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Floor 13: Divine Intervention	By : NewKitty Category: M through R > Red Dwarf Views: 1627 -:- 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
- 5
- 6
- 7
Encountering Dangers
Author: New aka unshelteredlife77
Chapter: 5 of 13
Censor: PG-13
Pairing: none
Summary: Friendships grow
closer just like looting brings trouble�
Dedication/Thanks: Continued
thanks to Lauren and Ty for their permission to continue this, umm, whatever it
is developing into.
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

****
Jari
was fighting with the chicken soup dispenser again. For some unknown reason it
was dispensing gazpacho soup and not to mention it was hot. She hated this
machine the most and wished they could just turn it off completely and not even
worry about it. She hated chicken soup anyway. Maybe if she could just get it
to serve cold gazpacho soup�

�Hey, Jar,� Lister took her
by surprise. He laughed at her as she leapt a few feet back and away.

�Dave
that wasn�t funny,� she grabbed at where her heart was supposed to be and
swallowed hard trying to push it back out of her throat. �You know what
happened to Rimmer when he did that to me two weeks ago.�

Since
the �conversation� over a month ago, Lister had become much more open towards
Jari. The change happened immediately. The ship atmosphere changed notably.
Games night was less of a problem when it came to team competition, mealtime
conversation was less stressed, and overall tension about why Lister didn�t
like Jari immediately eased and soon disappeared altogether. The guys even
started visiting her some in the evenings because Jari spent a lot of the day
alone or with Kryten in the laundry or kitchen when she didn�t have anything to
do herself. The three had grown quite close. Jari was thoroughly contented with
the situation. She had achieved another of her goals: Lister�s friendship.

�How
could I forget: he�s still walking with a limp. What
are you on edge for anyway?� Lister leaned against the wall next to the soup
dispenser.

�You
know I don�t like being left alone. Everyone was gone on the scavenging mission.
The Hollies were supposed to notify me when you all got back,� Jari strained to
make one last screw turn. �Chicken Soup,� she ordered and a cup appeared. �Do
you like chicken soup? Please taste this. I can�t stand the stuff.�

Lister
took the cup and sipped, �Ugh, gazpacho soup,� he grimaced.

�Was
it hot?� Jari asked.

�No, cold.�

�Good,
then it�s staying that way. I�m fed up with trying to fix this thing. I�ll have
Kryten make a new label for it. We now have a Gazpacho Soup Dispenser,� Jari
began packing her tools.

�Hell
no we don�t,� he grabbed the tool kit from a puzzled Jari. �Rimme�
can�t stand th� sound of th� word gazpacho�bad experience.�

Jari
stood to the side, �So how long have you been back?�

�Not
long,� he looked up at her from the panel, �I came to see if you wanted to
watch a movie tonight with Rims and me.�

�What�s
the movie?� Jari asked. �Not some sappy love story like the girls made me watch
last Ship-Saturday. If I ever see �Somersby� again, it�ll be too soon.�

Lister
snickered. Jari wasn�t like the other girls. Yes, she was definitely a
girly-girl in almost every way but sentimental lovey-dovey talk, books, movies,
anything, drove her crazy. He had learned one thing for sure about her
since she came aboard: she would laugh, show anger or indifference, but she
never allowed anyone to see her cry or get visibly upset. It was just the way
she was.

�No
problem there, Jar, you know that,� he stressed. �We were thinking about
something funny or scaaarrrry,� he dramaticized.

�Very
cute Dave, it wasn�t very nice to sneak up on me,� Jari turned and started
walking away, �which you still haven�t apologized for.�

/Smeggin� hell./ �I�m sorry
alright. Hey, ya joinin� us or not,� Listy called to her. �Jari?�

�Yeah,
yeah, fine,� Jari called back not stopping. �Just have one of the Hollies call
me or whatever.�

/Good
one, Lister, just great. Alienate the only woman that isn�t repulsed by the
fact that you�re into men, well, one man.../ Lister made a few more adjustments
to the dispenser. /Somehow I think she actually enjoys the idea./ Lister stopped in realization. /How weird? Why didn�t I
notice it before?/ And he quickly finished the work
and soon enough, hot chicken soup was available to all who wanted it, which was
no one.

****

Jari sat in her room
braiding her hair. She had just finished cleaning up from her full day of
duties with everyone else gone on the scavenging mission. Why they even went on
scavenging missions was beyond her. Every one she had ever been on in her
dimension turned out to be a disaster in one way or another. However, even with
just a handful of people living on a city-sized ship, quarters could feel
cramped before long when leading a humdrum day-to-day life with little
variation. Everyone needs a little excitement and adventure, especially this
group. They had been through so much together. At times Jari felt somewhat
estranged when the group would reminisce about their adventures. Kryten was her
only refuge because he was in a similar situation, although he did have Holly.
It wasn�t so bad though. She learned a lot about her friends just by listening
and most of the stories were rather amusing. Between a silent snicker at her
thoughts and a knock at the door, she forgot where she was in her braiding. She
looked over to see Rimmer standing there smiling.

�Rimmer, you made me lose
concentration,� Jari ran her fingers through her half braided hair undoing her
work. �Is it movie time?�

�Yes,� he leaned in the
doorway watching her braiding again. �We still haven�t decided. We thought you
might like to choose.�

�To be honest, I don�t want
to cuz I�m not sure I�ll be able to stay awake
through the whole movie,� Jari replied.

�We don�t have to do this
tonight if you don�t want to. You�re not going to hurt our feelings by turning
us down,� Rimmer stepped over behind her and took the strands of hair into his
hands. �When you were unconscious, I got a lot of practice,� Rimmer smiled at a
stunned Jari. �How do you think I washed it?�

Jari blushed. �I don�t want
to know Rimmer. Just let me remain blissfully ignorant of your knowledge of me,
alright?�

�I have been meaning to ask
you about the tattoo,� Rimmer interjected.

�If you want to walk
without a limp for the rest of your life you will not say another
word,� Jari stiffened.

The
tattoo. She hadn�t even thought
about that. A friend at the Corp�s Academy had dared her to get a tattoo. Most
of the girls there were of higher society or had a father or mother in the
Corp. She had gotten there all on her
own, of course she had had to do some sweet-talking and favors along the way
but that was life. Everyone is out for himself or herself
and you have to be cunning to get where you want to be not to mention it helps
to have connections. Connections weren�t easy to come by in Jari�s
level of society�well not through appropriate means. Jari had practically sold
her soul to get to a point where she could make it on her intellect. But none
of her friends had known how she got there. They were all prim and proper and
had received commission through their respectable resources. They were brought
up to have a certain mentality and would never disrespect that upbringing by
defacing their bodies. To do so would set them apart from everyone and being
different wasn�t a good thing. Jari had taken a risk at accepting the dare. She
risked being shunned by her friends and being left alone again. But Jari took
it anyway. She would be graduating soon and receiving her assignment and she�d probably wouldn�t see any of these people again. Jari
decided to get something that reflected her life and how she saw herself. It
was a series of Kanji: unseen, alone, strong and boundless. They were located
just to the left of her spine just low enough that they weren�t visible unless
she was shirtless.

/To see that tattoo, he�d
have seen me shirtless. I was bathed when I woke up�both times�/ Jari
stiffened. She definitely had not thought about where else this train of
thought was now taking her. /Oh god, I never thought about it before. I don�t
even know why I didn�t think about it first thing. Rimmer has seen me
completely nude. Even worse, all the things that he had to do for me while I
was in that coma�someone was so right to say ignorance is bliss./

�Done,� Rimmer stood back
proudly. �Are you ready now?�

�Ah, yeah,� Jari got up
feeling extremely uncomfortable all of a sudden. �I was thinking about a
comedy. Maybe something along the lines of Monty Python,� Jari tried to smile
casually at Rimmer. She failed miserably although he didn�t seem to take
notice.

****

Lister was busy in the
guys� room, setting up pillows and getting the popcorn and drinks. He wanted to
try to prove his theory somehow but he didn�t want Jari or Rimmer to finger
what he was doing. He wanted to know if Jari really did like the fact he and
Rimmer were �together�.

/And I mean really like./

He knew that Rimmer
considered himself, and Lister for that matter, more
along the lines of bi instead of gay. No other men affected either of them the
way they did each other. The thought occurred to him that Jari could like
Rimmer and not him. But Lister seriously doubted that since Jari had made a
point of telling him there hadn�t been anything between Rimmer and her before
they had come back to the �Red�. It also occurred to Lister that Jari could like
him and not Rimmer. But that didn�t make complete sense either. Jari seemed very attached to Rimmer. She laughed at his odd sense of
humor when no one else did. She always managed to touch him in some way every
time they were around each other for longer than a few minutes. And she would
usually go to him for help before anyone else.

/I could be seeing things
that aren�t there as well I suppose. It would be nice to know though�/

�Emergency. Emergency. There�s an
emergency going on,� Hol alerted over the voicecom. �All available crew to the
drive room.�

Lister took off out the
door, �So much for movie night.�

****

�Hol,
what�s going on?� Lister questioned as he ran.

�There�s something odd in
the lab where the unidentified items from the scavenging mission were left,� Hol replied. �Kryten was putting a chemical in the analyzer
when the container broke. We haven�t finished determining the identity of the
intruding substance and we didn�t want to send anyone down there until we knew
what we were dealing with. Kryten has been sealed in until we determine the
problem.�

Everyone came rushing to
the drive room shortly after Lister. They were all crowded around watching the
surveillance camera monitors. Kryten seemed okay but he was sitting down half
leaning over a table. No one was sure whether he was off-line or simply waiting
out the ordeal.
Everyone was discussing the
situation and trying to decide on the next course of action. That�s when JayV noticed Kryten was no longer sitting at the table. He
was nowhere to be seen.

�Kryten�s
gone,� JayV announced. �Is he still in the lab room Hol?�

�No, he�s overridden the
code,� Hol replied. �He�s in the corridor headed
towards the lift.�

�Disable the lift,� Jari
instructed. �Quarantine him to the level. Where are other biohazard suits
located?�

�In the Medi-bay,�
Hol replied.

�What are you thinking
Jari,� Kris asked.

�I�m going down there.
Everyone else stays right here, and that�s an order.� Jari instructed. �And
don�t give me the no corp
routine.�

�You are not and I mean absolutely
not going down there,� Rimmer scolded.

Jari glared at him and
headed out to the Medi-bay. Rimmer and Lister
followed shortly after her, leaving everyone else to watch the surveillance
screens and reports. They found Jari almost suited up in Medi-bay.

�You two can march
yourselves right back to the drive room,� Jari zipped the last layer closed and
grabbed the headpiece.

Lister stood right in the
doorway determined to block her exit, �We told you you�re not going, at least not
alone.�

�Dave, move out of my way
right now. Kryten could be in trouble or causing it and putting everyone here
in danger,� Jari argued.

�You�re not the only one
concerned about him,� Rimmer noted.

�One or both of us will go
instead,� Lister added. �You aren�t the right person for this job.�

If looks could kill, Jari�s glare would have laid Lister out cold. �Take that
male chauvinistic attitude and stuff it Lister. I�m going. You two are staying.
I�m the only one that it doesn�t matter if something happens. I won�t be
leaving anyone behind. Now get out of my way.�

Jari pushed by Lister
easily. He was too dazed by her remarks, as was Rimmer.

/Just rip my heart out Jar./ Lister thought. /Can you really not see�/ and he looked
at Rimmer who was preoccupied with his own thoughts.

/She doesn�t see any of
it�what I can�t seem tell her�what I think Listy
can�t tell her./ Rimmer refocused on Lister who had
grabbed a bio suit and was hurrying out the door while trying to put it on.
Rimmer grabbed one as well and followed.

�Hollies, once I reach the
science level, shut the lift off again and don�t let anyone out or in until the
situation is resolved,� Jari put the headpiece on and began zipping it to the
suit. Her peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the two men almost completely
outfitted heading her direction. The lift doors opened. She got in and the
doors were almost closed when Lister�s hand blocked them. The guys stepped into
the lift pushing Jari to the rear wall.

�I should throw you two in
the brig for this,� Jari yelled thru the mask.

�We�ve already been there.
It�s too late now,� Lister smiled. �Anyway, you can�t handle Kryten by
yourself, especially if he�s a danger in some way.�

�I guess that actually
wouldn�t be much of a punishment to put you in the brig. It would just set you
to reminiscing about your discovering each other. All by yourselves
with nothing to do but fuck each other all day,� Jari retorted. �Definitely not a punishment.�

�Jari!� Rimmer turned crimson. �What is wrong?�

Before there was any time
for her to noticeably not answer him, the lift stopped and the doors opened.
Kryten was nowhere in sight. They stepped cautiously into the corridor.

�Well, there�s no physical
appearance of anything being wrong,� Lister stepped ahead of the others
carefully. �Kryten? Where are you? Come on mate,
answer me?�

�Krytie,�
Jari added. �It�s Jari, tell me what�s going on. What
happened? Do you know what the substance is yet?�

�Hollies, can you tell us
anything yet,� Rimmer called.

�Neither of us has seen the
substance before. We still have some long unused files to go through though. As
for Kryten, he is running through corridor 376. He doesn�t seem coherent.
Approach him with caution.� The Hollies instructed.

Rimmer and Lister looked at
each other then back towards Jari. She wasn�t there. She wasn�t anywhere to be
seen.

�Smeg,
where�d Jar go?� Lister looked around franticly.

�She can�t have gone far.
And she had to go this way. We weren�t looking in that direction.� Rimmer
noted. �Does something seem odd about her behavior to you?�

�Maybe a little�but I don�t
know her as well as you do, now do I?� Lister snapped suddenly. �Let�s just
find Kryten, alright? She wants to be a big girl so
let her take care of herself.�

�Are you implying that
we�ve been lying to you about�you think I �had� her don�t you?� Rimmer snapped
back. �You�re accusing me of lying and cheating.�

�What if I am? They go
hand-in-hand don�t they? You and her have some kind of connection remember,�
Lister sassed. �Just go that way and look for Kryten. I don�t want to talk to
you right now,� and he stomped off down the corridor and out of sight.

****

Everyone was sitting in the
drive room watching the screens and trying to make sense of what was on the
reports the Hollies were sending out. No one knew what to make of what they
were seeing. They didn�t understand the reasoning of the others breaking off in
three different directions. The Hollies had told them where Kryten was and that
he might be dangerous.

�Does anyone see Jari,
Rimmer, or Dave on any of the cameras?� Kris asked.

�I�ve got Kryten huddling
in the corridor but no one else as of yet,� JayV
replied. �He does seem to be talking to himself or someone out of camera view
though.�

�Nothing here, bud-babe,�
Cat added. �Wait! I�ve got Jari on screen. She�s running down the corridor
headed in Kryten�s direction.�

�No sign of the others.�
Shayne reported.

�Oh dear,� Hol spoke suddenly.

�What is it Hol,� Kris stressed. �Don�t wait for requests just come out
and tell us when you have something.�

�The
substance. I do believe that I
might have an idea of what it is and does. Something from my old memory banks
that isn�t in best shape�data from the old �Starbug�
that I collected while the trial was going on�all those years in that watch�not
sure if I can recall it,� Hol babbled his thoughts
aloud.

�Holly, help him. We really
could use whatever you two can recover,� Kris instructed. �Cat, you remember
anything helpful over there?�

�I�m thinkin�,�
Cat replied.
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Floor 13: Divine Intervention