About one hundred and fifty years ago the government realised the role of sovereign nations was redundant. So began the great world war, the war to end all wars. And at the end the great unification. At first the world had a president, the great Robin Mallory, the man who had united the world under one rule.

But Mallory, the visionary that he was, recognised the limitations of a world governed by one man. Even he had weaknesses, blind spots, biases and eventually one of them would jeopardise his ability to make the right decision at a critical time.

So he started building W.OL.I - the worldwide organisation leadership initiative. It was a database of every individual in the world that could afford to run the necessary tests to be included. It involved extensive personality and intelligence tests, logs of skills, political leanings and everything else you could possibly imagine. Only twenty percent of the world was on the database, but it was growing over time. Anyone within WOLI was eligible for shortlisting for any government role. President included.

Different roles within the centralised government had different parameters. Some would last for a year or more and involve strategic or tactical objectives specific to the individual qualified. Others, such as president, were extremely transactional, once you completed the task necessary you were replaced by the next president, sometimes after only days or weeks. This transactional nature of the role, generated by a central AI in WOLI which was being fed every other decision made in the government across the globe, meant that in theory the president was always the ‘right man for the job’. Whatever that job ended up being.

And that’s how one day I opened up my email and found I’d been shortlisted for the next role as president. My potential tenure would be short, specifically a mechanical disparity across the different pjs masses of the world meant that repairs and parts were not being balanced properly and parts were having to be shipped across continents in a way that was sub optimal. It was the incoming presidents job to resolve this. As a mechanical technician class 4-B I was qualified for this role, as would thousands of others be.

A lot of people would jump at the opportunity, the fame, the publicity. Not me, I shuddered at the idea. A low panic rose in my gut, I needed to find a way to get out of this.