Clockmaster Quen

Older notices call Clockmaster Quen a mechanical intellect and say the Deep Mechanism has no crew. That is not what the Confederacy is. Quen is a man, an engineer of the mad-science sort the houses actually produce. He runs the hull on pressure and on timing. The knock you hear in a fight is valves opening. It is not a thought.

There is a bridge. There is a crew. Quen stands on it and calls the beats the way a shift-boss calls a pour. He does not enjoy talk. He offers no ceremony beyond the count. He will break off when the brass a continued fight would cost is more than the kill is worth, and he will not break off before that. The houses are unsure what rank to offer a man who already answers to the ship's name. He is sure what the gauges are for.