A/N: Well, you talked me into it. So here goes, the further adventures of Otto in space. Hope you get a kick out of it.

4242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242

"Coming up on home, Otto," Bookwang roused the scientist from his musings. Otto had been staring out of the alien's domed flying saucer for a while, trying to work out what new shape his life would take.

What must change, Father? the actuators inquired, A new world- the perfect opportunity to rebuild.

That's your answer to everything, Otto responded. Besides, it would appear that the rest of the galaxy has already met my great goal of an everlasting energy source. What would be the point?

Putting aside his troubled thoughts for now, Otto faced forward and took in the sight that was Santraginus V. White clouds swirled over the surface, which looked to be all blue oceans marbled with pale scraps of land. Otto could pick out very little green on any of the land he could see, mostly just blue and white with the occasional gray of a sprawling city. Otto's view was obscured, however, by the crowd of space vehicles buzzing around the planet. As they approached, he watched the various ships sort themselves into orderly lines that led to an enormous space station that encircled the planet much like one of Saturn's rings, only made of metal instead of dust and ice. Otto tracked one vehicle as it worked its way through the line to enter the ring through a square opening, and then exit a few minutes later inside the ring before descending onto Santraginus V. Bookwang piloted the saucer to join a line.

"What is this?" Otto asked his companion as the actuators weaved around tracking the progress of several different ships.

"Oh, it's like a check-in station," Bookwang replied, keeping his eyes on the vehicle ahead of him, "They built it when tourism got really big on Santraginus V. Things started to get a little shady- like crooks and people doing deals here because it was so crowded they could get away with it. Now every ride that wants to land here has to go through the check-in."

"I see," Otto said calmly as his stomach fell into his feet. The actuators ceased their roving and drooped down to the floor, hiding their coils in Otto's coat. There is no possible way they could know, Otto firmly told himself, Just act casual. But the actuators amplified his fresh anxiety, chittering around his seat. He couldn't stop himself from asking, "Do you know if Earth was monitored at all before it was demolished?"

"Monitored?" Bookwang burst out laughing, "Who'd want to monitor Earth? Was there something to be monitored? Maybe it would've been in a few centuries, but not that I'm aware of, pal. Why?"

"Oh, no reason. I was just thinking of- well, accounts of UFO sightings around volcanoes and cities. Just wondering what they may have seen..." The actuators seemed to peer up at their host, begging him to shut up.

"Well, yeah, people stopped by the volcanoes-"

Otto blinked, "Wait- they did?"

"Mm hm, for fuel. You know the hydrogen produced by eruptions makes great fuel for certain kinds of ships. Like the old Firefly models and things." (1)

"No kidding," Otto murmured as the saucer glided into an open square in the ring and landed on the floor of what looked to Otto much like an airplane hangar, complete with an open square further ahead that framed a section of the surface of Santraginus V.

The pair watched, one expectantly and one anxiously, as a booth extended out from the wall of the hangar on a metal pole. Inside the booth stood an officious-looking female Santraginian wearing a drive-thru style earpiece/microphone headset and holding a tablet in one tentacle. As the booth neared she spoke, her voice projected from the speakers on the saucer's console. "Good day," she said in the same manner that one might also say, "License and registration, please."

"Hi," Bookwang replied with a wide smile. Otto tried to keep his eyes focused on the floor. "Um, I'm a natural of Santraginus V, just heading back to school-"

"May I see your planetary citizenship, please."

"Yeah, uh, no problem," Bookwang tapped at the consol keys. An image appeared on the dome's surface that contained a passport-style picture of Bookwang and some writing.

The check-in officer nodded, then jerked her head at Otto when the image disappeared, "And your friend?"

Both of the saucer's occupants blanched, "Umm, he's a friend- yes."

"What is his planetary citizenship?"

"Uh, well," Bookwang stammered, "He's- he's just, um- he's not Santraginian... He's, um..."

As the young alien stumbled, the officer turned and truly looked at Otto for the first time. She caught the scientist's eyes as they darted up from the floor, and something in her icy gaze melted. Her eyes widened, her mouth dropped open, and a blush spread across her cheeks. Otto was so astonished by the officer's reaction that an actuator peeked up unheeded to check out the situation. The officer gasped, a hand flying to her mouth at the sight of the metal claw, but instead of screaming out for the authorities as Otto fully expected, she breathed an "Oh my goodness" and her blush deepened.

Bookwang had stopped babbling and now his eyes bounced between the officer and Otto, "Uh, is there a problem?"

She blinked twice, and seemed to breathe again. "No, no- there's no problem, sir. You can go now." A tentacle vaguely gestured toward the opening at the end of the hangar.

"Um... okay... then," Bookwang said. If the saucer had feet it would have tiptoed out of the hangar. The officer was still gazing at Otto with a tiny smile on her face, and one of her lower tentacles performed a shy little wave, which Otto returned out of sheer bewilderment.

424242424242424242424242424242

"Is there anything you want to tell me?" Bookwang and Otto asked each other.

"Nope," Bookwang said, "That was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen."

"Same here."

"Well, anyway, whatever it was it got us past the check-in. I thought we were screwed for a minute."

"Yes, I could tell." Otto recalled his companion's desperate rambling when asked to explain his passenger's presence. "But we can't hope to have the same luck twice. Assuming I find this planet suitable as a new home, how do I go about getting a planetary citizenship?"

The alien considered this for a moment. "We-ell, I'm a natural, a natural-born being of Santraginus V," Bookwang explained, "So I've had my citizenship since birth. But I guess you need to do something special to immigrate to a different planet..." A pall of horror cascaded over his face. He turned saucer-sized eyes on Otto, "You have to go to... the Vogsphere."

"And that is?"

Bookwang stared into the stars beyond and whispered, "The planet of the bureaucrats."

"Oh, well, I'm sure it's not as bad as all that. People seem to be hopping from one planet to another all the time around here. How hard can it be to make one your home?"

Bookwang's voice was low and cold, "As hard as the Vogons want it to be."

Otto rolled his eyes, "All melodrama aside, Bookwang, I think we should get moving because there appears to be an irate blue cloud who would like us to get out of its way." An actuator snapped its tri-dactyl pincers at the pulsing being in the vehicle behind them.

With one last look of dull terror Bookwang returned to the saucer's controls. Though his voice had lost a great deal of its enthusiasm, Bookwang spoke as he guided the saucer through Santraginus V's atmosphere, "The pad isn't fixed at home yet, so we're gonna land at the common launch/land building in the city. I have a pod reserved there we can ride home. The ship can stay here at the L and L until we get there, then I'll call it home. After that- well, we'll have to see, buddy."

The saucer descended into the bowels of a gleaming city. Tall towers of smooth pearly metal dotted with round windows speared up into the sky while flying vehicles flitted by like gnats. The Santraginian sunlight catching on the towers blinded Otto momentarily. He slipped back on the shades he'd taken off for the trip through space. The saucer hovered over a large rectangular building that had no roof over part of it, and Bookwang had a brief conversation over the speakers with the operators of the launch/land building. Otto viewed the miniscule figures of people as they climbed out of their vehicles and disappeared under the roof of a smaller connected building. Bookwang watched as well, smiling when an empty square lit up on the floor of the open building. He neatly landed the saucer within the square's boundaries before turning to Otto, "Well, Otto- we're home!" He paused a minute, looking at his companion.

"What?" Otto asked. Bookwang was staring at him like he was trying to decipher some illegible writing scrawled on the scientist's face.

Bookwang blinked, "Oh, sorry, Otto. It's nothing, you just reminded me of something for a second."

"What did I remind you of?"

"Can't remember." The saucer's dome slid back and its two occupants climbed out. After the required period of muscle-stretching that follows a trip of any duration, Bookwang registered and paid for the saucer's parking space and the pair made for what Otto could only describe as a terminal. They walked down a long wide hallway lined with shops and eateries for the new arrivals and soon-to-be departures. It was as they walked that Otto noticed a staring. He hunched his shoulders a bit and kept the actuators hidden, but it seemed to do very little to inhibit the number of people that stopped in their tracks to watch him pass. The number of Santraginians that stopped to watch him pass. The number of female Santraginians that stopped to watch him pass.

"Bookwang?" Otto tapped his companion's shoulder, but the young alien was too busy passing out smiles and waves to all the ladies that seemed very interested in his and Otto's progress down the terminal. Just before the pair entered a large circular food court area, Bookwang felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder and saw an index finger shoot forward and heard a voice shout right by his ear, "What on Earth is that!"

Bookwang followed where the finger pointed, his eyes drifting upward to take in the massive poster that took up a full quarter of the food court's wall. On the poster, in bold blocks of blue, yellow, red, and white, was a picture of Otto in a very intimidating yet somehow provocative pose complete with actuators, shades, hat, and trench coat. In Bookwang's mind the tumblers fell into place, the numbers added up, the light bulb went on, and every other metaphor for abstract thought took place just in time for a Santraginian woman to scream, "It's HIM!" and break into a run at the pair.

"Oh Belgium!" Bookwang cried and grabbed Otto's arm before turning to sprint back down the terminal. The actuators looked back and sent to Otto's brain the image of over a dozen women chasing the pair, all with looks of rapturous hunger plastered on their faces. Bookwang and Otto dove into a large crowd of people waiting in line for a certain restaurant, immediately followed by the other large crowd of women. In the confusion of two large crowds unexpectedly becoming one really large crowd, Bookwang and Otto dashed through an available door and closed it behind them.

Inside the narrow hallway behind the door, Bookwang fell against the wall, breathing hard. He slid down until he was seated on the floor, put his head in his hands, and groaned, "I can't believe this. Oh man, this can't be happening. Who'd have thought...? This is unbelievable."

"Bookwang, what are you talking about?" Otto was trying very hard to stay calm, but the alien's despairing posture and voice was not helping. He allowed the actuators to rise, bobbing and weaving and peering around the room for something to make their host not feel the way he was feeling.

"Oh man," Bookwang sighed once more, "Okay look, before I left they were advertising this- well, I guess I might as well call it a movie. I don't know what it's called and I just realized that you look more or less exactly like the main character. And it looks like it was a pretty big hit- um, especially with the ladies."

Otto slid down the opposite wall, and then was silent for a while. Feeling a morbid curiosity come over him he asked, "What was the movie about?"

"What? Oh, I don't know, I only saw a few commercials for it before I left. I think this guy gets involved with these shady guys, and they kidnap his family and cut off his tentacles. So the guy builds his own robotic ones and goes after the shady guys. It must be pretty good, to get this kind of reaction." He nodded at the door, from behind which female voices could still be heard asking where he'd gone was that really him what's he doing here I can't believe I actually saw him I almost touched him.

Otto considered this, "Hunh. So he's a hero?"

"Yeah, I guess so. That's a plus, huh? Beats being the villain."

Otto swallowed his laughter but could not stifle a wry grin. "Yes, I suppose it does." He stood up, "Well, what now? I don't suppose you know your way around the backrooms of this launch/land building, do you?"

Bookwang looked up at him with his eyes full of misery, "No."

Otto rolled his eyes and sent an actuator coiling around the young alien's waist, hoisting him to his feet. The scientist's hidden eyes bored into Bookwang's as he spoke, "Bookwang, I have experienced much worse troubles than an accidental resemblance to some fictional character. If this is the most unfortunate thing that has ever happened to you then you have lived an exceedingly charmed life, but that doesn't mean you can't deal with this with any less ease than myself. Now think. Is there any way to reach that pod you mentioned earlier?"

Bookwang's eyes broke free from Otto's, and celebrated by darting wildly around the hallway. Otto picked up on his discomfort and released him, stepping back with an unreadable look on his face. It had been some time since the actuators had held a living person, not since the girlfriend, in fact- had he ever found out her name?

"There has to be a way," Bookwang said eventually, "I'm sure we'll find it if we just walk a ways. Maybe we can ask someone, I've got friends working here." He set off down the narrow hallway with Otto trailing close behind. Upon reaching the end of the hallway, Bookwang turned the wrong way.

42424242424242424242424242424242

After half an hour of twists and turns, arguing and backtracking, and thankfully no crowds of rabid female fans, Otto and Bookwang finally found themselves in a hallway lined on one side with doors. The doors were labeled with the names of the shops and restaurants they had seen in the terminal. "Thank Zarquon," Bookwang breathed and made for one of the doors. He went to open it, saying "Stay behind the door, okay, Otto?"

Otto nodded and stood in the hallway so that the door would hide him when opened. Bookwang pulled it open and was illuminated by bright light before several tentacles reached out and yanked him into the room beyond. The door slammed shut, leaving Otto blinking in the hallway. Using the heightened hearing of the actuators, Otto was relieved to hear normal sounds of happy reunion inside the room Bookwang had been pulled into. He wasn't kidding about having friends, Otto thought, Sounds like he's quite popular.

Some minutes later Bookwang emerged from the room attempting to pry a tentacle from his forearm without dropping the cup grasped in his hand. "Bye!" he said, trying to work a finger under the tentacle, "I promise, Hurbig, I promise I'll stop by soon, okay? I'll see you later." The tentacle finally released him, and Bookwang turned a happy smile on Otto. "Want some?" he said, offering the cup.

The scientist peered into it suspiciously, even as his stomach clenched with hunger. The cup contained what looked like tiny pancakes, which were red. "I wonder if humans can digest this."

"Only one way to find out," Bookwang informed him cheerfully.

With even the actuators telling him that it was either take a chance or starve, Otto tried one of the food items. It tasted like a perfectly prepared pancake, warm and soft and nourishing. His stomach growled for more. "These are the best pancakes I've ever tasted," he mumbled through a full mouth.

"Oh, well, they can taste like whatever you want, actually. I always set them to chul'lo pancakes." He passed the cup to Otto and the moment it changed hands the tiny red pancakes turned into gray ovoid shapes. "Just line your hands up with the spaces there and think about what you want to eat."

Otto cupped the container in the outlined spaces on either side and took a moment to decide what he'd like.

Father, the actuators piped up when Otto had reached his decision, that food source is insufficient in many necessary nutrients-

Well then it's a good thing you're not eating it, Otto retorted and the ovoid shapes were replaced with Oreos over the actuators' protestations. (2) "Did you get directions to the pod garage?"

Bookwang nodded happily and resumed the lead. Pushing through one last doorway, the pair entered into a wide low-ceilinged room so wide Otto couldn't make out the end of it. Blue spheres with single broad windows waited in several long rows. Tracks led away from each sphere to join one long track that wound around each row and retreated into the distance of the building. Bookwang took out a small device he'd been given when he paid for their landing spot and pressed a button on it. They waited in silence until a high-pitched metallic screech like the keening of a robotic hawk drifted on the air.

As the screech grew louder, Otto asked the actuators to calculate its distance. Object is sixteen miles away.

What? That can't be possible.

Correction: object is twelve miles away.

Wait, how can it go that fast?

Correction: object is ten miles away.

Maybe I should duck...?

Just as the screech became unbearable, a sphere became visible rocketing down the track towards them. Otto felt the urge to dive out of the way, but a glance at Bookwang showed the alien to be calmly awaiting the pod's arrival, so he stood his ground. The pod came to a smooth but abrupt stop before the pair, and a circle of the sphere's shell separated and swung aside to reveal its interior. Otto shakily followed Bookwang when he climbed inside it. Inside the pod were a pair of white two-seater sofas, both facing the craft's window. Sitting on the pristine front sofa, the deplorable condition of his clothes was brought to Otto's attention. It occurred to him that he'd really chosen an ideal planet to immigrate to. At last, he could find clothes made for an eight-limbed person. He settled into this seat, allowing himself a modicum of happiness at this newfound upside.

"Yeah," Bookwang said, "It's better if you relax."

"What is?"

The pod took off, and Otto blacked out.

4242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242424242

(1): Seriously, it's true. There have been a ton of UFO sightings around volcanoes, scientists think because aliens may use the gases for fuel. Weird, huh?

(2): A shout out to my fellow fans of "Boy Genius," a most excellent webcomic illuminating the early years of Otto Octavius. Read it. Know it. Love it.

A/N: So yeah, that was my big reveal: Otto resembles a Santraginian superstar. Well, it's funny to me, and I think I'll entertain myself before I'll entertain strangers. Thanks for reading- stick around for more thrills, chills, and awkward conversations.