Article: 261625 of talk.bizarre
From: Andrew Solberg <andsol@cml.rice.edu>
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
Subject: 15x100
Date: 1 Dec 1995 14:09:32 -0500
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Status: O



BUILT TO LAST
*************

It trundled down the corridor -- a small maintenance
bot going about its business.  A water leak had been
detected in 5510-A, deck nine.  It keyed the apartment
lock and entered, stepping over corpses to do so.

The leak was under the toilet; after forty years 
without cleaning, the stops had disintegrated.  A
mouldering body still perched on the can, its trousers
around its ankles.  The bot impassively rolled it off
and began repairs.

There was nothing in the ship that would not eventually
break down -- not appliances, not vehicles; certainly
not the occupants.

But the bots were built to last.

-- 
This post is COPYRIGHT 1995, Andrew Solberg.  All rights reserved.
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Andrew Solberg is HWRNMNBSOL: andsol@cml.rice.edu, Math Dept., Rice U.