John frowned at the Colleague as it conveyed its displeasure. He tried to speak civilly to it, as taught, while being direct and efficient.

“The incident was logged and filed, per procedure.”

This only seemed to further incense it.

“This is ridiculous! You have to tell someone about this sort of thing!”

He mentally cycled through his instructions and logged observations, and shook his head. “Negative. There is no instruction regarding a notification”

“John! You logged a report about the fire, but you didn’t bother to tell anyone so we could get to safety!”

John blinked at it and looked out into the adjoining storage room that now contained the soggy ashes of the company’s archives. He duly apologized to the Colleague and assured him it wouldn’t happen again.

It would happen again. The reasoning was unsound.

He would later complain to his wife, as he typed his resignation letter. “Humans! They wouldn’t react to the world burning down around them if you didn’t send a memo!”