Kaden was bored. This training session was surprisingly basic.
He sat with Bill and Jill at a small training table. Around them sat thirty other interns at similar tables. Despite the large group, the expansive training room was mostly empty.
Kaden sighed and looked around the room. Most of the other interns appeared to be listening attentively and taking notes. He saw Patricia sitting at the far side of the room, focused on her mobile device and ignoring the training. He looked for the stooges from Purchasing but did not see them in the room. Must be in a different training session.
Carol Roche, the HR manager from the first day, was the instructor. She had been droning on for nearly half an hour. Somehow she managed to suck all interest and life out of the topic. Kaden had been looking forward to diving deeper into wards and how they worked. Unfortunately, she continued reading slide after slide with repetitive reminders and restatements of the same facts over and over. It reminded him of his boring Physics teacher in high school, or the mandatory training he had to complete regularly during his military service.
Most of the content was depressingly basic, but Kaden did confirm a few things about wards that he had picked up from using them in the Mailroom.
First of all, the wards would not last forever. They consumed mana when they were activated. The larger the ward, the more energy required to keep it active. Like a battery, though, it was possible to recharge a ward.
The effect of wards wasn’t necessarily instantaneous. Wards pushed out their effects in pulses, usually at a pretty high frequency, so it was virtually continuous. This meant that timing was important. In many cases, for wards to be effective, Kaden realized he would have to anticipate what ward to activate ahead of time.
Lastly and most importantly, wards were programmable, within limits; using Company technology, it was possible to inspect a ward’s code, copy it, and imprint that code on a special type of mana capacitor. That meant Kaden and his team could potentially find and copy lots of different wards around the Tower for their use later on.
Carol’s tone of voice started to change slightly, so Kaden perked up. Perhaps she was moving on to something new?
“So that concludes the introductory part of today’s training. Any questions?” Carol looked around expectantly. No questions; just a few stifled yawns.
Carol opened the lid on a large box on the table in front of her. “Now comes the fun part! Everyone will receive three brand new ward caps. Once you get your caps, go ahead and register them to your individual Company mobile. These will be part of the equipment you will need for the Phase I exam, so don’t lose them!”
Carol continued. “Your assignment for today will be to inspect and replicate the sound dampening ward inside this room. Use your Company specs to inspect the wards, which are physically located at the end of each light fixture. Follow the prompts to replicate the code and install it onto only one of your wards. You’ll need a power source to fill and test your capacitor, and each table should have its own mana power block for your use. Let me know if you need anything!”
Now that she mentioned it, Kaden realized that the sound in this room did not carry in the way that it should. With a wide open space and nothing but hard surfaces, there should have been an empty, echoing quality to sound in the room. Instead, there were virtually no echoes.
Kaden’s group received their ward caps and returned to the table. Each ward cap was a matte black cylinder a little larger than a shotgun shell, with a blue stripe along the body. One end had a bump on the outside, the opposite end had a concave indentation, like a battery.
Almost everyone had received their allotment and were sitting back down, focused on pairing their three ward caps with their individual mobiles; however, Kaden noticed the last group was Patricia and her team. He watched as Patricia stuck her hand out to each of her other team members, taking one ward cap from each. Patricia walked back to her table with five ward caps in her hands.
Seems like she will literally do anything to get ahead, Kaden thought to himself.
Carol approached their table. “Have you paired your devices successfully?” she asked the group.
“Actually,” Kaden started, “I have a question. Do we have to copy the sound ward for this assignment, or can we do something else?”
“I don’t believe anyone has asked that before,” she said, not exactly sure how to respond. “While technically I suppose that it would be acceptable for you to work on a different ward, I should remind you that you must successfully complete this training in order to move forward with the program.”
Kaden frowned. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“In order to pass the training, you need to successfully imprint a ward on one of your devices within the next thirty minutes. The assignment is the sound dampening field. But I suppose if you completed a different one, I might be able to pass you. But if you failed to complete the assignment, I’m afraid that would be a performance issue requiring a job action.” Carol smiled regretfully.
Kaden took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “OK - got it. Also, is it possible to get more of these ward caps before the exam?”
“Yes there are. The top three teams will receive rewards at the end of each week. Some of those rewards include additional caps.”
“Thanks!” he said to Carol before motioning for Bill and Jill’s attention.
“Listen up team, we need to think this through.”
Both looked up from their work on the ward caps.
“We need to talk strategy for our use of these caps.”
Bill frowned. “How you mean, bro?”
“So do you remember how Carol was saying that these are brand new caps, never been used? Also how once used for a particular ward, the cap itself ‘remembers’ that initial imprinting. While it’s possible to change it later, it will be difficult and expensive.”
Bill was starting to nod his head. “These are a limited resource for us, and whatever ward we put on them will likely have to stay.”
“That’s right,” Kaden said. “It may be possible for us to get our hands on more of these in the future, but it’s not guaranteed. Also I don’t see why as a team we would need three of the same type of ward. We can program any ward we need on to these blanks we received today. All we need to do is find and copy the code for the wards we need.”
“But what about completing the assignment?” Jill said. “We have to do what she says so we can remain in the program.”
“You’re not wrong,” Kaden replied, “but my goal isn’t just to stay in the program. I want to be in the top ten at the end of the summer. To do that, we’re going to have to take some risks.”
Kaden let that sink in, looking back and forth from Bill to Jill. They were listening.
“We don’t have to risk everything. Here’s what I suggest - each of us should prepare one of the caps to receive the assigned sound proofing ward. Take it all the way until the last step. Set that aside; if we run out of time, return to that cap and complete the assignment at the last minute. That’s our backup plan.
“With the time we have remaining, focus on copying one or more of the other wards in this room. I suspect there are some pretty interesting and powerful wards available to us here.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Bill nodded. “Makes sense – I’m with you, we need to take small risks along the way if we’re going to reach the top.” Bill thought for a moment, gazing up at the ceiling. “There’s a large variety of field and force stabilization fields within this room. Let me take a quick look at a few of them and see what’s good.”
“But what about your sound dampening ward?” Jill asked.
“Actually, already done,” Bill said, holding up one of his caps.
“Dude that was fast,” Kaden said, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, this is pretty simple stuff. I’ve been doing a lot with more complicated wards during the day job in marketing.” Bill shrugged. “Some pretty cool stuff with musical instruments, I’ll have to tell you guys about it sometime soon.”
Kaden turned to Jill. “What about you? How are you doing?”
Jill nodded. “About halfway. I’m not familiar with the ward imprinting interface and so I was taking a few minutes to familiarize myself with all the options. In case we wanted to optimize our caps.
“We only have 22 minutes left,” Jill continued. “Let’s focus on completing the assignment.”
Kaden went to work. His teammates were almost done and he had yet to start. With the guidance from the training fresh in his mind, he quickly found the sound dampening field and decoded the signal with the app for that purpose on his mobile. Copying it over to the imprinting module took a few minutes as he figured out the controls, but it was pretty simple. The code itself was pretty long, or so it seemed to Kaden, but he didn’t waste any time inspecting it. Something to do later, he told himself.
“Right on!” Bill exclaimed, fist pumping the air. “I just found a truly radical ward, dudes.”
“What did you get? Kaden asked.
Bill leaned forward in a conspiratorial whisper. “So in order to complete this exercise, they’ve relaxed some of the security protocols. So we can see and copy the underlying code.”
Kaden’s eyes widened. Made sense, though. Why should it be so easy to inspect and copy these wards? All the more reason to take advantage of this training to find and copy the code for as many wards as possible.
“So I went after one of the key structural wards of this space. It’s called the ‘null’ ward.”
Kaden looked to Jill, but she didn’t recognize it either.
“I’m sorry – the what?”
Bill just shook his head. “I’ll explain later. In the meantime, we should totally copy down all the ward code we can get and parse it out later.
“Already on it,” Jill replied.
The group worked quietly for the next ten minutes. Occasionally Bill and Jill would consult what each other was doing in rapid and rushed tones. Kaden took an occasional glance around the room but no one else seemed to be in a hurry or trying to do what they were doing. He saw a lot of bored and idle faces. Good, he thought to himself. We need an advantage if we can create one.
With about five minutes left, Bill looked up at Kaden. “How’s your progress man? Have you imprinted a second ward?”
“No not yet. In fact I was going to ask if you had a recommendation.”
“Sure thing, let me see what you’re working on,” Bill said, moving around the table to look over Kaden’s shoulder. “Jill – did you get the gravity one?”
“I have the code but did not imprint it.” Jill replied.
“OK – I think that’s a good one for you to have, “ Bill replied. “Could help you with some of your deliveries as well.”
Kaden had been thinking the same thing.
“But hold on a minute, bro, let me tweak something for you.” Kaden wasn’t sure what Bill wanted to do, but he handed over his mobile.
‘“What do you want to tweak?”
“Some of the basic parameters. The code for this room’s wards generally rely on a much larger power source. The reason they asked us to start with the sound ward for this exercise is because the power source is basically the same as the caps we received, so no need to change any code for it to work. Let me just tweak the power parameters and you should be good to go.”
Kaden thanked Bill and took his mobile back. He was certainly grateful to have Bill’s expertise. Jill also seemed to know a lot about what was going on and how to dig under the surface; he was starting to feel pretty good about his teammates’ capabilities.
Carol approached their table. “So how is this group doing? Is everyone done with the assignment?”
“Almost there,” Kaden replied as he watched the status bar fill up on his mobile. With the imprinting complete, he handed over his ward cap to Carol.
She scanned, frowned, and scanned it again.
“Is everything alright?” Kaden asked.
“No, I’m afraid not. It’s a fully functional ward, but not the official assignment.”
“And you said that you could pass me if that’s what I did.”
Carol smiled regretfully. “I’m sorry you misunderstood me but I’m afraid I will have to ask you to follow me and exit the Tower.”
Before Kaden could object further or pursue the backup plan, Alexander Wolfe approached their table.
“Hello, Carol. How’s the new crop of candidates looking?” he asked.
“Oh Mr. Wolfe, I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I just dropped by to see how things were going. Any issues?”
“No issues,” she replied breezily. “Just one of the interns didn’t complete the proper assignment.”
Alexander raised an eyebrow. “Really. That’s unfortunate,” he said, hand outstretched.
Reluctantly, Carol handed over the cap and testing apparatus.
Alexander took a quick look. “What am I missing? Looks fully functional,” he said.
“That’s correct, but it was the wrong assignment. The interns were supposed to copy the sound dampening ward for this assignment.”
Mr. Wolfe sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, almost theatrically.
“Carol. Dear. Where to begin,” he said, shaking his head.
“We’re not training little HR automatons here,” he snapped, shoving the testing apparatus back in her hands. “We are separating the wheat from the chaff. We’re looking for the diamond in the rough. We want to reward and incentivize innovation, not punish it.”
Carol swallowed, her face frozen in an awkward smile desperately trying to hide her embarrassment.
“So you want me to allow –” she said, but Alexander interrupted her.
“I want you to use your brain, or you’ll be the one escorted from the premises.”
Alexander handed the ward back to Kaden. “Good idea. Keep it up. Looking forward to seeing what you can do.”
And with that, Alexander turned and left.
Kaden risked a glance at Carol, who was trying to compose herself. She started walking away, shooting Kaden a sharp glare as she turned.
He sighed. Another enemy. It was not good to make enemies in HR, Kaden knew that.
Apparently time was up, as the class began exiting the room.
A system notification popped up in Kaden’s field of view. Curious, he pulled it up.
Congrats! You have a new ranking: Ward Proficiency: Grade E
Interesting, Kaden thought. So the Company and its systems tracked skills and training completions, like a game. He wondered how far the similarities to gaming extended.
“That was awkward with Carol at the end, but I’m glad you said something at the start of this exercise,” Jill said. “That was the right idea.”
“Yeah, dude. We totally scored on this training,” Bill chimed in, raising his hand to give Kaden a high five.
Kaden took it with a half-hearted grin. “Thanks! I hope the thing with Carol doesn’t come back to bite me.”