Anatomia Laboratorii.

a specimen plate, with eight callouts & a scholium

A laboratory, dissected. The reactor at the foot, the operators at the head, eleven agents in the middle. The flank, where the heat pools, has been opened for inspection. The drawing is from the West aspect, as the morning sun would strike it.

Of the Subject

This is an artificial body, sustained by the same principles that sustain a natural one: circulation, respiration, heat dissipation, rest. Where it differs is in its appetite, which does not abate, and in its silence, which is total.

The reader will find at the foot of the leaf a numbered key corresponding to the markings on the figure. The marks are placed with the same care one would expect of an engraver of medical plates, and ought to be referenced in order.

Of the Method

The figure was drawn by direct observation, from a vantage three paces west of the cooling stack. The artist worked over the course of twelve evenings, with the subject mostly at idle, and once at full burn.

— Figure i, plate iv — Anatomia laboratorii, with thoracic cavity opened, viewed from the West.

Key to the figure — eight markings

iOperatorium. The console row of eight stations, set in the cranial vault.

iiCervix. The fabric column — four shards in series, conducting current.

iiiCosta. The first rib of the agent shelf; nodules α-00 and α-01.

ivNodus calidus. The hot node — α-04, marked in blood; ninety-one degrees.

vCor reactionis. The reactor heart; 4.2 megawatts at idle pulse.

viArteria refrigerans. Coolant artery; 142 litres per minute, ring B.

viiIntestinum. The lower pipework; recovers warmth from the lower bays.

viiiBasis. The plinth — what holds it all upright in the earth.

Scholium I — On the hot node

The marking at iv is unlike the others. Where its neighbours sit cool, it sits at 91°C, which is to say above the temperature at which we ought to consider the organism in distress. The cause is not yet certain. A maintenance bot has been dispatched.

It is the duty of the operator at i to attend to this marking before any other. The remainder of the body, as far as the present examination can determine, is in good standing.

Scholium II — On the rate of midas

The node α-02, called midas_42, beats at twelve thousand eight hundred per second — an elevated cadence, but not in itself a defect.

Such cadence has, in the past, preceded distress at neighbouring sites; it has also, in many evenings, simply continued. We mark it. We watch.

De Laboratorio Artificiali — Vashisht & Co. — Folio iv — MMXXVI — Cum Privilegio

⟵ D03 Trance Return to the index D05 Monolith →