Darkness crept over the emptiness of space. It covered everything in a shroud blending shadow and form into one. A few pin pricks of light sneaked from the dismal canvas, offering some hope that this was not all that was out here. But, there was no one to notice the light or the dark; no one to feel the helplessness of an unchanging, almost blank cosmos. It was as it had been since this region of space first existed, lonely and remote.

Then the still was broken by a large object barely visible with the lack of light. It was moving slowly, almost warily. As it neared the closest sun, more detail could be seen. The rust color and size were similar to meteorites that flowed through space, but the markings were definitely not. Adding to the illusion of a natural, heavenly object was the glint of the sun off parts of the ship that were crushed and dented.

Slowly, the craft stopped and a short time later a smaller craft emerged from the red giant. It was green and looked very similar to an insect. A small view screen caught the light and glinted against the dark backdrop of the surrounding space. The light from the sun filtered through the view screen and over the first form in its path. He was studying the console before him, watching the lights as they winked and danced in an ever-changing pattern over the panel. The filtered light crept unnoticed over the cherubic space, accenting a few lines that had started to show at the corner of his eyes and mouth. As he continued to stare silently at the lights, an eyebrow rose and he opened tightly drawn lips.

"Kryten . . . "

The mechanoid's head, on at least one occasion referred to as an freak formation of mashed potatoes, turned toward the figure in the front seat. "What is it Mr. Lister, sir?"

"Are you picking up anything? I keep getting some kinda blip."

"A blip? That's a very scientific term isn't it?"

Lister sighed and forced himself not to comment. "I thought it was a malfunction, but it didn't go away. It just kept . . . blipping."

"Don't you think we ought to wake the cat, sir?"

"Yes, by all means. I am sure he will be thrilled with the scientific discovery."

"Smeg off, Rimmer." He reached out an arm to shake the occupant of the seat to his right. The tall form was sitting in a regal posture as his head lay against his shoulder. "Cat, wake up. We need your nose."

The form was instantly awakened by the first touch of Lister's arm on his and he sneered slightly at the familiarity before he recovered from his dream. "This better be good. I was having my favorite dream."

"What, you and the entire Topless Boxing team?"

"No." He paused, thinking. " Me, the entire Topless Boxing team and the coaching staff." He grinned wide, the light reflecting off his enlarged canines.

"Can smell anything?"

"Yeah, you."

"I could have told you that."

"I meant outside!" Lister stated in an exasperated tone. Rimmer was enough of a git, he didn't need Cat's added senility.

Cat sat up straighter in the chair and took a quick peek in his mirror before he looked out of the view screen. He slowly tested the air and could feel the various scents tingle the sensitive hairs in his nose. At first all he sensed were the smells that lingered in the cockpit and on his comrades. The ever present aroma of curry seemed to envelop him from his near contact to Lister, this, mixed with the smell of the oil Kryten used to keep his gears moving, quickly brought about a feeling of normalcy he had grown accustomed to over the years. Beyond these smells was a different smell, so faint it wouldn't have caught his attention if it wasn't so alien.

"There's definitely something out there." Cat spoke quickly without concern as he studied himself in the handheld mirror.

"We know that. What can you tell us about it?"

"It's different."

"Different? Different, how?"

"It's new."

Rimmer gave up trying to get any information out of the cat and turned to Kryten. "Are you picking up any thing?"

Kryten bent slightly over his console and pressed certain areas of the panel before him. "Nothing yet, sir." A moment passed with no one saying anything as Kryten continued to monitor the scans. "Mr. Lister. How were you detecting those blips?"

"Yes, Listy. Please explain that one to us."

"Rimmer, I'm not a complete idiot."

Everyone looked at Lister and waited. Rimmer had an expectant look on his face.

"I was humming Rastebilly's "Skank" to myself and the blips were keeping time."

Rimmer's face spread into a very smug smile. Kryten continued to press different places on the panel. "Getting something now sir. Sensors are picking up an object off the stern."

"Right. Let's go."

The small ship moved closer to the cylinder-shaped object that was invisible to the naked eye. Two large arms swept out from the sides of the ship, given its insect like appearance extra believability. They swung out slowly and grasped the gray form from its freezing cocoon. Bringing the ship about so the arms could easily place it in the cargo hold, the crew got its first glimpse at the object. Lister grimaced slightly at the shape of the object and waited for the expected response from directly behind him.

"It's a pod." Rimmer leapt up and ran for the hold.

"Here we go again."

The three figures stood outside the quarantine room, looking through the glass at the metal cylinder. Kryten was inside running scans to see if there was any danger. He would rather have waited the mandatory month before examining the find, but Rimmer had went on and on about the possibility that this was an alien craft that Lister had told him to check it out early to save everyone's sanity. After determining that there was no danger, he gestured the other crew members in.

"What is it Kryten?"

"I am not completely sure, sir. That's why I asked you to come in here."

"It's aliens, isn't it?"

"Now, sir. There is no need to jump to conclusions. We don't know what it is. There are some controls on this side, but I am hesitant to try them out as I don't know what they will do."

"You know Rimmer, you might be right."

Rimmer looked at the younger human skeptically. "Is this some kinda joke?"

"No, no, really. You think this is from an intelligent species. Well, I have to agree with you there cause they definitely speak a specific language."

"How can you tell, sir?"

"Cause there are words on this side, and they are in English."

Lister knelt before the object and started to dust off some of the debris that had collected from its time in space. He quickly scanned over the words, having trouble as some were scraped or burnt off. "It says this is a cryogenic pod. A serial number, but that is all I can get."

"Crying genitals?"

"No, sir, that's cryogenics. It was a fad in the late 20th century. To prolong one's life, someone, either being dead, or rendered unconscious, was frozen and launched into space in the hopes of being found by a superior race and cured or at least their life extended."

"And we found them, won't they be pleased? A narcissistic cat, a smelly human, and a cleaning crazed mechanoid."

"Don't forget the hologram with worse hair than all eight of the doctors combined. "

"Are you saying there is someone in there?"

"I cannot be certain, but it would appear so. I will need some time to determine exactly what it is."

"Well, let's get back to the Dwarf. Maybe Hol can help you."

After everyone returned to their previous positions, the smaller craft inched its way into the safety of Red Dwarf's cargo bat. Kryten, with the help of the skutters moved the pod to the medical bay. He thoroughly cleaned the pod, removing the dust and grime from the various cracks and crevices of the metal container.

In his cleaning, he discovered a panel at one end that was not bolted down. After maneuvering the clasp holding it flush with the rest of the pod, he lifted it and started to clean the dirt from what ended up being a clear sheet of very thick plastic. The contents of the pod were suddenly displayed and it took Kryten a moment to recover from the shock before he called for Holly.

"Can you interface with the Pod's systems?"

"I can try." A pause. "There we go. Tricky twentieth century safety measures. I am keeping it safe. Barely any deterioration. The freezing temperatures kept it well preserved."

"Is it safe to start the thawing process?"

"Might be. I'll check that. Go get Dave."

"Right away, Holly."

Lister was in his quarters when Kryten entered. Luckily, he was alone. Kryten quickly explained to him what he found and Lister rushed off towards Kryten's previous location leaving the mechanoid in mid sentence. The human entered the room and hurried over to what now appeared to be the head of the pod.

"Hol?"

"Yes, Dave?"

"Is she alive?"

"Haven't established life functions. Trying to coax its natural thawing process so there will be less danger."

When Kryten entered the room, he was horrified to see Lister adjusting with the controls on the opposite side of the pod. "Sir, sir, please. You could break it."

"Hol is telling me what to do. He says he can't start defrosting her with the connections. Has to be done manually."

"Well, be careful. It is very old, anything could set it off."

"Give me some credit, Kryten. This could be the last woman, I'm not going to smeg it up." At his last word, he pressed a button and the Dwarf was quickly flooded with a loud siren and Holly's preprogrammed emergency message announcing the location of the pod.

"Dave, what did you press?"

"The blue one."

"Leave a human ... Listen very carefully. On the count of three I want you to flip the switch above that button and press it again."

"Okay, Hol."

"One ..., Two ..., Three, now Dave."

Lister quickly manipulated the controls and was startled to see the still form convulse once before she went still. "Hol? Hol!?"

The Cat and Rimmer entered in time to hear Holly's reaction. "No need to yell, I can hear you. She is definitely alive, but I have to be very careful if she is going to stay that way."

"Who's she?" the Cat asked as he started adjusting his wardrobe.

"Smeg, Hol. Did you have to let everyone know?"

"You almost killed her, Dave."

"I wha ..."

"That button you pressed was for the final stages. She wasn't ready. Luckily we caught it."

"Way to go. Last woman alive and you almost kill her."

"I could have fixed it. Holly didn't need to announce it over the entire dwarf."

"Standard procedure for emergencies and human stupidity. I've had to reduce its sensitivity lately or it would be going off all the time."

"How long before she wakes up?"

"I would estimate twenty four hours. But, once she wakes, we have to be very careful. She has been asleep for over three million years. The shock alone might kill her."

"If it doesn't, the life forms evolving from Lister's underwear basket will."

Lister's head turned to face Rimmer, a look of disgust distorting his features. After a few moments of nausea at his dead crew mates continuous smirk, he turned back to the computer's disembodied head.

"It didn't kill me. I adjusted."

"You had Rimmer to keep you sane. He was familiar."

"Yeah, a familiar pain in the arse."

Rimmer gave him a pointed look and walked over to the metal object. He looked into the vessel and noticed the pale features of the occupant. He couldn't make out her exact appearance as time and extreme cold had warped the plastic cover. He did notice one thing that seemed out of place.

"Even though, he was able to ground you. She has no one, and nothing will be familiar. Most likely she was floating in space before any of you were born."

"Uh, Holly?" Rimmer's voice was quiet.

"The shock might damage her one way or the other, sirs. In her time, ships that traveled the stars only existed in fiction. She never left the planet."

"Holly!?"

"Yes, Arnold?"

"Should she be breathing?"

The others quickly rushed over to the screen and received visual confirmation of Rimmer's question.

"Kryten, we need a thermal suit and some stasis food packs."

"Agreed, sir. She is waking up and if she is still in there when she does you don't have to worry about her shock at being three million years from Earth."

"Yeah, she'll think she's died and gone to horror movie hell."

Cat helped Kryten gather the requested items. They entered the room to find the skutters with a stretcher. Kryten walked over to the other side of the pod and, after getting Holly's approval, unlocked and started to lift the heavy lid. He had it half way open when he quickly shut it.

"What's wrong Kryten?"

"I think you should leave, sirs."

"What's wrong!?"

"I think it would be best if you to preserve her dignity."

"Wha ... Is she naked?"

"I can't answer that. I feel she would be more comfortable if I were the only one helping her right now, sir."

"Man, we always miss the good things."

Everyone filed out of the room leaving Kryten and Holly alone with their guest.

Kryten had Holly lock the guys out of the medical bay so the woman could revive without being pestered. She had been wrapped in the thermal wear and transferred to a bed. The room's temperature was adjusted causing a small power drain preventing Lister from using the AR suite. Rimmer thought it would do him some good to put his libido on hold for awhile and said so.

The woman had woken slowly and, thinking she was in a hospital of her time, went back into a deep, peaceful sleep. Kryten was notified of his patients progress and he quickly contacted Lister thinking it was best that her first contact of this time was another human. Lister arrived shortly dressed in his best outfit and covered with a thick layer of cologne. Cat said he was going to make her pass out from the smell. Rimmer thought it was a good idea, masked the strong scent of curry. Lister ignored them both and pushed their insults to the back of his mind as he strode purposely to the side of the woman's bed.

Her nose twitched slightly in sleep and Lister immediately wished he had listened to his crew mates. She continued to sleep and Lister took the time to notice her appearance. She was awfully pale but he chalked that up to her condition. Her hair was a golden-red and it laid across her pillow like a copper sash. He couldn't tell much about the rest of her as she was covered with quite a few blankets.

He was exploring her lower body with his eyes when a deep voice spoke. "Do you usually stare at all your patients?"

Lister noticed the voice was deep, but slightly hoarse. He looked up at her face and swallowed forcefully as his brown eyes met emerald green. "Sorry, just Kryten wouldn't let us see you till now. I got carried away."

"Who's Kryten?"

"That would be me, mum."

The woman turned her head toward the voice and paled even more to Lister's horror. "Krytes, you should have waited till I explained everything to her."

"What happened to your head? It looks like it got stuck in an automatic food canner."

"He's alright, he's a mechanoid."

"Like an android?"

"Not quite, mum. As, like an android, I am a manufactured life form. But, I am a more sophisticated construct."

"Not very humble though." Her color returned to a more normal shade and she adjusted herself to sit up. Lister and Kryten started to help her when she gave Lister a pointed look causing him to back off letting Kryten finish assisting her.

"Thank you, Kryten."

Lister quietly walked out of the room and moved, dejectedly to his sleeping quarters.

Kryten tried to explain everything that had happened. Many times she asked him to slow down or stop entirely as her brain started to swim. He tried to point out the other crew members good qualities, limited as they were, but only succeeded in grossing her out, a term she had to explain before he completely understood.

"Okay, wait a minute. You're telling me I am on a spaceship the size of a city, three million years from earth?"

"Yes, mum."

"That, most likely, the human race is extinct except for the small smattering of humanoids here, with me?"

"Yes, mum."

"Those three being the last human alive with disgusting hygiene and an obsession with curry, a creature that evolved from a cat and whose greatest achievement is having enough curlers for both his legs, and a hologram about which all you can is that he is neat?"

"I wouldn't say he was obsessed, mum."

"He had you bake him a curry birthday cake."

"Only the icing...," Kryten looked down at the bed, "and the filling." He sped through his final words when the woman's disgusted look increased. "But, that is no reason you should think less of Mr. Lister."