The Grease Monkey

Story so far

A massive chrome apparatus hanging from the ceiling of the Surgical Theater in The Madness Castle, dozens of mechanical arms whisking and whirring in near silence. Its info box explains that the Viceroys tour the outer systems offering free transport and free surgery to species no local doctor has ever heard of, because in the wider universe outside the Inner System there is no free healthcare. It will analyze any anatomy, take you apart, and put you back together good as new — mostly. Payment plans are available, including signing yourself over to the Viceroys' post-biological form studies corp.

Repair, the box notes, is only its secondary purpose. Viceroys have no passion for healing; their passion is understanding everything from the atom to the tree, no matter the cost. Architect Houston is prime of his people not by election but because he made the most scientific discoveries, nearly all with this machine — and in this chapter it is operating on Houston himself, stitching him nerve by nerve to the dangling corpse of Namico while removing his lower guts. It is still holding the screaming, root-sprouting thing the changeling becomes when the Containment Breach Trap Mark IV fire takes the room.

Appearance

A cumbersome chrome chandelier suspended from the theater's high ceiling, bristling with dozens of mechanical arms and surgical tools, plus hundreds of tiny nerve-fine manipulators, all spinning and waving silently.

Role

The Viceroys' portable surgical automaton and the engine of Houston's experiments.

Relationships