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 #75.

Otto did occasionally leave his ship. He might not have been planetside in years, but he did visit Starbase whenever his ship docked; it was nice to stretch his legs and eat slightly different food and look at Eta Vulpeculae 2 once in a while. He didn't look at it more often than that, though. It didn't mean anything much to him. Yes, there were Androsynth communities down there somewhere – not visible from Starbase's orbit path – but it wasn't really his planet. It was simply a place to refuel and restock, for most Androsynth to pick up new entertainment or messages, to go planetside if they wished.

Otto did get new entertainment on occasion, but his friends, few in number as they were, were also spacers, and thus he was as likely to hear from them whenever the ship dropped into truespace as when he came back here. He knew there were a handful of other spacers like himself, the ones who would live forever in the stars if they could help it, and never touch ground again.

But Starbase food was a little better than the packaged stuff on the ships, so he ate on Starbase when he could. Also, it was a good way to see if there was anything of interest going on. Often there wasn't, but you never knew.

Some of his shipmates, plus Otto himself, were at present eating a meal in the Starbase commissary, with a few spacers from another ship at the same table. It was funny, Otto thought, about the Anglic phrase looking for the old familiar faces; some of the faces here were the same ones, but they were willing to meet up just to have someone new to talk to.

The food was good today, some kind of barley and pork, with a huge pile of truck vegetables, particularly those with anti-carcinomatous properties. Otto missed beef. He also missed chrustchiki, but beef didn't exist on Eta Vulpeculae 2, because something kept going wrong with the embryos.

He pushed some of the barley around on the plate as Thad spoke. "I think he's got some valid points," the mission leader was saying. "If you look deeper into it – "

"Well, that's not the point, according to – " one of the other spacers interrupted.

Thad would not be denied. He waved his fork in the air to emphasize his speech. "If you look deeper into it," he repeated, "I think it's easy to see where he's coming from. How often have the great philosophers said that the very nature of the universe shows it can't have come about by random chance?"

"Unless you believe in the very large numbers theory of universe generation," a BOOJI-series said, before chewing on an ice cube.

"What, that sooner or later a universe capable of supporting life that would eventually observe said universe would happen?" Thad's statement was greeted with various "speak plainer!" responses. "Okay, how about this: so the very large numbers theory says that sooner or later, given infinite time and attempts, the outcome you specify will happen. It's the monkeys and Hamlet proverb. And I suppose that's fine as a personal belief, too, if you can call it that, but what's wrong with saying, hey, we're engineers, we're scientists, we're smart, and we're solving the mysteries of the universe. What if the entire universe really was created by the greatest scientist, the greatest engineer of all?"

"I think you’ve been in space too long," the BOOJI said, good-naturedly.

"I dunno," said another, a CRC-16. "I guess he's got some points that make sense, but it seems weird to reduce religion to the same standard as quantum mechanics. That you have to take it on faith that the world works like that because we can't observe it directly. And let's face it, I can't see what the religious aspect of it does for anyone. No offense, Thad – "

"None taken," Thad said.

" – But science just plain makes more sense to me than religion does in explaining the universe. I mean, you want to say God the Scientist built the entire universe according to some giant blueprint? As long as you do your job, I really don't care. Just don't push it on me, okay?"

"Hey, I didn't say I was even joining the church," Thad laughed, and speared the last of his food. Otto was always amazed at how Thad was able to speak clearly and yet put the food away as fast as anyone else. "Just that I think they've got an interesting take on things."

"Well, that 'interesting take' sounds like it's frustrating the hell out of the ground-pounders," the BOOJI said. "I decided I'd skip going planetside this time, avoid the debates going on down there."

"Yeah, I hear ya," said a BIM-XT. BIMs were rare in the spacers, because most of them suffered severe vertigo from hyperspace. The few that didn't had proved themselves to be excellent ship's engineers. "Sometimes I think the ground-pounders are nuts. At least most of us can get along up here."

"We've weeded out those who caused trouble, that's why," Thad shrugged. "The rest are all quiet like Otto here." He gave Otto a friendly slap on the back.

Otto, who was lost in thoughts of various beef dishes, came back to the present with a grin, and finished his food.

Comments? Email me: laridian at aol dot com