Severance Read Online Free PDF

trivia
delivered during field trips, it failed to impress.
    Stein turned the old thermostat over, quickly diagnosed it
as a worthless piece of junk, and reached into her tool webbing for a new
sensor. With it popped in place, she checked her terminal to see if it was
registering on the ship’s internal systems. Satisfied that it was, she pushed
off back to the entrance of the floatarium.
    For all the efforts made to make the ship maintainable
during the design phase, some mistakes were inevitable. And these thermostats,
at least amongst those who had the task of replacing them, were considered the
biggest of those mistakes. Every decade or so someone attempted to redesign
them, invariably someone who had to work with the fucking things every day.
None had succeeded, and replacing wonky thermostats remained the most common
chore for the maintenance team. At any given moment, Stein had two or three
replacements on her person, more during working hours.
    Stein backtracked a short distance down the entrance
corridor. An air duct ran under one of the surfaces, supplying cooled air to
the observatory. Her terminal had indicated that the second broken thermostat was
within this air duct, so she pried open a panel, earning a blast of cold air in
the face. Inside, she quickly found and replaced the sensor. That done, she
looked down the duct towards the floatarium, blinking in surprise at a lumpy
obstruction. Opening another panel in the corridor revealed a dead robot wedged
into the ducting.
    “Hey, little guy,” she said, reaching inside and yanking it
out.
    A huge gash had nearly ripped the maintenance robot in half.
Somewhere upstream the thing had lost a fight with a supply fan. She frowned.
If left to their own devices the robots were normally smart enough to avoid
that kind of damage. Stein guessed that if she downloaded its memory, she’d see
a custom program another technician had entered, sending the robot to go un–jam
a fan. The proper way to do that — shutting off the fan, isolating the area,
physically securing the blades — was time consuming. Reprogramming a robot wasn’t.
And if the fan started up again and sliced the fucker in half, well, they were
replaceable. A technician’s free time wasn’t. Stein didn’t have a problem with
that reasoning; she liked free time. But she didn’t approve of the stupidity of
leaving the shattered robot in the ducting. They were lucky it hadn’t jammed
another fan. She tucked the husk of the robot into her webbing and closed up
both hatches.
    Returning to the floatarium, she launched herself back down
to where Griese sat. Stein examined her terminal again, and disabled the
override to check that the system would continue cooling the room on its own
initiative.
    “All done,” she announced, satisfied.
    “Thanks,” Griese replied. “Sorry I was pissy with you. Just
frustrated with the sweat running down my ass for two days.”
    Stein smiled. “No worries. That’s why I thought I’d deal
with you myself. Don’t need you ripping the head off any of my doofuses.” She
flicked her eyes at the actors floating above them. “Can we talk for a second?”
    Griese raised an eyebrow. “Sure.” He waved away his troupe. “Go
towel off, guys. We’ll meet back here in ten.” After they had dispersed he
turned back to Stein. “What’s up?”
    “This is going to sound kind of weird.”
    “Only kind of weird? That’s a big improvement for you.”
    Stein snorted. “Thanks. Okay. I’ll just ask. What does a
blinder look like?”
    Griese narrowed his eyes. “A blinder? As in a stun grenade?”
    “Yeah.”
    “And you think I’d know because…”
    “I know we don’t talk about it.”
    Griese cocked his head. “Fair enough. I guess I could know.”
He held up his hands. “But I don’t. Never had that misfortune.” He looked at
Stein. “Ellen will have.” Griese studied her face for a moment. “Do I want to
know why you’re asking?”
    Stein smiled. “It’s