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Are you going to keep it?”
    Her tone lightened. “I doubt it.”
    “Not too useful under a helmet, I guess.”
    “I guess.” She seemed to sag a bit. This wasn’t the Katja he knew. He began watching her carefully.
    “You said to Merriman that you don’t know where you’re posted yet. I figured your regiment would get some down time, after the last year.”
    “They’re being reinforced, and are getting ready to deploy as peacekeepers to another colony.”
    “Wow. No rest for the wicked.”
    “I’m not going.”
    He blinked. Katja turning down an operational tour? A grim suspicion began to form in his mind. “Have you been posted to another unit?”
    She glanced over her shoulder, toward her family. None were within earshot, but she stepped in very close to him, barely lifting her eyes.
    “I’ve been deemed unfit for a combat unit. I’ve been buried in an admin backwater until I sort myself out.” Her eyes suddenly shone with moisture and she dropped her gaze. “But how can I sort myself out, sitting around here on Earth when every day I get closer to killing one of these damn civilians?”
    Her words solidified his growing suspicion, and suddenly he saw her with new clarity. The deep fatigue in her shoulders propped up by sheer will, the haunted fog in her eyes, the terrible emotion so close to the surface. This was not a healthy Katja Emmes standing in front of him.
    He remembered his own state of mind when he’d returned from his first combat tour. The Astral Force worked hard to take care of its troopers, but only if they were willing to be helped.
    “It’s a tough adjustment to make,” he said, “coming home the first time. Did you get any treatment from the docs?”
    “I’m drugged right now, Thomas.”
    And that couldn’t continue indefinitely, he knew. She needed to stay busy, in uniform. “Think of your admin posting as a break. With the way things are going, they’ll have plenty of work for you on the front line, soon enough.”
    She considered in silence, then nodded. “Maybe you’re right.”
    “Right about what?” another voice asked, approaching rapidly from behind.
    Thomas turned, and nearly stumbled as Soma stepped up and threw an arm around his waist. Her large eyes bore into Katja. He slipped his arm over her shoulders and held her close, taking a champagne flute from the server who had been carrying a tray in Soma’s wake. He handed it to her and smiled.
    “Just talking shop,” he said. “Nothing interesting. This is one of my officers I was telling you about. Lieutenant Katja Emmes. Lieutenant, please allow me to introduce my wife, Soma.”
    Katja’s face shifted into a smiling mask, a single tremble marring her bottom lip. Soma disengaged from him and gently pressed her hand against Katja’s shoulder, kissing the air just next to her cheeks.
    “Thomas has told me so much about you, Lieutenant Emmes, but he never mentioned how beautiful you are.” Her smile was broad, but her eyes were carefully level.
    Katja’s smile didn’t shift. “He spoke often of your beauty, Mrs. Kane, but I see now how inadequate his words were.” She dropped her eyes quickly. “I don’t mean to intrude, and I should probably get back to my family.”
    Soma returned to her position against Thomas. “How nice to meet you.”
    Katja gave him a curt nod. “A pleasure, sir.”
    Thomas took the second drink from the waiting server and clinked his wife’s glass.
    “To a happy day.”
    She smiled and drank, but her gaze surveyed the crowd.
    “Oh, there’s Chuck!” she said. “We have to say hello.” She took his hand and led him toward where Chuck Merriman was chatting with his cameraman. The reporter looked up immediately at their approach. His broad smile returned, and he stepped forward to kiss Soma’s cheeks.
    “Well, hello, gorgeous,” he said. “Who let you onto the planet?” Soma smacked him lightly on the chest and nestled in against Thomas again.
    “I married my way