Utterly Mad

The auditorium was a relatively warm place compared to the rest of the facility. A room that started out narrow but widened out and descended the closer one got to the stage at the far end. Catnip righted a few chairs and took a seat behind one of the auditorium spanning desks. By then, a few people had begun to filter in. Most of them were Mislings, Catnip saw, and she guessed that these were the laborers. The cleanup crews who would be taking away rubble and replacing it with fresh materials. She spotted her foreman, and was about to go see if there was somewhere specific she should sit when someone took her by the arm with a grip like steel. When she turned to see who had restrained her, she realized the comparison was rather apt.

"Ms. Walker? I'm Tobin Lomas, aeronautical engineering. Cmon, we can sit with the other specialists." His attitude and bearing belied his appearance. For a man who acted and spoke with such youth, he looked to be fairly aged as well as rough about the edges like a man who'd been carved from old stone before being blasted in a furnace for a few days in an attempt to regularize his angular features. On his back, he seemed to be gifted with a series of four extra limbs which folded up when they weren't needed. Tobin explained that he had joined the searing spear, but was now excused from service by virtue of his botched power cell installation which to him was a shame since he had three other, perfectly good ones that were more than capable of keeping his bionics going for weeks without charge.

Catnip was led to a small group of people seated near the front row talking amongst themselves.

"Ladies and gents, allow me to introduce our new mechanic. Everyone, this is Catnip. Catnip, this is everyone." Tobin said. Most of those in the group grunted some cursory introduction and Catnip, falling into her old adaptability, did the same. Tobin the went through each person individually by name.

"This is Tenny Parsons, the electrician. Patrick Danneville and George Brookside, our architectural engineers. Felicia Thomkens, our personal foreman. Finally there's Leila Kestrel, the projects personal doctor and pharmacy all in one." Leila, a woman with the head of a bird who reminded Catnip a little of her friend crow back home didn't seem very happy to be called anyone's "personal pharmacy," nodded her head and asked "where's Sam?"

"Not here yet," Tobin shrugged. "Sam Pace is our computers guy, but he's a bit slow. He'll be here."