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Floor 13: Divine Intervention	By : NewKitty Category: M through R > Red Dwarf Views: 1611 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Red Dwarf, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
- 5
Love Revealed
Author: New aka unshelteredlife77
Chapter: 3 of 13
Censor: PG
Pairing: none
Summary: Life in new
universe and on the new �Red� is ahead for Rimmer and Jari.
Dedication/Thanks: Continued
thanks to Lauren and Ty for their permission to continue this, umm, whatever it
will become.
Disclaimer: All Red Dwarf
and all its characters belong to Rob Grant and Doug Naylor with the exceptions
of Shayne and JayV who belong to LaurenScavenger
and Jules Jari who belongs to me. I�m not making money from this, etc.
General
Reading Guide: Everything is pretty much self explanatory but�
/___/
= thinking to self
Italicized
words
are sound effects and flashbacks
Most
important: Jari is pronounced Yari

****
At
ship�s morning, after a night of talking and sharing, Rimmer donned his Ace
persona for what would be the last time, zipping the jacket to hide his now
buttonless shirt, while Lister and the Hollies gathered up everyone. The crew
sat in the dining hall talking amongst them selves about Lister�s urgency. They
didn�t have to wait long to understand.

Ace
strolled in with a brazen smile, �Hello strangers.�

�Ace!� Kris, Shayne, JayV and Cat chorused.

Kryten
and the two holograms were confused.

�Just
who the hell is that arrogant clown,� HoloRimmer scoffed.

�Don�t
you mean gorgeous arrogant clown,� Arlene remarked, but HoloRimmer just
looked daggers at her.

�He�s mine Arlene,� Lister
smiled happily turning to HoloRimmer. �And don�t you remember our story ya
smeghead: he�s a version of you.�

Arlene
pouted but HoloRimmer turned green. /I never believed it. Another
me that was gay�and gay with Lister. YUCK!/

�Please, everyone just take
a seat and relax,� Ace instructed. �I�ve a long story to tell without much time
to tell it.�

He
explained all he could about finding Jari and what he felt was fate at finding
her to Lister�s not to well hidden dislike.

/Does
he have to use the word �fate�?/ Lister stiffened.

��like
I said, I had decided to return to my family,� Ace gripped Lister�s hand a
little tighter, �when Sasha came with the alert. I decided to perform one more
rescue but when she informed me it was a �Starbug�, my heart went to my throat.
The more I learned about Jari afterwards, the more I came to believe the whole
purpose of me becoming Ace was to rescue her. Her universe is a total anomaly
that I haven�t been able to figure out. She must be of some multi-universal
importance. If I hadn�t taken up the Ace persona after�what happened�she might
not have been rescued. I decided that the only place to relocate her was here
but I knew she needed to recover from her ordeal first. Seeing
some of you may come as an understandable shock to her.�

�Well,
where is she?� JayV asked.

�On
�Wildfire II�, a long story itself that doesn�t really matter,� Ace responded
to the puzzled stares. �I wanted to tell you all first and get your okay
especially since she was so closely connected with versions of Kris, Cat, and Kryten, and having known versions of Lister and Rimmer from
before the accident on the �Red�.�

Everyone
agreed Jari was welcome, although some portrayed more welcoming sentiment than
others.

�The
more the merrier,� Kris added to Lister�s suspiciousness.

�Alright
then, I�ll go get her. Rimmer please join me,� Ace
requested authoritatively.

�Why?�
HoloRimmer scoffed.

�Come
or I�ll have the Hollies switch you off permanently,� Ace glared as he left and
HoloRimmer followed reluctantly behind.

Once
on the lift, Ace removed his wig, �It�s your turn at this legacy thing.�

�What
interest of mine is it to go around saving people? Go find another Rimmer,� the hologram replied.

�So
you want to stay around here to see and hear Listy and me��

�For
the love of Io, don�t say another word,� HoloRimmer cringed. �But I wouldn�t
even know where to begin.�

Rimmer smiled at the
hologram, �Sasha, your ship�s computer can teach you the in�s and out�s. Mind
patching is the easiest way. There�s been a lot of Ace�s. We can even make you
hardlight. It will be a necessity actually.�

�You
mean I�ll be able to touch again?� HoloRimmer guessed. He�d only heard the
tales of hardlight from the others.

�Anything
and anyone,� Rimmer replied.

****
�Jari!� Rimmer beat
on the door to her bunkroom. �Sasha, override the door lock.�

�Yes,
Ace,� and the door slid open.

Jari
stood with nothing but a towel covering her wet form, �Rimmer!� she shrieked.

He
turned every shade of crimson and covered his eyes, �If you�d just told me to
wait a moment!� he shouted.

�I
didn�t know you�d override the lock�� Jari
interrupted.

�It�s
my ship!� Rimmer shouted again before he could stop himself. �Look just get
dressed and come to the docking bay. I�ve found you a home,� and he left
shutting the door behind him.

/Did
he say �home�?/ and Jari doubled timed it getting
ready.

****
Jari
ran to the bay to find Rimmer waiting with� �Another Rimmer?�
she blurted out before she could stop herself.

�Jari,
meet the next Ace,� Rimmer said.

The
now hard light Rimmer barely reacted as she offered
her hand.

�So
this is the reason I was locked in my bunk,� Jari surmised as the new Ace left
unresponsive.

�One
of them, yes,� Rimmer smiled. �Are you ready to see �Red Dwarf� again?�

/The
�Red�?/ she thought and tears welled up, �Yes,� she
choked back a sob. She completely forgot about the rudeness of the new Ace.

�There
are also some people I think you�ll be interested to meet,� Rimmer
added.

�People? Living breathing��
Jari couldn�t believe her ears.

�Yes,
come sit down here a moment,� he patted the crate he stood by. �I need to
explain some things to you. I know you remember our conversation in the
observation room. I told you that when one Ace dies or tires of the job he
finds another to take his place and that it almost ended with the one that came
before me. I also said the last Ace showed me I had a purpose and that I was
doing this for other reasons, but I never really explained anything. Well, I�d
like to try.

�I
feel it was fate that I took up the Ace job. Before, and even now, I was never
some super-intelligent perfect hero-type. I was an arrogant cowardly smegheaded
git. I was just a second technician in my dimension. No matter what I tried, I
got nowhere. But that radiation accident gave me a chance to start over. The
computer selected me three times, once before the accident and then twice
afterwards, to be with the survivor of the disaster. First, we were roommates
that drove each other mad. We couldn�t stand to be around each other actually.
I was an absolute jerk, but then again so was he. For my second chance, I was
the hologram in my dimension. But with that second chance that Holly gave me, I
learned how to be the person that I was too scared to be my entire life:
myself. I also learned that people could love me for who I was even with all my
flaws. The third time, it was as the human you see now after the nanobots revived the �Red� and its crew in my dimension.�

Jari
sat in disbelief. It was a lot to take in all at once. �You�ve lived three
lives?�

�I
know it�s information overload but just bare with me
okay,� Rimmer continued. �It was while I was the
hologram when my dimension�s crew first met Ace Rimmer.
Ace was dying and needed a Rimmer to take his place. That version of me didn�t
want to do it but the man he was meant to keep sane made him take on the
responsibility so he could learn more about who he could be. Sometime after
that is when the nanobots that had taken over our
�Red Dwarf� and destroyed it, recreated the ship and resurrected everyone on it
with the exception of the survivor, the Cat, Kryten,
and another person Kris Kochanski. Kris came into the picture after the
hologram version of me left to be Ace. My crew of �Starbug�
came across another dimension�s �Starbug� crew. Among
them was Kris. She got trapped in our universe so there was no need for the
nanobots to resurrect our Kris.

�At
that point, I was revived; my third life as you put it. I was reinserted into
the life of David Lister, the survivor. I didn�t have the memories of the
journey through space that the hologram Rimmer had had, but Lister treated me
with the same regard as he had come to have for the hologram version of me. I
learned quickly under his friendship and became very close to what the
HoloRimmer had become. We were in the brig at that point and with some new
friends we planned and made our escape in a �Starbug�.
We traveled for a long time running from the resurrected �Red� when Ace
reappeared. The HoloRimmer, the hologram me to be
precise, had returned for a visit with his former crew but while he was there
the deranged version of Rimmer that I told you about
attacked us. In the end, Ace and Kryten were lost
when they killed the evil Rimmer. That�s when I took up the Ace persona and
left to discover what the hologram version of me had learned. I have his
memories thanks to Sasha. He and I really were the
same Rimmer once I thought about it. If he could do this job then so could I. I
gave up my life and those I loved to make sure the legacy didn�t stop. Sure
Sasha could�ve found another Ace on her own, but I
needed to know that it was continued. Something inside of me told me I had to
do it myself. And I believe my purpose, what this Rimmer was meant to do
as Ace, was to rescue you.�

Jari
was floored. /His purpose was to rescue me? What is he saying?/
She couldn�t get any of the words to come out of her mouth.

�You
completely changed everything in your dimension by doing what you did, Jari.
Not a single alternate version of you made it to that point. Why should you die
if you had survived the radiation disaster? You were meant to be saved and
relocated to another universe. I�ve seen similar things where people were
obviously meant to cross over. One such case I know of exists here on this �Red
Dwarf�.� Rimmer could tell by the puzzled look on
Jari�s face that she didn�t fully understand how he expected her to take in everything
he was saying. �Look, I know you don�t believe me when I tell you that you have
a purpose just like I did. Now I�ve fulfilled my purpose and I�m staying here.
The next Ace can do whatever he wants with the job but I�m satisfied that I did
what I was meant to do. Home is here for me, on this �Red� and I�m asking you
to stay with me.�

�Your home? Your friends are on this �Red�?� Jari
choked up. �It�s your world. What is here for me?�

�Everything
you could have ever wanted is here. There�s a Cat and a Kryten. There�s also a
living Kris.�

/Krissie?/ Tears slid down Jari�s cheeks. Rimmer smiled and wiped
them away.

�And
also Lister, the survivor of my dimension,� Rimmer smiled knowingly.

Jari
stopped breathing. /Lister? A living Rimmer and now a living Lister?/

�Jari,�
Rimmer�s lips moved but Jari could only hear it as a whisper, �at least
breathe.�

�It�ll
be too hard�too many memories. How do you know you�re supposed to keep me with
you? Why should I survive? I can�t be important if only one version of me made
it this far. You�ve had thousands of you so of course you�re important. I
haven�t achieved anything I ever planned before or after the accident. I�ve
looked and tried but came up with nothing,� she looked away from Rimmer.

�You
just aren�t looking in the right places. I looked everywhere myself, and here�s
what I learned: you can only find what you�re looking for in the most obvious
places. The courage, the strength�the love�its all
where and how you least expect to find it,� Rimmer walked off from her and
headed out of the �Wildfire II�.

Jari
sat alone for a moment. /I lied to him. But only in a small way because I think
he halfway realizes it. I have succeeded in one thing: I got Rimmer to notice that I�m alive./

Jari
slipped off the crate and headed off to her new home and friends.

****

Jari
felt sick as she stepped out of the lift into the corridor that led to a group
of people that she knew but then again didn�t. The new Ace strutted out in
front of the other two proud of his new knowledge and hard light status. He
burst through some doors ahead of them. Jari deduced that was where the others
were.

�Are
you sure he�s the right Rimmer to be the next Ace?� Jari asked.

�He�s
better than some I�ve met, trust me,� Rimmer laughed. �Besides, once he gets
into the job, he�ll mature and change for the better. It�s really part of the
purpose of the job. To fulfill every Rimmer�s
dream of being �someone�.�

As
they approached the door, Jari froze. /I can do this./
she instructed herself. /It�s either stay here or go
back to the �Wildfire� for no telling how long before another suitable
situation comes along. Would I really like to have to deal with the new Ace
anyway?/

/Am
I doing the right thing?/ Rimmer stood behind her.
/Will my plans work?/

Jari
took a deep breath and opened the doors. She stared at the faces staring back
at her.

****

�Everyone
this is Jules Jari,� Rimmer announced.

Jari
grabbed Rimmer�s arm for support. Rimmer was stunned. /She�s never done this
before. I guess part of what I think must be right�/ he slowly responded by
placing his hand over hers.

�Welcome
to the crew Jari,� Shayne spoke first. �I�m Shayne. That�s JayV
and Arlene over there. I suppose ya sorta know the
others.�

�Hello.
Thank you for having me,� Jari replied still holding onto Rimmer�s arm.

Lister
just stared in bewilderment. /Why is she clinging to him like that? He�s not
telling us something. Something�s happened between them. Not that I can blame
him, she�s�what the smeg am I thinkin�!/

Rimmer forced her to
walk forward and moved her to a seat at the table next to Kris and Shayne.

�So
Jari, Rimmer didn�t get to tell us too much about you. I suppose he figured you
might feel better telling us yourself,� Kris began. �I�m sure he told you some
about us though just to prepare you. I came from another dimension like you.�

�Did
you know a Jules Jari?� Jari asked.

�I�m
sorry but I can�t say that I did. Could you tell me what the Kris was like in
your dimension? Please tell me she wasn�t some ditsy blonde, no offense JayV.�

�No,
the Kris I knew was pretty much like you. Are you a Navigation Officer?� Jari
couldn�t recall Rimmer saying much other than names.

Kris
sighed in relief nodding her head yes. Everyone began talking, asking
questions. Kryten, with the help of the skutters, got
breakfast. Arlene however, just gawked with sadness at her former soft light
companion from across the room. His new appearance just before Jari had
everyone wishing him luck and happy goodbyes. HoloRimmer
noticed and smiled at her.

�Arlene,
why the long face?� he sat down at the table with her.

�Please,
don�t start being nice to me in front of the others now, it�ll spoil our
game�oh right, you�re leaving so there�s no game anymore,� she huffed.

He
looked at her. God, she had been annoying at first. But over the year�s�hell,
whom was he kidding he really cared for her. Sure it was somewhat odd for
someone to fall in love with oneself, which is literally what they had done,
but it wasn�t much more deranged than the other pairings on this ship. �I was
thinking,� he finally spoke, �why don�t you come with me?�

�You
can�t be serious. I�ve seen that ship, there�s no way that thing could support
two holograms,� she snapped.

�You�d
become hard light, like me. It�d be different. Besides, Sasha is just as
powerful a computer as the Hollies. Come on? It�ll be fun. You could be the
first female Ace,� he teased.

�You�ll
dump me off at the first place we come to,� she glared.

�No
I won�t,� he scolded truly hurt by her distrust. �I�ll prove it,� and he stood
up and walked over to the others. �Everyone, I have something to tell you. I�m
taking Arlene with me. I figure two Aces are better than one. Besides, I�d miss
her,� he smiled at her disbelief. �I love her.�

Arlene
smiled. /He is serious./

Soon
Sasha had transformed Arlene as well. She liked the idea of a female Ace.
Arlene and the new Ace choked up being able to hug their friend�s goodbye and
at the new sensation of being able to really touch one another.

****

Jari
stood alone in the �Red�s� observation room watching where the �Wildfire II�
had slowly disappeared from sight. It had been her home for a year. That ship
saved her as much as Ace had. Sasha had been a good
friend to talk with while Ace�Rimmer was out on
missions. She had even taught her quite a bit about dimension jumping and the
like. Now Jari was going to have to start over�again. She�d lost count as to
how many homes she�d thought she had. Just when she�d start to get use to a
place, she�d have to leave or some catastrophe would happen. Jari sighed hard
as if somehow it might help to rid her of the loneliness that overwhelmed her.

�As
much as I was ready to come home, I�ll miss that ship, too,� Rimmer spoke.

�I
thought you slipped in,� Jari turned to look at him. �Thank you. And�I�m
sorry.�

�Sorry
for what?� he came to the window and stood next to her.

�Sorry
for what I said the other day about not seeing the possibilities and it being
better if I�d died,� she couldn�t help but break down and cry. But this time,
she didn�t run away or try to fight it. She just let the wave overtake her.
Leaning into his chest holding as tightly as she could, Jari cried.

At
first, he wasn�t sure what he should do. He had wanted her to do this, but�
/Yes, I have wanted this�well, at least something like it. No matter how much I
love Listy, there�s just something about her�even
before I knew why she had survived�/ He wrapped his arms around her and held
her just as tightly as she held him. /She survived because of us./

****

For
the first week, the girls showed Jari around a bit: refreshing her memory of
the ship, showing her where the others� rooms were, and helping Jari select a
bunkroom. They explained how everyone had come together and they confirmed Jari�s initial speculations about relationships between her
new crewmates.

�So
Rims and Listy are gay here too?� Jari giggled. �Not
really surprised though. I kinda figured.�

�Boy
would they be happy to know they�re not alone,� Shayne sniggered. �What about your Krissie?�

�Sorry,
straight shooter. And like I said before, I never knew a Shayne or JayV so I can�t really say anything about you two,� Jari
confessed.

�Are
you sure you want a room near theirs, Jari?� JayV
asked. �I mean, you seemed somewhat attached to Rimmer.�

�Nothing
happened between us!� Jari stiffened.

�JayV,� Kris gasped, �that wasn�t called for. Pay her no
attention, Jari. The Cat�s �lack of tack� has rubbed off on her. But those two
can get kinda, umm, loud,� she giggled.

�It�ll
be alright. I sleep fairly soundly. Besides, this is all a bit towards sensory
overload anyway and since Rimmer is who I�m most comfortable with, I feel
better knowing he�s just down the hall.�
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Floor 13: Divine Intervention