Sadie eyed the large clean rectangle on the linoleum floor of the breakout area with suspicion. Then she saw the rolled up rug, drunkenly leaning on the fridge like it was trying to chat it up.
It could be worse, she thought, her practiced eye taking in the job ahead of her.
She crouched down and put Thing 1 and Thing 2 on the floor, so they could start scanning. She set Thing 3 on the bench, flipped it over and added rags to each ‘foot’ and then topped up the auxiliary container with a little more cleaning fluid.
As soon as she set Thing 3 on the ground it went lolloping off, sorting known objects to be move, and cleaning as it went. Lastly she set down Thing 4, the muscle of the bunch, and very handy on a Friday night like this. After 1 and 2 had scanned, Thing 4 set the furniture back the way it had been when they'd last scanned the room as ‘TIDY’.
"Prrrt!"
When a Thing found something new they called her over. It hadn't happened in a while. They now knew what to do with beer bottles, chips, vomit, hair, condoms... So Sadie wondered what were they querying now. Oh okay, that was new.
"Good call Sweet Thing."
She picked up small fragments of broken tech littered on the floor and stowed it in a side bag. The university didn’t like anything like that going in the main trash. She didn't actually clean in the 'building site' as they called it, without supervision. She kept moving to keep up with her crew, the Things were fast workers. Glasses in the dish washer, a quick mop of the beer stained couch, food into the compost - what a waste of pizza! Such slobs. These students weren’t on her budget.
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Thing 4 was in vacuum mode now and Thing 1 and 2 were pointing out the rug. It Should Not Be There! A quick look told her it was either going to need more than a spot clean or... did she dare? She did. She levered it into the trash chute, expecting it to sail down to the basement where she could collect it and leave it for the Super. But the rug stuck. Even over the quiet hum of the vacuum she heard it judder. Huh.
She reached in but it had travelled too far for her to reach.
“Thing 4, over here,” she’d need its brawn, “Re-establishing terrain protocols. Proceed carefully into the chute and retrieve rug. Don’t hurt yourself though Thing.”
She clipped a chord on Thing 4 in case it needed rescuing and sent it down the chute. She could hear it slipping and sliding about. It would probably need a good clean later. She hoped it didn’t get damaged, it was going slowly so hopefully the safety protocol was taking good care of it.
Meanwhile the other Things were finishing up. She wished she could have taken a before and after vid. Tonight’s cleaning might get her more work. But you couldn’t film the state some clients left their workplaces, especially not this one. She was lucky she had the clearances for the job. And she was lucky that the Things sped up the job so well. They more than earned their keep and she was looking forward to demonstrating them as her practical Masters project.
Thing 4 purred for her attention as it clambered out with a nylon rope for her to pull on when it was clear. She gently hauled so as not to get the rug stuck another way and finally it was out and the chute was clear for the regular trash to go down. She unrolled the rug. There was extra crap all over it now, including more pieces of whatever the broken tech was that the Things had found earlier. Good then, it was supposed to be trash. She didn't want to fill in paper work AND haul this rug to the Super's office. She added the bits to the bag for recycling, finished the floor and left, lugging a rug with the littlest Things hitching a ride on Thing 4, recharging from its bigger power pack.