"It doesn't make any sense!" Rimmer exclaimed, several hours later. "Why would he just disappear off without telling us? He would have left a note, a message – something!" Kryten seemed uncomfortable too, but was trying to be rational,

"I suppose it's possible Mister Lister could have just gone out for a stroll," he said hopefully. Rimmer and the Cat stared at him.

"Lister?" Rimmer said sceptically, "Exercising?"

"Ah. I see your point, sir."

"Anyway, it's still pitch black outside. It must not get light on this moon. He wouldn't have gone out in the dark."

"I can't think of any other explanation," Kryten shrugged helplessly, "He can't have been taken by force; there's nobody here except us!"

"Wait a minute!" Rimmer hit on an idea, "Why don't we use the scan to see where he is? If there're no other life-forms here it should be able to pinpoint him exactly!"

"Superlative thinking, Sir," Kryten beamed. They moved to the cockpit.

Lister awoke slowly, his head still spinning from his drug-induced sleep. He felt weak and slightly sick. What was going on? Had they been attacked? The scan had told them there weren't any life-forms on this moon; what had gone wrong?

He rolled over and realised he wasn't in his bed anymore. The surface beneath him felt hard and cold, but he was definitely indoors somewhere. The air was warm, dry and heavy with fragrant incense that made him dizzy.

He managed to get his eyes open and tried to focus on the swaying images before him. The first thing he realised was that he was naked, and lying on a kind of raised platform. An altar of sorts; drenched in crimson rose petals. He swallowed hard. He didn't have a good feeling about this.

Looking about himself, he saw he was in a cavernous chamber, constructed of red marble and lined with huge flickering torches. The overall effect was of being at the centre of a ball of flame. And then he saw, standing a little way away, so still he almost hadn't noticed at all, there was someone – or more accurately something – watching him.

The droid sat down at his workstation and fired up the scan, "This should just take a moment, sirs. The results should be back fairly sharpish and...aha! Here we go!"

"So where is he?" the Cat asked.

"Well, I, er..." Kryten's expression changed. Suddenly he looked tense.

"What is it?" Rimmer demanded anxiously.

"I don't think the scanner can pinpoint him, sir."

"That's ridiculous!" Rimmer felt his heart starting to thump, "He must be out there! There's no way he could have left the entire moon! Search again!"

"You don't understand, sir," Kryten looked up, "It's not that I can't get a reading on the scan. It's that I'm getting too many."

"What?" Rimmer was confused.

"Somehow...it seems that life has sprung up on this planet overnight. Quite a lot of it."

"How is that possible?"

"I'm not sure," Kryten looked bewildered. Suddenly, they all looked up as the same thought hit them. "Could they have got in here?" Rimmer asked quietly. They ran to the airlock. The outside seal was gone; broken open and scored with what looked horribly like claw marks. Something had forced its way onto Starbug last night while they slept. And it had taken Lister.

"This can't really be happening," Lister murmured drowsily, as it crossed the room, stalking towards him like a demon. "You can't be real."

"I am as real as I need to be."

"But you're...you're..." He looked harder at the creature that towered before him; trying to work out what he was seeing. It was - superficially at least - like a man, but huge and utterly and unselfconsciously naked. It didn't look like it ever had, or had ever been meant to, wear clothes. Its cock stood up like a monolith, breathtaking in its sheer size. For some reason, Lister was reminded vaguely of a Minotaur; and indeed, the size of its massive shoulders would have rivalled a full-grown bull's. There was something animalistic in the legs as well, the haunches slightly too long and powerful to be entirely human, and...it had hooves. Its skin was constantly changing colour; flickering hues of red, orange, yellow and even the occasional flash of blue moved across it as though it were lit from within by dancing flames. And strangest of all, its face was the face of someone he knew. Someone very familiar...

"This isn't possible," he insisted weakly and tried to sit up. Something yanked hard at his throat and he stopped short, confused. "Anything is possible here," the creature told him, and now he could even recognise the voice; deeper and more sinister but ultimately unmistakableHe reached up tentatively and his fingertips discovered a golden collar locked around his throat, attached by long fine chains to the altar he lay on. Delicate though they looked, they were obviously very strong. He couldn't break them.

"Who are you?" he asked softly, feeling the first real twinges of fear.

"Do you really not know? Can you not guess?"

"Your face...and your voice...They're like him, but you're not him...I don't..."

"Perhaps I should not be surprised. You have lived with me day after day for years and never seen me. Fed me and nurtured me without ever recognising me. Before you I was a tiny sickly thing, starved and denied. But you changed all that. You shaped me and bred me into the mighty force you see before you now."

"I don't understand," Lister whispered.

"That is of no consequence now."

"I must be dreaming," he whispered to himself; closing his heavy eyes and sinking back down defeated amongst the petals.

"No. This is my dream. This has been my dream for a very long time..."