"Lemme curate you a quick list of books... I just make miscellaneous objects directly but not everyone's a demon. I could give you a 3D printer that would do steel and give you the raw for it but using them is not actually a skill I have."

"I cannot teach you to make a 3D printer and the operating manual will not be designed for you. And the stuff you use to get steel objects out of it is not the same as ductile regular steel. You sure you want it?"

"Yes. Let me dump some ballast at the same time you make the things - or refill my gas sacs, they're..." He checks a pocket notebook, "About 120 kilograms of hydrogen short of the safety pressure at this altitude."

"Distributed how between them?"

"Roughly evenly but a little more toward the bow. Ship's front-heavy now, to help descending."

"Sure." Cam - gradually - adds the requested quantity of hydrogen to the sacs.

"Cam."

"Nice to meet you, Cam. I suspect this day will be one of the most interesting of my life."

"Likewise, in fact."

He starts carefully descending the ladder. "Anything else you want to know before investigating the surface?"

"What else can you tell me about the stargate, if I go that route?"

"...It's in orbit somewhere, it's many times larger than this ship, it's said to have needed immense amounts of power to function. The mining company that built it might have been named 'Extrasolar Extraction'. That name was on the wrecked monitoring station I salvaged."

Cam fiddles with his computer. "Why were there enough people and supplies on this planet when it broke to form a stable population?"

"I'm not sure. There was a lot of mining, and tourism and research and farming in addition to the mining, I think. You can still find old ships and buildings in the parts of the world with more dangerous weather, it's just the equator band that's been picked clean."

"In addition to a tracker I can leave you a phone and then I could ask you other questions as they occur to me."

"A communication device, I assume. I make no promises to answer it at all hours, but I'll certainly take it. I imagine 'phones' for all is part of your desired end state for this planet so it won't be a single-purpose tool forever."

"Yup!"

"You are an excellent person and I will gladly answer your questions in order to help you be excellent more effectively. I do hope it's relatively simple to use, though."

"Well, it is when there's only one person to call and I'm not loading it up with a lot of other features. If you want easy-to-use are you sure about the 3D printer?"

"Easy-to-use for things there is high value in immediately knowing how to use. Not knowing how to use the printer won't hinder me or you the way not knowing how to use the phone would."

All of this is very interesting! Cam takes photos.