Donald of Mars Chapter 76 False Start at Li's

A story about living on a Mars Colony

The moment a very tired Li left her condo after wiping its computer, Donald began unbolting her bed from the wall and floor.

The bolts were loose and came out easily; he didn’t even need a driver for most.

Pulling the bed away from the wall brought a frown to his face.

Unlike Chi’s condo, there were neither wall panels nor floor tiles where the bed had been anchored, and two of the bolt settings came out of the floor, having not been set properly. He pulled out his phone and started documenting it, even though nearly every person involved in building this condo had gone back to earth. He’d found that out when he’d pulled up the plans and records.

This bad workmanship posed little danger, as none of Li’s walls were external, and all added by a sub-contractor. The more he looked, the more he found wrong. This kind of construction turned his stomach. The assumption was that it would be remodeled in the next ten years, so there was no reason to build it to last longer. You might get away with that logic on earth, but here it was damn dangerous.

He pulled on the now exposed edge of a floor tile.

It popped right off in his hand, no tool needed.

Not only had they used the wrong adhesive, they hadn’t used enough.

Very un-good. He would need pull the whole floor.

Checking his phone, he saw no one had opened his door since he left, so Li wasn’t there yet. Time enough to look at the kitchen nook.

The countertop came up easily when he pulled on it.

Too easily.