Welcome to the Journal of Now and Forever. This Journal is a collection of my Star Control and Star Control 2 fiction. Note: Some of this material is, by necessity, extrapolation from the slim information provided by canon sources.

New fiction is posted first at My Livejournal before it appears here. This story is in response to 15 Minute Ficlets' Challenge #40.

Otto was bored.

Cruising through an alien solar system had lost its appeal in the first few weeks of his career as a pilot. At this point, the only difference lay in guessing what type of planet the next one might be – telluric, haloid, dead... apart from the gas giants, of course, recognizable even across sheer distances.

Since the Androsynth had settled Eta Vulpeculae 2 after the Exodus, they'd mined out the Eta Vulpeculae system of major finds. To be sure, the other EV planets still had plenty of minerals, but nothing that could be easily obtained by blasting the surface until the required rocks came loose.

That had been the way in the first years: shoot from space, pick up the pieces. Now, the whole mining process was designed for efficiency, albeit without much regard for environment, although in Otto's opinion there wasn't much "environment" on these planets to begin with. If there had been, maybe EV2 wouldn't have been settled.

The last lander returned to the ship, full of radioactives that would be processed back home. Good stuff, at least. But Otto longed for hyperspace, for the sweet ecstasy of that strange dimension. Most of the fighter wing had left for Earth, to see what the Earthlings were up to, so he'd heard. That would have been something to experience – a few weeks in hyperspace, in neverending bliss.

Unfortunately, the Micromanager had different orders: explore the Alpha Vulpeculae system, examine all worlds for life and mineral distribution, and bring back whatever looked interesting. Otto was bored out of his mind after the first day, and it looked like exploring AV system would take a good week – an entire week of crawling, metaphorically speaking, through truespace.

It wasn't even challenging work. Go to planet 1, park in orbit while the world was scanned, wait for the landers to go planetside, collect and return, then go to any moons nearby, then on to planet 2. Yes, it was good they had entertainment and educational roms to pass the time, but Otto was too restless. He could almost feel hyperspace calling to him, although he knew that was just his own longing. It didn't help knowing that after Alpha Vulpeculae, the Micromanager was to explore the Beta Vulpeculae system, unless the holds were full, in which case return home to EV2.

Kent, mission leader, had noticed and misinterpreted Otto's pacing in the ship and tried to send him on a ground visit. Otto swore in colorful prima lingua and instead took up residence in the pilot's chair, poring over the hyperspace charts to see what improvements might be made to fuel and time by taking alternate routes to their destinations.

He hoped this wasn't the way piloting would always be. He wasn't sure what he wanted, exactly – he knew wishing for excitement was wishing for trouble – but there had to be something better than this, something that would let him travel in hyperspace more often, let the feelings wash over him. There had to be a way.

Comments? Email me: laridian at aol dot com