One of the more saddening stories of the quake was the near total destruction of the small ship yard and the deaths of its principal investors and sta...ff. There was a nearly completed steel hulled schooner, launched but still fitting out when the quake struck.It was sitting in the mud of the Ahuriri Estuary tidal basin and had been written off as a total loss by the insurers. The looters hadn’t gotten around to scavenging it yet.I approached the town council with an offer, it was realized that. “What do you want to happen next?” he asked.“I don’t know, Tony. I can’t think straight right now.”“You need some time to think about it?”I nodded again. “I need to try and understand what just happened and why. Is that bad?”He chuckled.“How long have we known each other? Twenty years? I think I can wait a little longer if there’s a chance of making love with you again.”I kissed him on the cheek, tears once again running down my face. But Tony hadn’t finished.“Whatever happens, I don’t want to. Thomas was thinking about doing something similar to what he had done when he had set up the power for the caves — he intended to have four drives for his ship and set them up in a series. If he managed things right, he thought he could achieve a multiplier effect that would boost the power output beyond what four engines could ever achieve working in isolation.To accommodate that, the design of the hull of the ship would have to be completely different to any of the ships that Woden had built.. ” I said. She looked up at me and smiled. She then reached up behind my head and pulled my head closer to hers and kissed me on the lips. Not one of those family type kisses but a short one albeit deeper kiss. My mind seemed to have gone totally blank at that moment and as I started to kiss her back, she pulled away and held my gaze.“I think it’s time that while your with me you should call me Jean. Just Jean.” She said. I cocked an eyebrow as if to question what I heard. She smiled and nodded..