#check the notes for a rb from me with author's commentary

[x-for-a-y]

The Wreck never goes in to be maintained.

There are myriad reasons for this. First is that the doctor is easily described as a perfectionist; its creations would not leave the in-progress stage unless they met its standards absolutely. Thus, The Wreck is too well assured at a level of pristine quality to really need further maintenance, let alone regular work. Secondly, it doesn't get up to much that might yet damage it anyway. The last major interaction it had with anyone was shortly after its creation- there's not been much for it to do since then. And thirdly, the construction of The Wreck was very precise in order to properly contain the stuff that ended up inside it. Disturbing that construction would be fatal.

So the thing inside The Wreck is left to rust.

A human Soul doesn't power a robot the way a monster Soul might. The Wreck wasn't built for that, anyway- that was not the doctor's priority. But neither is a robot a very good, safe container for a human Soul. Which is why the thing inside The Wreck was stripped of the agency of human inevitability, to keep the other human thing alive & bloody, to power The Wreck. Now that thing bleeds DT so that The Wreck fails to rust.

(More than being a doctor or, even, an engineer, The Wreck's creator is an author. And in making that poor human thing follow his 3rd law, perhaps it's making a fellow author, Asimov, proud.)