She woke as the VR helmet rose from her head. Like every other time she'd emerged from VR, she was momentarily disoriented but the feeling didn't last long. She quickly remembered where she was.
On Todhunter's nasty couch, hidden away in the corner of storage deck B.
She'd gone to sleep in Lister's arms moments after she'd had a mindblowing orgasm all over his magnificent, bursting cock.
Now, navigation officer Kochanski sat, blinking. The scutter rolled closer and Holly's voice came from the control remote in her lap. "Are you okay, Kristine?"
Dave and the bungalow were gone and she was back aboard Red Dwarf, three million years from Earth and all trace of humanity.
The last surviving human being broke down into tears.
*****
She didn't stir from her puddle of loneliness and misery for a long while. Holly played some music for her, not knowing what more to do. Talk seemed out of place. So she resorted to lutes and pan-pipes.
Kris had never dreamed that a scant few hours of a ridiculous parody of normalcy would leave her in such despair.
The time with the Dave simulation in VR had been great. It all seemed like just what she needed. They might not have spent much time talking but it had all seemed natural and right. Getting her tight cooch wrapped around Dave's giant tool was a huge release. Inside the sanitation harness, her pussy was a soaking mess. And the Dave-simulation's responses and actions had seemed so right! Like a real person.
And laying together for that time and making out in the shower had been so good. And even though they didn't say much, it felt like a meaningful conversation was hanging just there at the periphery, waiting for a good moment.
Aside from the overly-idyllic beach bungalow, it had all seemed so normal and wonderful.
Then she woke up in the Dwarf's hold and three million years of loneliness had crashed down on top of her.
Eventually, the tears slowed. "I suppose you're going to say 'I told you so'", she sniffed.
"No, Kris," Holly said. "This doesn't mean it was a mistake. You're having a healthy reaction. Being alone on this ship... alone in the universe... is tough. You need to let it out once in a while."
She laughed and sobbed at the same time. "Wow. Thanks for reminding me."
"Kris, I know we don't ever talk about this. I know there's no point in reminding you how far away any kind of normalcy is. But we also need to admit it once in a while. And you need to give yourself a chance to process and grieve."
"But it's been years since I woke from stasis! I should be over this shit. Shagging Lister in VR shouldn't turn me into a wreck." She wiped her nose. "I'm broken, Hol. And I just see no way to fix it and no reason to go on."
The ship's computer let her stew for a few minutes. "Can you at least tell me how the simulation was?"
She gestured at her puffy, tear-streaked face. Not even Lister would want anything to do with her in this state. "I wouldn't be a blubbering mess if it hadn't been good." She sighed. "We didn't exactly talk much but it was definitely way better than the VR personalities. He seemed very real."
"When you're ready and get cleaned up a little, come back to the science lab. There are some funny gravity readings I want you to look at."
"Smeg. What fresh hell is happening now?" she asked.
The computer reassured her, "It's nothing bad, just some odd readings. No danger. Actually, they've stopped; but I'd like you to review the data."
Kochanski wasn't ready to leave the cargo-cave yet but she did ask, "So, how did Rimmer take it?"
"About how you'd expect. He is a very predictable personality."
"Well, after that fucking turd destroyed everyone else's personality disks, I really don't care how he takes it." She did smile a little though. "Yeah, I bet he really hated being stuck in my talking curling iron."
*****
She made it back to the hab decks and to the captain's quarters without running into Cat or Rimmer. She spent a long time in the shower. No water rations with just two biologicals on board.
She'd moved into Captain Hollister's quarters a couple months after emerging from stasis. It had a much bigger shower, bigger bed and lots of closet space.
She went through her clothes for a bit, wanting something bright but comfortable to wear. Long ago, she'd raided every female crewmember's closet, collecting things to wear. And down in the storage decks where Cat's race had evolved and lived she had unearthed, so to speak, shops and wardrobes with a wide variety of bizarre clothing. Most of it was made of ship materials and things found in storage. Some of it was quite pretty.
There were even two dresses from the Nova 5 crew, the crashed ship they had discovered Kryten on.
She got dressed. Feeling better, though rather empty inside, she made her way down to the science lab.
The first thing she saw was Cat's hair. It was a cascade of curls down to his shoulders. "What the hell happened to you?" she asked. He normally wore his slick black hair in a high coif.
"Don't ask," Cat and Rimmer answered simultaneously.
Rimmer started in on her immediately. "Listen, missy. You're in a lot of trouble. When the HCPU hears about how badly I've been treated..."
Kris rounded on him, "Shut the fuck up, smeg for brains. I'm not playing your shitty games today. There is no Union. There's no Space Corp or Jupiter Mining Corporation. There's no damn human race left."
Rimmer's instincts froze, not knowing which way to jump. Rage at being spoken down to or fear at her anger. The truth was that yes, on some level he knew his relationship with Kochanski was something of a game. Something she tolerated out of a vague hope for normalcy.
But it was also real. Real to him at least. Citing regulations and kissing butt were two of his primary talents, never mind that he didn't do them very well.
And despite all his bluster, genuine conflict terrified him. He knew no one had liked him but he relied on being able to not cross the line to being hated.
He also knew that even though he'd done it a couple of years ago, Kochanski had never forgiven him for destroying the crew's holo-disks.
All of this processed through his simulated mind in a blink, but it left him with no response. "Fine then," he said, voice at least two octaves higher. "We can discuss this later." He shuddered when she walked through him but stifled his objection.
"Would anyone like to style their hair," asked a tinny woman's voice with a fake-sounding posh accent. "I can be at operating temperature in just eight point two seconds."
Krissie spared her curling iron a glance. She gestured to Cat. "Did you do that."
The voice got even stuffier. "My history log shows that I did. However, it appears that my personality was supplanted at the time." The gadget clacked its clamp.
Self-consciously toying with the curls in question, Cat pointed at Rimmer. "He begged for it. You should have heard him. It was disgusting."
"I wasn't myself," Rimmer sulked.
