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 #20.

Well, my new computer parts seem to be working fine now, after the bad reboot. Oren said it was because of dirt getting into the contacts. Shame on me, then, for doing such a poor job of it – I should've noticed that.

At any rate: the programmers managed to tighten the code again, although I do think this is probably the most we can get out of it without a complete redesign. Still, I have to hand it to them – they're wizards at what they do. Back on Earth, they're probably able to do all kinds of things with their computers, only because they've got the luxury of plenty. Rewriting the base code for our computer system was the smartest thing we could've done, if I might say so. It let us compensate for the limits of the fabs.

Meanwhile, what else is happening, since the parts problem prevented me from recording the past two days?... I know, I know, I could've used someone else's computer, but that just seems... dirty, somehow. No, not quite dirty – just – wrong. Besides, there's always the chance that somehow I'd fail to completely cover my tracks.

Ah, I remember now. Oren's supposed to go to the Church's big party next week. I honestly never thought the Church would make it this long, if it managed at all. I still don't see the appeal, but then, maybe I don't need to. To get back on topic: Oren wants to go to this party, and he's invited me along with him, even though both he and I know there's really no point to me going since it's a primarily social affair, and I'd rather stay home. At least he took it well when I declined – for all I know, he was offering merely as the obligatory roommate "thing" (to use that phrase of his that I can't stand).

And so we draw close to the end of another year. I can't believe how long it's been. Twenty-five years! A quarter century! I've heard there'll be some big ceremony or something at the start of the new year, but I don't know if there's any truth to that. It's rather strange; nobody really looks any different. Oh, now and then someone actually has a single gray hair, but for the most part, when I look at the photos of us from the Clone Revolt – "us" being myself and those I still keep in touch with from that time – and then look at myself in the mirror, or meet them at work or in Neuvien, there's no difference.

I know that among Earthlings, there's usually a sudden shock upon realizing that, say, one's mother or father is old, seeing the lined face and the weight of cares and the like. The shock is there, I'd presume, because all along you've been seeing them on a daily basis, so that you don't notice the slight creep of age. But here, among us, we don’t have that creep. I wonder why?

There must be a reason behind it, although I'm flummoxed as to how Hsien Ho did it. I can understand why he did it, of course – immortality is the dream of humanity from the beginning of time – but not how. Because the BioTekNik never allowed immortality to go beyond us Androsynth. Unless things have dramatically changed on Earth during the past twenty-five years, we were the lucky ones in the longevity lottery. So why was it only granted to us?

What I worry about, of course, is that whenever we do find the answer, we won't like it.

Oren's back and he's got some news about disease from maras, so I'd better sign off now.

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

Comments? Email me: laridian at aol dot com