Chapter 36
Ace & Kryten on Starbug
Kaboom!
Hologramatic sweat poured down Ace Rimmer's brow as she worked
desperately on a small table in a poorly lit room within the transport vehicles ill prepared lab.
Kaboom!
The explosions outside were getting closer. Dust would now fall from the ceiling just after the explosions were audible. To stop this a small tent was erected over the crude work station which Kryten had set up in order to help the Ace from the FemVerse to convert her soft hologramatic light bee to a hard.
"Situated in the back of the battle. Others fighting to buy her time. Probably with their lives," thought Arnie Ace Rimmer.
"Damn! This is not how it supposed to be..." She forced herself to stop thinking.
"Focus . Keep Focused."
The slightest waver in her hologramatic concentration would cause her
to lose her semi solid light form. Thus disabling her from holding a sonic
screwdriver, which she so desperately needed to do.
Kryten was currently running some calculations through Starbug's computer, which even though the Cats were in control of Red Dwarf, he was luckily still linked to Red Dwarf and Holly. Still this didn't seem to be holding Ace back too much.
Kryten had to be careful, this was a delicate operation and performed
on the field, where a pitched battle raged not two miles away.
At any moment the scanners could detect an oncoming troop of Cat Warriors ready to tear Starbug, and all aboard, into catnip. This would force Kryten to engage the Starbug's cloaking shields, from the batteries which were needed for lift off.
He thought back to the briefing that Ace had given him apart from the others.
"OK Krytus you'll be with me on Starbug One, on the field. I'll be performing an operation, you'll be assisting me. I'll give you a list of the materials we'll need in machine code. Remember. Loose lips sink ships."
"I'll remember that Mrs. Ace Mum." Kryten found this analogy rather difficult to identify with seeing that he had no lips of his own. Nevertheless
he started gathering the supplies that they would need.
If too much power was drained off during the operation which Ace was currently performing on himself one of two things could happen:
The duel power drain on the batteries would be so enormous that Starbug would be unable to lift off until the solar panels recharged them. If time and the battle permitted.
If on the other hand Kryten did successfully fire the engines and it was a a delicate period in the operation, the power flux might be enough to cause MIss Ace mum to shut down. Starbug batteries wouldn't have enough energy to start her back up again. Until a time when we returned to Red Dwarf or find an alternate power source.
Ms. Ace would be effectively dead.
Either option Kryten couldn't afford to dwell on.
All he could do was hope that Lister, Spanners and the Cat, leading their small band of loyalists against the brainwashed Cat followers of Slate and that evil other Mr. Ace sir are doing well.
His anxiety chip had been on overload all morning, and thinking instead of doing would probably send him into shutdown mode then he wouldn't be useful at all. How could that possibility help in this situation. Successfully by passing a possible shut down, he made his way to the makeshift computer interface which enabled Ace to perform this high wire operation. On herself.
Kryten said to no one in particular. "What a Gal."
Then went about his work.