601

Recruiter: “Have you worked as a temp before?” Caedmon: “No, this will be an entirely new experience for me. I expect I’ll learn much.”
Recruiter: “Well, to place you, we’ll need either your work background or the scores on tests that we gave you, so that we know what you’re capable of doing.”
Caedmon (thought bubble): Dangerous wording on your part. Recruiter: “I think we game you the whole battery of tests. Word processing, spreadsheet, database…”
Caedmon (thought bubble): …and I broke your computer. Recruiter: “Why do all the test scores say 601!?”

The secret to the “601” will be known to anyone who has seen the still-brilliant 1971 film The Andromeda Strain. (Do not, repeat, NOT attempt to watch the horrifyingly bad made-for-TV remake!) When the scientists studying an extra-terrestrial organism ask the computer to extrapolate its growth capability, the system suffers an overload, displaying “601” on all the screens. We are privy to our clever badger’s snarky comment, thus we see him in his anthro form. He’d probably overload the placement agent, if she saw him as he really is!

Chapter

  • Caedmon the Office Temp

Location

  • Caedmon's Workplaces

Characters

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Older Comments (Closed for Reply)

Kantuck Nadie Nata-akon
August 11, 2019, 3:02 pm
I didn’t know they even MADE a remake. But yes, I caught that reference immediately. Excellent line to use! Not many know of the movie, which I grew up with. I even thought it actually happen for a long time. Reading the book didn’t quite help that as well.
(giggles) He’ll work out just fine.
 
Darevenin
August 12, 2019, 2:03 pm
Give that badger a badge! 😉
 
Tristan Black Wolf
August 13, 2019, 12:11 am
He won the job on his qualifications, which makes him a merit badger…
 
protoborg
November 5, 2019, 5:56 pm
Boo hiss!