Breakfast isn't like it used to be. I used to be able to take my time over breakfast. Go the whole hog, with bacon, eggs, toast, fruit. Really get a nice luxurious start to the day. Now I'm on duty a half hour earlier, and have to be ready to go within 10 minutes of the morning alarm. Barely time to grab a pastry on my way to the top deck.

It's not just the asteroids. They aren't the main problem, though they cause plenty of others. Just the other day we had a major pressure leak at the rear of the craft, caused by a rock the size of Spaghetti Junction scraping past at high speed. Took hours to patch up that one. Lost a few crew. Caught a lot of flak for that one. Told the command it wouldn't have happened if they'd let me sleep longer and get a decent breakfast, but did they care? Not one jot. Wrote me up and fined me a week's wages, they did.

Routines are important out here. We're a long way from home, you know, and it helps to have little reminders of Earth. Like breakfast. Breakfast is my "thing". Derek, my roommate, he works in engineering. He's got all the various gadgets and acoutrements that you'd need to keep a cat. Even has a litter tray under his bed that he empties every day. We've got not cat, of course. Against regulations. He just keeps the routine of keeping a cat. Seems a lot of effort, I reckon.

No, it's breakfast for me. Or it was, before my shift got changed. A croissant, some blackberry jam (if they've got it in the mess, raspberry if they haven't); or a Danish of some kind; even plain toast, if I must. But I gotta have something sweet to get the blood going in the morning. It's the most important meal of the day.