Chapter 6
Rimmer looked up from his slide projection unit (it was "lamp posts of the 19th century"), "The next one is a real beauty, the-" His eyes opened wide. He was alone. Bubble had disappeared.
"Smeg."
Rimmer charged out into the main room.
"Has anyone seen Bubble...?" He slowed and stopped, "What are you doing?" On first glance there appeared to be a meeting of the mafia taking place. Then you see the cards. There were six 'men' gathered round a circular table with a single light above it. The atmosphere is smoky, muddled dim and extremely seedy.
"Shh... Ferguson is about to play..." mumbled someone.
"Poker, eh? Gambling. A foolish vice, I've always thought, just another word for fleecing."
"First," hissed Paul, "its Fish. Second, yes it is gambling..."
Rimmer smirked.
"... Rich's wife's left, so he's got shit faced and we're cheating him out of all his worldly goods."
Rimmer's smirk disappeared, "She's gone too? What the hell is going on?"
HE was hushed again as Tim moved: he put a single card on the table. It had an enormous '1' on it in red ink.
"Damn, you win again you cheating bastard," called Paul in an unconvincing display of disappointment over the low hum of background jazz and dying theatre critics.
"Yes, Rich, which means..." Tim rubbed his fingers together, "Pay up time!'
"But I gave you all my money already," Rich said in a small desperate voice. His voice broke, "I 'spose I have the watch my grandfather gave me before he died. The only thing he ever gave me, the symbol of his forgiveness and apology to my father after years of bitter feuding," Rich sobbed and held out a sad scrappy bronze watch on a chain.
Tim pulled out a pair of half moon glasses and inspected it closely, "Hmm... I'm sorry Richard, " he looked over the top of the spectacles, "this just isn't enough."
"But Tim... I've got nothing left..."
"Hey, Ferguson, I never knew you wore glasses!"
"I don't, they just give me an air of knowledge and shit... and I reckon they look pretty good on me, " Tim tried various poses; looking over with his hand on the rim of the glasses, one hand on his hip shaking a finger at Paul, etc.
"Nah. You look like a prat, you prat," replied Paul after sitting stoically through Tim's performance.
"HELLO? Is ANYONE listening to me? THE holograms have smegging disappeared!" screamed Rimmer at the others.
Cat and Lister looked up.
"Yeh. We know."
"What? Well what are we going to do?"
"Nothin'," Lister turned away from Rimmer, "Holly's gone."
"What?"
"She cut the connection and all scans show that she is no longer in a scannable range," interjected Kryten, "We can't find Red Dwarf."
"My God, Holly's finally cracked."
"No," said Rich from the depths of despair, "It was Paul and Tim. They got sick of Bob and they were JEALOUS of me..."
"What are you blathering about?" asked Rimmer condescendingly.
"They cut the cables, told that computer to go away... THEY did it. THEM!"
"Well, Rich no need to get angry," Paul smiled condescendingly, "anyway, the computer deserved it."
Tim smiled cruelly, "Yeah it wouldn't make Paul another," he paused, "'girl'."
Paul whacked Tim and he gracelessly fell off his chair.
"Shut up , Ferguson, I'M speaking. Anyway Rich was telling the truth. I did cut the cables."
"And burn them. And hack the TV to pieces..." muttered Tim.
"Yeah, yeah. So we got no more holograms. You're still here."
"We might not be for much longer, way you've been treating us!" exclaimed Lister, galvanised by Paul's admission of destroying his first girlfriend for over three million years.
"Ha. You couldn't get out of here."
"And why?"
"Because of us," Paul grinned as Tim lifted up an enormous rocket launcher and Paul himself hoisted up his trusty spear gun,"Wanna try it? Oh and don't you owe us some money? Another game of Fish maybe, eh?" Paul was by this time grinning maniacally.
Lister smiled in a 'humour the madman' way, "Nah, pass thanks..." Lister, Cat and Rimmer made a run for the door and pelted down the corridor. Paul and Tim exchanged glances and raised their eyebrows.
"A little hunting sport, my friend?" said Tim in a uppity English accent.
Paul imitated him, "Indeed, but I'm not YOUR fucking friend."
"Oh Paul. I though that was what we were! Fucking friends!"
They ran off after the Dwarfers.
Richard was alone in the room, "I only ever wanted one thing in life. To be loved...
I don't care if the love ain't real,
I just want to know that feel.
I want someone to love me,
I want someone to love me.
Because you rejected me,
You rejected me..."
Rich sobbed and fell to the trusty refuge of the alone: under the table to cry.
