Fictober 07: “That could have gone better.”
Bob sighed and clucked his tongue as he went over the matter generation software he'd been working with for the hundredth time. The model itself seemed fine, the artificial intelligence it had been programmed with was harmless and friendly. He couldn't for the life of him figure out what had gone so wrong. Dave, meanwhile was busying himself with sweeping up the rubble of their trashed workspace. Every now and then he'd spare a glance over at his fellow Haslabs employee. "So uh,,," he coughed, clearing his throat a bit, "That could have gone better." Bob let out a groan, banging his head on the desk. "Yeah Dave, that's kind of obvious." "Any idea on what went wrong?" Another tremor shook the building and the computer tech barely managed to catch his keyboard before it danced its way off of the desk. "Not yet. I feel like it's staring me right in the face, though."
"Can I take a look?"
Rolling his eyes, Bob pushed himself away from the desk, "Sure, Dave. Knock yourself out! I'm only the person who designed the matter fabrication program while you're a graphic design artist, but what the hell! I'm SURE you'll spot what went wrong in no time!"
Dave sighed and slumped a bit, hanging his head, "I was only asking. You didn't have to be so rude about it..." Bob patted his co-worker on the shoulder, sighing. "Look, I'm sorry man. I just... I'm probably gonna lose my job for this, if not get arrested." "No, no it's fine.. Just..." Dave blinked at the screen, leaning in closer. "Uh, Bob?"
"Huh? What is it?" "The scale for the final object is supposed to be one hundred and fifty millimeters, right?" "Yeah, fifteen centimeters, but I couldn't get centimeters to work properly in the program for some reason." Dave clucked his tongue and pointed at the screen, "Because the scale is set to METERS..." Bob rushed over and stared at the parameters on the screen, blatantly reading "150 m" rather than "150 mm". They both turned and walked over to the huge hole in the wall of their lab as another tremor shook the ground. They watched in a mix of awe and horror as the titanic pink pony bounced its way through the ruins of the nearby city, singing a song about looking for new friends. "So Bob. You think there might be a market for "My Really Fuckin' Big Pony" companions?"
