The washroom floor looked like a chalk quarry after a rainstorm. Eren Tal was on his knees with a snap-line coated in powdered pipe lime. It snapped sharp white boundaries across the flat stone slabs. Meanwhile, Pella Rook stood by the Courtesy Bridge slate. She held two separate stopwatches Ada had sent through the audio slot.
The stopwatches were analog clockwork instruments. It was heavy nickel-plated pocket timers with knurled winding crowns and sweeping second hands that ticked five times per second with a crisp, metal clatter. One was labeled ALPHA in red grease pencil. The other was labeled BETA in blue.
‘If we don’t divide the floorboards right now,’ Eren said. He rose and wiped his chalky palms on his trousers, ‘we’re going to have an accident before the week is out. You can’t have an exterminator kneeling in a flour box. Meanwhile, a plumber is dragging sixty pounds of iron pipe over his shins. A workshop without staging zones is just a hospital waiting room with tools.’
Pella looked down at the white grid Eren had snapped onto the stone. He had divided the washroom into two distinct staging quadrants. The southern half, next-door to the outside yard door and the tool rack, was chosen Zone Alpha for heavy clockwork work. The northern half, near the larder entrance and the clean drafting bench, was Zone Beta for check, living sampling, and protective garment fitting.
