Starbug roared through the upper atmosphere of the planet, the crew bumped and buffeted in their seats as they approached the target area.

Kochanski glanced up from her console. "I am getting readings 20 clicks due east."

The Cat wrinkled his nose. "I can smell them, feewweee" he grimaced.

"Sirs, I suggest we open communications and see if we can establish the state of any survivors." Said Kryten looking over at Lister.

Rimmer looked at Kryten. "Open emergency channel delta Kryten."

Kryten flicked a series of switches and reported back. "Channel Open sir, may I suggest you take a tactful approach sir."

Rimmer face pulled itself into a sneer and began. "I think I know how to communicate in an emergency Smegford brains, thank you very much." But then he caught himself and regretted slipping into his spiteful ways so quickly, he corrected. "Good suggestion Kryten, we don't know what state they are in do we."

The others all turned and looked at Rimmer, but he just carried on. His slightly nasally tones broke the radio airwaves.

"This is the Red Dwarf Space Craft Starbug 1 calling all surveyors of the Ship Red Dwarf do you read us, please respond?"

Static

He tried again. "This is the Red Dwarf Space craft Starbug 1 please respond if you can hear us!"

Static. Then a muffled noise and then more static.

Lister could feel the tension in the room and broke the silence. "It's no good man, they can't here us we will have to go down to them. Hit the retros Cat and take her down." He gripped the sides of his seat in anticipation at the bumpy landing.

The five of them stepped out onto the lush green grass of the planet. All around them life was blossoming. A stream trickled near by, while strange birds flew overhead.

"What the smeg is this place Kryten?" said Lister brushing his hand over the tall green grass.

Kryten performed a scan, and looking rather annoyed whacked the side of the Psi-Scanner. "OH dam 3891 model.", the device beeped once more and Kryten continued. "The Psi-scan reports a normal Class 3 planet; all the basic elements of life are here." He paused checking the information again. "Wait there's more. There are massive psychic readings here, but they appear to be fading fast."

"Kryten are you telling me that this place is like Earth?" asked Lister

"Indeed sir it has all the elements that would make up your home planet. Best guess I would say the crew have struck lucky and stumbled upon a new Earth. If you forgive the bad 1990s film title, a kind of Earth 2."

Listers questioned Kryten. "Come on Kryters, don't go all Star trek on me is this Earth or not?"

Kryten bent over a small yellow flower which smelt to all intensive purposes like freshly ground coffee. "No sir, I would say this is another wonder of the Universe, however I have another theory but I need more time to be sure."

Kochanski had moved over by a small stream. She gazed into the crystal clear waters as she leant over it. Her head pressed close to the water she drank deeply. 'Oh god that's good' she thought, '100% non re-cyc water.'

She called to the others. "Guys, this water is the purest water I have every tasked it's amazing."

Kryten hurried over to her, a note of concern in his voice "Ma'am you don't know where that waters been, may I suggest you don't go sticking you tongue into anything else until we have scanned it first." The others sniggered in the background at his remark.

Kryten looked like he would blow a circuit any second. "OK." She soothed. "I will play it safe and steady."

She noticed the Cat was missing. She shouted back at the others. "Hey where is the Cat?"

They looked about, but he was nowhere to be found.

Rimmer tutted. "Great all we need is a missing moggy on our hands. He could be anywhere by now."

Lister grinned. "Don't worry man, he always shows up in the morning, when he wants his bowl of Crispys."

They did not have to wait long before they heard the scream. A scream that clearly was human and sounded female. Lister called "That came from just behind that nearby hill."

Rimmer stood his hands on his hips, while the others started in the direction of the scream. "Oh great what has that stupid Moggy gone and done now?" He muttered.

They covered the ground as fast as they could and when they got to the brow of the hill they found the Cat sitting on a rock looking down at a rather petrified looking girl. She appeared to be about mid twenties.

It turned out that she had chosen this spot to rather unfortunately take a dip in a mountain stream. She screamed up at them "Is he with you, he just won't stop staring at me!"

Lister called to the Cat. "Cat, come on man leave the lady alone." However as he took in the scene he could not help noticing that she was rather less dressed than she might like to have been, especially someone with the current audience.

Rimmer came over the hill and ran down to the stream and handed the girl her robe. "Sorry about him." He said, turning his back to her so not to intrude on her modesty any further. "He has not seen a woman as lovely as you in some time."

She climbed out of the water and smiled at Rimmer. "It's OK it just we thought there was not any other survivors in the area and so when I saw him sitting up there looking at me it gave me quite a scare."

Rimmer patted her on the shoulder, unsure of what to do in the situation. He decided this was probably best. "Look we have come from Red Dwarf, and are here to rescue survivors, how many are there?"

She looked up at this strange man; he seemed nice so she decided not to run, not just yet anyhow. "Well in our group there are about 50, but we are getting word that there are other groups around the planet. Oh and I should say, I don't think we want rescuing kind sir."

At this the group looked at each other, not sure how to take this news.

Kochanski approached the girl. "Look we believe we have a cure for the Virus that is eating away at Red Dwarf, we can all go back."

The girl looked at her, taking her time to digest the news and all she said was. "OH, well that's OK we like it here." She smiled at them.

Rimmer leaned over and whispered in Listers ear. "Clearly she has lost it, she's very pretty but missing a few screws. We should get her to take us to her camp before it gets dark."

Lister nodded in agreement and asked the girl. "What is your name, I'm Dave, this is Rimmer and these are the Kryten and Kochanski and that over there is the Cat."

"Naddy." Replied the girl then adding. "I guess you will want to meet there others, follow me."

She led them the other side of the hill, through a small wood. Lister leaned over to Kryten "Is it just me or do these trees have a leather kind of smell?"

Krytens eyes flicked left to right trying not to look shifty but totally failing in the process. "Indeed they do, in fact something close to a new car smell if my nose is not mistaken, very strange."

The group came to an opening where they could see two Blue Midgets sitting on the grass. About 20 or so people could be seen busy building structures or setting up temporary stations.

Naddy called down to someone call Derrick.

"Hey Derrick I have found somebody, they say they are from the Dwarf and want to rescue us." There others noticed that her voice almost sounded like the last bit was said in jest.

A group of the survivors meet them as they entered the camp. Derrick a tall broad shouldered Glaswegian was at the head. "So come to rescue us have you, what makes you think we want rescuing hey?" he said in his broad Glaswegian accident.

Kryten spoke. "Sir, in all respect you can not hope to survive here for long. Even on what supplies you managed to gather in your escape. That would be madness!"

Derrick spoke in softer tones. "Listen friend, this place is different it feels like home to us. This planet is amazing, have you seen what is around you. It is wonderful and there are natural minerals here that don't need refining. We have already identified a type of rock that can be ironed into sheet metal. You understand, no smelting no digging with large machines, we can rebuild. We can start again."

Kryten continued. "But sir what about getting back to earth, to friends and family. Surely you want to go home?"

Lister had been Listening and looking around at the faces of the group, he understood. He placed his hand on Krytens shoulder. "Kryten, it is OK man, I think I understand." He went on "These people where re-created millions of years into space with little or no hope of them reaching home."

Derrick turned to Lister. "Yes, here we can live, we can start again. Our choice is simple. Start a new or become trapped in that tin can in space until we die. Sure we might be able to re-build the crew through crew coupling." He looked around at the group and asked louder so all could hear. "Is that a life we want?" Around the group there were many heads clearly indicating they didn't." Derrick continued. "I think I speak for the rest of us, and the answer is No." Once again around the group there was a general nodding in agreement at this statement.

Later that night Lister, Kochanski, Kryten and the Cat sat near a camp fire. They ate the very generous rations that had been handed out to everyone. There was however notably one member of their group missing. Rimmer was on the other side of the camp, his rations on his lap. He was smiling and laughing at whatever his new friend Naddy was saying. It seemed they were getting on very well. Lister felt a pang of jealousy but then he thought it was good to see Rimmer looking happy.

Thanks to all for reading. Reviews welcome, been fun writing and looking forward to finishing the last chapters soon.

Continued thanks to Cazflibs for her Beta work.