"...hmm. If you give it too much power that might fry it. It's not really common, it comes with a charger that connects to a standard power supply and gives it the right whatever, but I left that at home... I'm pretty sure it takes more power than you'd get from a potato, and starting low and ramping up should be safe.

I think you'd know better than I would whether the risk is worth it. It's useless anyway for its original primary purpose, and I don't know how valuable it is for reverse engineering versus for like games and music and stuff on it. Camera app.

...The more I think about it the more I think a charger is a good idea. It's – versatile, even without the network, and I think it'd be sad if that was lost."

"Starting with a trickle of power definitely works. It'll be fiddly. How long does it usually take to charge- It had a label for battery size, I can figure out how much power the charger should at most use."

"I'm not actually sure. I usually just leave it plugged in overnight... so, not more than like eight hours, I guess. Probably closer to one or two."

"Yeah, I can work with that. Especially for a finder's fee. Ten to twenty per cent is the usual range, how does fifteen sound?"

"That sounds reasonable enough. Sure."

"And now I have a vested interest in not setting your phone on fire."

She laughs. "Glad to hear it."

"Yeah. Oh and I poked around with chemistry some. My findings are that making something paper-ish out of floatgrass leavings will be more than a day's project."

"Makes sense. If it were easy, someone'd probably already be doing it." She shrugs. "Or maybe not, I dunno. Someone has to be the first to think of something."

"D'you know any chemistry? ...Well, I can get a gooey mass fine, might make decent clay-goo-stuff... Separating the fibers and bleaching them is going to be the annoying part."

"I... technically know any chemistry. But not enough to really do anything at all useful with. Unless the concept of the periodic table of elements is a major breakthrough for you. Which I doubt."

"I've heard of them! Do you have one? With all the missing information and implications we've forgotten, perhaps?"

"Ah...no. I might be able to sketch out a little bit, but... not all the crunchy details.

You've heard of molecules, atoms, molarity? Protons, neutrons, electrons?"

"Yes, for the most part. I don't know a lot about the specific compounds and reactions in most things, but the basic idea of balancing molars of things... There's a thing called a molar mass that we only have decent guesses for..."

"I don't recognize the term molar mass, and I only know a couple of molecles – water is one oxygen and two hydrogen; salt is chlorine and, uhh... sodium; organic molecules tend to be complex but sometimes contain a benzene ring which is six carbon in a loop... carbon likes to bond four times, oxygen twice... does any of this sound not like basic stuff that everyone knows? Aside from benzene. –Silicon bonds four times like carbon, it's right below it in the same column."

"It sounds like intermediate stuff that people who study it know. The bit about silicon is interesting. Hmm, alright, you don't need to keep trying if you don't want to."

"...maybe I should try to draw out what I can remember, then. Might not be anything new, but... if there is, could be worthwhile."

"Quite so. And for other sciences, as well, though it's hard to know where to start on any of this. Shall I fetch up paper and a charcoal stick for you then?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

Nick arranges paper and a writing stick and the desk in the study-like room. "I should probably be working, but in half an hour I can come look over what you have and see what's most promising."

And she works.

(She ends up using both sides of the paper. Maybe she should have drawn the table smaller, to leave room in the margins? Oh well.)

Nick puzzles over her diagrams.

"...Noble gases are a thing, right. Huh, there's more than Helium? And I think water has angles but carbon dioxide - combustion and respiration byproduct, we know carbon dioxide - doesn't."

He nudges around the table some. "I'm going to need to do more experiments to make sure of things. I think your carbon row is off... This'll probably come in handy though."

"Definitely more noble gases than helium, yep. Whole column.

Entirely possible I made a mistake. I'd be surprised if carbon was in the wrong place, but I've been surprised before.

I'm glad I could help."

"This 'K' is some kind of reactive metal, isn't it? Hmm, I'll do some research and experiments later. If you want to help you're welcome to."

Nick will quiz her on astronomy, electricity, and some other things too if she'll tolerate it.

She will answer as best she can. She knows about as much about electricity as about chemistry, and even less about astronomy.

She's heard of electromagnetism, electrolysis of water into hydrogen and oxygen (maybe too dangerous to try on the ship?), AC and DC, and vacuum tubes and transistors; but doesn't know how to make anything more sophisticated than an electromagnet and maybe a simple generator or voltaic pile. She's heard of parallax, redshift, and spectral lines; but hardly remembers any stars or constellations. She thinks aluminum comes from... probably feldspar... using electricity somehow? ...They probably don't have much feldspar on Cloudbank.