Chapter 4

Kryten and Camille had spent a lot of time catching up. Well, at first Kryten wanted to do his regular duties instead, but Lister ordered him to, Kryten wasn't too upset about it though. If Lister knew any better he would say that Kryten enjoyed it, and that would be right.

They shared duties now. Lister had never seen Kryten so happy, when he was folding sheets with Camille. They were perfect for each other. They loved ironing together. But soon she would find out the other part of their lives.

She was shocked out of an in-depth conversation with Kryten by a giant crash rocking the entire ship. They were both knocked off their feet and were sent flying across the bay. They heard a loud siren coming from Holly. 'Emergency, emergency. There's an emergency happening'. She paused for a minute. 'It's still happening. Emergency, emergency'. Camille looked confused. 'What's happening? Why are there sirens going off?' Kryten replied quickly, 'This is a regular happening in this ship. We need to make our way to the cockpit to find out what is going on.' She nodded and they both left their laundry to go to the cockpit.

When they entered, it was total chaos. Rimmer was screaming in fear as he cowered under a table. Lister was battling a blaze that was alarmingly close to engulfing the entire control system. Cat was yowling as he desperately tried to gain even a small amount of control. Kryten and Camille gasped as they saw why. The ship was spiralling towards a planet.

Kryten went to his post, examining data as it came in torrents. Camille didn't know what to do, so she grabbed an extinguisher and assisted Lister, giving him the edge to win. 'Thanks Camille, I owe ya one.' He gave her a brief grin before it was turned to a grimace. Cabin temperature was rising. They had entered the atmosphere of the planet. The ship greatly accelerated as the pull of gravity kicked in. Cat was now screaming as he yanked wildly at the joystick. Camille screamed and clung to Kryten, unsure of what was happening.

At the last minute, Cat finally got manual control and pulled into a steep dive that no one was prepared for. They started sliding around as the ship pointed upwards. Only Cat was holding on, he was still fighting the controls. They realised that they weren't going to make it. They all screamed as the ship crashed along the surface, smashing everything in its path. They saw the long scar it carved on the surface of the planet.

Everyone pulled themselves up as soon as the ship stopped shaking. Camille looked quite scared. Kryten said, 'Well as far as crashes go, that wasn't too bad. Minor damage, easily fixed by auto repair. Nobody injured and minimum mess'. He saw the nods of agreement around him, but Camille was too scared to talk at that time. Kryten noticed something wrong. 'Oh wait. The damage report machine was frozen, that's why it said it was all ok. Apparently there is a massive hole in the hull, the oxygeneration unit is dead and the roof may collapse at any moment'. Lister sighed. He knew it was too good to be true.

***

Lister began dragging out supplies. Kryten and Camille were setting up a campsite, on what thankfully was a planet with a breathable atmosphere. They were putting up several tents and setting up sleeping bags for everyone who needed sleep. Cat, Lister and Rimmer were bringing out as many supplies as possible. Rimmer's hard-light drive was on, and at full power because the ship couldn't use its power for anything else. Cat and Lister were dragging out water tanks, because water was more important to get lots of and it was harder to pull by yourself. Rimmer was gathering food, and he wasn't doing too badly. Basically he didn't try to worm his way out of doing it because Kryten had successfully lied to him saying that the food decks were stable. This was not the case. Camille went in to find some WD40 for herself and Kryten, when the roof groaned and started sagging. Everyone froze as they saw the roof sag and heard the moaning metal. Kryten dashed in to find Camille, pulling her out just in time. The roof gave way and collapsed, now no more supplies could be gotten easily.

They began to make a list of supplies. To Lister's horror, Rimmer had gotten no curry or poppadums or even lager. It was fruit and vegetables. Grain and some meat. Lister pulled out a laser and tried to cut his way in. Kryten yelled, 'Mr Lister! Please don't do that! We need what little charge we have in those lasers. Their may be hostile GELF's living on this planet. Lister grudgingly put down the laser and went to bed.

During the night, Lister had nightmares. He saw everyone's faces all terrified. He saw twisted lumps of metal. He saw Camille with long scars down her plastic face. He heard a woman scream and claws on metal. He saw a look of hopelessness on Kryten's face before it faded and he landed in a room with no doors. It was painted stripes of blood red and an oily black-brown colour. He saw all sorts of torture items. He saw the twisted grin of simulants and then he saw Rimmer alone in the corner of the room. Covered in blood. The last thing he saw was some breadcrumbs.

Lister screamed as he woke up. He heard screams from everyone else. He jumped out and met up with the others. Lister said, 'I just had the worst nightmare'. Everyone said the same thing. They had all have the same nightmare. The most vivid image was of Camille with long scars down her face. Rimmer spoke up, 'Where is Camille by the way?' They all looked shocked. Everybody ran to the tent where she was on downtime. Her tent had been ravaged. It was a mess. There was broken chairs, spare parts everywhere. Most noticeable was that she was not there. They found a small scrap of metal. When cat sniffed it, he confirmed the scent of WD40. Her fragrance. There was a message carved under the metal. Come get her or she is scrap metal. Cat picked up another scent. It was millennium oxide. The smell of simulants. Kryten looked concerned. 'The simulants have her. They may want humans in return.' They knew that Kryten would never let them trade, but it tore himself apart thinking of what was happening to Camille. Then Lister had an idea. 'We aren't going to trade. We're going to break her out. No matter what is in our way.' Rimmer spoke in falsetto, 'But what about simulants? They are designed to hunt and kill HUMANS!' Cat spoke up with an idea. 'They use smell like me, so all we need to do is find GELF and copy its scent to mask ourselves.' They now had a plan.