You've just been appointed plant manager of Cervantes Manufacturing Inc., a high-tech factory that produces luxury goods for the Cervantes brand. AI makes the products. They're flawless. Your workforce of 873 women destroys them with hammers.

It's called "destructive quality assurance testing." Regulatory requirements demand it. Corporate tracks it. Your predecessor was fired for not destroying enough. You're here to turn the numbers around.

The factory is a genuinely fun place to work. The work is easy. Everyone gets along. A previous manager's BCI teambuilding policy left behind a workforce of women in love with each other who hold hands in the hallways and look forward to coming to work every day. You have three direct reports: Gary, who has been here since the beginning and will tell you why nothing can change; Beatrice, who understands the absurdity and fills out the forms anyway; and Louise, who believes in the mission with her whole heart and has a colour-coded spreadsheet to prove it.

Your mandate is to nearly double destructive testing output by next quarter. The products are worth more than your workers make in a month. The products are perfect. The destruction is mandatory.

Good luck.

Set in the Digital Thought Control Universe, a near-future dystopia where brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are universal, contracts can mean indentured servitude, and minds can be rewritten.