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 First Lines 1000's Challenge #21: Dialog Only.

"You're late."

"Am I?... My apologies, Dina."

"It's... I suppose it's all right, Grif. It's just you and me working on this, anyway, with Saul off on maneuvers. I can't believe he'll be gone for another two months."

"That long? I thought... I thought he was on short maneuvers because of his field."

"No. I think he felt he needed a break, to be honest. Hand me the – yes, that, thank you. Heh."

"What?"

"You and he are the only ones who seem to know what I need without me having to say it."

"I suppose six years of working together will do that, won't it? And you can be predictable, Dina."

"Predictable is safe. Predictable means you know what to expect. And that means anything unpredictable – "

"Is something to investigate, I know, I know."

"I'm that bad, aren't I? You can even finish my sentences for me."

"It's not so bad. I'm sure it's easier for you than it is for me. I like... it's good to know that I can be a help to you like that, that you can depend on me to know what it is you require."

"Hm. Are you trying for a promotion, Grif?"

"No, just... expressing myself."

~ ~ ~

"It isn't going to work, is it."

"Dina?"

"We're fighting an uphill battle, Grif. We just don't have what it takes. You know what I mean, you goober!"

"Goober? What does that mean?"

"It's an Earthling word. I picked it up back in... must be back in the 2050s. Some children's television show, I think. It was 'Take our Children to Work Day' and to keep them occupied, one of the staff tuned the show in..."

"Oh, yes, 'Take our Children to Work Day'. I remember those. Some places where I was assigned, they put us in back offices or out of the way. I think it was to avoid offending us, or offending someone, anyway, since we'd never have kids of our own."

"Yes... like I said, we don't have what it takes. That's the problem. Either we're on blind alleys, and we'll butt our heads against brick walls until we all finally die of accident or disease or, God forbid, old age, or we've got to find some radical new way of creating sex cells out of nothing. We can't clone without ova, at the very least, and there's nothing available here."

"I suppose we could ask if anyone's planning to go back to Earth soon."

"That's not funny, Grif. We're never giving them a chance to enslave us again."

"It wasn't a joke, and don't you think I feel the same way? I lost friends there too, you know."

"I apologize. This lack of progress is driving me crazy."

"Everything drives you crazy, Dina. You've said so yourself. Your series is high-strung, or something."

"It's got nothing to do with my series and everything to do with frustration. You can't build a research lab if you don't have the right tools. You can't make spaceships if you can't smelt metal. And we can't come up with the reproductive technology if we don't have the right materials to work with."

"Well, if the Earthlings ever send anyone out this way looking for us, I suppose we could harvest sex cells from them, particularly if females are among the crew."

"It's a tempting thought, but unless they come out here, we're not likely to find any Earthlings nearby. As it is... we're all alone. And we may always be all alone."

"You mean, alone in the universe? I suppose it's possible. I certainly don't think it's like the shows back on Earth – where the aliens are all bipedal mammalian humanoids. Look how long the Earthlings have searched for life elsewhere, and what do they have? Nothing, unless you count us, and even we are technically not aliens. If there's anything else out there – and that's a big if – it'll be different, somehow. Very different. I don't think we can even imagine it."

"It certainly wouldn't be anything we could use for our research. So that leaves us with hunting Earthlings for harvest, or coming up with a whole new way to face the problem. Ah, thanks."

"Not at all; discussion is thirsty work."

"So that leaves us with... I said that already. I think Saul was right. To take a break, I mean."

"Dina, would you like to – do you want to take some time off from the work? It might help if we let it rest a bit. Like... yeast, I suppose. After kneading, you let it rest before you can use it."

"Where'd that come from? You've never once mentioned cooking."

"I do all right, I think. I could show you sometime, if you like."

"Grif, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to flirt with me!"

"Ha, wouldn't that be something?..."

"..."

"..."

"But we can't. Flirt, I mean... we're not built for that."

"Of course not."

"We're Androsynth. We weren't designed to have... relationships."

"No, we aren't."

"..."

"Grif, I think we should take some time away from the lab. This one, at least. The work will wait; it's not like we're making headway, anyway."

"I think that'd be just fine, Dina."

"Where should we go, then?"

"I think there's a lab in South Ridge that's working on dimensional fatigue. Something completely different from our own work."

"All right then, let's go. There's still several hours of daylight left; we should make it in plenty of time. Oh, Grif, can you – thanks."

"It's no problem at all."

Comments? Email me: laridian at aol dot com