He should know better, he told himself.  Hundreds of thousands of naval crewmen experimented with drink ... and, as a general rule, most of them learned to control the impulse or simply give it up.  But Ted hadn't really learned, which was why he’d been assigned to Ark Royal as a mere Lieutenant-Commander.  The Royal Navy had preferred to move him to a dead-end assignment rather than have him dishonourably dismissed from the service – or even quietly retire him when his first enlistment ended.  There were days when he’d wondered just what his superior officers had been thinking.  Had they been too lazy to do the paperwork for early retirement or had they questioned the wisdom of forcibly retiring someone who’d earned a knighthood through saving lives as a young Lieutenant?

The bottle glimmered faintly under the cabin light.  It was worth over three hundred pounds, he knew; his friend had been making a point as well as presenting Ted with a gift.  Part of him wanted to tear the bottle’s cap off and take a swig, part of him knew that he didn't dare indulge.  Ark Royal was no longer orbiting a beacon in the Earth-Moon system, but facing a dangerous alien threat.  The bastards could be back at any moment.

And he could lose his command.  No one really cared if a reservist commander drank, not when there was no real danger to his crew.  But now ... his XO wanted his post and had friends in high places.  Fitzwilliam hadn't done anything overt to stab Ted in the back, yet Ted knew the younger man was ambitious ... and all of the arguments he'd used to convince the First Space Lord to let Ted remain in command had become less and less effective as Fitzwilliam learned more about the ancient carrier.  Hell, he would be a good commander, Ted knew.  The younger man had an optimism about him that Ted had long since lost.

But Ted had no intention of surrendering his command.  It would be the first step towards early – enforced – retirement.  There was no way he would be allowed to take command of a modern carrier, even an escort ship.  He'd be lucky if he was assigned to an asteroid mining facility in the middle of nowhere.  Humanity’s only winner or not, he would be lucky to be allowed to keep his rank.  The Royal Navy would have its doubts about giving a modern starship to a known drunkard.