An electro technician's life - part 1

An electro technician’s life.

She was late again, or well she was just on time as usual. But her boss always
seemed to think that his employees were slacking even if they ran for all their
worth. It was that console 37 down in D sector again. It always failed at this
time of the week. Perhaps if they for once abide her suggestions of buying
better hardware so she would not have to fix it regularly. If they were going to
buy crap at least they could get some good crap and not the fifth hand parts
they seemed to have used when constructing this section for she don’t know how
long ago. But it kept her busy and being busy meant financial income and that
was reason enough for her. And beside to do a work that somehow comes naturally
for one was a benefit too.

As she ran along the walkways toward maintenance ladder 34, just down that to
the underlying air duct, through that to C-level and D-level and console 37 was
just around the corner. It was perhaps not the way the others took, but then
again, who wants to be as everyone else. She rounded a corner and saw a shadow
appear in front of her, thanks to her agility she quickly dodged aside to avoid
a full frontal hit. She then looked up to what it was that she had almost bumped
into.

“Sorry, I’m in a small rus… Oh hello Thosam didn’t see you there. Well I must
be off, got work to do. And I promise that I will come by some day and finalize
your comm console, I am almost done with the circuit board.” She said and turned
around and continues towards the ladder.

She had met Thosam once before, as she was out on another of her small jobs. His
comm board in hos lab had broken down and she had got the job to get it up and
kicking again. They had hardly spoken more than the usual greet when she had
entered is small lab and she had gone to do her job right away. As she had
disassembled the console revealing the small little board of transistors,
resistors chips and cables she found the error rather quick. As usual with the
GEX-D12 model communication consoles the long distance frequency modulator had
given up, a usual fault that appeared after a few years of usage. It made it
impossible to make communication from this console outside the buildings itself,
but since the short distance chip still was ok he could use it to make inbound
calls and therefore report it in as faulty. And now she was here to fix this. As
she lied there under the console, it was easier to reach the board that way, she
took a short glimpse at Thosam as he stood at the table surrounded by all his
tubes and chemicals. He had a focused and determined look in his eyes as he
poured one fluid from one tube to another to have it change colors as soon as
the two fluids met. “Heh, the world could tremble down around him and he
wouldn’t notice” She thought to herself and continued.

There, the modulator chip was loose. It was in rather poor condition as she
looked at it. It was not as they were torn down by pure usage. It was in fact
based on the materials in the chip that was not actually made to handle the
atmosphere on the decks, this of course was nothing they had thought of when
they built the place. “Why not at least get good crap” she thought once more as
she placed the replacement modulator in its socket and a small click confirmed
that it was in place. Now the fun part began. She gnowently put everything in
its place and tightened the three bolts that held the covering shield in place.
Now to find the external com port and update some software. It was hacking time.

She plugged in the connector and started up the info terminal on her portable
device. As usual it complained over that there were no new software to install,
it always did. But that was done for with a small commando that sent the
software a deliberate signal telling it that it was inferior to the current
version at hand. It was perhaps not the most proper way to do it but heck , a
new chip that holds more capacity than a previous one deserved to be used to its
full intentions. The regular backup of the current software went as smooth as
expected and so did the transfer of the new one.
It was almost too east these days, perhaps it was due to the fact that she had
made these programs to upgrade herself. Or rather she had refined the existing
software a bit.

“There, need to reboot the terminal Thosam so it will recognize the new chip and
software. You’ll be able to call whom you want in no time.” She said as she
gathered her tools and gears.

“Hardware check complete, information database updated. Continues to boot” on
the display confirmed her good job and soon the familiar comm central logo
covered the background as all the icons for the usual commands appeared.
“I’ve given you a little extra that improves the sound quality even through
really long distant communication. Enjoy it”

She left the room with a smile, it was always fun to leave a good result behind.
Thosam still stood there looking at his tubes and the fluids and noted the
changes and reactions.

Yes that was her meeting with Thosam, why she remembered his name she did not
know. They just pop up as locations and whom to contact on the portable device
and often they are not much more than that. Well there was the ladder down to
the duct she was looking for. A short climb later she slided through the
slightly elevated duct and reached C-level. A few meters walk revealed the door
that separated C and D-level. She walked through it , closing it behind and then
continued down the walkway. A moment later and she saw the console she was
after.

The screen blinked with it, as always welcoming, “General Error in Decoding
Device”