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 two challenges: 15 Minute Ficlets' Challenge #35 and The Other Write's Challenge #1.

Author's Note: The belyaev creatures mentioned in this story are real.

Dina slipped into her lab coat. Another day's work. Just because they were waiting for the new Guardian ships to retrieve some Earthlings for experiments didn't mean there wasn't plenty of other work to do.

She knew she should feel queasy about experimenting on other humans, but Androsynth themselves – and she – were results of experimentation by humans. So she didn't feel much at all about it.

That might change once we actually get some Earthlings in here, though, she thought to herself, and stepped into the Reproductive Research lab. Her techs were all hard at work already; it was a benefit to being Androsynth, she thought (not for the first time), that their work ethic was so engineered that they enjoyed it. Looking around, however, she noticed that her chief subordinate, Grif, was missing.

"Where's Grif?" she asked the room at large.

"Right here," he said, coming in behind her. "Sorry I'm late again."

"You've got to work on that, Grif," Dina said absently. Grif had a habit of coming in late, but he stayed late to make up for it, so she didn't take him to task very strongly about it. She was about to head to her workstation when she noticed the box in his arms. "What's that?"

"It's... for you," Grif said, a strange note in his voice. Everyone was looking now, curious. Grif set the box down on a bare stretch of counter and removed the lid.

Inside was a small – was it a fox? Except it didn't look like one. "What is it?" Dina asked. The thing looked up at her with its tongue lolling out.

"It's a belyaev," Grif said, and helped the animal out. "Someone who used to work in Eurasia brought frozen embryos during the Exodus, and they just now warmed 'em up and started raising them, since we didn't bring any pet animals. At least, officially, since the belyaevs are here."

It was fox-sized with black and white markings, and had the fox face, but droopy ears and a happy, doglike expression. It was also, Dina realized, intensely cute, as it wiggled its body and licked at her hand. She found herself smiling at it.

"Shouldn't that be belyaeva?" said Aron. "Isn't that how Russian plurals go?"

Grif waved it off. "Does it matter? Oh, by the way, Dina, it's a male."

Dina picked it up. It was surprisingly light; she marveled at the softness of its fur as it lay its head against her neck. "So what, exactly, is a belyaev?"

"It's a genetically engineered fox, sort of," Grif explained. "Named after the researcher who worked on them. Except that was before molecular engineering. He just spent his whole life breeding foxes for tameness. This was the result. They're like dogs, mentally, sort of."

Everyone by now had stopped work and come up to pet or stroke the animal, who seemed pleased by all the attention.

"Well, we're at Eta Vulpeculae, and vulpeculae is Latin for fox, so I guess it's appropriate," Skip said as the belyaev nosed about his hand. "What are you going to name it, Dina?"

Dina looked at Grif, who wore a shy smile. She wasn't sure why he did these little things for her, unless he was hoping to impress her for the future day when Androsynth were able to reproduce. But she couldn't deny that she liked it when he did.

"Well, if they're Russian, the only Russian name I can think of is Nikita," Dina said. She held the belyaev up so it faced her. "Are you Nikita, then?"

Nikita sneezed and wiggled happily in her hands as she drew him close again.

Comments? Email me: laridian at aol dot com