The Dane Commission (The Dane Chronicles) (4 page)

And with that, Josh stepped out of the
room leaving Ryan alone in the chair facing the opposite side of the narrow
window. After a minute or two, he heard Josh through speakers overhead.
“Ok Ryan, we’re going to begin now. Please remain seated, and keep your hands
and feet inside the circle on the floor.”

He looked down and saw that a glowing
ring had formed around the chair. Suddenly the ring began to rise up becoming
the top of a cylinder that rose until it was well over his head. Now he
understood why Josh had called him the ‘man-in-the-can’.
It was exactly like that.
He was in some kind of can, open at the top and with a circumference of about 4
feet, or roughly open enough to allow him to sit and stand comfortably.

“Mr. Dane, are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Great. We’re going to start now, so
try not to move too much. It’s okay if you need to scratch or shift, just know
that whatever scan is being performed at that moment will probably re-start
once you’ve settled again. It’s all automatic.”

“I’ll play some music for you, do you
like the old rock?”

Somewhere, a band started playing
something about a hotel.

Ryan thought to himself, ‘Man, this is
going to be a long day.’

After an eternity of bad music, Ryan
realized he had fallen asleep. Waking in the can, he felt disoriented and
wondered what time it was.
“Josh?”

After a moment, “Yeah, I’m here Ryan,
is everything ok?”

“Yes, I think so. I think I fell
asleep; did that mess anything up?” he asked.

A very alert Josh replied happily, “No,
in fact we were able to make it through the procedure without any of the usual
breaks. In fact, I’m done an hour ahead of time. Just hold on another second
for me.”
Suddenly the ‘can’ descended into the floor again. Across the room, the door
opened and Josh appeared.

“You did great, and you’ll be happy to
know that you have no apparent abnormalities.”

Ryan wasn’t really expecting a report,
but all things considered, took it in good stride.

“Thanks Josh, that’s good news. What’s
next?”

“Let's get your things and you can go
home.”

Ryan stood up and followed him, still
in a bit of a fog after the ‘nap-in-the-can’.

With less conversation this time, they
made their way to the front entry area, and to the elevators. The doors opened,
Ryan stepped inside.
“Mr. Dane, it was nice to meet you,” said Josh smiling, ”I hope you enjoy
working here.”

This time Ryan was grateful the
elevator took him to the garage without needing any direction. He made his way
to his car, and started the stereo. The announcer said, “… and today we wrap up
our oldies but goodies with a song my dad loved, Hotel California by the
Eagles.”

Ryan turned the stereo off, started the
car and drove home.

That night Ryan found himself at the
dinner table answering more questions about his new job. His wife was
interested in the hardware, comparing it to her own clinic.

“What model did they say it was?”

He tried to remember what Josh had said,
“It had a long name, something about Neutrino and Positron emissions.”

Slightly annoyed Jean asked, “Well,
what did it look like?”

“Well I’m not exactly sure. It kind of
corkscrewed up out of the floor around me. The tech called me the
man-in-the-can
.”
Alex liked it already, “I want to do it too, Daddy!”

Jean said, “That sounds like very
cutting-edge stuff. Ours still have beds that the patient lies on. So how many
scans did they do?”

“Well, I don’t really know for sure.
The technician said each scan and analysis took about a minute.”
He got up to re-fill his tea, trying to remember the details.

“I was in there for about three and a
half hours, so-”

“What?” she said startled and a little concerned. She set her plate down.

“Ryan, why would they do that? The
typical scans in my clinic last about 20 minutes, and only for the most complex
analysis. That’s a lot of looking around inside of you, if you ask me.”

“Yeah, I was kind of surprised too, but
when I asked about it, they said that all IntelliHealth employees agree to
share their medical information with the research pool for use as reference
material.”

“Oh, well that’s okay I guess,” she
said relaxing a little.

Rising to take his dishes to the
kitchen sink, he added, “At least they said that I had no abnormalities.”

“Yes, well no one asked me or Alex, did
they?”
She smiled at Alexander, who smiled back, happy to be in on the joke.

Later that night Jean helped Alex with
some artwork for school, something about the important role of trees. There
were pictures of trees and a paragraph he had to write himself. Ryan listened
from the video room. The news was describing a weather formation somewhere off
the coast. His orientation was over, and tomorrow he would actually report for
work. He couldn’t help but smile.

Things were getting better.

Ryan fell asleep on the couch, and
stayed there until just before midnight when he woke to Jean calling him.
“Ryan, you better come to bed before you start to have nightmares.”

He opened his eyes slowly and saw that
there was a horror movie playing on the vid. Some teen was shooting at an alien
with one eye.
’Always a bad move,’ he thought.

He stood up, turned off the receiver
and went to bed.

CHAPTER 3
“Demonic figures and occult themes have disappeared from modern magic.”
 
- David Copperfield

It was 7:01 AM as Ryan pulled into the
IntelliHealth parking lot. Dropping Alex off at school and making it to work
this morning had been slowed due to some over-night rain. Hating to be late,
Ryan had overcompensated, and had arrived noticeably early, equally bad, but
better than being late. He parked and collected his things.

Across the parking garage he saw the
elevators, waiting.

Overly smart and belligerent, they
taunted him from across the lot.
 

More alert than last time and
determined to win, he held his identification chip in his hand and slowly
approached his shiny-metal adversaries. The doors opened on cue as he
approached. As he stepped inside Ryan quickly waved his chip near the door, and
like magic his numbers 1, 18, 75, 76, and 82 appeared. Before the doors closed,
he pressed the glowing number 75. With an audible, ‘Yeah!” he punched the air.

He felt good all the way up.

Dropped off at the 75
^th
floor, Ryan made his way through the cubicle forest, still quite empty at this
time, and headed towards his office. As he approached, he saw a group of young
men leaving, all dressed in matching grayish overalls. They were pushing an
empty cart ahead of them. The last of them shut and locked his door. He arrived
at his door just as they disappeared around a bend down the hall.

Curious, he turned back to his door,
waved his ID ship, and the door opened. Inside he found a new computer monitor
on his desk.

He sat down, unloaded his satchel, and
turned to look at his new computer. Aside from the monitor itself there were no
cables, with only the typical mouse and keyboard sitting in front. The new
screen was large enough that it blocked out most of his only window. He moved
the arrangement 90 degrees clockwise, and now he could see out again. As he
moved the monitor, a small note fell off the bottom.
‘
To begin, just say your name.’

Getting comfortable again, in a
slightly louder-than-usual voice he said, “Ryan Dane.”

Instantly the monitor powered up. A wonderfully
efficient start-up program flashed a picture of his face on the screen. He
noticed that it was a live image, and looked closely for a camera on the
monitor.
A smooth voice suddenly emerged from tiny speakers at the bottom.
“You are identified as new employee, 010155239, Ryan Dane, a member of the
Information Use and Services Department.”

The image of his face minimized to the upper left corner.
The login program showed a list of steps and appeared to be checking them off
on the left. In the middle there was a page of text that was titled Agreement
of Confidentiality.

“Mr. Dane, please indicate your
understanding and agreement with the IntelliHealth code of ethics and
confidentiality regarding the sacred data held within the boundaries of the
IntelliHealth Earth-net. This information must be held and used for the
betterment of all mankind. No deviation from our mission will be accepted for
any reason. To indicate your understanding and agreement, please say so now.”

Clearly, the program was waiting on
him.
The speech Ryan just heard seemed a little over the top, and not too distant
from Schnell’s orientation two days ago. Not sure what to say exactly, he
considered his options.
‘I swear by my sword to only use the information herein for good!’
Or maybe something like,
‘For God and Country I shall obey!’
He even wondered if a pinky-swear would work.

He could go on.

But, in the end, he went with, “Yes, I
understand and agree.”

Immediately, the voice responded, “I
will now show you which data directories you are authorized to access.”
The text agreement disappeared and a new window showed a list of what looked to
Ryan like directory names.

“You can access any of these
directories, or recall the list by typing or stating ‘directory assist’.”

The list disappeared, to be replaced by
a login screen with two fields. His ID was already filled in and read,
‘rdane00’. The password field just below was empty.

“You may not always work on a terminal
with voice and facial recognition; therefore it is necessary that you also
select a password at this time. Please say or type your new password now.”
He was on the spot for a password. Going with what he was used to, he picked a
password he had used at his previous job. After typing it, the voice asked him
to type it again, and then seemed happy with the results.

The computer start-up program showed
him how to access electronic and video mail, where his working programs could
be found and how to save his own data. The whole process was fairly intuitive,
and overall not too different from what he was used to. They were even a little
easier. Sure he still had questions, but they were more about what applications
were available, then how to use them. The IntelliHealth people must have worked
hard to build a system that supported their work, rather than act as a
cyber-middle man.
It showed.

Outside the rest of the people had
arrived and were bustling about. He thought he could smell hot coffee brewing
somewhere. He realized he had been sitting at his desk for over an hour going
through his computer’s orientation. Getting up, he headed to the front to find
that coffee.

Theresa was there at her desk, but
heavily engaged in some sort of complaint from a man who also looked like an
employee. Voices were tense, but not overly aggressive. As he approached and
saw the scene, he turned to leave but Theresa called after him.

“Ryan is there something you need?”
“I was just going to ask where that coffee smell is coming from, but I see
you’re busy. I can find it.”

She pointed to one side, “Head that
way, you can’t miss it. Also, Ryan did you get your computer?”

“Yes, it’s on my desk, and I’ve already
been through the orientation,” he said.

“Very good, check your calendar. I’m
sure different people will want to meet with you today to help get you
started.”

“Ok, thanks.”

It was a good point. He should’ve done
that during the start-up stuff earlier. Going right back to his desk, he logged
back in, found his calendar and opened it up.

Sure enough, he had a meeting at 9:00
AM with his new boss, Mr. Ben James. Later it looked like he was to meet with
some programmers, and then this afternoon he was visiting with Ms. Dorothy
Allen, in the Patient Services Division.

With a few minutes to kill, he took a
look around the office and found the coffee, and a bagel. Then at 9:00 he went
up one floor and located Mr. James’ office. The door was open, and as he walked
up to it, Ben stood and walked around his desk to shake hands with Ryan.
“There you are Ryan, welcome. Please come in, and have a seat. How are things
so far? Are you getting your bearings yet?”