The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) by Max Dane

something.
    “Hey guys, do you have a minute?”
    David said, “Ryan, true or false; the
Star Wars Death Star was the most powerful starship of all time?”
    “No,” said Jim, “you know it was the
Enterprise from the old Star Trek series.”

Without hesitating Ryan said, “No, it was the Borg ship from Star Trek.”
The two disgruntled programmers sat back down.
     
    Ryan went into Jim’s cubicle.
“Jim, I’ve sent you mail that has criteria for twelve search comparisons
exactly like the one you described to me last week. I was hoping you would run
the same test routine on them?”
    “Sure, just let me see what you sent me
first.” Moving very quickly through his mail he said, “You know the Borg
actually lost the war. Ah, here it is, let’s see what you’ve got.”
     
    After a moment Jim turned back to Ryan,
“Sure, I understand what you have here. I can do it. How many records should I
compare against?”
“All of them, or I mean as many as there are for each treatment,” he said,
paused and then added, “It’s the only way to be sure.”
“Ok, that was an Aliens reference wasn’t it?”
     
    Ryan just laughed, “Listen Jim, this
part is really important. I spent the last two days picking these exact fields,
no substitutions, Ok?”
    “Got it, Ryan, I’ll be extra careful.”
    Ryan turned to leave, and then paused.
    “Thanks Jim, how long do you think it will take?”
    “I’ve got a few things burning in the
queue, and then I’ll need to script up the query again. I believe I can have
the results to you some time tomorrow afternoon?”
     
    Very pleased, Ryan said thanks again
and headed back to his office.
    This was a good search, and he was
looking forward to catching something.
     
     
     
     
    After Ryan left, Jim looked at the
information he’d sent for the data comparison. It was a good test. He hoped he
would have something to show for it.
     
    Jim said, “Hey Dave, do you have any
better ideas for trying to help Ryan?”
”No, not really,” he said, “It’s a difficult assignment. I don’t really think
he’s going to find any answers this way.”
    “Yeah, I think I agree.”
     
    “So you know of course that the Enterprise
could have wiped out a ton of Star Destroyers.” He didn’t really care, but he
loved getting David worked up.
    David went into a huge speech about why it wasn’t true.
    Without saying a word, Jim snuck out
while he was still talking. He wanted to hit the gym downstairs for a little
while. He had a date tonight and he always liked to feel ‘ripped’ before going
out. Crouching low, he made his way off the floor.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    The next morning, Ryan remembered to
get Alex to school a little early. On the way to school, Alex complained about
his stomach bothering him. It was the kind of thing that happened from time to
time, and it usually amounted to nothing more than Alex trying to duck out of a
dinner he didn’t like. Ryan, now a little desensitized to stomach complaints,
pulled into the school, and looked him over.
    “Ah, you’re fine. Have a great day, and
I’ll see you when I get home.”
    Alex unfastened the seatbelt, and got
out of the car.
    As he walked towards the front doors of
the school, Ryan yelled, “I love you!”
Alex turned and waved slightly but kept going.
     
    Ryan looked past Alex, and through the
glass exterior of the school foyer he could see long lines of children. The
lines wrapped around the foyer and disappeared beyond his view. There were
several nurses set up on one side, vaccinating the kids with the usual arm
injections. It all looked very organized, and they seemed to be moving quickly.
‘Ah, the wonders of modern medicine,’ he thought as he drove away.
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Later that morning, there was a light
knock on the door. Ryan looked up to see Ben James in the doorway.
     
      “Morning Ryan, I thought I’d check on you, and see how things were
going.”
    “Hi Ben, please come in,”