The colors were brighter, the whiskey tasted better, and the atmosphere was
overall richer in the officer's club. He had only been in here once, and
that had been an incredibly traumatizing experience for him, involving
gazpacho soup, which he was doing his best to keep out of his mind. Even
the chair that he sat on was much more comfortable than the generic steel
of the ship.
Rimmer and Randall sat across from each other, separated by an elegant glass coffee table. Rimmer felt like he was home. He had visited this place in his dreams. Smoked cigars, exchanged stories and jokes with the other officers. Of course, none of that had really happened, and now that he was here, he was less comfortable than he had felt in his dreams.
"You see, Rimmer, we all feel that we've been a bit hard on you. It isn't easy to be a technician, we realize, and you are a damn fine technician." Said Randall.
Rimmer could hardly believe what he was hearing. A complement from an actual officer! Was he really a damn fine technician? He was never late for work, and always put in his all. He made work schedules for everyone on his shift (even though they never seemed to follow them) and was generally a good leader to all the drunken fools. He was a damn fine technician! A smug smile aroused on Rimmer's lips. "Thank you, sir."
"We were thinking of giving you the position as perhaps... an intern of some sort. Eligible for promotion. So you can get a feel for what it's like to be an officer." Randall smiled the same peculiar smile that he had been since he had met with Rimmer. A smile that implied fakeness and deceit.
Rimmer didn't notice. All he could concentrate on was the offer put forth. He was ecstatic. It was what he had wanted to hear for his entire life! The words being said made him forget completely about the last few years of his life. He forgot all about the radiation leak, being stuck with everyone, gelfs, nanos, simulants, psirens... He even forgot about Olivia.
Olivia stepped off the lift and walked in the direction of the office she was supposed to be at. She was late. She was going to walk into the room and immediately be informed she was late. This she knew. She didn't want to come on time. She wanted to come late and leave early and avoid any and all interactions. She paused outside the door for a moment. She couldn't be too late... Slowly she knocked, hoping she wouldn't be heard, but she was.
"Come in!" She heard a muffled shout from inside.
She took a deep breath and walked in the room. Her pupils were immediately startled by the colors in the room. Her eyes had adjusted to staring at the same colors for so long, that any actual color besides gray shocked her. This was not a gray room at all... it was pink! A pale, faded wallpaper pink, yes, but it was color. For some reason, the color seemed to lighten her up a little bit. She could feel some weight being lifted off her shoulders.
The other features of the room soon came into focus as well. A large wooden desk, a metal chair, a plant that was most likely fake sitting in the corner of the room, a gray file cabinet, matching the gray of the rest of the ship, and a window. She hated the window. Just seeing it, and looking back out at the eternal night, made her stressed out once again.
Finally, she noticed who occupied the room with her. It was a small woman with frizzy blonde hair. She was wearing a beige uniform like the rest of the crew. She had large glasses taking up most of her face, and generally looked rather dorky and out of place.
"You must be Olivia Angel-dish." the woman stated, clearly mispronouncing her last name. Olivia didn't bother to correct it. She didn't exactly plan on becoming friends with this woman. "Sit down, make yourself comfortable."
Olivia did as told and sat down on the metal chair, unable to be comfortable as the cold steel hit her bones.
"I'm Doctor Brown. I'm not normally she ship's psychologist, but the Captain asked me specifically to meet with you." Her voice was soft and non threatening.
Olivia sat there, taking it all in.
Dr. Brown paused, waiting for Olivia to say something, but she never filled in that pause. "So, is there anything you can tell me about yourself? All I know is some of the details from your court case. It all sounds very interesting, but we should probably save that for later. What type of things are you interested in?" She rambled
Olivia sat there for a moment, pondering the question. What was she interested in? How could such a simple question be so difficult? How was she supposed to answer? She hadn't done anything she was interested in since she had been on earth, and she couldn't very well say any of them to this woman. There was only one thing she could think to say. "I... like to read." She mumbled.
"Really? How wonderful. I happen to enjoy a good novel myself every once and awhile! What authors do you like?"
Olivia once again spaced out. She had just read whatever she could find on Starbug, not paying much attention to what they were. Olivia did the best she could to come up with some famous authors from her time.
Dr. Brown stared blankly. Clearly she hadn't heard of any of them. "Oh... Are they relatively new authors? I don't believe I've ever heard of them."
Olivia signed. Of course she hadn't. Probably no one had. She was from the past. That wasn't going to change. "Uhhh... yeah. They're new." Olivia lied, emotion drained from her voice. Clearly this was going to be a degrading session.
After a few hours, three cigars and four glasses of champagne, any sign of suspicion had vanished from Rimmer's mind. He was able to stutter out a witty sentence every once and awhile, but mostly he was just laughing at things other Officers were saying and providing an "Indeed" or "Yes, that's right" to everyone's statement. The only thing that even started to break him from this trance was Todhunter.
He came through the doors with a big smile on his face. He and Rimmer soon made eye contact, stopping Rimmer in the middle of a "Yes indeed". This eye contact was soon broken as Todhunter walked over to Randall and whispered something. Rimmer hardly paid attention. Todhunter reminded him once again of Olivia's existence. Maybe she'd like it here. Maybe being in the presence of greatness would make her more comfortable. He couldn't wait to tell her the good news about the internship he was given!
Olivia treaded down the hallways, her pant legs dragging on the floor because she didn't bother to lift her feet above the ground more than a few mere inches. Her mind hurt from the past hour of conversation. The session had turned out much worse than she ever could have expected. She had initially been afraid to tell her feeling to a stranger, but no feelings were shared, only pointless opinions about things she couldn't have cared less about. Sports she had never heard of before, Soap Operas she had never heard of and would never watch... Sure the lady was just trying to be friendly, but this was just too much! She had no idea just how shallow the human race could be. She needed some intelligent conversation before her mind rotted!
She didn't know where she would be able to find that, but decided to go to Rimmer's quarters. She didn't exactly count on any conversation between them to be intelligent, but she figured it would be nice to talk about something else besides sports, books, food and television shows. It would also be nice to try and make things a little less awkward between them since he was still the only one she could really rely on for companionship.
She entered the quarters, not bothering to knock, but simply just by pushing the button to open the door. She couldn't have imagined that Rimmer would be opposed to seeing her. As the doors slid open, it was soon brought to her attention that he was not here. Instead, there sat Lister, cradling his guitar. His head jolted up. Olivia had completely forgotten about Lister.
"You ever heard of knocking?" Lister smiled, jokingly.
"Sorry... I was just expecting... never mind."
"Rimmer." Lister stated the obvious.
"Well yeah." She looked down at the ground.
"That's ok, Olivia. I think I know what's going on between you guys, and frankly it's none of my business, and I don't want to get in the way-" Lister began, before he was interrupted.
"In the way of what? There's nothing going on. Not really anyway. I don't know what you know, Lister, but I'm not ready for anything to happen... with anyone!" She defended herself.
Lister nodded. "I see." He seemed sincere. "Well Rimmer isn't here as you may have noticed."
Olivia signed. "Oh well... I just wanted a bit of intelligent... I mean... regular conversation."
Lister laughed, catching on to why Olivia had corrected herself. "Yeah, I know the feeling. Well, he may not be 'ere, but I am. I wouldn't mind some company. I could play you a song."
"That guitar only has 2 strings. I can't exactly think of anything you could play with them." said Olivia, stepping in the doorway, and sitting down on a chair. She might as well stay awhile.
"That's never stopped me before." he smiled, as he began to strum on them.
Olivia cringed. "I can see why you keep that around, probably drives Rimmer apeshit."
"Apeshit?"
Olivia let out a long sigh. "I miss my old slang that I used to use with my friends. Everyone speaks all technical here."
"I don't speak technical. Not many technicalities come along with being a third technician, ya know." He replied.
"No, I guess they wouldn't. It's rather relieving, too." With that, Olivia dropped down onto Rimmer's bed and rested her head on the pillow, ruining the finely made sheets.
Lister jumped down from his bunk and sat down on a chair on the adjacent side of the room so he could face her.
"Things are so different here. People look at me differently when I speak because obviously there is something different about it and they can't exactly figure out what it is. I try not to make a reference to anything they wouldn't know about, and just make myself fit in, but it's hard. Especially with this therapist! So far all she can talk about are sports and TV shows I've never heard of, and all I can do is just nod and agree with what she says." She rambled, without ever making eye contact at Lister. She was looking around the wall of the bunk at Rimmer's long service metals and swimming certificates, and newspaper clippings that were clearly not about him. Obviously Rimmer was into fooling people into thinking he was something he was not. Olivia couldn't exactly blame him, that was all she was doing, too.
"I guess I know what that's like. I wasn't exactly raised very wealthy or well off, so I was always a bit different, too." Lister tried to sympathize.
"I miss Earth. I miss it so much! I never thought this would ever happen to the human race. Frankly it's more than I can take." Olivia still didn't look away from the walls of the bunk. Now she was checking out the rifles mounted on the walls.
"All I ever wanted was to get back to Earth." Lister looked down at his lap, remembering his dreams and desires before the radiation leak.
"I wanted to just stay in AR, Lister... I really did."
"So, I hope you don't mind me asking, but if that was the case, then why did you ever come out?" Lister pondered.
"Rimmer wanted me to."
"That's all?"
"I guess you wouldn't understand."
"Well it is a bit hard to understand... that he was your only reason and all. He used to be the reason I hid out in the AR machines all day back before you came along."
"I know he gets on your nerves. I can tell. He gets on mine a little bit, too. It just means so much to me that he cared about me so much, and did all that he did for me."
"Ye', that was a bit out of character."
"I kind of wonder if it was worth it to stay... but then I remember that we... never mind." Olivia was about to tell about their kiss, but didn't really want to give it away to Lister.
Rimmer and Randall sat across from each other, separated by an elegant glass coffee table. Rimmer felt like he was home. He had visited this place in his dreams. Smoked cigars, exchanged stories and jokes with the other officers. Of course, none of that had really happened, and now that he was here, he was less comfortable than he had felt in his dreams.
"You see, Rimmer, we all feel that we've been a bit hard on you. It isn't easy to be a technician, we realize, and you are a damn fine technician." Said Randall.
Rimmer could hardly believe what he was hearing. A complement from an actual officer! Was he really a damn fine technician? He was never late for work, and always put in his all. He made work schedules for everyone on his shift (even though they never seemed to follow them) and was generally a good leader to all the drunken fools. He was a damn fine technician! A smug smile aroused on Rimmer's lips. "Thank you, sir."
"We were thinking of giving you the position as perhaps... an intern of some sort. Eligible for promotion. So you can get a feel for what it's like to be an officer." Randall smiled the same peculiar smile that he had been since he had met with Rimmer. A smile that implied fakeness and deceit.
Rimmer didn't notice. All he could concentrate on was the offer put forth. He was ecstatic. It was what he had wanted to hear for his entire life! The words being said made him forget completely about the last few years of his life. He forgot all about the radiation leak, being stuck with everyone, gelfs, nanos, simulants, psirens... He even forgot about Olivia.
Olivia stepped off the lift and walked in the direction of the office she was supposed to be at. She was late. She was going to walk into the room and immediately be informed she was late. This she knew. She didn't want to come on time. She wanted to come late and leave early and avoid any and all interactions. She paused outside the door for a moment. She couldn't be too late... Slowly she knocked, hoping she wouldn't be heard, but she was.
"Come in!" She heard a muffled shout from inside.
She took a deep breath and walked in the room. Her pupils were immediately startled by the colors in the room. Her eyes had adjusted to staring at the same colors for so long, that any actual color besides gray shocked her. This was not a gray room at all... it was pink! A pale, faded wallpaper pink, yes, but it was color. For some reason, the color seemed to lighten her up a little bit. She could feel some weight being lifted off her shoulders.
The other features of the room soon came into focus as well. A large wooden desk, a metal chair, a plant that was most likely fake sitting in the corner of the room, a gray file cabinet, matching the gray of the rest of the ship, and a window. She hated the window. Just seeing it, and looking back out at the eternal night, made her stressed out once again.
Finally, she noticed who occupied the room with her. It was a small woman with frizzy blonde hair. She was wearing a beige uniform like the rest of the crew. She had large glasses taking up most of her face, and generally looked rather dorky and out of place.
"You must be Olivia Angel-dish." the woman stated, clearly mispronouncing her last name. Olivia didn't bother to correct it. She didn't exactly plan on becoming friends with this woman. "Sit down, make yourself comfortable."
Olivia did as told and sat down on the metal chair, unable to be comfortable as the cold steel hit her bones.
"I'm Doctor Brown. I'm not normally she ship's psychologist, but the Captain asked me specifically to meet with you." Her voice was soft and non threatening.
Olivia sat there, taking it all in.
Dr. Brown paused, waiting for Olivia to say something, but she never filled in that pause. "So, is there anything you can tell me about yourself? All I know is some of the details from your court case. It all sounds very interesting, but we should probably save that for later. What type of things are you interested in?" She rambled
Olivia sat there for a moment, pondering the question. What was she interested in? How could such a simple question be so difficult? How was she supposed to answer? She hadn't done anything she was interested in since she had been on earth, and she couldn't very well say any of them to this woman. There was only one thing she could think to say. "I... like to read." She mumbled.
"Really? How wonderful. I happen to enjoy a good novel myself every once and awhile! What authors do you like?"
Olivia once again spaced out. She had just read whatever she could find on Starbug, not paying much attention to what they were. Olivia did the best she could to come up with some famous authors from her time.
Dr. Brown stared blankly. Clearly she hadn't heard of any of them. "Oh... Are they relatively new authors? I don't believe I've ever heard of them."
Olivia signed. Of course she hadn't. Probably no one had. She was from the past. That wasn't going to change. "Uhhh... yeah. They're new." Olivia lied, emotion drained from her voice. Clearly this was going to be a degrading session.
After a few hours, three cigars and four glasses of champagne, any sign of suspicion had vanished from Rimmer's mind. He was able to stutter out a witty sentence every once and awhile, but mostly he was just laughing at things other Officers were saying and providing an "Indeed" or "Yes, that's right" to everyone's statement. The only thing that even started to break him from this trance was Todhunter.
He came through the doors with a big smile on his face. He and Rimmer soon made eye contact, stopping Rimmer in the middle of a "Yes indeed". This eye contact was soon broken as Todhunter walked over to Randall and whispered something. Rimmer hardly paid attention. Todhunter reminded him once again of Olivia's existence. Maybe she'd like it here. Maybe being in the presence of greatness would make her more comfortable. He couldn't wait to tell her the good news about the internship he was given!
Olivia treaded down the hallways, her pant legs dragging on the floor because she didn't bother to lift her feet above the ground more than a few mere inches. Her mind hurt from the past hour of conversation. The session had turned out much worse than she ever could have expected. She had initially been afraid to tell her feeling to a stranger, but no feelings were shared, only pointless opinions about things she couldn't have cared less about. Sports she had never heard of before, Soap Operas she had never heard of and would never watch... Sure the lady was just trying to be friendly, but this was just too much! She had no idea just how shallow the human race could be. She needed some intelligent conversation before her mind rotted!
She didn't know where she would be able to find that, but decided to go to Rimmer's quarters. She didn't exactly count on any conversation between them to be intelligent, but she figured it would be nice to talk about something else besides sports, books, food and television shows. It would also be nice to try and make things a little less awkward between them since he was still the only one she could really rely on for companionship.
She entered the quarters, not bothering to knock, but simply just by pushing the button to open the door. She couldn't have imagined that Rimmer would be opposed to seeing her. As the doors slid open, it was soon brought to her attention that he was not here. Instead, there sat Lister, cradling his guitar. His head jolted up. Olivia had completely forgotten about Lister.
"You ever heard of knocking?" Lister smiled, jokingly.
"Sorry... I was just expecting... never mind."
"Rimmer." Lister stated the obvious.
"Well yeah." She looked down at the ground.
"That's ok, Olivia. I think I know what's going on between you guys, and frankly it's none of my business, and I don't want to get in the way-" Lister began, before he was interrupted.
"In the way of what? There's nothing going on. Not really anyway. I don't know what you know, Lister, but I'm not ready for anything to happen... with anyone!" She defended herself.
Lister nodded. "I see." He seemed sincere. "Well Rimmer isn't here as you may have noticed."
Olivia signed. "Oh well... I just wanted a bit of intelligent... I mean... regular conversation."
Lister laughed, catching on to why Olivia had corrected herself. "Yeah, I know the feeling. Well, he may not be 'ere, but I am. I wouldn't mind some company. I could play you a song."
"That guitar only has 2 strings. I can't exactly think of anything you could play with them." said Olivia, stepping in the doorway, and sitting down on a chair. She might as well stay awhile.
"That's never stopped me before." he smiled, as he began to strum on them.
Olivia cringed. "I can see why you keep that around, probably drives Rimmer apeshit."
"Apeshit?"
Olivia let out a long sigh. "I miss my old slang that I used to use with my friends. Everyone speaks all technical here."
"I don't speak technical. Not many technicalities come along with being a third technician, ya know." He replied.
"No, I guess they wouldn't. It's rather relieving, too." With that, Olivia dropped down onto Rimmer's bed and rested her head on the pillow, ruining the finely made sheets.
Lister jumped down from his bunk and sat down on a chair on the adjacent side of the room so he could face her.
"Things are so different here. People look at me differently when I speak because obviously there is something different about it and they can't exactly figure out what it is. I try not to make a reference to anything they wouldn't know about, and just make myself fit in, but it's hard. Especially with this therapist! So far all she can talk about are sports and TV shows I've never heard of, and all I can do is just nod and agree with what she says." She rambled, without ever making eye contact at Lister. She was looking around the wall of the bunk at Rimmer's long service metals and swimming certificates, and newspaper clippings that were clearly not about him. Obviously Rimmer was into fooling people into thinking he was something he was not. Olivia couldn't exactly blame him, that was all she was doing, too.
"I guess I know what that's like. I wasn't exactly raised very wealthy or well off, so I was always a bit different, too." Lister tried to sympathize.
"I miss Earth. I miss it so much! I never thought this would ever happen to the human race. Frankly it's more than I can take." Olivia still didn't look away from the walls of the bunk. Now she was checking out the rifles mounted on the walls.
"All I ever wanted was to get back to Earth." Lister looked down at his lap, remembering his dreams and desires before the radiation leak.
"I wanted to just stay in AR, Lister... I really did."
"So, I hope you don't mind me asking, but if that was the case, then why did you ever come out?" Lister pondered.
"Rimmer wanted me to."
"That's all?"
"I guess you wouldn't understand."
"Well it is a bit hard to understand... that he was your only reason and all. He used to be the reason I hid out in the AR machines all day back before you came along."
"I know he gets on your nerves. I can tell. He gets on mine a little bit, too. It just means so much to me that he cared about me so much, and did all that he did for me."
"Ye', that was a bit out of character."
"I kind of wonder if it was worth it to stay... but then I remember that we... never mind." Olivia was about to tell about their kiss, but didn't really want to give it away to Lister.