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a drink.” Diego walked over to the terminal, punched in for some sort of curry, laden with heavy spices, and headed over to a table, snatching a fork from the counter on his way. He took a careful bite, then nodded.
     “This tastes fine. Want to try some?”
     “Curry for breakfast is a bit beyond me, sir.”
     “After you’ve been in the service for a while, food is fuel. It doesn’t matter when you it eat, just that you do. Besides, all we had on Discovery were the same ten meals over and over. Early-generation fabricator. You think this tastes bad?”
     Hesitantly, Cooper sat down at the table. A thought crossed his mind, “McGuire sitting in for Matsumoto today?” 
     Diego shrugged, “No idea. Maybe she’s busy, or its some sort of training program.” He took another bite, then dropped his fork down to his plate. “I wanted to talk to you, anyway.”
     “Sir?”
     “You blame yourself. For the loss of your platoon.”
     “I was there, I lived, they didn’t. This isn’t survivors’ guilt, sir, and I assure you that I am capable of handling all of this.”
     “But you want revenge on the Cabal.” It was a statement, not a question.
     “Of course I do. I also know that my personal feelings cannot be a part of our mission, and I am willing to do whatever is necessary. However, I will tell you – as I have told the Captain – that if there is any opportunity to recover those of my comrades who were captured, I will take it, no matter what the risk.”
     “I’ll be right there alongside you, Cooper. I assure you of that. There’s one more thing, though. Perhaps more important. What do you think about me?” He smiled, taking another mouthful of curry. “You can speak quite freely.”
     “I don’t know you well enough to have an opinion of you, Major. I do wonder whether you will be able to lead men in the field should it come to it.”
     “That’s your job, Cooper, and we both know it. I’m doing this job to get reacquainted with military life, to provide tactical advice, and to give you backup wherever necessary. I am fully aware of my limitations, and though I certainly intend to strive to overcome them, I also will tell you know that as far as I am concerned, you remain operational commander.” With another grin, he continued, “You certainly have my full confidence in that department. I’ve seen some of the films of you at work.”
     Frowning, the Corporal replied, “I wasn’t expecting that.”
     “I’m not your usual officer.” With a chuckle, he continued, “Besides, I’ve been there. Battle of Barnard’s Star, I was a raw Third Lieutenant, but I was the man on the spot. Captain Graham told me that the half-platoon was mine to lead. Well, the Colonel decided to overrule me, gave orders down to single troopers over the tacnet.”
     “I bet that was fun.”
     “While he was having a grand time reliving the days when he had a single bar, he was messing up the grand battle. We ended up retreating.” He paused, his face dark, “Lost a lot of good men that day. Three days later we went back and finished the job, with Brigadier Kutuzov in command instead . Now there was a tactician. Best I ever saw.” He chuckled, then said, “Last time I heard about it, Miller was commanding a garrison all the way out at Triton.”
     “That was back at the start of the war, wasn’t it?”
     “First of the big interstellar operations, and damn near the last. Colonel Miller taught me a very important lesson that day, though I doubt he meant to – if you give a subordinate authority, you don’t take it back without a damn good reason, and you focus on the level of the battle that you are responsible for.” 
     “I’ll remember that, sir.”
     With another chuckle, he said, “Thank you for humoring an old man, Cooper. It’s good to be able to tell these stories to a new audience. I might even bore you to death with a few more some time, when we