Tinker (Character)

The non-binary chief engineer who served under Captain Neil Barnabus aboard the Rope Swinger for the entirety of the series.

Tinker has a slightly manic personality and a heavily redacted personnel file. Their real name, origin, biological sex, and much of their service history is unknown.

Many on the crew suspect Tinker was stationed at a highly classified research facility before being dropped on Captain Barnabus as some form of punishment (no one is sure who the punishment is meant for).

Tinker is constantly frustrated by the minutiae of keeping naval vessel running, and prefers to spend their time perfecting elaborate mechanisms for solving perfectly mundane problems. The most notorious of these are several pairs of mechanical hands that serve as laboratory assistants.

Inventions

 * Mechanical hands - Voice-controlled, and highly precise, their primary function is to hold items for Tinker.
 * Illuminated hands - Voice-controlled, color changing, and mounted on the bulkhead over their desk, their primary function is to make rude hand gestures.

Trivia

 * Tinker is never assigned a pronoun in the book series.
 * The illuminated hands were not introduced into either television series, though sketches hinting at them can be seen around Tinker's workshop.