program."
John couldn't help smiling in amusement. "That's not Jonny. Look again."
Frank started for several moments before asking what John had assumed at first. "Is he yours?"
"No, believe it or not, he's Arnolds."
"Arnold has a son? He actually got together with another person, a living human person. Why didn't he ever tell anyone?"
"He didn't know. I read the file; he and the boy's mother were not in the right state of mind when Michael was convinced. They were in the hospital, she had concussion and Arnold recovering from an anxiety attack. It was on camera, and a disciplinary hearing was held as a result. As far as I can gather, she never told him."
"Just looking at him you can tell he is a Rimmer," Frank replied. "I don't need a DNA test to tell me that. What is his full name?"
"Michael McGruder, he's twenty-seven years old. He's disillusioned about what Arnold is like. I've heard him telling stories his grandparents told him growing up. He thinks his father is an only child, so doesn't know about Howard or us." John said sadly. "He doesn't need to know his father suffered from constant anxiety attacks, was estranges from his whole family, didn't have any friends, performed poorly in his work, high strung and had the emotional range of a teaspoon."
Frank nodded in agreement. "I'm glad we didn't know until now. Mother would have got her claws into him if we knew about him when Arnold died. We never tell Mother that Arnold procreated."
"Agreed."
"If Michael ever finds out we are related if he ever asks, Arnold was one of a kind," Frank said. "That's what I told my boys when they found out about him from Mother."
John nodded. "Well, it wouldn't be a lie. Our little brother was one of a kind, thank God."