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 #65.

Well. Finally get access to a computer, and guess why? Because someone got injured. At least it wasn't me.

While I don't think anyone should be getting into my messages, I'm going to lock this one as best I can until I'm out of here and can properly protect it.

So – guess what happened? During a live fire exercise (which, I'm glad to say, I wasn't part of) some XRT series took a bullet to the head. Not enough to kill him, so it couldn't have been at close range, but I don't know the details. Everyone else thinks they know, or that they've got a good guess, but the official word hasn't come down yet and without an actual report, the conspiracy theories are already starting.

Yes, conspiracy theories – who knew? – because he was a religious and also because he'd asked for a deferment. The deferment was rejected, of course, which frankly tells me there wasn't much point in offing him afterward. What's the point? I can't see the higher-ups wanting to off someone just because they didn't want to be a soldier. That doesn't make sense. There are much better ways to punish people without killing them. (Hm... I sound like him there... must watch myself.)

Now, the religious angle might be more accurate. Everyone knows that there are some Androsynth who were badly treated by various religions on Earth (and let's face it, religion is just a sop for most Earthlings and a few of us to make them behave better, but I covered that topic last year). So maybe someone found out he's a practitioner, or whatever they're called, and decided to get rid of him out of spite. Though from what I hear, he didn't have any enemies. Or if he did, nobody knew about them.

Anyway, the XRT's been taken off base to recover from the head wound, which couldn't have been too bad or it would've killed him. There's still possibility of brain damage, of course. Eavesdropping on those who were in the exercise hints that one of the Necro series might've pulled the trigger. While I don't know if it's true, it's something I'm going to look into. After all, Dina's committee "friend" is a Necro series; she should be told if it's a trait common to them. You know, I'm still not sure why they're called Necros? There's got to be a reason they have an actual word (or at least part of one) for their series designate, instead of a letter and number combination. Of course, it might still be an accident; but what if it's not?

The live ammo exercises have been put on hold during the investigation, of course, and frankly I wouldn't want to be in the base commander's shoes. I don’t remember if anyone even died during the landing on this planet; it'd certainly be a black mark if it happened now, or if someone got crippled because of it. I wonder how the deferment requests are going to go now that this has happened.

So, we have a little free time, since the exercises are stopped, although I don't expect it to last very long – someone's bound to notice the uneasiness around here and all the talk, and put everyone to busywork. I thought I'd just note all this for later.

Well, my allotted computer time is almost up, so I'd better password protect and lock this entry. Here's hoping the exercises get cancelled – the faster I get out of here, the faster I can get back to my research.

~Personal journal of CRC-16 "Grif" Reproductive Researcher

Comments? Email me: laridian at aol dot com