Member-only story
Welcome to your newly refurbished ecoHome™
Chris waves the smoke out of their face, and winces, turning the power off to the furnace in the utility closet of the untidy prefab ecoHouse.
“Interface. What’s the household repair daemon process?”
Silence.
“Interface, I’m not in the mood.”
Silence.
“Thimble Quantum Operator Interface, please respond.”
Silence.
Chris holds their left hand up. One finger is wearing a pearlescent thimble with a tiny green light on the base, on the back of their hand is what appears to be an animated point of light looping in a circle.
“Thimble ecoHome Quantum Interface, activate neural network and auditory controls.” Chris stares at the looping light. “C’mon, this thing is just kind of smoldering, and I can’t seem to get this circuit board off to see why.”
>…You told me to answer to ‘Alice’.< Glowing letters replace the loop, spelling out the words appear on the back of Chris’ hand, while a pleasant female voice echos in the room.
“Alice, fine, whatever”. Chris jabs a ratchet lightly into their hip a few times, and huffs. “Deep breath, Chris.”
Silence.
“Alice?”
>Yes?<
“What’s the household repair daemon process?” Staring at the ceiling, Chris begins to pace. Their QuickSuit(tm) overalls printed from the fabricator don’t quite fit, and look like a hastily duct-taped set of garbage bags.
>I’ve queried, but I can’t seem to locate one.<
“Do you recall us repairing the dishwasher last month?”
>I do.<
“And do you…
