The following morning found Ali blearily making her way up to the bridge at Grey's request. Did she regret drinking so heavily last night? Not for a moment. She'd had far worse hangovers and far more riding on her when she did. This time she found herself mostly just half asleep rather than ill.

She stifled a yawn behind her hand as she arrived on the bridge, pretty certain that Frost was subtly snoozing at her station as she glanced around looking for Grey. "He's in his ready room," Lartyne explained, far too brightly for the morning after a party. Ali thanked her before making her way over to the door and pressing the chime and was promptly granted permission to enter.

"How's your head?" Grey teased.

"No worse than yours," Ali retorted as she noticed the shadows beneath his eyes - he looked like he'd gotten about as much sleep as she had.

Grey chuckled before indicating to his desk terminal. "HQ want to talk to you," he warned and Ali visibly sagged. "You know you have to get this over with."

"I know," she admitted before taking a breath to brace herself. "Okay, let's get this over with," she said with a nod.

Grey turned so he was sat properly at his desk in front of the console, requesting Lartyne take the transmission from HQ off hold as Ali moved to stand behind him. "Admiral," Grey greeted as the screen lit up with an image of Admiral Witworth.

"Grey," Witworth greeted before his eyes landed on the new addition to the call. "Alice Turner, you have been busy." In fairness, Ali reflected, that was probably the least unhappy he'd ever sounded with her.

"Someone has to do the dirty work properly," she retorted calmly. Even before USEP had kicked her out, she hadn't been easily phased by overly brusque superiors.

"I don't question your ability to butt your way into the situation," Witworth replied with an impressive level of disdain in his otherwise calm tone. "I was speaking with Rear Admiral Grey about the fact that because the crew of the Endeavour neutralised Bert Barker we are rewarding his entire team with a comet. I'm afraid to say that includes you."

"I'm not USEP anymore," Ali replied. It was the most effective way she could think of to say no and it had the added benefit of pleasing Witworth so he might actually reconsider.

"Grey said he reinstated you," Witworth corrected instead. "For once command are in agreement, we can't afford to lose you a second time," he explained. "This is merely a formality for me to inform you that you have been reinstated to your previous rank with all of your decorations in tact. Once again you are Captain Alice Turner."

"Do I get a say in this?" Ali asked.

"You could quit," Witworth replied with a blank gaze. "However, your next assignment in USEP is as captain of the Faraday."

Ali did consider resigning her post there and then. But - despite her mistrust for the same people who kicked her out because they found out she wasn't fully human - she had to admit that she would have a better life as a USEP captain rather than trying to scrape together the funds to buy her own ship again and slog around the sector trying not to get her hands too dirty to survive. Besides, it wasn't like she could just request a position on the Endeavour for old times sake, even though there was still a lot of trust to repair. Things had moved on and Grey had a perfectly good team of scientists at his disposal now. Though she would be sad not to have more time to catch up with her old friends, she also knew she had to stop reminiscing about the good times, stop brooding about the bad and move forward. Easier said than done, but she knew she had to try.

She nodded her agreement to the new assignment. "Very good," Witworth agreed. "We will see you all at the ceremony when you return to HQ," he confirmed. "Captain Turner your commission is scheduled to start two days afterwards and we are forwarding you all relevant information and dossiers on your new ship and crew. I'd take the time to read it."

"Yes, sir," Ali agreed automatically, resisting throwing in a mock salute. Witworth signed off the channel before she had a chance to give him anything other than obedient behaviour.

"Would you really have turned it down?" Grey asked.

Ali shrugged. "Theoretically there's an equal number of universes where I declined and accepted," she replied evasively with a cheeky grin before giving way to a more serious tone. "This award ceremony… I'm going to assume I'll need a uniform and my old medals..?" She asked instead.

"It's a good bet," Grey agreed. "You don't have them anymore, do you?" He realised.

Ali shrugged. "If I did, they'd have been on the Hotpot."

"I'll put in a requisition," Grey confirmed.

~-x-~

For the first time in two years Ali pulled on a fresh USEP uniform - the morning of the award ceremony - and she had to admit that it felt and looked weird when she caught herself in her mirror once she was dressed. The only thing she'd been able to keep from her old clothes had been the sturdy belt for her gear. Nothing else fit the dress code and so it had been packed along with her few remaining possessions in the duffel bag on her desk. She had been tempted to try and get away with her purple boots, but knew she wouldn't succeed so had packed them away too.

She pulled her messy blonde hair into a ponytail as she stared at the semi-familiar image in the mirror. It seemed like she'd stepped back three years into the past, almost undone the two years of her life where she'd lived as a loner, building up a complicated network of friends and enemies. She was seeing herself from when she'd just been promoted to captain, the youngest ever to achieve the rank and about to embark upon a new mission that involved a new crew and a new ship. One she was in charge of.

She shook herself out of her thoughts and turned to the row of shiny, new medals that had been provided to replace the ones she'd lost. She assumed they'd been on the Hotpot but honestly she didn't know and if she were being totally honest the original ones had probably still been this shiny and new because she'd never had them out apart from when she had to wear them for the couple of award ceremonies she'd had to sit through to be presented with them.

She quickly affixed them to her uniform before nodding to herself in the mirror and striding from the room to face the event itself. A whole day spent waiting, sitting through speeches before having to mingle with ambassadors and other dignitaries. She honestly did not know how her father dealt with that every day. She arrived to find most of Grey's senior staff already present, happily noting that she wasn't the only one having to wear her medals. Grey had a collection that was way beyond hers as did Narla. Wood and Spud had both acquired a similar number to herself and Frost had one from the time they'd served together; putting Barker in jail the first time.

As the day wore on it became apparent that everyone else paid about as much attention to the speeches as she did. Or at least based on how many times she had to explain she had been reinstated to multiple different people and groups. She almost considered hacking into the sound system and announcing it a second time just to people stopped coming up to her and asking.

Soon enough she found herself on her new ship. The Faraday. She was surrounded by unfamiliar people, but that didn't concern her, though she did find herself momentarily confused when it wasn't Spud's familiar Danish accent that answered her when she wandered into engineering. She spent her first hour getting to know the faces of her core crew and senior staff before she settled herself down into her new captain's chair.

Then, with a grin, she leant forwards and issued the order to get under way. This a new adventure and a new part of her life. If she had her way, which she had to admit would be a first, it was going to be even better than before.