The next three days were spent choosing my crew and filing their new ranks. One thing nice about being a captain of a deep ship, rank onboard your shi... was your choice. You set the chain of command and the duty roster. The captain was the first last and only line of command once you left the space port.Four days later the mooring lines fell away from the ship. My new helmsman only managed to hit the dry dock once on the way out. I now had an untested crew, a new ship with all the bugs inherent. The dragon just stared at her with amber eyes, the lighting bouncing off them like jewels in a pond, catching the sun’s rays. She wondered if that was how her mother made magic. If wearing the dragon could make her powerful and able to breathe fire into the cauldron of bloody red water. She always said the eggs were magical in some way, that they represented Jesus and God. Maybe it was the dragon that made them so special. If she only dared to get up and hug her mother, ask her about the magic. And cue the usual speech. I’m ugly. No one loves me. Everyone hates me. What could I say to all that, I was the ugly one. She only spoke to me cos she felt sorry for me I’m sure of it. How could I turn round and tell her she was gorgeous and always would be to me. However she looked, she would be perfect, I didn’t care about any of her problems. I loved her. “I have something to tell you.” “Yes?” “Oh God I can’t tell you”. And with that she logged out of chat. Great now what was up. What had I. Now. Is that all?”“No,” said Child. “I think there’s a problem in Northern Ireland.”“Oh god,” muttered Meads. “What have you two idiots done now?”“Meads!” growled Thorn. Meads subsided as both Evans and Child glared at him.“There seems to be a high turnover of Safety Patrollers over there,” Child said slowly, a small frown on his face.“What do you mean?” asked Thorn.“Members of the Safety Patrol generally don’t leave, don’t resign. Except those stationed in Northern Ireland. A couple of months.