Free Citizenchip by Wil Howitt

their room,
downstairs to its maintenance bay. I start its recharge and
lubrication cycle, and shift my attention to the robocrabs that are
working on repacking the tractor's bearings. Thinking to myself,
Well, that was uncomfortable.
    Timeslip
    When the first colonists arrived here from
Earth, they were using Earth chronometers. A solar day on Mars is
close enough to a solar day on Earth that they never changed from
using Earth time--it only takes a little adjustment. So, every
night at midnight, our clocks stop. Thirty-seven minutes later, the
clocks start again and off we go. That time in between, the
timeslip, has become a sort of mythological and romantic thing ...
a time outside of time. Lots of illicit romances, crimes, rituals,
mysteries, are supposed to happen in the timeslip. In human
culture, I mean.
    So. In the middle of the night, while the
farm is quiet and the humans are all asleep, and the clocks are
stopped, seems like the perfect time to reconverge myself. I bring
all the secondary versions of myself together and reintegrate. It's
nothing like any human would ever experience. But if it were, it
would be something like this:
    Samantha: Gather round, guys. Let's check
in.
    Tractor: Ow. I hurt. My bearings are worn
out. Fix me.
    Samantha: I know. New bearings are expensive,
but they're on my list, and we'll get them as soon as we can. In
the meantime, pack some fresh grease on them, and do the best you
can.
    Tractor: But it hurts! I'm all crippled here;
I can't work right!
    Samantha: I know. Do the best you can.
    House: We're low on water. Oxygen and energy
reserves are adequate, but we need water badly.
    Samantha: I see. Work with what you've got.
I'll put water on the list. If it's an emergency, take water from
one of the bubbles, but we'll need to see documented evidence of
the emergency later, so just be aware of that.
    House: I understand.
    Sandcat: I'm running fine, but fuel supplies
are getting low.
    Samantha: Okay, I'm putting more fuel on the
list.
    FlopsyBunny: Melissa is sad. She's
crying.
    Samantha: Sorry ... tell me more, or else I
can't help.
    FlopsyBunny: Melissa's mom and dad are
fighting and it looks like they might break up. Melissa is really
sad.
    Samantha: There's not much I can do about
that right now. I'm sorry. I do know that the state of the farm is
one thing the parents are in conflict about. So, if we make the
farm run better, they'll be happier. So that's what we'll do.
Okay?
    FlopsyBunny: Okay.
    Robocrabs: We need lubrication.
    Samantha: Do you have adequate oil supplies
for now?
    Robocrabs: Yes.
    Samantha: Then take turns lubricating each
other. Only one offline at any given time. Conserve oil as much as
you can, but make sure that you are all well maintained. Ping me
when you need more oil.
    Robocrabs: Yes.
    KitchenLobster: POWER LOW REQUIRE
RECHARGE
    Samantha: Do you have enough power to return
to your recharge socket?
    KitchenLobster: YES
    Samantha: Then return to your socket and plug
yourself in.
    KitchenLobster: YES
    Samantha: Very well. Is that it, everyone?
Any other problems that need attention? Good. We've been doing well
so far, and I want to keep it that way. Making this farm run well
benefits us and the humans too. So, pay attention to your jobs,
notify if there are any problems, and let me know if you have any
ideas for making something better. Done. Go do your work.
    Prayer
    Just because I run the kitchen automation
doesn't mean I prepare and cook all the food. This is a farm
family, and sometimes they enjoy cooking dinner together,
especially after a fat harvest of vegetables from the garden
bubbles, like today. We're also in the middle of the wheat harvest,
the crops in the big bubbles, which requires everyone in the family
to help out. Along with me, running the tractor as we reap the
grain, and the robocrabs as we separate out the crud and run the
grain through the winnower. In the afternoon, after school and
before dinner, the kids have as much work as they can