Free The Monkey and Squirrel fight for freedom. by Adrian eng Smith Page B

do about it, we will only know how accurate that prediction is when our people start dying of old age.”  signed Chatty.                                                                                             
    “Not long then until we find out if the most pessimistic prediction is what we can expect. The oldest Squirrels must be past the low end prediction by now?” asked Tman.
    “I think the oldest of us is twenty six years old, our oldest Squirrels died in a flu epidemic that on the early stations. It hit us Squirrels harder than the humans that carried it to the stations.” signed Chatty.
    “I'm one of the oldest surviving Monkeys, when we started building stations; it was minimal training then get on with it. Very few humans watched out for us, most resented us for stealing their jobs, like we had any choice!  I was very lucky with the old hands I was with, they just treated me like I was any new trainee. They made sure I read the health and safety manuals, not just the technical ones, then kept me safe until I was 'fit to be let out on my own' as they put it.” reminisced Tman.
    “Not typical humans then.” observed Chatty.
    “I think it helped because they were older than most. Once they were retired ground side the health and safety manuals were removed by management. Who were overheard saying 'nice not to have to worry about these any more'. Those old hands parting comment to me had been keep them safe, you'll need them for your trainees!” signed Tman.
    “But you obviously had other copies?” asked Chatty.
    “Fortunately the union Health and Safety man had left his set in the tool locker, I have been using those ever since, keeping as many of our people as possible safe. I later found he had also left an electronic copy in the engineering data base that. I did transmit them to the other stations, hidden in routine reports about solutions to engineering problems. This sharing of information was the normal practice when the humans were doing the work and we managed to keep it going.” explained Tman.
    “Was it never questioned?” asked Chatty.
    “Management occasionally looked at the reports, if they questioned the necessity, they were told it boosted efficiency. When someone else has solved a problem using their solution saves a lot of time and money, those being the key words to send them away happy.” signed Tman.
    “Tman if those manuals were so good, why did you write the safe working guides?” asked Chatty.
    “During our free engineering conferences, I found out that some had followed the clues and were grateful for the manuals, having used them to save lives. Informed by them, they could work safely, the manuals pointing out those unobvious dangers you don't realise are there, but can kill you regardless. Others didn't pick up the trail, but had tried to work something out. But the human manuals are out dated and not easy to relate to our equipment and restrictions. So I then wrote my safe working guides, keyed to our equipment and my years of experience. They did reach every one and really helped to reduce the accident rate. Even in the frenzy of work to get the habitats usable, we only lost two people to fatal accidents.” explained Tman.
    “I just don't know how you could even think you were slacking?”
    “I'm an engineer, if I see room for improvement I want to do it better!”
    “So it's an engineer's obsession?” asked Chatty.
    “Just those of us with the vocation! It was just chance that my job gave my life meaning. I love it even more now, I get to do the whole thing from conception to completion, a dream  come true!” Tman happily signed.
    “Oh you want the best for your baby, I get it.”
    “I don't quite think of it like that, but you've got the general idea. I want to build something beautiful and efficient that lasts forever.
    “So nothing impossible then.” signed