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 Spamprovs' Challenge #1.

"I cannot believe this happened," Dina snarled as she and Jack entered the room where the Committee was meeting this time. "Scratch that. I can believe it happened. I just wish it hadn't."

Jack shrugged. "But it has."

His what-can-we-do-about-it? tone of voice just frustrated her more. She restrained herself from dropping her microcomputer on the table. It wouldn't do to damage it; parts for them were in short supply, and it wasn't the machine's fault.

"You're talking about the religious nuts?" Kurt asked. He stood against the window, the browns and golds of the autumn fields behind him.

"Yeah," Jack sighed. He sat at the conference table a moment after Dina.

"I wish there was some way we could just ignore it," Tomo said, leaning back in his chair. "I still think that could work."

"You cannot be serious," Gary frowned. "We can't ignore it. Not with the uproar it's created. I'll admit it's out of all proportion to the supposed 'crime', but still."

" 'But still' what?" Kurt said. "It doesn't matter how out of proportion it is, we have to deal with it."

Dina wanted an analgesic. She'd spent the morning reading the forums to find out what she could about Eta Vulpeculae's first church, and discovered just why she hated reading the forums. When they weren't dull – which was most of the time – they were vicious enough to make one's eyes bleed. She wondered why no one had ever policed the forums before. Probably decided the forums were a good safety valve. Or that it wasn't worth the aggravation.

"Okay," she said, rubbing her throbbing temples, "Gary's right. All these clones have done is decide to form their own little religious group. We don't have any real laws against religion, from what I can tell. Am I right?" Murmurs of assent. "So technically they're not doing anything wrong. They're just irritating some vocal Androsynth. Correct?"

"Correct," Tomo said, sitting up straight. "See? There's really nothing to worry about."

"Oh, come off it, Tomo." Kurt uncrossed his arms and came to stand next to the table. Placing his palms flat on the surface, he continued: "Even if the churchies decide to go the peace, love and pacifism route, we don't need problems with the rest of society. What if someone gets it into their head to actively discourage them, like with fire?"

"You – we wouldn't do that," Tomo said.

"Want to bet?" Gary said. "Guess what half of my spacers can't wait for? A chance to kill Earthlings. Earthling religions never invited us in. Some Androsynth were brutally treated by Earthlings in the name of religion."

He would have continued, but Ruth interrupted him. "If that's so, then why does religion appeal to these clones?"

Dina had an answer for that. "There've always been a few religious Androsynth among us. Most of them kept quiet about it, from what I can tell, and for good reason. They were probably kindly treated back on Earth and saw no reason to completely abandon their beliefs when they came here. Then our main churchgoer, an XR4-IT named Dean, started the ball rolling. You'll remember he was the one who asked for deferment of military training so he could help someone out?"

"Oh, no, not that one," Kurt said, covering his face with his hands. "The one that took the head shot?"

"The same," Jack joined the conversation. "I don't know whether it was a catalyst or whether he'd been thinking of it anyway, because it took a while between his injury and starting his little... church. But he's the one behind the movement, so to speak. I worked with his roommate for a while, and I've met Dean a few times, after the accident of course. He seems harmless enough."

"Seems harmless enough," Kurt repeated sourly. "So this is all because he had a near-death experience and touched the hand of God?"

"That's pilots," Gary interjected. Kurt gave him a "shut-up" look.

"Can we get back on topic?" Ruth said, standing up. "Okay, so we've got a small group of religious who want to hold services for themselves. Have they caused any other problems? Do they still go to work?"

"No and yes, respectively," Dina answered. "As of yet, they've done nothing to interfere with anyone's life or work that I can discover. They don't appear to be recruiting, either. I don’t doubt that if you want to join, they'll include you in their group, but otherwise there's been no standing on a soapbox yelling 'Sinners repent!' "

"So we keep an eye on them," Tomo said. "I'd rather avoid putting in a spy or something – we really don't have the manpower for it, and they're a small group. Plus the whole secret-police thing just..." he rubbed his upper arms. "I don't want us to become like Earth," he continued. "I don't want division between our people. As long as the religious keep to themselves, I don’t have a problem with them."

Gary coughed for attention. "This brings us to something else... we have to make an announcement, I think, to leave the religious alone. That antagonism among our people over something like religion would be seen as... Earthlike, I suppose. We're supposed to band together."

He was interrupted at this point by Kurt. "Does anyone know exactly what this new religious group calls itself? What they teach? It might be worthwhile to know. Some of the Earth religions were dramatically... unpleasant toward outsiders, people who didn’t follow the religion."

Dina called up her notes on the microcomputer. "Their official name, or what passes for it, is the Church of Deus Genitor, which translates to God the Creator. Dean's a Roman Catholic, and since he's in charge, I suspect we can expect a strong Catholic streak to their beliefs. The others are probably all Christian in some way, though I doubt they're all Catholics." An idea came to her. "Why don't we invite him up here? Ask him to tell us about his church, what the group's beliefs are. We'll have a better idea of how to handle it if we have more information. That way we also avoid the 'spy problem' Tomo mentioned."

"So we tell him the leaders of the Androsynth want to talk to him," Jack mused. "You realize this means someone has to be officially the leaders of the Androsynth – at least one of us."

"I know." Ruth frowned. "It's been nice operating in the dark, but I think we've reached the point where we as an entity have to step forward and announce ourselves."

"Not all of us," Tomo said. "Just one. The rest can be... advisors or something. But whoever takes the job is going to get a lot of flak – they'll be the sacrifical goat, sort of. Whoever becomes Grand High Poobah or Chief Scientist or whatever title we come up with is going to be the focal point for the populace's attention, good or bad."

The room went silent. Dina had been dreading something like this. She knew she didn't want to become a known leader; she suspected whoever took the job would have their hands full just dealing with the people. The silence meant others agreed with her, presumably; not an auspicious sign.

She suddenly wanted some chocolate. The stuff had run out years ago, and growing cacao plants was hardly near the top of the list of society's things to do. She could almost taste it again, feel the smoothness on her tongue. It was funny how the small things were remembered.

"All right," Gary said at last. "I'll be the goat. I'll be the distraction point. With any luck, the rest of you can get some work done while I'm battling out front, so to speak."

Kurt shook his head, violently. "No. Sorry, Gary, but I don't think it'll work. Your domain is space – you're crewing on Montana Sky now, right?" Gary nodded, warily. "You can be gone for weeks at a time, sometimes months," Kurt continued. "You'd have to give up space travel if you were expected to do any ground leadership. Half the time you can't even make these meetings because you can't get away from your ship. It'll have to be someone else."

Dina sat up straight. "Wait. What if... what if it was Gary in charge of the spacers, and someone in charge of the planetary districts? Well, the planetary population. Two leaders. That would deflect some of the attention from either person, and seem more... egalitarian, perhaps? Most of the Androsynth would have 'their' leader, and the spacers would have Gary – each group would think they have someone who understands them in charge."

Everyone nodded and murmured agreement, and for a moment Dina had the horrible thought that the next statement might be Good idea, Dina – you're it!

She was saved by Kurt clearing his throat and announcing, "I'll be the ground goat, to paraphrase Gary. That lets the rest of you keep busy in an official capacity as advisors. Looks like we're going to have several announcements to make, between the church and saying who's 'really' in charge." He used the "quotes" gesture as he spoke.

"So what do we call you?" Jack asked. "Councilor? Consul? We can't call you two co-leaders. Something in human nature demands titles. And the titles have to be equivalent, so as not to show favoritism."

"God forbid," Dina said under her breath. It took her a moment to realize she'd said God. No one seemed to have noticed. She'd never thought about it before, how common the word really was in everyday usage. She suspected most Androsynth hadn't either, before the Deus Genitor church sprang up.

That in turn reminded her of the earlier topic of discussion. She returned her attention to the meeting, where it seemed the choice had come down to consul or praetor. Why Roman? she wondered idly – perhaps the mention of Roman Catholicism had subconsciously influenced them. "Whatever title you want doesn't really matter to me," she said. "Just pick something and let's plan the announcement. Then we can ask Dean to appear before us and explain his church."

"I'd better not be visible," Jack said thoughtfully. "He knows me, or at least he's met me. Best if I stay within earshot but not out in front. Just a hunch." He shrugged his shoulders.

Kurt waved his hand dismissively. "Fine, whatever. We'll rig you a handset or something so you can communicate with us from another room if we have to. Dina's right, let's get this under way. I vote for consul since that has the historical precedent of two of them ruling in ancient Rome. Gary, you and I have a lot to organize."

Gary nodded. "I know. I'll arrange what I can to stay down here a while longer. The rest of you – well, you're not actually under either of us, I think, and I'd like it to stay that way. We'll still all have equal votes in meetings, and with luck you'll probably get more work done than Kurt and I will. And consul is acceptable to me as well. It's just a title, after all."

A quick look round the table established that the title was fine for the rest of them, too, and Dina dutifully recorded it in the minutes – it was her turn as secretary. She hoped neither of the two consuls would suddenly decide they were above note-taking.

She also hoped this would all work out. It had to be done, but she hoped they hadn't just created even more problems for themselves. She didn't know if the ancient consuls had had to run for office or were appointed or even how long their terms were – history had not been impressed upon her as critically important during her formative years. Something to research there – everyone else will, after all. And we don't need people wasting time and resources campaigning to become consuls when we six have done a perfectly good job all these years.

Dina found herself a little irritated with Dean and his fledgling church. If they hadn't gotten everyone in such an uproar, there would be no need for this meeting and its attendant titling and discussion. But as the old saw went, the one constant in the universe was change. She hoped this change would go smoothly.

~ ~ ~

The title comes from a quote by Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898): "Politics is the art of the possible." (Aug. 11, 1867)

Comments? Email me: laridian at aol dot com