"Yeah. I was never supposed to fight things. Just make stuff, you know, Sparkily, and try not to go too crazy with it."

...

"We nod-" She demonstrates, "For yes. And this, for no." Headshake. "So are we in some kind of mine? Where's the way up?"

"Eenh..." Shrug. "Spark?"

"The Spark of Genius? You know, like Klaus Wulfenbach? The Heterodynes? The Master of Paris? It lets me make things. And when a Spark is caught up in making things, lots of stuff seems like a good idea at the time. Random whims, cruel urges. I've received training in, uh, not doing that. Control and consistency."

...She is starting to calm down and wonder whether spilling her guts to this person is a good idea. But hey, she saved my life! So it's fine. Probably.

(She shakes her head at "you know".)

"...Well, it lets people make things. Impossible things. Or things that only I see how they're possible. It's hereditary, so Odin only knows how I got it. I made the power saw and lots of things besides. Whatever you've got seems Sparky to me- Or like something a Spark made. Sparks rule the world when they're not too busy killing each other to bother, on most of Europa. City Frostbound has been - Isolated from that. So that nobody finds them and conquers them."

"Odin?"

"Odin is a god. I think. I read a novel where the main character worshipped him once. He has one eye and knows many secret things, apparently. If you die in glorious battle you can feast with him forever. If you believe in that sort of thing. I've never seen Odin in my life." Shrug.

Nod, nod. She taps her chest. "Belmarniss."

"I'm Waltana. Thanks for saving me from the facehugger, Belmarniss. I do like not bein' dead."

Nod nod. She peers at the saw a bit more.

She proffers it. It weighs maybe eight pounds, all good solid metal, painted and well machined.

Not like it's doing her much good right now. 

"I would like it back. I'm not sure what you're trying to see about it."

She looks it over, hefts it, hands it back. Taps her chin thoughtfully.

"I don't suppose a teleport back home is in the offing. Be a bit much to hope for. I wasn't even totally sure it was possible outside of novels. I made machines for City Frostbound... Mining suits with powered drills. Improvements to the great turbines that drive the old mines, and to the steel mill. We mostly made steel and sold it. Something I still don't understand with the potato crops and can only chalk up to Spark madness, made one hothouse grow 'em twice as fast but also shock you if you harvest wrong. It was early work."

A snort and headshake at "teleport". ...she pulls a gold coin shaped like a Pringle out of her bag, waves it around a bit to elicit vocabulary.

"Gold. Most people like gold, I think. There's also silver, and there's copper in some places but not in City Frostbound. Uh... In the city we used papers that could be redeemed for stuff from City Hall. 'Fiat Currency'. Gold is 'commodity currency'. The fact that it's gold matters, not just a repre- Am I going off topic again? Sorry. Is saying a word good enough for you to understand it? Is the understanding thing- Limited, going to run out of power, something like that?"

Handwobble for "good enough", nod at "limited".

"Ah, hm. Yeah, I'm just going to keep saying as much as I can if it's limited. I can make stuff. I know you have to work to eat but I don't know what some kind of cave people eat or what they do for work. Or if there are any guards and law and order, Polar Lord territory is, just, full of nomads and monsters and wandering menaces stealing from and killing each other all the time, the way I hear. I'm mostly good for the making stuff. Uh, stuff I can make... Mechanical things, for heavy lifting or repetitive tasks. Clocks? Lights, but you have that covered, looks like. Tools like the saw, cutting, smashing rock, welding. I know how to make steel from iron ore but you kind of need ventilation. Wouldn't want to try it in a mine. I know how to identify a lot of ores. I probably need a weapon, and I already have four- five ideas, it'd take some fussing but I've got no doubt I could get it to work, the Spark loves weapons. Six ideas. Air compressor. Alarm system. What's even useful in caves? I could try to replicate my lightning-crops, but kind of no guarantees there."

Her voice is getting increasingly animated and excited.

"I'd need stuff for all of this. Metals, especially copper and iron. Tools. Chemicals, I don't know. Magnets. Glassware. Ooh, I made a fire-resistant thread once, that's kind of a lot of fussing with the chemicals fumes though, are there fumaroles down here? A nice geothermal tap does wonders. Seven weapon ideas, now. Springy crossbow, saw-sword, lightning emitter, flame thrower, steam musket, springrazor trap, shock-explosion trap. Hmm! Hehe. Ideas. I'm going to work on this power saw for a bit and try to make it weaponlike unless that's a terrible idea for some reason you know and I don't!"

Headshake at "law and order". Interested nodding at the list of things and a dismissive gesture at "ventilation". Excited smile at "crops". Headshake at "fumarole". Handwobble about "terrible idea".

"Well the thing about the crops is- I can never explain it makes no sense to anyone else but the plants have a way of turning light into potential, you see! Life is miraculous chemistry!"

She pats her own pockets, looking for her customary screwdriver. It's not here. She starts picking at the screws with her fingernails instead; Somehow, this works. Possibly because there's something in her voice now.

"It's amazing, machines too tiny to see working every second of every day, unfathomably complex. Why- If you could understand the secrets that animate the living body-! Ah, but I have only a glimpse. Electrical potentia. If you deliver the exactly correct type and amount of lightning the green leaves of the plants are hyper-stimulated, activating the very mechanisms that convert fouled air and water into sugars. Very very fast, compared to the light they demand normally! Yes, hijacking Nature for our own benefit! Of course, I have to fucking cheat with the Spark to actually manage it. Oh, if only I understood it when grounded."

The power saw is in three major pieces now, with a pile of smaller bits and bobs on the floor. Her hands move fast. She has also torn out several copper buttons from the thick canvas outfit, leaving it partially open at the top. Did she just bend what felt like a solid, thick metal plate from the casing, by hand? Yes, apparently. 

"I'm about three quarters of the way into the madness place now, you see. Everything makes sense. It does, but it shouldn't. It feels like I know it all, but try to write down useful observations? Look at it later and it's nonsense like 'hexagons are bestagons'. No, no, I channel it. Into GOALS. In this case, MAKING A WEAPON. Springs are wonderful, you know. It all comes down to energy in the end. Stored, transformed, released. Lightning to fire to sharp steel at high speed, it's all just energy. Hahaha..."

The thing is starting to be reassembled, now. It's longer, thinner, and has what looks like a hand-crank sticking out the side by now.

"Oh, the Spark really does love weapons. This came out a lot easier than it should have. I don't suppose there are questions I can answer that you can articulate while I'm worked up. It might make more sense to me like this!"

Belmarniss takes a couple of steps back and says some words! Can Waltana understand her now somehow?

Nope!

She says some more stuff about kinematics and springs and energy and gear ratio and the beauty of simple machines and then puts the last piece back on, turns a crank that used to be part of the handle a few times until something starts clicking, and then seems to fully snap out of it.

The blade is fully exposed now, wicked-looking and circular. She holds the thing two handed, like a club, and presses a small button. The blade whirrs for one round, then stops again.

"And there you have it. Much more usable as a weapon now. If inconvenient to wind. Not sure how it compares to a sword, probably unfavorably..."

Belmarniss doesn't look like she thinks the situation needed a subpar sword more than it needed a cool saw. Did she leave any bits and pieces on the ground?

She starts winding it again.

A dozen discarded screws, a bent copper pipe the size of a finger, a piece of steel with a circular hole in it, and the boiler suit button she was using as a tiny improvised prybar litter the floor.

"-Oh, yeah, should keep those."

Is she going to try to hit Belmarniss with her subpar sword if Belmarniss tries to pick them up?

She is not. She will step back and keep winding.

"Those little things are screws, we had machines that make them by the hundred. And tap matching holes into metal. Useful for holding bits of metal together when you don't want them together forever. I dont know what you want outta me and would like to learn that sooner or later."