The woman snarks that flares make heat, which makes fire, which even children know.

"Let's all be polite, here," Renfield reminds her. "And I'd be happy to hear what she says about them."

(Is the language messing up somehow or what?)

...Human bodies make heat. 'Make heat' doesn't mean 'sets things on fire'. Flares do not make enough heat to set something on fire. If they did, they would be able to set something on fire, which they're not.

Xeyr shows up. 

Mia watches for reactions.

"So they're lost technology flares, that only make light? Not hunks of phosphorous you light up? That's much more promising, if true. Hello, there. I'm Renfield. It sounds like you can explain the mining tools?"

Yes, they only make light. 

"Hello."

She can. They - were - used to mine such-and-such material which she's not sure what to call. This one helps you locate where there are deposits, and this one helps you get to it, and this one helps you extract it. They can be modified for other materials instead. 

Ooh.

What's the range on the 'scanning for deposits' bit? How does it recharge? What other materials can it detect, like, oh, say, metals commonly used in other lost technology?

Handheld it goes from about a large room to close-range. There's a way to get it to cover somewhat more ground. It trades off fidelity; the procedure usually used amounts to narrowing down and 'zooming' repeatedly. At the moment they run on a long term battery; it'll last centuries from here, but could be retrofitted with a different energy source. 

Yes, it could do metals. 

They mutter to each other. Getting a bearing on some titanium or silver or gold and sailing for it and narrowing until they find it sounds like a way to make tech-hunting... Not reliable, but less likely to turn up nothing.

"The scanner sounds promising - if you're willing I'd like to test it out a bit, see if it can detect the location of something we have on our ship that you have no way of knowing about. If it can, I'll offer you all passage and room and board until we find a big town, as well as sixty gold draws. Those're coins, of course. The other two aren't as important for the purpose I'm thinking of, but I'm sure they'll do alright at auction in some town."

"If the test involves taking it to your ship, I'd need to accompany you. Otherwise that sounds like a deal we'd accept."

Passage should give enough time to get an idea of them, and if they're the sort who shouldn't have something like that then take measure.

The ship-people are meanwhile wondering whether these strangers can be trusted not to hold the ship hostage or misrepresent their tech for a better deal. 

"If it can give me a convincing bearing from out here I won't need to take it aboard without you."

He has her search for gold, iridium, tungsten, and palladium in the ship overhead, in that order. There's no iridium or palladium nearby - he's checking for false positives. There's a little tungsten in the engines at the back and a couple of pounds of gold in a safe in the captain's cabin.

Those are not the kinds of things they generally do, not that this is something the ship-people have access to.

She fiddles with setting (it is not difficult, for plain elements). Scanner can't pinpoint 'in the engines' and 'in the safe' from here, she'd need to be closer, but it can accurately report 'not around' and 'in the ship'. She proceeds carefully and lets them see what she's doing if they want. If she can walk and make herself closer to the ship (carefully), she can narrow down a little, enough to say 'in the back' for tungsten.

"...Hmm. How far away would it be able to search if we just need to know if we need to go left or right? Miles, or less than that?"

(The scanner wasn't engineered for this, but no one forced an artificial range limit on it either. She fiddles again.)

They'll need to wait a few seconds for a response, but it can do miles at low fidelity. 

"Hmm. That'll work. Alright, sounds like a deal, given a tutorial on how to use it."

Scanner for passage and room and board until they find a big town, and sixty gold draws? Deal on their side too.

When would they like their tutorial?

"It can wait. We're going to pass the night here, since we're already tied down. Take care of some chores, rest, maybe forage up some wood and floatseeds. You don't need to help, as passengers. I'll show you the cabins now if you like. We can give you two cabins with two beds each, or move a third bed into one, whichever you prefer. Oh, but we do have safety rules. No fire or sparks. Don't go on the top deck or outside without a harness. And stay out of the working sections, engines, bridge, and so on - those will be clearly marked in yellow. Have any of you got experience on airships? If you have, we might want you to help out in case of an emergency, help with damage control. If you haven't you should probably just stay out of the way if something happens."

Move a third bed into one, please. (She doesn't need Mia looking at her, though of course Mia does that.)

Understood. 

They've been on airships before, but it was far away so they wouldn't want to assume it transfers.

She can help with some chores, if they might like?

"What kind of 'something happens' would you be thinking of there? Are you anticipating attack?"

"Wildlife attack. Debris strike. Storm. Random accident, engine breach or something. Pirates. Nothing is very likely to go wrong, but precaution saves lives."

If an attack might happen, it'd be useful if they'd tell her about their procedures. If they don't trust her with details, which would of course be fully understandable, at least enough so they won't get in each other's way as she protects her friends. 

"Two long rings and two short rings of the bell mean we're doing hard maneuvering to avoid something we'd rather not fight. And we're certainly not going to go picking fights. Look out for loose objects and be careful in the halls if you hear that. Five short rings means emergency damage control. I'll get Sam to quiz you later to see if you three'd do more harm than good helping damage control. Mostly, stay out of the way, preferably in your cabin. And don't go shooting that slug-thrower onboard unless you absolutely have to, hear? It could set off sparks and set the whole gas envelope on fire. So for the love of god, keep it unloaded and safetied."