There are five of them, all faceless, arrayed behind a bland blonde wood table. They must have applied some sort of management witchcraft review hack to my ocular feed; the rest of the office remains crystal, rendered, clear; but whenever I try to focus on their faces I get macula fuzz-out and a stab of pain in both eyes. Nice touch, even face to face, management interactions are a one-way info transaction. The fetch minder avatar fades out and I’m alone with the inquisition.
I’ve been perched on a high, 3 legged, backless stool; this has the combined effect of maximum exposure and discomfort, and also denies any sort of posture that could imply composure. The central reviewer avie speaks (I tag it as Inquisitor 1).
“Operator 1338, this is a mandatory, extra-ordinary employment review; it will not appear in the public performance review Space, it will not be accessible by your line Operator, it will not, at present, contribute to annual exchange collateral enhancement decisions.
“In addition, any breach of confidentiality pertaining to this meeting to any sentient entity will result in immediate employment termination and Job expulsion; with attendant deletion of any personally accrued monetary (or otherwise) resources. Please acknowledge with a band-5 WorkSpace fealty ping.”
Fuck.
“I acknowledge.” What choice have I got, I toggle the ping and I note an immediate upgrade to my basic level 3 security clearance—WTF—this is getting weirder.
“Do you confirm that on Saturday night, 24-June-2028, you were engaged in multiple social intercourses, intoxicant enhanced, with your habitual extra-curricular peer group?”
Gulp.
“Yes, confirmed”.
“This board notes that during the course of this Saturday evening you became dangerously incapacitated due to the consumption of a random narcotics mix (see appended WorkSpace Security toxanalysis). As a result of this willful intoxication you put yourself in a position of vulnerability, and incurred a degree of peripheral, non-life threatening organic damage. However, more seriously, your actions, or lack of them, resulted in the loss of WorkSpace property, to wit: One iRex PetaBook. Physical device loss aside, what is of much more importance here is the loss of, and open access to, the data on that device.
“Operator, the loss of this device has severe implications. As you are aware, all Operators are issued with PetaBooks after the completion of their 6-month probation period. Ostensibly a company benefit, the PetaBooks provide a useful personal node for data capture, bio-authentication ackles, employee tracking, downtime leisure usage and other standard WorkSpace activities.
“However, the PetaBooks also provide a critical, distributed WBAN function for WorkSpace All, facilitating continent-wide wireless net access. The loss of your device has had a two-fold implication: One, there was, for 1.7 seconds, a net coverage loss in the EC1 cell—the result: a financial data loss in Krasnoyarsk natural gas transactions amounting to 3.2 billion Euros. And, two, a phage incursion from agents unknown into the WorkSpace net.
“It is due primarily to this latter issue that we find ourselves convened today.”
OMFG. My Job flags me an adrenaline overstretch alert, I quash it reflexively—of course I’m fucking stressed!
Inquisitor 1 continues.
“Track-back analyses indicate that despite access to the proprietary data on your PetaBook, the net incursion would not have been possible without a degree of internal WorkSpace complicity. Your incompetence aside, the review board does not consider you a suspect in this infraction, ergo, another Operator is responsible. Your task now, non-optional and in immediate effect, is to assist with the identification and apprehension of this rogue WorkSpace element. To assist you with this task you will be fitted with a mobile Job prosthetic, I imagine you are familiar with the concept—your Job is going with you from now on.”
We had all read the specs; mobile Jobs are a skeletally bonded variant of the more cumbersome exo-unit we use daily, correctly integrated they apprently can assist with biofeedback analysis (a polygraph with shoes, essentially), provide enhanced net access and, if necessary, a degree of organic boost. We had all also noted a number of less conspicuous spec footnotes; this type of Job modification will also, where relevant (whatever that means), make WorkSpace mandated override decisons on the Operator, for example: diet enforcement, and the euphemistically named: loyalty action recommendations.
“Please note that this assignment does not in any way reduce your normal responsibilities to WorkSpace, nor does it, in any way, imply an enhancement to your current WorkSpace employment status.”
I was wondering about that, the replacement of the standard Job immersion apparatus with an internally integrated Job kink is usually the preserve of Prime management members. This is the good bit—I’m going RL mobile with Babs in tow. Everything else is a fucking disaster; I’ve been turned, trussed and stuffed—a stool pigeon equally cursed and blessed.
And FFS, I’m still going to have to go on the team building sessions.
“A final note, Operator, the attendant fiscal loss incurred as a result of your carelessness has not been forgotten. The full amount will be salary index linked and payback amortized over your remaining lifetime, with an in perpetua ancestor clause active until debt completion.
“Now, please report to WorkSpace Surgical.”