DZ signs to Deskyl, and the woman sighs - exhaustion and annoyance - but closes her eyes again and begins to sign.

    "I will need electricity."

"I will need payment for passage."

"Captain."

"Not much. Manual labor, if nothing else."

"We don't have things. I can do manual labor. Deskyl can - " she taps Deskyl's elbow, and the woman opens her eyes and gestures to a stick on the ground, which rises into the air and floats gently to her hand.

"...Potentially very useful! But not particularly urgent." Also vaguely worrying, but he's commited now. "Alright then! Deskyl does appear to need some rest. Shall we go settle her and then have you help Walta gather fuel so we can continue our planned trip? We'll need a fair bit extra if we're taking you two on. And I would plan to let you off next time we stop at a major town."

"Yes."

"Can you climb a ladder safely right now?" Walta asks Deskyl, though speaking towards DZ. "I can bring down a cargo net if not."

Deskyl's response seems to be that she'll jump, rather than climbing, from the signs; DZ simply answers "yes."

"...You're thinking of pulling some acrobatics. Please don't, not on my ship. Any number of things could go wrong, including things which will kill you."

    "She won't do anything dangerous," DZ reassures.

"Do you even know what's dangerous on a ship? She's tough compared to the wrecks waiting to happen that some people fly around here, but if you put weight in the wrong place or push off hard enough she'll pitch too far or maybe roll and we all have bigger problems than we started with. Please just use the ladder."

They converse, or perhaps argue, briefly, and then DZ turns back to Nick. "The - " she gestures as Deskyl did when she was levitating the stick. "Deskyl has more. She knows what's dangerous."

"I am the captain. It is my ship. If I think something is too dangerous, it is too dangerous. Is this a deal-breaker?"

Walta is looking on nervously. She doesn't think Deskyl will win this argument.

More signed conversation; DZ wins, but Deskyl is clearly not happy about it.

    "She will not."

"Good. Thank you. I know it's annoying. I don't intend to give you huge lists of rules. The most important ones are no acrobatics for now, and absolutely no fire or sparks if you can possibly help it. Shall we go up, then?"

"Yes."

The droid offers her friend a hand; Deskyl doesn't take it, but makes a point of appearing to be fine as she heads toward the ship.

Up they go. The ladder is a swaying rope thing, not a solid and secure one. It seems sturdy enough. Nick goes up first.

Walta asks DZ, "Uh, so, are you going to go up too or start helping me gather fuel?"

She considers it. "I'll stay."

(The ladder steadies noticeably under Deskyl's hands, and doesn't give her any trouble.)

Nick shows Deskyl to a cabin free of personal effects but with random things stored in it. "This one will be yours. I'll remove the crates. I'd show you around more but you look like you need a bed."

She looks around the room and nods, and begins floating the stacks of crates out into the hall.

...Alright then. He just gets out of the way. He suddenly remembers that she is deaf and gives a thumbs up gesture in thanks.

Come to think of it, he walks to the restroom down the hall and opens the door just to make sure she knows where it is. And then starts removing crates from the hallway.

Soon all the boxes are out, and she shuts the door and goes to bed and falls asleep immediately.

...Alright then. Nick goes to work on the engines.

Back down on the ground, Walta asks DZ, "I've heard of a lot of different kinds of robots. Are you a drone or an AI type?"

"I don't have enough language. We didn't fall."

"Uh. Alright then. No fast way to fix the language thing. Let's just work."

Walta fetches up one of the big sacks from a pile nearby and takes it over to a stand of the floaty grass. "We just hold the bag up and whack the grass, collect up what flies off." She demonstrates. "And then send it up to the ship when it's full."

She watches carefully, and then mimics what she's seen.