CHAPTER 6: Survivors

Kryten leaned down close to the console, his fingers tapping rhythmically at the keyboard. A wire stretched out of his head and plugged into an open socket on an access panel on the mainframe, like an umbilical cord. Kryten had connected himself to the station's security network and was trying to find his way through the scrambled electrical signals to reach it's heart- the AI.

He felt he was getting closer.

After what seemed like hours (he was removed from the real world and had no sense of time or place; his conciousness was buried deep within the computer's network) Kryten managed to restore the computer. The monitor beside his head blinked on.

Kryten opened his eyes and, dazed, unplugged himself from the mainframe.

On the monitor before him was an image of a man- just a head- and although it was badly pixellated in areas, he got the general impression of a smooth, serene face, seemingly ageless and yet wise; its eyes a deep, calm blue.

Kryten blinked. The computer spoke.

"I am Jonah," it said in a slightly distorted, toneless voice.

"I am Kryten," the mechanoid replied courteously, though his voice held a hint of a question.

"You repaired me."

"Yes. My crewmates and I are from a ship called Red Dwarf. We want to know what happened here."

The man blinked slowly, and a blank smile crept over his face. "I will tell you all you want to know. But it will take time."

"I have time," Kryten said, favourably enough, and settled back into a kneeling position. "Please- tell me everything you know."

The young man stood beside the closed airlock door, staring into the opened maintenance panel. Sweat prickled his forehead. Behind him in the corridor, a blonde-haired woman sat leaning against the wall, hugging her knees, and swaying back and forth rhythimically. She was sobbing quietly to herself.

The sound of it was driving him insane.

"Kristin, will you shut up? I can't think when you're doing that."

The woman didn't seem to hear him- or didn't care; either way she kept on rocking back against the wall, her breath hitching in her throat. Tears streamed down her face under her thin-rimmed glasses. A younger man with dark blonde hair emerged from a nearby doorway, holding a tray.

"You don't have to talk to her like that," he said quietly, frowning at the other man with dark hazel eyes. He stepped out into the corridor next to Kristin.

"She's annoying me, that's all."

"She's in shock," the younger man replied coldly.

"She's been in shock for two smegging days," the other snapped, shooting a dark look over his shoulder. He had one hand resting on the door; now he lifted it and slammed it back against the metal with the side of a bunched fist. "I can't figure out this goddamn door!"

Kristin gave a little gasp. Her pale blonde hair hung over her face in long strands. Behind the glasses her eyes were sunken and had deep shadows under them. She hadn't slept since the accident.

None of them had.

"Just leave it then!" The guy with the tray said. His name was Adam Mcfarlin, he was twenty-four, and he was a Medical Technician aboard Genesis. The girl was Kristin Vanhorn, a Tech from the Cloning Labs. Her father and brother had both died in the explosion that ripped half the ship away.

Adam, and six other people had been trapped in the ship when the airlock doors automatically sealed them in; they were restricted to a short length of corridor, collapsed at one end, and with a sealed door at the other. Thank god they had access to the cafeteria, though.

Carefully, Adam crouched down beside Kristin and put the tray on the floor beside her. On it was a selection of food in microwave-safe containers, and a carton of milk that he had taken from the freezer. With most of the electrics gone, the freezer was useless anyway. The milk would spoil so they might as well drink it.

"You need to eat something," he said softly to the girl. She ignored him. Her face was pale and sickly-looking, and Adam was worried about her. "I mean it," he said more forcefully. "I'm not going away until you do."

Resolutely, he sat down against the wall beside her.

"You're wasting your time," the other man said dryly. "She's flipped."

"Will you cut it out!" Adam snapped. His blood pounded angrily in his temples, and he could feel a headache coming on. Wade was stressed, he knew- they all were. But there was no excuse for his callousness. "There are plenty of people who'd be lucky to be in your position right now, so I suggest you keep your opinions to yourself."

Wade Silman spun around, his green eyes glaring brightly under the spasmodic flicker of the hallway lights. "Oh really, Doctor?" Adam knew there was an argument coming on, but the sound of footsteps silenced them both.

"Why don't you leave that, Wade, I already tried it," said the man. Rodney Cross was in his early thirties, and his dark hair was already starting to recede, though his face still had the boyish quality of a man much younger. His brown eyes were serious, his mouth set in a sullen line.

"Yeah, well maybe you didn't try hard enough," Silman said, turning his back again, and facing the control panel.

Rodney's head leaned to one side in an exasperated way and he said, "I told you before. I deal with the lab computers… not security."

Wade simply sneered and muttered something that the others didn't catch. Wearily Rodney turned to Adam and the girl, who still hadn't touched her food. Her glasses were slipping off her face. She stopped rocking for a moment only to push them back up, and then resumed.

Rodney bit his lip. "We need to find another way," he said to Adam.

"Yeah. I know."

Lister walked slowly around the darkened control room, between the banks of desks and computer monitors. There were files everywhere, in stacks, lying in In-trays on the desks, and in drawers, and there were charts on the walls… but he didn't know what any of it meant. It might as well have been written in another language. He picked one sheaf of paper up from the floor- it was some kind of diagram, and there were some symbols he recognised, though they were drawn in a complex chart along with numbers and words that didn't make any sense to him.

C - Carbon

H - Hydrogen

O - Oxygen

P - Phosphorus

K - Potassium

I - Iodine

N - Nitrogen

S - Sulphur

Ca - Calcium

Fe - Iron

Na - Sodium

Cl - Chlorine

Mg - Magnesium

Mn - Manganese

Zn – Zinc

Lister gave a sigh and left the paper on a desk. "This is all gobbledegook," he said helplessly. Miranda was walking slowly around the room, staring at some of the charts on the walls, a small frown on her face.

"Wish I payed more attention in Science class," Lister mumbled. The Cat entered the room from the Cloning Bay, apparently as confused as the rest of them were. No, scratch that. WAY more confused.

"You find anything yet?" He asked impatiently, placing his hands on the hips of his gold spacesuit.

"We found plenty," Lister said wryly. "I just don't know what any of it means."

"So you don't know what went wrong with the thingga-ma-jiggies?"

"No."

"Oh." The Cat looked around despondently. "Well I'm gonna go see if I can find any food in this place. Anyone coming?"

Lister shook his head and scratched it. "I think I'll keep looking around here."

The Cat cast a cursory glance at Miranda, but she smiled and shook her head. He shrugged. "Your loss, babe," he said, and mooched out of the room. Lister leaned over one of the desks, looking in an In-tray that was stacked high with files. Miranda glanced out through the window into the Cloning Bay. She could see Rimmer wandering slowly among the pods down the far end of the room, his arms crossed over his chest. Even from here she could see him frowning, deep in thought

"Um… I'll just be…" she gestured towards the door. Lister raised his head, smiled, nodded once, and went back to the files. Miranda crossed the room and stepped back out into the large room, and then began to make her way through the giant pods, carefully avoiding the ominous green mist that billowed from them.

A/N: Yeah, I know I promised to update more often and I lied! lol. Acutally I took a break from this to focus on some other fanfiction, but I hope to keep these chapters coming more frequently. Thanks again, for reading… if you still are :)