Ye olde standard disclaimer: Nope, don't own Red Dwarf, or any of the characters besides Anna (oh and the bullies). Rimmer, Lister, Kryten, Kris, Holly, etc. are the brainchildren of the incredible Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. I can only hope to capture them in a way befitting Grant Naylor's visionâ€and end up failing badly, I'm sure.

All right, enough butt kissing...on to the story. Real short at first, other chapters will be longer as the story progresses and builds.


"Well, well...who do we have 'ere?"

Anna winced. She recognized that scratchy tone anywhere, as it was usually pointed at her. Ever since they met on Red Dwarf in the Teaching Room where a makeshift school was set up for the older children while they and their families traveled from Io to Earth. Having a member of the family in the Space Corps, this made interplanetary travel rather inexpensive, not to mention giving the families at least a fraction more time to spend together. For Anna, however, it was a perfect chance for her parents to fawn over her brother Robert, and forget she was ever born. It wasn't so bad, really. Now she had a chance to avoid her mother's chastisement over not being pretty enough, or smart enough, or outgoing enough to ever succeed in anything...even getting a rich husband. Never mind that she was only fourteen. What the smeg did she need to be looking for a husband now anyway?

A booted foot jabbed into her rib, and she blinked up at its owner. Jane Dawkins – self-confessed bully extraordinaire -- was peering down at her, harsh, pale eyes squinting. "Oi, didn' you hear me? I said get up."

Gulping, Anna stood, pressing her back against the wall of the corridor, mousy brown hair falling into her eyes. "Wh-what do you want, Jane?" she mumbled, silently praying Jane wasn't in a violent mood today. She spent two days in the medi-bay with a concussion the last time Jane was in one of her moods.

More of Jane's friends rounded the corner, slinking up behind their leader with hateful smirks. The larger girl hauled Anna up by her shirtfront so she could look the bully eye-to-eye. "I just want to 'play' with ya, kid. Innocent an' all," Jane smiled a disingenuous smile, then drug her along down the hallway as Anna kicked and struggled futilely.

"Aw, Janey, what are you doing? This is insane!" one of the other girls hissed in fear as the bigger girl popped open the stasis unit, the much smaller Anna still dangling from her grasp as the pudgy fingers of her other hand poked dumbly at the keys on the side of the unit.

"Janey," another girl cautioned, "Y'know you're gonna get yerself in trouble playin' with the stasis units. What if ya can't figure out how t'get her out?"

"Then you will be goin' t'find an officer to get 'er out, now won't ya?" Jane Dawkins replied nonchalantly and tossed the girl into the machine, slamming the door shut.

Anna pounded at the walls of the stasis unit, blood pounding in her ears in panic. "LET ME OUT!!" she screamed, but they couldn't hear. The unit was airtight. Oh God, don't let me die in here, she thought miserably, hot tears slipping down her cheeks, What if nobody comes looking for me? What if they forget about me? Its not like I'm much to be remembered anyway.

And then, everything stopped.