I like this. Slowed the story way down. The calm before the storm if you will.
I’ve got nothing right now, but I’ll come back to it tonight. I’m just like Phil, sitting in my cubicle pondering the next move, as it’s an important one.

This one seems to have a nice balance between the sci-fi elements and a very real feeling of a mundane day at the office sort of stuff.

Gotta echo the above, we’ve got a nice fresh start here with enough of the previous elements to draw on as necessary. An excellent segue, nice work.

“selective culling” brilliant way of describing coding and management.