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 #64.

[tape begins]

Hey Lynn – me again. So now you're all gonna start playing at being soldiers? Lynn, I think we all know that if it comes to defending ourselves planetside, we Androsynth are already in trouble. From here on in history, any invader of our planet has to get past us, the spacers, first – and if they do, then nothing you ground-pounders do will make any difference. And let's face it, someone made that probe, and did a good job. Do they have any answers on that thing yet?

So I'm wondering, why are you being put through the motions. Is it because someone really, genuinely thinks turning you into soldiers is gonna help? Or is it something else?

Actually – and I gotta ask you to forgive me here, Lynn – I think I might know what it is. Remember you said in your last message, something about how I'm closer to my crew than to anyone on the ground. And I still say except you, of course. Anyway. The thing is, we spacers have been sorta military from day one. Especially after the Micromanager took on the probe, we've been doing drills like you wouldn't believe. But we've always done something, always had that "we're going to war soon" kinda attitude. Not that I mind it at all, har!

But the rest of you – okay, I know you had to build everything. You had to build housing and plant crops and harvest 'em later. You had to lay pipes and install the FO lighting and make furniture and set up the microcomputer network. Someone had to get the TDP engines going, so we'd have plenty of oil, and process the raw ores we spacers brought back for you and the ones we found locally. But now you're past that, past the "survive or die" stage. I can picture you rollin' your eyes at me, y'know. So what are you doing now?

From what I hear – and maybe I'm hearin' wrong, up here in space – from what I hear, you're all startin' to get soft. You're startin' to forget what it took to get the place up and running. Now everyone wants to work on their pet projects, and I've heard of some stupid stuff, Lynn. Not yours – yours'll be useful if we ever do go to war with the Earthlings. The rest, though... we're not ready yet to sit around and play games or do theoretical research. Sheesh, I did so much of that back on Earth, I don't care if I ever do it again.

You people gotta remember that we could get attacked at any time and we gotta be ready, dammit! And you can't do that if you go soft!

Sorry. Didn't mean this to turn into a lecture. I know, I know – you're feelin' like I'm preachin' to the choir. Maybe I am, but that means I don't wanna hear any birching about military training. You say you wanna kill Earthlings when you get the chance? Sure, we all do! [laughter] But you can't do that if you're sittin' on your ass at a desk.

You might not get to be a real soldier – like I said, if it ever comes to surface fighting, well, it's all over – but you need to think like one, if that makes sense. Don't forget who bailed you out of that place in Georgia.

Man... hell of a way to sign off, huh? Well... um. At least nobody's stupid enough to think a navy's needed. Sometimes when I look at EV2 from the starbase, if the planet's turned just right, it looks like there's barely enough water to fill a bathtub.

Y'know, they really need to figure out how to clone more of us, or something, instead of trying to make babies.

[disconnect]

Comments? Email me: laridian at aol dot com