BENNY
Gemma stared down in disbelief at the two neat piles of bones that were all that remained of the parents she had dreamed of since she was 6.
"Why would a planet make my fantasies come true then kill my perfect parents?"
"Maybe it realised the idea of Rimmer passing his exams and being friendly was just too creepy." Holly replied.
Gemma thought for a minute, scanning her memory for anything that would give her a clue.
"Wait a minute. Benny, my teddy bear."
"Your teddy bear killed the crew? That is creepier than Rimmer smiling." Holly was beginning to think Gemma was a few microchips short of a motherboard.
"When I was 7 my mother tried to get back into the Space Corps, but she couldn't. She started ignoring me, except to drill me on astro engineering basics and blaming me for her failure. I used to daydream about my teddy bear coming to life during the night and killing her."
"That's a seriously disturbed childhood." With a seriously disturbed result, thought Holly.
Gemma sat on a stool as she remembered more and more of her childhood that she had tried to forget.
"Through the years, I set Benny on other people, including my father, for being the cause of all my problems. A friend of mine left for Pluto and took my favourite shirt with her, so I gave Benny a spaceship to go get her. It just became a habit."
"So where is he now?"
"Probably on his way to Red Dwarf to kill most of the crew."
Gemma realised she was the only one who could kill Benny, and the only one who knew how to do it. She had found the parents she had thought she wanted but it dawned on her that they never really were what she wanted. The guys on Red Dwarf might not be her first choice for companions, but they were growing on her. There was only one thing she would miss about this planet.
She walked up the stairs and got dressed before going into the third bedroom that had once been her mother's library where she had followed every clue in her quest to find Lister. She sat on the edge of the bed and watched Arnold Rimmer sleep. Knowing she would never get another chance to, she leaned over and kissed him lightly on the cheek. As she stood up she noticed a few things on his bedside table, which she picked up to keep as a memento of the time she was almost his girlfriend.
Back on Red Dwarf, some of the crew were assembled in the Drive Room. They had split up and searched a section of the ship each, looking for Gemma.
"I couldn't find her on the habitation decks." Kochanski reported.
"She not on the cargo decks either." Lister replied, wondering where along the line he had started to get worried.
"She's gone! Isn't that what we wanted?" Cat had had a half hearted search of the leisure decks, but didn't really care where she had gone.
"We never wanted her to disappear without a trace. And we know she couldn't have gone back to her own dimension." Lister replied.
"How?" Cat felt it was only polite to ask.
"There were no Dimensional tears she could have gone through." Kochanski replied.
Kryten and Rimmer came into the Drive Room.
"Miss Gemma is not on the ship, sir. We went to the landing bay and found this." Kryten reported, throwing a non-descript lump of metal onto the console. "The last Starbug is gone sir. She must have left in it, and removed this so we couldn't find it."
"So what's that then?" Listre asked.
Holly, who had been watching the search, answered.
"It's the tracking device. I never knew Starbug was gone because that was still here. She has also overridden my control on Starbug itself, so I can't find the black box, or tap into its controls."
"Congratulations, Lister, you've gotten rid of her, just like you wanted. She's so desperate to get away from you she's flying a rust bucket on her own." Rimmer was taking full advantage of his opportunity to annoy Lister.
Holly noticed something on his monitor, and alerted the crew before the minor argument turned into World War 9.
"Hey, I'm getting a signal; something's just entered the landing bay."
"Is it Starbug?" Kryten asked, happy that everyone had stopped arguing.
"No, it's far too small. You'd better check it out."
"I'll just err...supervise from back here." Rimmer started edging out the room.
Cat was getting sick of all these human problems; he wanted a nap and a snack.
"Come on, you coward, we'll use you as bait and solve two problems in one day."
The crew armed themselves with bazookoids and headed down to the landing bay. Rimmer was determined to stay at the back of the group, and for once the rest were happy to let him. He carried his weapon in front of him in one hand, with the other hand clamped firmly over his eyes, in case there was any blood. He didn't want to faint right now and be left with the monster.
"Sirs, I suggest we put the weapons on stun, in case the intruder is friendly." Kryten suggested.
"Keep your eyes peeled, it could be anywhere, and we don't know what "it" is, which makes this process a little harder." Lister was babbling, but he couldn't help it. He was too busy wondering whether the intruder was a monster that had eaten Gemma.
Cat grunted at Rimmer, who ignored him, so Cat was forced to set Rimmer's weapon to stun himself, and prise his fingers away from his face.
As they continued walking around the landing bay, Rimmer heard a noise come from behind him. The whole group turned, and Kochanski stepped in front of Rimmer. The noise got louder, and a shadow appeared from behind a box.
The shadow belonged to a large teddy bear. One of those huge ones that took up most of the window in card shops, but this one did not look cuddly. It had claws, which it had sharpened, and several concealed guns and knives stuck into its fur. Lister could also see bits of its stuffing poking out in places, and stitches where other clumps had apparently been repaired. Before he could stop her, Lister saw Kochanski put down her weapon and walk towards Frankented.
"It's just a teddy bear. It's quite cute, like Rambo or something."
Kochanski reached out for the teddy bear, which launched itself at her, trying to bite her. Kochanski was caught off guard, so she didn't have time to reach her gun before the bear knocked her out with a strike from the butt of one of its own.
"Get it, kill it. Pull out its stuffing or something!" Cat yelled, simply because he couldn't make his body move.
The bear launched itself at Lister, who had stepped forward a little, to try to reach Kochanski.
"Kill it man, kill it!" Lister gasped, trying to remove the neck hold the bear had him in.
"How? This thing's tougher than Robocop!!" Cat had tried to shoot the bear, but couldn't see enough of it, because it was using Lister as a shield.
As Lister passed out, he dropped his weapon. The bear picked it up and aimed it at Cat, ignoring Rimmer completely. Rimmer took this as a chance and ran as fast as he could to find the best hiding places. The bear stunned the Cat and Kryten with Lister's bazookoid, and stood to look at his haul. With a sense of satisfaction only a teddy bear who had been brought to life by a seven year old girl with a grudge could feel, Benny dragged Kochanski away by the feet. He had time to come back for the rest before he killed them one by one.
Gemma landed Starbug with a bit of a bump, and ran out in a hurry to find Benny. As she scanned the landing bay, she saw something that confirmed her fears.
"Benny is definitely here somewhere. There's his spaceship." Gemma pointed out to Holly.
Holly looked as Gemma held the watch up so he could see. Now he knew she was cracked. He was staring at a large, bright pink, toy Jeep with "Barbie" written on the side. There was no account for taste.
"I was only 7 remember, no laughing. We have to find Arnold."
"Head straight for the nearest large box that shakes and smells funny, he's bound to be there."
Gemma found one of the discarded bazookoids, which did not cheer her up at all. She walked back to the Jeep, and shot it, destroying it, to make sure Benny couldn't leave, and no one else in the crew ever saw that she had once owned a bright pink Barbie Jeep. She wondered if Benny would kill her just for making him endure such embarrassment.
"Why do we need Rimmer anyway, he's only useful as cannon fodder."
"That's why I need him. I have to try to get Benny to knock him out."
"You're not the first to wish harm on Rimmer. But he might already have been captured."
"He won't have, because I haven't set Benny on him, so he can't be harmed. Benny is invincible, even to me, as long as he can be controlled. If I can get him to hurt someone I care about, who I've never set him on, I should be able to kill him. I hope." What Gemma didn't say was that this was totally theoretical, so it might not work at all, but it was all she had to work on.
"You care about Rimmer? That IS a first."
"Yes, haven't you worked that out by now, dough brain?"
Gemma walked a little further before bringing the watch up to her face and smiled sweetly at Holly. If it wasn't for the slightly evil look in her eye, Holly might have thought she was being nice.
"Oh, and Holly? If you tell anyone what you saw down on that planet, or anything about Benny, I will reroute your circuits to make you think you are a suicidal yak. And don't think I don't know how."
"OK, keep your hair on."
"Psst. Over here."
Gemma turned at the whisper, and saw Rimmer's face peeking at her from behind a workbench. She walked over and crouched behind the workbench beside him.
"Where have you been? We've been looking for you everywhere."
Gemma considered her options and went for the short explanation that wouldn't get her locked up for observation.
"Ummm...asteroid spotting."
"Well, a demented teddy bear has dragged the rest of the crew away somewhere. Luckily, I escaped, so I could warn you." Rimmer decided that was a relatively sensible reply, even though the situation was so ridiculous that no sane person would believe him.
"Where did they go?"
"I don't know, I was having a panic attack." Rimmer replied without thinking, destroying his macho persona from before.
"We'll find them. Then you will have to shoot it."
"Me? Gemma, you haven't been with us very long, so there's something you must know about me. I'm a coward. As yellow as a Day-Glo canary. Plus, I don't know how to use a gun." Rimmer decided the manly thing had gone, so he might as well show his true colours in all their chicken wuss glory.
Gemma handed him her bazookoid.
"Just point this at the bear, and pull the trigger, ok."
She dragged Rimmer out by his shoulder, and walked him towards the door, ignoring his protests all the way to the Drive Room.
Benny had tied Lister, Cat, Kochanski and Kryten to separate chairs, and gagged them. This was the fun part before his instincts made him shoot them with his laser that, for some reason, reduced the victims to dust, which then blew away, leaving only the bones in a neat pile. He didn't hear Gemma and Rimmer walk into the room.
Rimmer held the gun up with one hand and stuck his finger in his ear with the other. He pulled the trigger, missing Benny by seven inches, and hitting the wall millimetres from Kochanski's ear. Benny turned to face Rimmer, and then turned back to his victims. The cowardly one was not on his list. Gemma grabbed the bazookoid and forced Rimmer to hold it with both hands. She aimed the gun for him, and let go just as he pulled the trigger. The shot hit Benny's shoulder. He growled in pain and turned to face Rimmer before punching him, sending him across the Drive Room. Gemma saw he was out cold. She resisted the urge to make sure he was OK, and faced Benny. She picked up Rimmer's bazookoid, and pointed it at Benny, praying that her logic would be proved right.
"Get your hands off my family you stuffed homicidal scum!" Gemma yelled.
She pulled the trigger, and shot Benny in the middle of his chest. The bear exploded, showering everyone with bits of fur and stuffing. Gemma untied Lister from the chair then left him to untie the others while she ran to wake up Rimmer. She knelt beside him and checked his pulse. He was just coming round when Gemma heard a strangled scream and turned to defend Rimmer against Benny again, but he wasn't the problem. Lister and Kryten were holding back Kochanski, who was trying to wriggle out to get to Rimmer.
"Let me at him!! He nearly shot me!"
Cat was busy staring at his wrists.
"Look at these cuffs. They got so many creases I could make a map."
"How the Hell did you manage to kill it?" Lister asked, letting Kochanski go, since she had finally calmed down a bit.
Gemma helped Rimmer to his feet before she answered, considering what she should say without giving away who Benny was.
"Lucky shot I guess."
"I think everyone could do with some tea." Kryten turned to leave the room.
"Kryten. Make mine white with two sugars."
Everyone stared at Gemma.
"Asteroid spotting kind of made me realise you guys aren't so bad."
"That was some trip." Holly replied from the monitor. Gemma quickly hid her wrist, so no one would see the watch.
"Actually, Arnold made the vital weakening shot so I could deliver the fatal blow."
"Which was what I planned to do, obviously."
As everyone left the room, Gemma followed behind, feeling like part of the crew for the first time since she had arrived. She put her hand into her pocket to pull out the things she had taken from the other Rimmer's table. They were his badge and a congratulatory letter from passing his exam and becoming an officer. The last item was a small photograph that must have been taken in a passport booth. It showed her on Rimmer's knee, with her arm round his shoulders, grinning as he kissed her cheek. She heard a snigger from her wrist, and knew what it was about.
"Shut up, you. And don't forget my threat."
Gemma whacked the watch and left behind the closest to a family she had ever had.