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 #96.

Seven months' hard work, and for nothing!! (Yes, I know that's ungrammatical, I don't care!) We've done all the Ur-Quan have asked of us, we've rebuilt our ships, our society, everything, and now there's no invasion!

Words cannot express the anger and disbelief I (and those I know) are feeling. This is – it's intolerable. And we have to accept it, because "disobedience will not be tolerated!"

For six months we labored hard, we refitted the Guardians, we altered our society overnight into a war economy (is that the right term? I can't think straight right now) so as to achieve our goal faster. The goal, of course, being the invasion of Earth, getting some Earthling bodies so we could reproduce, and then revenge on the Earthlings in general, in that order. (At least, the order I think would suit us best. Can't believe I'm this parenthetical today. Must clean it up later.) And yet when we were ready, we kept waiting for the word from the Ur-Quan, Lord 419 specifically, that the invasion would take place.

But the word didn't come. So we waited a while longer, made double and triple-sure that everything had been done – Dina said as much – and yet still no word. So at last the Consuls decided to ask Lord 419 what was going on, whether everything was fine. Of course this is sometimes hazardous, because if you catch them on a bad day, the Ur-Quan get pretty testy. The Consuls have had to step in a couple of times to save someone when they'd upset the overlords. (Let's face it, that's what they are.) Reports have come of Ilwrath and Thraddash who've been torn apart by their Ur-Quan masters for disobedience, so I suppose we're lucky so far, or Lord 419 has more patience, perhaps.

It was Jack who asked the Ur-Quan, the first time, whether everything we'd done was to the Hierarchy's satisfaction. And the answer came back that we'd done an acceptable job. Hard to argue with that. So we waited a while longer, and then one of the others – I think it was Ruth? – asked if there were anything else we could do, and she was told that no, we'd done everything.

So finally Kurt asked when we could expect the invasion to occur. (This was today, about 10 am I think, though not entirely sure because the news took a while to trickle down.) And Lord 419 itself said that the invasion would come when the Ur-Quan deemed it time, and "it is not yet time." I don't know whether it refused to answer any other questions (mine would be "So when will it be time?") or whether said questions or answers just haven't been released.

So we're stuck now. We've worked ourselves hard for this, and then been slapped down. Why? Why aren't they invading? Why aren't we invading? I've seen the map of the Ur-Quan and slave species' territories, we're just a postage-stamp domain compared to the Hierarchy at large, and Earth is practically a short walk away. What could be the holdup? Why are the Ur-Quan waiting? Earth should be easy to attack, last I knew they had no spacefleet at all, no significant defenses. What possible reason could they have to just sit and wait? We don't even know how long we'll be waiting.

So angry. Didn't think I could be this angry about it. No, the Hierarchy never actually said that as soon as we were ready, Earth was next on the list. But we all thought it. Guess that's a "shame on us" thing, or something, I don't know. Need to go relax now, I'm still all worked up, if I try talking to anyone I'm liable to say things I shouldn't.

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

Comments? Email me: laridian at aol dot com