The toaster finished its cycle with a jaunty ringing sound and catapulted two pieces of bread a good foot into the air. Doctor Delbert Doppler caught them with practised ease, the effect of which was only mildly spoiled by the hasty juggling act he them embarked upon as the hot toast burned his hands.

"Hot, hot, hot, hot!"

He dropped them unceremoniously onto a plate and sucked his fingers ruefully.

"Are you sure you wouldn't like some muesli, dear?" Amelia looked up with amusement from the small round kitchen table. She had a bowl in front of her and a spoon halfway to her smiling lips.

"Yes, thank you, darling," Doppler fumbled in a drawer for a knife and hunted out a jar of jam from a cupboard. "I'm perfectly capable of handling my own breakfast."

"Despite appearances," Amelia grinned.

Doppler chuckled as he picked up a knife and began spreading jam on the toast. "Something about books and covers comes to mind. Would you like another cup of tea?"

Amelia smiled. "I don't mind if I do."

Doppler went to the samovar and began filling two mugs. The kitchen of his manor house was designed to cater for larger gatherings than he had ever hosted. Large cooking pots hung from the ceiling or were stacked up in columns in the corners, so he and Amelia had set up their table near the warmth of the stove where it benefited from the natural light falling through the windows.

"We should have breakfast together more often," Doppler remarked. "I rather like this routine."

"As do I," Amelia put down her spoon and watched her husband make his way to his seat, balancing his toast and their teas carefully. "Especially when we have these mornings together, just for ourselves."

"It does make it special." Doppler sat down and smiled at her. "Even if there's still a bit to do."

Amelia watched him pick up a bundle of mail and begin sorting the letters. She sighed theatrically.

"You know, Delbert, all of that can wait. It's already waited a fortnight for us."

Doppler sighed. The idea of taking two weeks to visit what passed for Montressor's equatorial tropics had been a good one. The winter had been unusually long and he and Amelia had reached the consensus that they wanted to visit somewhere where they didn't wake up to half a centimetre of ice on the windows every morning. Her time on Montressor was valuable and spending it watching the patterns of frost on the glass seemed like a waste.

"Yes, but some of them might be important," he said. "Bills and so on."

"Bills?" Amelia looked at him in surprise. "You have your own solar generator on the roof, you have your own dam down in the valley and you pipe natural gas straight from the wellhead of the mine that your family built. What bills could you possibly have?"

Doppler looked down and mumbled something. Amelia leaned forwards.

"Pardon?"

Doppler cleared his throat. "Well...if you must know...library fines. From the University. I might be on staff there but the librarians are awfully strict."

Amelia chuckled. "And you've been stung a few times?"

"More than a few. I have quite a good library, you see, but you have to know whether you want a book before you add it to a collection, so you borrow it."

"And then not return it?"
"It's not a question of not returning them as...just not being able to find them," Doppler said ruefully. "The last thing I need is to have to go back and explain things to the head librarian again."

"I'm sure you're all right," Amelia looked at the pile of letters. "If they were about to cancel your tenure or confiscate your telescope I'm sure they would have made it very clear by now."

"So one would hope." Doppler examined a letter critically. "But you never know. I mean, this one isn't even addressed to us. It's not even addressed to this planet. Goodness knows how it came to be here."

"Anything important is usually delivered by hand," Amelia ate a mouthful of her muesli. "You needn't worry, Delbert."

"It's habitual," Doppler muttered.

"Well. You can stop now." Amelia reached across the table and took his hand. Doppler looked up at her and smiled. Her auburn hair was still somewhat disorganised but the colour still perfectly complimented her blue dressing gown. Amelia out of uniform was a sight to see for more than one reason, but Doppler especially liked it when she could shed the burden of command. There was a liveliness in her green eyes that he missed so much and he felt his heart lift at the sight.

"Yes. Of course I can." He put the letters aside and picked up the morning's newspaper instead. Amelia finished her muesli and took her tea, wrapping her hands around the warm mug and holding it steady.

"Anything noteworthy in the paper?" she asked. "The Empire hasn't dissolved in our absence, I trust?"

"Not as far as I can see," Doppler grinned. "Although I haven't checked the comics page yet."

"Glad to hear it." Amelia took a sip. "One can't be too sure."

"Nothing has changed since we left." Doppler sighed. "Vessels going missing. Outposts under threat. More sightings of unidentified ships beyond the frontiers. The Procyons closing another consulate and withdrawing their diplomats. You'd think there was no good news to report in the whole galaxy." He turned a page. "Although there is something here that might interest you personally. Apparently the Navy is being reorganised. Did you know that?"

Amelia nodded. "I've heard the rumours. And it's obvious why. I'm a little surprised that anyone has actually done it, though. Lining up the Board of the Admiralty is like herding cats."

"I'm glad it was you who said that," Doppler smiled.

Amelia chuckled. "Well, it's true. There's a reason I resigned and went into the Reserves. And I only did that because it was the only way of being sure I got my own ship."

"Yes, I'd wondered about that." Doppler looked up at her. "From all accounts, you had quite a distinguished career. One of the youngest Post Captains in the fleet. And with your family history..."

"History was part of the problem," said Amelia firmly. "There was rather too much of it for my tastes, and rather too many people looking to preserve it for its own sake. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm as in favour of traditions as anyone else...but not when they start getting in the way of an organisation doing what it was supposed to do."

"Which is?"

"Fight and win. As quickly and effectively as possible." Amelia stirred her tea. "The Empire hasn't fought a major battle since the Lagoon Nebula War and even that only used a fraction of the Navy's strength. The Navy as a whole simply got out of practice. It started to think that patrols were all it ever had to do. Just fly the flag and the pirates, the Procyons or whoever else was a problem would turn tail and run. It started to think it didn't even have to fight." She smiled bitterly. "Do you know, on the last ship I served on before I was promoted to my first command, our captain wouldn't even let us perform gunnery drills in case it got scorch marks on the deck? And then when we were allowed to use our weapons we practically had to account for every shot fired."

"We have accountants like that at the University," said Doppler. "I had to fill out a procurement form just to get a new pencil once."

"That kind of bureaucracy is bad enough in civilian life," said Amelia, "but in the Navy, out there, it can get people killed. And it did. And it punished anyone who tried to go their own way."

Doppler recognised the hint in her voice. The subject of her departure from the Empire's service was not one that came up in casual conversation. "You mean, like you?"

Amelia sighed. "There was...an incident. On the border with Procyon territory. No doubt you've never heard of it. There's no reason you would. A few of our merchant ships were attacked there so the Admiralty sent a small task force to see what was up. I was commanding a frigate at the time. I was given the job of closely escorting a convoy with another of our ships and decided to take the opportunity to set a trap. So we held back, far enough away that the convoy looked unprotected. Sure enough, the Procs took the bait. And we hit them out of the sun. Gave them a damned good hiding, too, if I say so myself."

Doppler waited politely. "So...what went wrong?"

"Nothing!" Amelia put her mug down on the table with a certain vehemence. "The plan worked perfectly! And it kept working, too. After that, the Procs even avoided convoys that actually were unprotected because they couldn't be sure that one of us wasn't hiding in ambush nearby. But I'd disobeyed my Admiral's orders because he'd told me to provide close escort for the convoy and I hadn't done that."

"But surely the point was to get the convoy through?" said Doppler.

Amelia laughed bitterly. "So you would think. So I thought. Until I was marched into the Admiral's office one day and threatened with court-martial for my conduct."

"You?" Doppler blinked in surprise. Amelia seemed in so many ways to be the textbook officer.

"It was quite a scene, I can tell you," she smiled wryly. "Anyway, in the end it came down to a choice between resignation and removal to the Reserve, or facing prosecution. I took the former. The captain of the other ship that had been with me that day took the latter option and was demoted. That's what you got if you were interested in results, in ends rather than means."

"No wonder you left." Doppler shook his head.

"I heard that the Admiral insisted on close escort only thereafter," Amelia said. "And of course the Procs took full advantage of it. They attacked in stronger force, picked us off. The task force lost three ships in as many weeks. And the Admiral who gave the order wasn't punished. No court-martial for him. He was simply transferred to another command somewhere where he couldn't get good men and women killed by sheer stupidity."

Doppler hadn't seen Amelia get this angry for quite some time and he hesitated in his reply until he saw her relax again.

"Anyway. It was all a long time ago. I fought in the Nebula War, Delbert. I lost good friends and...more than good friends." Shadows flickered behind her eyes for a moment, almost too fast for Doppler to notice. "But the Navy I served in and they died for doesn't exist any more. Not really."

"I'm sorry." Doppler lowered his voice. "I...I really am."

Amelia shook herself. "Like I said. It was a long time ago. And I'm still in space, so I shouldn't complain."

"Still...it doesn't sound easy." Doppler looked up at her.

"It isn't," she murmured before rousing herself again. "So. You were talking about something in the paper?"

"Oh, yes. Yes, I was. It's right here." Doppler lifted the paper again. "'The newly-appointed First Space Lord, Admiral of the Fleet the Right Honourable Sir Rupert Benson, yesterday announced a series of measures which he stated would better position the Royal Navy to defend the Empire from any territorial threats...'"

"He means the Procyons," said Amelia. "Pirates are annoying but they aren't in the business of occupying entire planets. You have to learn the political language even if you don't like to speak it."

Doppler glanced up at her over his glasses. "Come now, dear, I've never known you to be anything but diplomatic."

Amelia laughed. "I'll pretend you meant that and I'll take it as a compliment. So old Benson is the new First Lord? That can only be a good thing. I served with him once in the Nebula War. It's good to know that there's a veteran of the Navy's last real campaign at the helm."

"Well, if this article is to be believed, he's got quite an ambitious agenda," said Doppler, turning a page. "In fact, he's..."

Amelia looked up as Doppler trailed off. Insofar as it was possible to tell beneath his brown fur, he had gone pale and was staring at the paper in shock.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, darling," she said. "Whatever it was, it can't be that bad."

Doppler suddenly cast the paper aside and began rummaging through the pile of mail, so carefully-sorted just a minute before, casting aside letter after letter and letting them fall carelessly onto the floor. Amelia watched in alarm.

"Good grief, Delbert! What's the matter?"

"Just something the paper said," Doppler muttered, casting aside an envelope bearing large red stamped letters spelling the word OVERDUE. "Something bad."

"And you think it's in there?"

"I'm hoping it isn't!"

"What is it, though?" Amelia stood up and reached across the table, taking a firm but gentle hold of Doppler's wrist. "You can tell me, Delbert, whatever it is."

Doppler looked up into her eyes and tried to bring his breathing back under control. He swallowed, taking comfort from that steady green gaze.

"It's just that...the paper mentioned...it said that..." He swallowed again. "It said that the Admiral was calling up Reserve officers. Said he was looking to bring the best and brightest back...and, well, you do strike me as..."

Amelia smiled. "Oh, Delbert. That's an awfully sweet reason for you to worry about me."

He smiled shyly. "Well, I don't think it's any secret that you should be regarded as one of the best and brightest and whatever...and surely they'd want you back..."

Amelia chuckled. "My sweet, darling doctor. I think you underestimate just how many enemies I managed to make. There may be a new First Lord, but he'll have to deal with everyone else...including the Admiral who tried to court-martial me, who doubtless has been promoted even further by now. If they wanted me back, I'd know it by now."

Doppler nodded. "Yes. Yes, I'm sure you're right."

"A letter wouldn't be their style anyway," said Amelia. "It'd be too easy for them to get lost."

"The post is unreliable enough as it is," Doppler admitted. "I can see why they wouldn't trust it."

"Precisely." Amelia leaned forward and kissed his forehead. "So you see, you really don't need to worry about me."

Doppler looked up at her and smiled. "Yes...thank you. I'm sorry."

"It's quite all right," Amelia kissed him again, this time on the lips. "It's really quite sweet of you."

"I suppose not everyone wants you as much as I do." Doppler smiled again, then turned red and stammered for a moment until Amelia quieted his lips.

"I don't want anyone to want me as much as you do, sweet Delbert," she whispered.

Doppler stroked her cheek. "I really do apologise, Amelia. I was just...I worry every time you leave on a voyage. The idea of you going back...of being apart for goodness knows how long...I wouldn't give up, of course, but..."

"I know," Amelia rested her forehead on his. "It would be hard on both of us. But you needn't worry about that either. If the Navy wanted me back, they'd have sent someone in person, and I didn't notice any calling cards on the front door when we got back."

"True enough," said Doppler. "I hope you don't take it personally. I mean, the best and brightest and all that..."

"Oh, goodness, no." Amelia laughed and sighed happily. "But it's enough to know that you think of me that way."

"In many ways," smiled Doppler. "In fact -"

The doorbell rang. It was a quiet chime that rang through the entire empty manor, seemingly much louder than it should have been. The words froze on Doppler's lips and a look of shock flickered across Amelia's face. Doppler coughed nervously.

"That...that's the doorbell..." he murmured.

"Yes, it was..." Amelia sat down, a sudden faraway look in her eyes.

"Perhaps it's Sarah," said Doppler, fumbling with his toast. "Or perhaps it's a door-to-door salesman. I once bought a complete set of Encyclopaedia Galactica from one. Maybe he's come back again. They're always bringing out new appendices."

"Yes. Perhaps." Amelia bit her lip. "Well...you'd better go and answer it."

"Yes. Of course." Doppler stood up and went to leave the kitchen, putting his hand comfortingly on Amelia's shoulder. "I love you, Amelia."

Amelia put her hand on his and looked up at him. "I love you, too, Delbert."

Doppler patted her and made his way out of the warm kitchen and down the long, empty, heavily-carpeted corridor. He paused at the door as the chimes rang out again and checked his reflection in the mirror that hung on the wall nearby. He adjusted the rope of his maroon dressing gown and tried to stop his hands from shaking as he put them on the handle.

"Yes? What is – oh, goodness..."