Cassidy strolled past the receptionist, barely paying her any mind as she entered through the ID-locked door. She was one of the new hires that had answered the Future Farms’ job advert. With how many positions were open and how relaxed the requirements there were, she didn’t see the harm in trying despite her lack of formal education in IT.
With how many applicants were there, Cassidy was surprised when she got that call. Of course, there were tons of others that also were approved. It was crazy to think that they needed to set up multiple, separate orientations just for the new employees, especially when her orientation team had to be close to 50 strong. She learned that the machines were just about completely automated with some kind of super-AI handling all the heavy lifting. She was simply there to make sure the machine didn’t make any mistakes and to press “next.”
Some newbie by the name of Alan had piped up, asking what kind of mistakes at the time. His response was that the machine used top-of-the-line genetic engineering to reach expected numbers. For example, it once shrank a pig down to the size of a toy trying to make it weigh the same as a chicken. Another time, it blew up a rat and made it very milkable.
Cassidy cleared her mind. She’d been here for close to a month at this point. The work was insanely easy, and most days were spent updating an accountant’s PC or fixing light bulbs. Her shifts with the primary machine were uneventful; not a single problem had occurred while she was on duty. If anything, she was just a note-taker for the researchers or a janitor for when the animals chose a bad time to relieve themselves.
She clocked in, then headed to her lead’s desk. Carl looked up from his monitor. “Cass. You know what you’re doing today?”
“Machine shift, right?”
“Yeah. But you’re closing duty.” Cassidy’s eyes brightened for a moment, and the shift in her demeanor was apparently noticed. “Don’t even think about it, Cass. You’re a sharp one, but you should give yourself a few years before you try fooling around with it. See how it makes mistakes so you don’t walk into any of them yourself.”
Cassidy frowned. One of the games that her coworkers played was body-modding. As long as you did it to yourself and you weren’t turned into livestock, the company would only add a warning to your record. Most of the older technicians and scientists participated. Most added minor features like restored hair, abnormal skin color, or horn nubs. Some went a step further, like switching out their ears or legs for that of an animal, or growing a tail. There were even a couple extreme cases, like Dalton, the researcher that turned himself into a straight-up minotaur. He was required to move onto the farm until the company could reverse what he did to himself.
“Alright, fine. I won’t do anything but close it up.” She muttered, then left for her assigned task.
“I’m serious, Cass!” Carl half-shouted from his desk.
She gave a terse nod. It’s not like she’d get it wrong. The machine was stupid-easy to modify, as it autofilled everything for you. Her changes weren’t even that extreme. Tons of her female coworkers had obviously done the same. When she was first hired, she was stunned by the average size of every woman’s tits in this company. She thought it was questionable hiring practices at first, but it didn’t take long to realize that they’d almost certainly got the machine to give themselves a boost in the assets department. She wasn’t the envious type, but it was awkward to be one of the smallest sets in the room.
Her daily activities were nothing out of the ordinary. The machine never failed, so she didn’t have anything pressing to do. She carefully watched how the operators made use of the machine, and each step the machine took between the animals for that day.
The last of her coworkers waved goodbye for the day, leaving Cassidy in the room alone.