Tiegl is there, freshly wiped down and ready to see the port. The remark about Adande is already forgotten. She, while a fine figure of an Anthrope, and well able to rule a household, just isn't Grom. Besides, she doesn't think that way about him at all.

The Grom looks up smiles, and waves at the port beyond the gangplank.

"Looks like a very . . . uh . . . human sort of place, doesn't it. Very dirty."

Human. Yes, quite human. Disgusting. Deck makes a grand motion toward the dock, urging Tiegl to lead the way. It follows close behind.

Tiegl heads for the town, chattering away as always. He is primarily interested in any ship building/repairing facilities they have in town, and as a secondary destination, somewhere Deck can look at ship weaponry.

Since those facilities are likely to be the same places, Tiegl and Deck are likely to find themselves both interested in the same destinations.

SWASH: Swords - Difficulty 7 (beat up some drunks). Roll: 8. Aspect: 2. Total: 10. Success.

Adande prowl the back alleys as well as someone her size can. Fortunately there are a lot of alleys, and most of the others in them are the worse for drink, or sampling the trade of any streetwalkers they could find. Adande eventually locates a pair of likely targets: a pair of sailors stumbling down the middle of a gutter, slowly drifting laterally until they ricochet off one way and begin the way to the opposite. It is a simple task to come up behind and bring their heads together sharply, netting thirty-odd bits of coin.

Deck and Teigl walk down the dockside of Tortola station, past ships of all make until they find the shipyard. The former Human Navy station had a small shipyard for resupply, but it could never be used for a refit, but all that has changed. The shipyard has been built out and up in a hodgepodge of shack-like growths until it teeters dangerously over the void. The three of the four dock-berths are full and a number of cranes swing cargo and materiel (masts, spars, cannon and the like) onto the ships, which are swarmed by six-legged repair bots.

Above what might be the front door to the yard complex is a sign of three wrenches crossed, a Grom symbol.

Adande grins. "I still got it." She starts to count the bits of coin, then gives up. More than ten and less than a hundred is about all the counting she can handle right now. But it's not enough for anything for the ship, she knows that. Instead, she goes to look for the market district.

"Ah! Good, good, good! This here,"

He gestures at the symbol above the door.

"Is a good sign! This means Grom ownership, or training, or perhaps blatant theft, which is not so good, but shows very admirable taste. Hopefully, we will not be killed here, as we have so far escaped that in this dangerous place, and it would be sad to die."

He walks up to the front door, and heads inside.

Deck follows behind Tiegl, taking note of their surroundings. Yes. For foreigners, Grom are quite good with vessels. This is much preferable to a human facility.

Inside is madness; the place has been turned from a human construction to something more typical of Grom construction: everything appears to have been built to a different architectural and engineering philosophy and standard, for different and often cross purposes, and seems to (unbelievably) be working more-or-less smoothly toward whatever goals were intended.

There is a counter. It is abandoned, but it has a bell.

Teigl stands with his hands on his hips, grinning.

"Ah! Chaos theory engineering! Certainly, it can have its downsides, namely it can explode, but it is so pretty! Certainly the schools of Rigid Structuralism and Historical Certainty have their place, but I always had a soft spot for CTE."

There is a rattling from the ductwork at the ceiling of the shop, but otherwise this room seems empty. From elsewhere int he shipyard there is all kinds of noise of construction and machine work.

Deck says nothing, but it walks up to the counter and rings the bell. Grom may be unusual and enigmatic, but Deck figures that even they understand the purpose of a bell on the counter.

"So, any of you scurvy pervies know what's goin' down planet-side?"

Teigl continues to look around. It was indeed good to be back amongst civilized folk.