so i've been rereading parts of some of the books lately, and i had a horrible idea
in A Short Victorious War, Honor is worried about Paul getting captured, but notes that 'paul captured is better than paul dead, even in a Peep POW camp, because at least he'd be alive'
however, his overall capture would still have similarly devastating effects on her overall psyche as his death in Field of Dishonor/Toll of Honor, so assuming that Young sends summervale after Honor directly, or makes to strike against someone else important in Honor's family (parents, Mike, other family, etc), other than maybe some additional loss of life at Hancock following a delay of Admiral Danislav's dreadnoughts (which is the easiest thing I can come up with for Manticore losing First Hancock, or at least being stalemated long enough for the Peeps to take POWs before Danislav comes back in with his DNs, or until Parks gets back from punching out Seabring), I don't see things proceeding much worse than usual for the next four books. She might even go back into Grayson service a little earlier than in Flag in Exile, given her depression is likely tempered by the knowledge he's alive, or at least not guaranteed to be dead, which might make a small difference in drill efficiency overall for the GSN and BatRon One, but nothing substantially different.
So I now invite you to consider what would happen when Honor comes across Captain (J.G.) Paul Tankersley on Hades. (But Sar, I hear you say, isn't he a relative, no matter how distant, to Queen Elizabeth? What's he doing on Hades? Punishment for causing trouble somewhere else, or else having been transferred there by a particularly anti-monarchist StateSec blackleg shortly after his capture.)
i think in the long run despite the initial hurt honor suffers at his capture, and any outpouring of pent-up grief from several years of being separated, and any potential injuries (inc. false-potato heavy metal consumption) he may have sustained, it would be overall a much happier ending for them
tbh nothing significant plot-wise probably changes much on Hades, I think, he's just one man who's very good at his engineering job, but until they get their hands on Krashnark etc one more engineer isn't going to fill enough holes in Honor's ops roster, though additional Hancock prisoners might give enough extra oomph to effectively man Farnese's wounded broadside, at least, depending on how many got captured and then transferred to Hades.
One small incidental change I do see happening is that while Honor doesn't get a steward, she does get a Paul, who is perfectly happy to help his girlfriend get dressed (and undressed, hur hur) and deal with annoying two-handed things like 'neckties' and 'proper buttons', which lets Honor avoid the difficulties of doing it herself one-handed, while still sticking it to Admiral Styles, because she didn't ask Paul to fill the role of steward, he's doing it of his own initiative
And lastly, because Hamish is a bastard and I want him to suffer (affectionate) (biting him on the neck and shaking him like a dog with a chew toy), I want you to imagine the way his heart leaps at finally seeing Honor again in person...
only to have it completely and utterly crushed upon seeing Captain Tankersley in the personnel tube with her, because he's ChEng and 2nd Officer aboard Farnese
and from the way her face twitches, he knows that she knows, and she knows that he knows that she knows, and he knows that she knows that he knows she knows about the thoughts and emotions he's just experienced, even though both of them manage to keep things completely professional for just the time it takes to welcome her and her rescuees back before going back to his cabin and coming apart in a storm of anger at the universe, grief, guilt, and self-loathing
