The kitchen at the officers’ mess hall was between breakfast and lunch, leaving the Nuke ’Em self-service section as the only food source. Tom knew how to deal with that. He went right past the dismal Protein Pick-ups, Breakfast Burritos, Easy Eggs, and Scrambled Starters to the drinks section and filled the biggest cup he could find with black soykaf. The cup he’d chosen wasn’t rated for hot liquids, so it slagged, and Tom barely avoided being scalded. Still half unconscious, he observed blearily. He found another cup, hot-rated this time, and filied it. Caffeine wasn’t supposed to chill the effects of too many wide-awakes, but it had gotten him through his share of mornings after.