“Remember when Adric drove that freighter full of antimatter into the Earth, and wiped out the dinosaurs for you? You felt like you’d lost so much, but let’s be honest, you won that day. You did what you always do. You looked after history. You made sure the dinosaurs died out, dead on schedule.”

“Don't call me a dinosaur. It isn't fair to the dinosaurs. What did a dinosaur ever do to you?”

“I sat back in my chair - it was almost impossible to take all this in at once. The dinosaurs were wiped out by an... intergalactic council? “Dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteor.” I stated, trying to hold on to some vestige of normality. He shrugged. “Believe that if you want to.”

“There weren’t many good things to be said or felt about my situation. Not many at all. But the rule is that after any engagement, won or lost, you replay it in you mind to see how much you can learn. So that’s what I did...”

“I totally remember what it felt like to be so full…Full of promise, full of dreams, full of shit. Mostly just full of yourself. So full you’re bursting. And then you get out into the world, and people empty you out, little by little, like air from a balloon…You try like hell to fill yourself up with fresh air, from you and from other people. But back then…it was so damn effortless to feel full, you know? All you had to do was breathe”

“You know what killed off the dinosaurs, Whateley? We did. In one barbecue.”