An electro technician's life - part 2

There, a nice repair and a booting later the console now threw up its loading
screen and her work were done. “These consoles, as like the GEX series, made of
materials not tested for their actual working habitat.” She though as she
screwed the last bolt into position and flipped the switch. It now stated
“Decoding Sequence Confirmed” and then continued to redownload the schedule it
was to handle, luckily it was not a heavy day and the transportals were not
overloaded. She had a final look at the console knowing that she would likely be
here in a few days again, geesh are circuit boards covered with airtight plastic
that hard to find. Or do they have a bunch of them lying around somewhere that
they want to use up before reinvesting? She decided to not think of it anymore,
the task was done and it received it’s check on her Portable Device and was
moved to the “Fixed” queue. Now it was time to head back, sync it all over and
then get some rest.

She decided that she were to take the usual route this time, the walkway that
everyone else uses. I could be exciting to do it the way others always do it she
thought and closed the maintenance door behind as she emerged on the walkway for
D-Level. So then which way should she head. Take right and go to the
intersection and take the elevator to B-Level and from there walk about till she
gets to the Shopping area. Or she could take a left, head for compartment D12 by
the loading bays and then have a quick stop at the … “Bah ! All this planning”
She thought as she took a right and decided to go where she wanted to for the
moment. At the intersection she gave the four paths a look, which one seemed to
be the most interesting then. She was not really an explorer, but as when it
came to electronics and computers, a little exploration now and then often
proved fortuneable. Strangely enough no one was traveling the lines here today,
it was empty and silent. Well except the little droid that passed now and then
it was quiet.

As a techie she knew most of the routes around the complex, not all but many of
them. And specially the not so usual ones as she often found short cuts to use.
Her min wandered off to a construction she was working on in her apt, it was
rather an small upgrade to her portable device mainly. But this one would have
so many goodies in it that it could be used to so much more. Well there were
still some parts missing for the main circuit, and she was in no rush. She ended
up close to a elevator and she joined it going up. During the rather slow ride
she grabbed her portable device from her pocket and fired up a small game. It
was a great relief for her, to play a bit now and then as it got her mind off
things. And the fact that it was her entertainment and friend most of the times.
From the start it was just a simple device to get jobs and check them when
cleared. Of course they got a bunch of information, sectors, levels, sub level,
contacts and all that they could use when finding the problem. But she had not
been impressed by its performance after a few days. And since she just happen to
have her tools and some other spare part lying around, all without intention of
course, it was in a whips disassembled, updated and reassembled. Now it flew off
in performance and she added a few small tweaks to give performance and make it
more versatile. Next was to add some interesting software to it, games ! She was
not the one for large and advance games, the classical mind twisters or the ones
based on reactions and reflexes was enough. Then the usual things she needed
like the updates software for comm centrals. So yes it was no longer just a
tool, or PDA as some would call it. It was her companion during the day, and
friend during the night.

As she played an old game where she was to terraform an uninhabited planet and
it was up to her to see to that the air and habitat was fitting enough otherwise
it will die out. She walked on a bridge between two main buildings, she was
headed for the apartment areas, she had already lost her thought of exploring as
soon as she started to think about her project, and the games took the rest of
her focus on the world around her. As she walked across the glass covered bridge
a light from a distant star somewhere reflected in the screen and made her look
up. She stopped on the middle of the walkway and looked out.

“The space is vast and endless many says, but what if it stops just where you
can see ? What is space is the mere field of view in front of you, that space
exists around you, where you are?” These questions hit her as she looked out
into the black open in front of her. She laid the thoughts aside, no use in
giving them energy for the moment. It was beautiful outside, the colors from the
planetarian dust that was created as light shined through them. Almost as
fractal calculations she thought.

After a moment of staring she returned to her normal self again, head filled
with thoughts about designs and improvements of random electrical gizmo’s as she
walked along the walkway into the next elevator taking her down three levels,
still playing her game.
As she tried to go through a pair of auto closing doors she was stopped by a
beep and the fact that no matter how many times she pressed the button the doors
wouldn’t open but a beep was heard instead.

“Oh well, I’m almost at home anyway.” She said as she reached for her belt
grabbing the AX-3 screwdriver and started to remove the cover of the door
control..