Cook sighed. "This is all new to you—well, and me too. It's hard to get things right without any practice first. At least I've got my diplomatic training to fall back on." After a meditative pause he went on, "Adventure is someone else having a bad time somewhere far away. It's fun to listen to the stories, but usually it isn't nearly as much fun to live through them. I'll bet Ms. Brass would have a few things to say about that too."