CHAPTER 4: Ghost Ship

They followed the corridor along to a T-junction, where at the crossbar of the 'T' a watercooler stood next to a strange cactus-like leafy plant. Behind the watercooler an emblem was painted onto the wall. Lister stepped closer to have a look, and kicked something that lightly skidded across the floor.

It was a plastic cup. It rolled over, slowly, and then stopped. In its trail was a puddle of water, from where the cup had apparently been dropped. Lister realised he was standing in it. He stepped out of the puddle and picked up the cup, turned it over thoughtfully, and sat it beside the watercooler. Then he took a closer look at the design.

A double circle contained the word 'GENESIS'. Underneath, around the lower rim was that phrase again: 'NIL HOMINI CERTUM EST'. In the centre of the circle, the top half of planet Earth was visible. Above it, a tiny moon, and a majestic ship drifted in silhoutte. The word 'CORONIS' was just visible along its side. Stars dotted the background.

Kryten, Cat and Rimmer had moved ahead and were walking down the center of the T-junction, which appeared to open onto some kind of huge lobby. Their diminishing footsteps echoed slightly and bounced off the cold white walls.

Lister looked at the cup again, shrugged, and jogged off to catch up with the others. As he reached the room at the bottom of the 'T' he stopped in his tracks, and whistled softly.

"Check this place out," he said appreciatively, craning his neck up towards the ceiling. It was a huge, circular lobby. In the middle of the room two gleaming semi-circular desks faced away from each other, forming an oval. Blue lamps washed the desk in pools of light. Two staircases ascending from ground level climbed around the edges of the room, meeting at a long, wide landing, on which were a number of doors and an elevator. However, dominating the room was a scultpure on a plinth behind the desks on the first floor. Made of some golden metal, it reached above the second floor landing and almost touched the ceiling. Under the bright fluorescent lights ( which continued, even in here, to flicker on and off at random, casting them periodically into gloomy shadow), tiny planets gleamed like suns. Connecting each planet and holding it in suspension above the floor were very thin strands of metal. Each planet was connected to the base by one of these strands, forming the impression of a large golden flower, with each planet being one of its buds or leaves. It was a complete model of Earth's solar system.

"Incredible," Rimmer said, his neck crooked back so far his Adam's apple stuck out.

"An entire map of the solar system," Kryten observed.

"Yeah, this is great and all, but I have one question," the Cat said. "Is there any food around this place? 'Cos I'm starving."

"You're unbelievable, man!" Lister said incredulously. "Look where we are! How can you think about food?"

The Cat just stared at him.

"Forget I asked."

"Ok, look. I'm sorry to be the one to point it out to you, but it's pretty clear there's something very wrong here. Look around you. There's no sign of life. The electrics are all shot to hell. Whatever happened here, it wasn't very nice." Rimmer said.

"It's not just the lights, either," the Cat said ominously. "We passed some doors on the way. They were all screwed up. Opening and closing for no reason."

"I'll bet some major damage has been done to the security system and whatever controls the lights... and the air conditioning," Lister said morosely. "It's like a freezer in here." He crossed his arms and shivered.

"Right," Rimmer said. "So basically, this station is smegged. The question is, is it worth wandering around any longer? Is it even safe?."

"We've encountered no problems so far, I suggest we explore a little deeper into the complex," Kryten said calmly.

"Yeah, we're here now," Lister said. "We might as well make the best of it." He wandered over to the front-facing desk. On this too, the GENESIS emblem had been carved into the metallic surface of the desk.

Rimmer looked unsettled, but curiosity got the better of him."Well, where do we start? This place is huge."

"I'd like to look around in those docking bays," Lister said, heading back towards the junction.

"They all looked empty."

"Yeah, but you never know what you might find." He grinned at Rimmer over his shoulder.

They wandered down the corridor past the docking bays, following the slight curvature of the station. On further inspection, all the bays were empty. The sheer number of bays indicated that there had been a lot of flight traffic here, but when the station was abandoned, apparently all the vehicles had been taken.

Eventually they reached the last docking bay on the level, number 48. It, too, was empty, and the corridor ended in an airlock leading to another part of the station. There was a glass window set in the door.

As Lister, Rimmer and Kryten began to retrace their way back towards the lobby, feeling dejected, the Cat glanced through the circular window and saw a deep wall of blackness. He frowned, and pressed his face up to the glass.

It wasn't a wall.

It wasn't another part of the ship.

It wasn't completely black.

Stars shimmered in the distance. Immediately beyond the door, the station fell away onto open space. By pressing close to the glass he could see that half the station had been completely destroyed. Torn off in some massive explosion, or a series of explosions that had crumbled away most of the structure. Little twists of metal, shrapnel from the blast, rolled slowly past the window. Countless other bits of random debris drifted weightlessly in the black night. And looking along the side of the destroyed half the building, he could see into the rooms that were ripped open. Lights still blinked spasmodically in some, bathing the side of the station in light like some weird Christmas tree. The Cat pulled back just as an office chair drifted gracefully past the window.

"Uh... guys! You might wanna take a look at this!"

Rimmer, Kryten and Lister turned and wandered back to the airlock door, where Cat was standing.

"What?" Lister said, and Cat just nodded at the window. Lister pressed his face against it and peered out. A few seconds ticked by.

"Smeggin' hell!"

"What is it? Let me see," Rimmer said, roughly batting him aside. Lister just flopped against the wall, a stunned expression on his face.

"'Some structural damage', you said." He raised his eyebrows at Lister.

"Well I didn't see it from the back," Lister defended weakly. "What d'you think happened?"

"Well, at a rough guess, I'd say someone blew half the smegging ship away," Rimmer said curtly.

"I mean what kind of weapon could cause so much damage? That kind firepower of makes Starbug's laser cannons look like the equivalent of a water pistol with no water in it."

"It was probably a fluke shot, or a very calculated and precise missile that destroyed some vital part of the ship... a ruptured engine or fuel canister, which produced a chain of explosions throughout the entire complex. My guess is that the central computer, or whatever passes for an AI aboard this vessel has been severely damaged."

"That would explain the dodgy lighting," Lister said.

"And the screwed up doors," the Cat ventured.

"Well... it's lucky for us the airtight doors are still working," Lister mused, "Or we'd all be people spaghetti by now." He and the Cat had removed their space helmets after entering the first airlock.

"Yes, they must be the only doors not controlled by the central computer. That, or someone locked them manually before the station was abandoned."

Lister went over to the glass again and peered through, surveying the wreckage. A glint of movement off the distant side of the station caught his eye.

"Wait... what's that?" He tried to point through the glass.

Kryten moved up beside him and blinked rapidly several times. "Just magnifying..." he fell silent and continued staring for a long moment. Then, slowly he turned away.

"Well what is it?" Rimmer asked.

"It's an escape pod. There was a number painted on the side. EEM043. Emergency Evacuation Module number 43." His angular, robotic features managed to convey a sense of deep despondency. "It looks like it was torn open by a missile."

Lister's eyes darted to each of his crewmates in turn, and then came back to rest on Kryten. "They were shot down as they were trying to escape?"

Kryten nodded, gloomily. "They would have been easy to pick off in the Escape Modules. They're very fast but impossible to control. They lock on to a pre-programmed destination and don't stop until they get there. There's no telling how many didn't make it."

"Oh man," Lister said softly, rubbing a hand over his forehead.

Rimmer shifted his feet and licked his lips nervously. "Kryten, about this chain reaction effect. Is there any chance that, perhaps, these explosions could start again in the near future?"

Kryten stared at the wall and seemed to think about it. "Well I suppose so, sir."

Rimmer nodded, and said, "ah."

"But it's very unlikely. If I'm right in assuming that this damage took place a few days ago, and not in the last few hours, then any small fires resulting from the initial blast should have burnt themselves out."

"So... we're not in any danger?"

"No, I don't believe so."

"Splendid." Rimmer visibly relaxed.

"Oh hey, check it out! I didn't see this before." The Cat had stepped up beside Lister and was looking out the window, his hands pressed to the glass. "There's half a ship down there." He turned back and grinned.

"What?" Rimmer craned his neck to see, but Lister had taken the Cat's place in front of the window.

"Oh, smeg, he's right!"

His eyes followed the line of the wreckage down to one of the lower levels. Something like a huge docking bay had been ripped in half, and from it protruded the blackened, twisted hull of an immense spacecraft. Its hull was once glimmering white, but had been darkened and warped by the explosion. Its protruding end was a knotted, twisted wreck. Lister couldn't see the rest of the craft as it was obscured by the walls of the docking bay, and it was impossible to tell which end of the ship he was looking at. But his eye caught something just between the wrecked, torn off end and the gleaming, undamaged bit that sat inside the bay.

A letter 'O'. He thought back to the emblem with the picture of a ship on it. What was it called?

Coronis.

"Let's find it," he said, turning back to the others. An idea had formed inside his head. His eyes gleamed with renewed excitement. "Let's find that ship and take a look inside."

A/N: So many lovely reviews! You rock my socks! All of you!!! Hope you're still enjoying this, and aren't too bored with it yet. It gets more exciting, I promise.