Project Overworld

It was finally time. After a couple of weeks of intense preparation, the four American Spacol members were about to take place in an examination to, hopefully, join the ranks of the NASA.

Keith could not fully believe it yet. Ever since he was a kid, he has dreamed of joining this organization. To be fair, most children dreamed of becoming an astronaut and exploring space, so he was not that special in that regard. However, he currently has a shot at joining the NASA and he would not let this opportunity slip between his fingers.

He was about twenty-five years old and his profesionnal life just began. He started working in a factory two years ago, when he was still focused in his favorite game Project Overworld. Being offered such this opportunity at such a young age was something unfathomable to his past self.

However, Keith assumed it would be the same situation for his friends so he tried his best to keep his calm and appear as the leader he was supposed to be. The Spacol members would often try and not get involved in gaming stuff in the 'real world', so Keith was not really supposed to be their leader in any shape or form. In fact, they were mostly acting like friends and sometimes partied together. Though, since he was the one who negotiated for them to also get an opporunity to join the NASA, he felt like he had to maintain a certain composure.

In any case, the four of them had already gathered several days before the event inside of Keith's parents' house because Leyla was living so far away from the District of Columbia. They utilized this time to further train their engineering skills by dismantling and reassembling their quad engine and building a few other parts to decorate the vehicle.

The day before the examination, they reserved an hotel in Washington to avoid most traffic problems entering the city on the D-day. They were currently all waiting at the entrance of the NASA building after announing themselves to the receptionist.

- "So, how do you guys think this will be going?" Tyler inquired.

It was Michael who took the initiative to answer him : "Relax man! I don't think they'd ask us to work on a really large project."

Keith was surprised about how calm his friend was and agreed on his point of view : "That's, in fact, what I was thinking. This is supposed to be solved by young engineers who do not necessarily have a lot of experience in that domain, so I won't expect them to be asking us to build rockets yet." He jokingly said. "However, I do think they'll try and put us in tricky situations, be it resource-wise or tool-wise. As for the goal itself, it could be ranging from simple written exercises to small device to build from scratch, if not both. I hope you did study the plans of our vehicle because you'll certainly need physics and mathematics for this examination." He gravely concluded.

- "Yes sir!" Michael gave a military salute.

After a couple more dozen of minutes, Horace Johnson himself went and introduced to the group of four people : "Keith, nice to see you again. You must be his friends, I'm glad I was able to meet you all before the test. I do hope you are as proficient as he claims you to be." He said with an underlying tone. "In about thirty minutes, everyone participant will be called towards a meeting room and one of my colleague will be introducing all the rules for this examination. After which, you'll all be on yourself, no teaming up for the time being." He told them.

- "Horace. I don't think that's the sole reason why you came here to meet with us." Keith inquired

- "Well, you're as sharp as ever. In fact, I just wanted to warn you all the written exam. There might be some really tricky questions but you won't need to answer them all. In fact, we'd much rather have you fully explain your thoughts process over easier questions than wasting time over complex ones. As for the practical test, the plans that will be handed to you may have some minor and major flaws that you will have to correct before finishing the product, or else it might not be working as intended." He explained. "I think that's all I wanted to say... Oh yeah, try and make acquaintances along the way, it'll never be detrimental for your future." He told them before leaving the area.

- "Thanks for the advice, but why to you tell us all of this?" Keith could not help but wonder.

- "Well, maybe because I know you could be accomplishing great things for the NASA. Let's just hope the future proves me right." He explained while leaving.

'Then why don't you make us skip the evaluation entirely?' He wanted to ask but held himself from doing so. In fact, the formalities should be pretty conspicuous to go through for such an important administration and he could not expect one man to go against the rules that easily. Instead, the young man started focusing intensly on the knowledge he had gathered over the years so he would be ready for the test.

Just as Horace told them, the first dozen of minutes were booked by a man who started explaining how the test would be unfolding itself. Afterwards, the participants were brought inside a large ampitheatre where they were handed written tests to complete.

They were only given three hours to answer a total of one hundred questions, but Keith decided to listen to the advices Horace gave to them and only anwered about thirty of those. He tried to pick ones who differed quite largely from each other so he could be showing off the extent of his knowledge. He also only picked up questions he knew he could be answering quite easily, as it would be detrimental for him to waste any time.

In any case, the quiz featured questions ranging from mathematics and physics problems all the way to funny riddles who seemed a lot more easier to solve than they actually were. After this long written examination, the candidates were brought to a large cafetaria where they would be spending their lunch time along with several NASA employees.

'Oh yeah, Horace told us to make some acquaintances, didn't he?' Keith realized. Thus, instead of immediately going to meet with his friends, he went to an already occupied table and asked for the occupants if he could be seating there. Two men in their mid-thirties were seated there, talking about various things. Upon seeing Keith, they immeditatly picked up on him being a candidate and asked him a couple of questions in that regard : "So, why did you try and apply to the NASA?" The man named Charlie inquired.

'Mhh, what should I be replying to that?' The young man meditated. 'I should just try and stay vague.' He concluded.

- "Well, I've been offered to take place in this exam by a human resource manager of the company." He simply explained.

- "Who was it?" The other man, Mathew, asked.

- "Horace Johnson was his name."

- "Wow, Horace personally introduced you to the NASA, that's quite impressive." Charlie remarked.

- "Why? Is he in a high position?" This time, Keith could not help his curiosity to leak out.

- "Ahah, you bet he is! He's the head of the human resources team." The man explained.

'No wonder he was able to recommend three of my friends along with me into the NASA.' Keith thought. 'Let's not waste this opportunity then!'

The conversation continued for the rest of the lunch break until the candidates were called out to proceed to the second part of the examination. This time, it would be a pratical test where they would be required to build a small remote controlled car. The remote control as well as the receiver would be furnished to the candidates, but they would have to code the motherboard and connect a battery to the wheels before finishing the structure of the vehicle.

'That's quite a complex project, isn't it?' Keith meditated. 'How much time do we have at our disposal anyways?' He stopped his reflexions to listen to the rest of explanations of the NASA employee.

- "You'll have a total of five hours to finish this up, after which you'll be required to leave your booth at once without touching anything else. Do NOT break the final product out of frustration, as we will be reviewing even unfinished ones." The man explained.

'Why does it sounds like he has already gone through this sort of situation.' Keith wondered.

- "Anyways, that's all for the explanations. Everyone, join your booth, the examination will be starting shortly!"