Education

TIME TO STRATEGY EXECUTION: 45 DAYS

The global strategy is now officially in “deployment,” the initial step in its execution, which is being managed by the Strategy Tracking, Response, Integration, Development, and Execution (STRIDE) office’s Execution group. Our General Assistance and Processing (GAP) team expected that this wouldn’t have an impact on us since we report to STRIDE’s director, Samantha Lazlo, but we were wrong.

“Having taken the initiative to educate the public,” Samantha began in a remote meeting with us this morning, “you will be exclusively helping the Education group roll out its public training program.” I glanced at Maura and Al, who looked as surprised as I was. “Their brainstorming with the test communities has yielded some promising results,” she continued, “and Victor Lansing is anxious to get you involved in field testing them.”

“Is Victor’s group now part of the Execution group?” Maura asked her.

“I’m sorry. I misspoke. Since the Education group also has other responsibilities, within WICO and on other projects, their Extinction Strategy Support team will be a functional report to our Execution group, and you will be reporting to that team. Victor is now exclusively managing its efforts.”

I couldn’t resist shaking my head in disbelief that such bureaucratic nit-picking still mattered. “Will we have any say in the content?” I asked hopefully.

“That will be up to Victor, but I expect not. However, Sally has expressed interest in pursuing any suggestions your team may have, since she is now managing WICO’s response to direct public inquiries. The CORE training you did yesterday was particularly helpful to her.”

“I’ve been wonderin’ what the cybercritter’s new role was gonna be,” Al said.

“That’s just one of her roles. To her, I think it’s more of a hobby.”

“Sure it is,” Al muttered.

Maura called Victor after the meeting. He will give us an in-person briefing this weekend. In the mean-time, he wants us to document what we already shared with the public, going back to our first PEAK tests.

“It’s like submittin’ a sample for a freakin’ job application,” Al said, reflecting my own reaction. 

Maura looked pensive. “I’d like to know what else he plans to do with it.”

Reality Check

My personal experience with organizations informs this scene, along with interest in exploring an intersection of two of my careers: as a test engineer, and as an educational developer/consultant.

Trial and Reorganization

TIME TO STRATEGY EXECUTION: 88 DAYS

In a terse press release, Secretary General Decatur announced that “trial of the 48 defendants charged with attempted omnicide by crashing the World Information and Coordination Organization’s physical servers, disabling or removing its software, and erasing its primary databases, is scheduled for Saturday through Monday at the Global Threats Tribunal in London. Anyone convicted will be sentenced on Tuesday.” Suggestions that Sally should be called as a material witness were dismissed after vigorous debate among the WICO ambassadors, but the clues that she dispersed prior to the crash were admitted as evidence. I was subpoenaed as a witness instead, ostensibly to validate what Sally gave me and discuss related reports in my blog posts, but I knew the questioning would likely go much, much deeper.

“We are running out of time,” Decatur said bluntly in a live broadcast to all WICO and attached personnel, including those of us in the Extinction Response Unit whose activities support the office of Strategy Tracking, Response, Integration, Development, and Execution. “Strategy execution cannot be delayed if we are to have any reasonable chance of survival. Contrary to the opinions of some outside and inside this organization, I remain the exclusive leader of the global emergency response and take full responsibility for it. Let there be no doubt: I am authorizing the use of every resource we can marshal, human and otherwise, to achieve that objective. The artificial lifeform known as Sally is one such resource who has willingly committed to do what needs to be done, just as the rest of us have.”

“He did it,” I said to Riddick as STRIDE’s Test team applauded along with the people on the screen who were at WICO headquarters. After the broadcast, she told us all that Sally was assigned to the assist all operations, with priority to our work, and without restriction. A recent restructuring of WICO’s management had left her in operational control of all of our activities while technically reporting to STRIDE through Ambassador Lazlo, who was now its official lead.

I realized that my reason for being there no longer existed. Sally had been fully cleared for duty, which meant there were no bugs for me to find, or evaluation required to identify and fill gaps in the strategy. Others who knew far more than me could wrap up the remaining work with Sally serving her original role and more. That said, I really wanted to stay and serve in whatever capacity I could. Luckily Riddick read my mind, and offered to discuss it tomorrow after getting reoriented and doing some research.

Reality Check

It makes the most sense that WICO would go all-in given the time constraint. The shortness of the “trial” is consistent with the virtual war footing that the world is in, where tolerance to sabotage could be fatal for the entire species.