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"Thrusters? Why not gravitics?"
"I'm from an alternate universe in which it's only 2157 and don't know how to operate gravitics."
"...I think we want to tow it manually. Thrusters cause-" he waves his hand vaguely "-fog. Even if most of the exhaust is going to clear the planet it's bad practice when we have a nice big gravity well to push against."
"Sure, I can make it without and you can tow it however you like. Or I can make it with gravitics and you can operate them."
"We'll just tow it, thanks. It'd be a bit of a production to modify the blueprints for strong integrated gravitics."
"After this system is set up for contact... If you have no objections to being used as disaster relief, you can help correct a famine in the Ixia system. A previously unknown insect with a multi-year lifecycle devastated crops there last season, and trade can't proceed as long as the gate is taken up with trains of famine relief carriers. We have a whole list of things that you would be handy for, and that's the first item."
"I would be delighted to relieve a famine! I'm also useful for terraforming, but ideally on a more inert base than Cloudbank offers."
"That's definitely on the list as well, but terraforming takes longer to plan out properly. Existing terraforming plans will be ready for you faster. Mars, Era, Venus, Kingston, New China, Sprezkal. Do you have any other questions or concerns before we fly clear of the station and get started?"
"I've actually been contemplating terraforming Mars in particular for a really long time but presumably under different circumstances of preexisting colonization... Anyway, nah, I think I'm all set."
"We're well on our way with Mars already. The process started in 2213, but the original plan still has more than 500 years on it and you'd speed things along for sure. Would you like to ride in our shuttle or use yours?"
"Ride along is fine. I can go from atomsphereless rock to garden in a few weeks but it's harder to work when there's stuff in the way so I'd actually be slower on a project-in-progress."
One of the functionaries speaks up, amused, "I'll have to redo my list of rocks, then."
Cam smiles, and follows them to carry out necessary demoning for them.
They take a short hop that feels like much less acceleration than it actually is, then they'd like that station, a hundred of this kind of drone for satellite infrastructure and cleaning orbital debris, two thousand large drones holding smaller drones holding tablet-things. If possible the servers in that station should start existing with such-and-such programs already installed.
A team of drones takes it upon themselves to tow things into place. The Cloudbank internet is working in short order. With the effort of the computer scientist who came along it even finds most of the phones and computers that Cam has already distributed. (Some have been lost or broken.) Four people board the station and start working on setting up various websites, from social networks to wikis to video streaming and games to the election infrastructure, and spreading the good news and answering Cloudbankers' questions that the FAQ didn't cover, leaving only a few still with Cam.
"To Ixia?"
Cam composes a brief email to Nick about it but he has nothing else tying him here.
He still wants a spaceship. And, is this email thing safe from spying?
They may have all kinds of creepy spyware! Nick is encouraged to send private correspondence to Cam by titling it predictably, writing it longhand, and burning it.
New email: Nick has now written such a thing.
It says, Private message to Cam. I accidentally summoned you once. I'm not foolish enough to try to replicate the feat, but I still don't understand the mechanics of summoning and I worry that I may accidentally send you away, or run down a timer of some sort. Which would be a great tragedy for all involved. It may be a good idea to set a deadman switch or similar to distribute instructions on how to deliberately summon you to someone in the case that you are removed somehow.
Cam emails: Your concern's legitimate but won't come up within your lifetime! I'm hoping to make more friends eventually and teach them a thing or two.
The shuttle approaches a third gate. This one is very high traffic, with cargo-y looking ships passing through every thirty seconds at least. When they're through the pilot announces that they're on approach to Ixia.
If Cam has a remote view and extremely precise coordinates of some empty warehouses, can he create hundreds of thousands of tons of soy and grain from here, or do they need to land?
It's easier in geosynchronous orbit. He hasn't practiced with orbit-to-planet very much. But if they do sync up coordinates will do - view won't even help unless he gets the first bit wrong.
They're in geosynchronous orbit soon enough. Unless Cam wants to land, for safety purposes. It would be no trouble and only about an hour's delay.