Page 102 of Smart Ass

He wasn’t going to panic, though. There had to be a reason.

He started reading frantically. Oh. Ohhhhh….

The fire suppression system was stuck in a decision tree, asking for input. It couldn’t spray water if the spill was reactive with water. If it was a base, like bleach, it would need to be neutralized with an acid. If it was a…

Well, the point was, it needed to know what type of fire was happening before it could put it out.

He could see Kira, the night manager who Ben so often gossiped with, with her shirt pulled up to cover her nose and mouth as she punched frantically at an interface by the door.

She peered into the smoke, as if she could read the labels on the containers from there.

It wasn’t going to be possible.

Max sent a bot zooming in closer to investigate at the same time that he checked through the logs to see what the delivery cart could have been carrying.

Three separate chemicals used for cleaning mechanical parts and one for the floor—none of which should have been mixed together. So it wasn’t a fire, but an explosive chemical reaction that was still frothing and bubbling.

He brought it up to Kira’s screen, working out at the same time what might need to be done. Controlling the spill with vermiculite. Neutralizing the acid with soda ash. Shutting off ventilation connected with the rest of the building, while cycling air through the space.

He reached his conclusions at the same time that Kira did, but let her punch everything in. Hopefully she wouldn’t even notice his interference.

When safety bots started zooming in with protective materials and sprays, Max sent another warning to Kira’s device and she finally ducked out.

Two minutes later the bubbling and smoke was hardly perceptible. Heat scans showed that the factory floor was empty, except for the bots who were still working to contain and clean up the spill.

Max drew in a metaphorical breath, audible only to him.

That was it. He’d done it.

Instead of harming the factory, he’d saved it this time. Or at least helped a little.

He supervised the cleanup, checking back often with the safety protocols, until everything was bagged up nicely and the air registered as clear.

Safety inspectors swept in first, followed by the rest of the workforce.

Max vaguely noted people returning to their offices. Mr. Wollencroft, the CEO, called a meeting but it was routine stuff—finding out what happened and preventing it from happening again—but quickly moved on to other things.

There wasn’t much left to investigate, though. A metal plate on the floor had come loose and the delivery bot had gone over it too fast, causing one of its worn-out struts to bend, which caused the whole thing to topple. The bot should have been repaired, the floor should have been even, and so on. But nobody sounded too concerned.

Max checked around for Wallace, but he didn’t seem to be on the premises. He certainly wasn’t the only one who’d taken advantage of the alarm to leave for the day or take an extended break.

Max rechecked that everything in his power was operating smoothly, and it seemed to be.

Which gave him time to take stock of himself.

How did he feel about the event? Largely uninterested.

He didn’t want Orbit Industries to burn down or anything, and he would have been as concerned as any other bystander if someone had gotten hurt. But did he care about the dip in productivity or employee satisfaction? Not one bit.

It was just more proof that he didn’t belong here. He wasn’t meant to be a knowledge. He’d happily return as an employee one day—in an android body, where he could work alongside Ben and play with fun engineering projects.

And speaking of, Ben had gotten a new email from a colleague in Finland on the soft robotics project, and Max wanted to read the attached article.

He hummed to himself as he ran the little octopus emulator through different configurations and watched Ben sleepily get ready for his day. It was always good when he had something absorbing to do while Ben was at home, so he didn’t crowd him.

He half-listened to Ben calling Evan, and then followed him through the city’s myriad arrays of traffic and security cameras when he went out to dinner with Quincy, Evan, and a few of their other friends.

Ben’s phone was off, and Max tried not to read it as a slight. Ben forgot to charge his phone all the time. So he watched him from a distance, dreaming of the day when he’d be able to go out to restaurants, too. When he’d be fully a part of things.