Every available man was put to work and, to a man, they worked hard. Unlike other ships I had served on, there were no complaints. Everyone knew their job and were vitally aware of the stakes. I guess whiners and lay-abouts didn’t last long abord the Desire.

When thought of the Captain’s safety crossed my mind, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I no longer harbored fears that assassins were secreted amongst the crew. Any man would have had plenty of opportunity to do the Captain in during yesterday’s chaos and I found it unthinkale that they would have passed up such a chance.

Time passed quickly and it wasn’t long before whistles screamed, signalling that the engineers in the boiler room had successfully banked enough steam to start using it. Valves were twisted open, channeling the scalding mist into the engines. Once the steam started flowing, the Heart’s Desire began hopping along in short spurts that grew into longer, more directional, glides.

It wasn’t pretty or fast, but we were moving.