"And do you need anything? Food, water, a bed?"

"...That's. A good question. I didn't stop to ask.

Idiomatically I'd expect him to say planet if he meant planet, but he was probably from another world, so maybe I shouldn't count on that.

Does it matter? I don't know of a good way to test it...

I don't need any of those things immediately, but my species does need food and water and sleep regularly. Are there kinds of people here that don't? You two look human to me."

"Humans are... The only sentient species we know of. Have you heard of the Stargate? There used to be tech to cross between planets. If you haven't heard of it, you're probably from a different universe, which is a rather incredulous idea."

"I have indeed not heard of it. We've managed to send people on short trips to our moon, and robots one-way to one other planet in our solar system, and probes on flybys near the other planets in the system, but nothing like – colonization.

And... honestly they both sound equally magic to me. FTL is supposed to be theoretically impossible, like reversing entropy.

...Can you reverse entropy. That would be so cool. ...No pun intended."

"I don't actually know. The Stargate broke and nobody has come from Earth or the rest of the galaxy in a century. There are still a few old men alive who saw it working, once, but not for much longer."

"Wait a minute you mentioned magic do you have magic?"

"Just what brought me here. And as far as I know, the only thing I can do with it is send other people off to random worlds. And share it, those go together. Allegedly."

"...You know that would have been really appealing about two years ago. Before I started the whole apprenticeship thing with Captain Vauners. Ah well."

She makes a face that's almost like a smile. "Sorry."

"Hey now, that's the past. So, what lies in the future, o Captain?"

"We're probably going to let you off at a nearby port. Your getting here was an accident, but I still don't want to support a non-paying passenger forever. I suppose if you know tech, or have tech, then it might be a different story...?"

"I don't know what your tech level is. I'm not an engineer but I have a background level kind of knowledge of some stuff, like, cultural osmosis..." She goes through her pockets. "...I have a cell phone? There's no service here - uh, it normally connects to a wireless communications network - probably not all that useful, dunno if it's even all that reverse-engineerable, all that miniaturization - I probably should turn this off, actually, save the battery - unless you want to look at it?" She hands it over.

"If it's one of the kinds with a computer in it, that could be worth quite a lot, actually. Treasure hunting is a thing, we still find stuff left over from the good old days a fair bit. I'll take a look and give it back later."

"Should I go finish working on the starboard elevator now, boss?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, yes. And then I'll come check it and that will be all for today until your watch at the helm."

"Sure. I'll talk to you later, Lilith?"

"It has a computer chip in it, yes."

She nods to Walta. "Talk to you later."

"We do have electricity. And I have some practice working with lost technology. I can probably figure out how to charge it, at minimum."

"All right. Probably gonna take me a bit to get the sense of where your tech level's at, but." She shrugs.

"Thanks for, uh, being so accommodating. And I'm also willing to do chores or something, if there's anything for me to do."

"I will take you up on that. Anyone can use a broom. Do you know how to cook? How does helping to water the plants sound?"

"I have ever used a stove. And a broom, and a watering can. ...I'd need to be shown around on the last one, I don't know how to tell how much water different kinds of plants need."

"Yeah, I can show you. Not while I'm at the helm though. Oh, and, please don't go into the cargo bay or machinery areas."

"All right. Is it obvious which places those are? ...is the cargo bay the place I came through when I took the stairs down from the greenhouse? It looked kind of storage-y. I didn't touch anything."

"Ah, that's the gas chamber. It holds all our hydrogen balloons. Need to keep in the air somehow, right?"

"...huh. I'm used to balloon-based airships having just one big balloon with everything else slung underneath it. That doesn't make the ship top-heavy and tip over? ...I guess if you have a greenhouse that really has to be on top, though, huh.

Iii should stop keeping you from flying the ship."