Disclaimer: I don't own anything dwarfy... except some DVDs, audio books, normal books, a survival guide, a few badges, mister flibble, a starbug and skutsy the skutter...

Well here's chapter 9, and I think people will hopefully begin to see where the story is going now, originally this chapter didn't exist and neither did the last chapter, and it was going to skip from the events in chapter 7, to theevents in the next chapter (now chapter 10). BUT my band of readers needed more, so more they got!...

The Date

Rimmer watched as Cat stared into space, thinking. Rimmer sighed and thought of saying something but changed his mind and went back to trying to remember if the red wire cut of power to his control panel, or life support to the whole ship.

He sighed again and gave up, knowing him he'd probably blow the ship up just by looking at the wires – Never mind trying to cut them! Suddenly Cat let out a small laugh which interrupted Rimmer's own thoughts.

"What's funny?" He asked as he gave the wires an 'I'll be back!' glare and replaced the plastic cover.

"Nothing bud, just thought it was kinda ironic that I've spent all my life chasing women who mostly weren't there to chase, and now I have a date in 10 minutes I'm just sat here watching you do poor 'Mission Impossible' impressions." Cat stopped talking and started rubbing his scar again.

"Ah… You saw that then?" Rimmer asked with a nervous laugh.

"Yeah, and don't touch either, The blue one cuts off life support and the red one automatically sets the ship into a 5 minute auto destruct sequence." Cat added, looking intelligent.

"How do you know that?" Rimmer asked incredulously.

"I read it in this manual." Cat replied holding up a small book.

"Figures so are you going or what?" Rimmer asked in a slightly grumpy manner.

"Fine, see I'm walking, I'm walking and I've gone." Cat said sarcastically as he closed the cockpit door behind him.

Cat sighed and walked up the metal steps and down the corridor to his room where he found Brina dressed exactly as she was earlier, sat at the metal table holding a beer.

"Hello." She nodded as she came in.

"This is a date?" Cat asked with a raised eyebrow as he sat opposite her on his bunk bed and leaned over to be passed a beer.

"Closest as you can get without me cooking." Brina replied taking a sip.

"Where'd you get this anyway, I thought we only had urine-recyc?"

"I found it in one of the emergency kits, we often use alcohol as antithetic for wounds as well as it being good to get blind drunk." Cat gave a small smile and opened his can.

"You know, a few weeks after I met Rimmer and Lister, Lister got sick, and I found him in a coma on the floor of one of the corridors, and I just left him there, I didn't care what so ever, and even when Rimmer asked for help, I was more bothered with eating lunch. Rimmer hated him and still helped him – I just didn't care." Cat looked down and took another drink.

"Well your different, you couldn't be expected to change straight away could you? You… evolved." Brina decided, as she reached over and opened another can.

"Hmmmm, sometimes I think I was better off not caring." Cat wondered quietly.

"I've thought that, you know it isn't true though."

"I guess… I was wrong though."

"About what?"

"I don't think it's possible to change history, not in a good way anyway."

"Why do you think that?"

"Well babe, if we changed history, this wouldn't have happened, meaning we'd have met you, Starbug would not be here for you to escape in, and you might die as well as Yuka." Cat rubbed his head – he thought he'd said it right but he still had a headache.

"And would you really be upset if that happened?" Brina asked, her eyes looking questioningly at Cat.

"Yes… No… I dunno, I wouldn't even remember it had happened!"

"True. Theoretically though if we changed time you wouldn't be there to change it in the first place, so things would revert to how they were anyway… Unless we could build what some scientists call 'The Slip Stream Drive'." Brina ran a hand through her hair and gave a thoughtful look.

"A what?"

"Slip Stream Drive – Scientists believe if the correct components are combined to create a balance between time, space and probability, which makes a kind of space ship impervious to changes in history. Understand?"

"…No." Cat looked confused but smiled as Brina laughed at him in a cute way.

"Does not matter, I'll have plenty of time to explain it."

Cat finished his drink and moved over to the table. "Why did you come on this 'date' to talk confusing theories at me?" He groaned inwardly, and sat down next to Brina, his fingers once again tracing the outline of his scar. He hated feeling not confident; it was like something in him was missing.

"No, that was just a bonus." Brina said softly as she gently took hold of Cat's hands and looked into his eyes.