Database

The young red headed boy walked slowly down the corridor noting the names on the doors as he passed. Finally, he came to the one he had been looking for. He stood in front of it, shifting his weight nervously from foot to foot trying to decide what he would say to the occupant. The woman inside was an icon. She had shared many adventures with the boy's parents. She had been a close friend of his mother's and when his father spoke of her a hint of sadness crossed his eyes. Still undecided, he turned to look up the corridor in each direction. Suddenly, the door opened and a small woman briskly exited. She bumped into the boy sending him tumbling to the floor. She grabbed the bulkhead to steady her own uncertain balance.

"Young man," she said. "If you are going to wander down these corridors, I suggest you walk in the middle." Abruptly she turned and started off down the corridor.

" Ms. Benes...." He started, unsure what to say next.

The woman turned very slowly. When she faced him she looked him over from head to toe. "Do I know you?" She queried. She usually had little contact with second generation Alphans, but this one had a familiar look to him.

"I'm Richie."

The woman looked confused.

"Richard Koenig." He restated, blushing. He felt he was making a fool of himself.

"Hmmm, yes." She replied with a hint of a smile. "Not much resemblance to your father, is there?" She said it almost to herself and helped him from the floor.

Richard Koenig was used the remarks so they didn't offend him. He was aware that he did not bear the resemblance to his father that his older siblings did. Instead he took after his mother. Or her father, his grandfather, to be exact. He even modeled his ambitions after his mother. To follow her footsteps was his dream.

He looked at the woman now. She was pretty much the same as the photos he had seen of her, taken years ago. The gray had started to streak her hair distinguishing her looks. She walked with a slight stoop and her fingers were slightly disfigured. These were benchmarks of her disease he noted to himself.

"Well, young man, it was nice to meet you, but your mother has ordered me to walk some everyday, so I am going to do just that," She turned to go.

"Wait!" He bounded to her side. "I need to talk to you...please," he added. He gave her a pleading look.

"If you are going to talk to me you are going to have to get some exercise, too." She began walking again.

After they had covered several feet and Richard had still not said anything, Sandra initiated the conversation. "What could you possibly need to talk to an old woman like me about?"

After a few more seconds he replied. "I need your advice."

She continued on walking, waiting on him to expand on the statement.

"I go to Medical Center quite a bit with my mom. I'm going to be a doctor like her, you know." He stated matter-of-factly. "The other day I overheard her and Dr Vincent talking about how the current patient database was going to be obsolete soon. She told him it was designed to keep the records of the three hundred or so first generation plus a few extra, but in a generation or two it will be overloaded. No one is real worried about it now, but she's worried about it. I want to help my mom fix it but I don't how."

"Why come to me? There are a lot of people that could help you. Maybe they are already working on it."

"I heard my dad say you were the best. My mom and dad talk about you a lot." He looked at her admiringly. " I checked, no one is working on it. They haven't been asked."

She stopped and turned to face the boy, noticing his freckles for the first time. She liked the boy. "Why do you want to tackle this problem? You are so young."

"I want to do it for Mom. Alex and Emma are already learning about Eagles and all. Emma is always designing or redesigning something. Alex has done all kinds of things with his slate and computers. I want to do something, too." He had a determined look about him.

"Tell you what," She leaned over to look him in the eye. "Come to my quarters after school tomorrow and we will discuss it."

"Really? Thanks, Ms. Benes." He held out his hand in an adult manner.

Sandra took his hand and shook it. She watched as the boy turned and raced back down the corridor. "Remember Richie, stay in the middle!" She called after him.

She watched as he disappeared around the corner, then she turned and resumed her walk, oblivious to the smile on her face.

The next day when classes were over Richie excitedly ran toward the old section of Alpha. He had told his parents that he would be with a friend working on a project after school and he would be home for dinner. Reluctantly, they agreed. Richie was not as mischievous away from Alex and Emma and they had been discussing giving him more free time recently. Besides, if they needed to find him they could trace him through his slate.

As he approached Sandra Benes' quarters he made sure he walked in the middle of the corridor. Pulling his slate from his belt he announced his arrival to Sandra. The door opened and Sandra stood just inside the door. Richie entered her quarters cautiously. He knew from what he had overheard from the adults that Ms. Benes liked her privacy and few people other than her close friends like Uncle Alan and Mom had ever been inside.

"Hello, Richie. How was school today?"

"Fine." He said distracted by her decor.

Sandra watched the young man's eyes take in the contents of the room. Item by item he examined each piece in turn. Finally his eyes rested on a statue on a shelf.

"You have never seen anything like that before have you?" She took the statue of Buddha from the shelf and carefully handed it to Richard.

"No. What is it?" he stared at the object of curiosity.

"That is a statue of Buddha. He was an Indian philosopher and founder of a great religion.... Buddhism. I am sure you will learn about him in school soon."

"It's very nice. Why do you have it?" He still hadn't taken his eyes from the piece.

Sandra took a deep breath and wondered how she could explain her loss of faith to a ten-year-old. Although he was very smart and mature for his age she doubted he could identify with something he had never been exposed to. "Well, Richie, right after breakaway a lot of bad things happened and some people I loved died. I thought I could be happy by being a Buddhist because they teach you to strive for Enlightenment through meditation and reflection. I though it would make my pain and suffering go away. But I found I had to look within myself to find true happiness. To make myself happy."

"You're happy now? You seem sad. Daddy and Momma are sad when they talk about you."

"I am not sad Richie. Your Momma and Daddy are sad because I live alone and that I have a terrible disease. They do not understand that I like to be alone."

"So, is Buddhism bad because it couldn't make you happy?"

"No! Richie, just because it was not right for me does not mean it is a bad thing. Religion is good when you find the one that is right for you." She decided to change the subject before he asked too many more questions. Questions she felt John and Helena should address. "So, are you ready to get started on your project to save the next generation of Alphans?" She took the statue and placed it back on the shelf.

"Yes ma'am." Richie said with polite enthusiasm.

She motioned him to a seat on the sofa and chose a nearby chair that Alan had fashioned for her. It was a straight-backed chair, unlike the molded plastic chairs found all over Alpha. They were difficult for her to get out of and bad for her posture. Alan had taken exact measurements and made a chair for her that fit her exactly. She had been amazed at how comfortable it was, despite its severe style. Alan jokingly called it her throne, since he had made armrests and hand holds, and it encouraged an upright regal posture.

Richard had a tough time settling comfortably on the sofa. Although he was tall for his ten years, he was still too short to sit on the sofa with his feet on the floor. And Alphan sofas, like most of the other furniture had been designed for style over comfort by strange people back on Earth who had never intended to sit on them. He finally tucked his feet underneath him tailor fashion, hoping she wouldn't shout at him like his mother usually did when he put his feet on the furniture. Then he pulled his slate from his belt. "Emma says that when you have a problem, you start by deciding exactly what's wrong by breaking the problem down into little pieces."

Sandra placed her hand over her mouth as the boy quoted his elder sister who was not yet twelve. She had heard Alan give that advice to various trainees over the years, so she knew exactly where the instruction came from.

"So, after I talked to you yesterday, I thought about things, so I could explain it better and I wrote it down." He was tapping on his slate as he talked, oblivious of her amused expression. "Here's the problem: Mom said that the database is too limited to handle large records. Also, there's only space for a limited number of records. Right now, if someone has a lot of problems, they copy the person's permanent information into a new file and start over. They need to have a way to keep all the records for one person in the same file, and there needs to be more records. " He looked up from his slate and into her eyes. "Did you know that we now have almost twice as many people on Alpha and Loki as there were at Breakaway? And by the time I'm Mom's age, there may be as many as four times as many people."

"That will be quite a crowd." Sandra said mildly.

"What I don't understand is why the database is so small and limited."

"Well, you have to know something about Earth history to know that. We weren't supposed to stay on Alpha long enough for these things to matter."

"Yes. I like history," Richie said with enthusiasm. "Emma doesn't, she thinks it's boring. But it's all about why people did things, and how we got here. I don't see how that can be boring."

He smiled shyly at her. "Nobody ever calls me Richard."

"Well, they should," Sandra told him. "If you want to be listened to and taken seriously, you'll need to get people to respect you. One of the ways to do that is to insist on a bit of formality."

She watched the boy think this over carefully. He took his time deciding whether to accept this advice, and did not do her the disservice of glibly agreeing with her. Finally he nodded. "You're right, Ms. Benes. I think that's what Momma does, too. Almost everyone calls her Doctor Koenig, or Doctor Russell. Hardly anyone calls her by her first name and not even Daddy uses a nickname for her." Then he returned to their original topic. "How does Earth history effect our medical database?"

"When Alpha was built, it was part of a much larger organization."

"LSRO? Daddy and Momma have jackets with patches like that. So do most of the other grown-ups."

"No, ISO. The International Space Organization. They are the parent organization to the LSRO. They had to make sure they had enough resources to make Alpha work. So a lot of things were made as small and compact as possible."

"They were trying to save computer space?"

"Among other things," Sandra said with a smile. That was something Richard could understand. Sandra decided to go with that rather than have to explain about money to a child who had never used it, and never would.

"That makes sense. If they were saving room, they could have made the fields different though. The way they are now, they waste a lot of space when the information is smaller than the field size."

Sandra raised an eyebrow. She hadn't expected Richard to come up with such a major observation so soon. After she had return from her walk yesterday, she had pulled up the code for the database herself. Its fixed field format was the popular database type at the time Alpha was built, but it wasn't particularly flexible.

"And why would it limit the size of the database? We have room for about a thousand records that can be used, but that's all."

"The main database was on Earth. By limiting the size of Alpha's database, searches on files could be much quicker."

"If we had a field to mark active files, the searches could be just as quick," Richard suggested.

"That is a good point." She had fully expected Richie to arrive, ask a few questions and leave the programming to her, then try to take the credit for the work, but now she realized that he had put a lot of thought into this. She reached out a hand for his slate and he handed it over to her. She looked over his notes, nodding and highlighting several points. Then she made contact with Main Computer and requested information to be downloaded to the slate at request. "I have made a file of information that I think will be helpful to you. There is another type of databases I want you to look at. They may work better for our needs, but you will have to redefine the fields. By the time you have finished looking at these files, I will have placed some more information in a file that we will share. Email me if you have any questions, or stop by after school. You will be able to work any time you have some spare moments this way."

Richie beamed at her. "I'll start reading it right away. You don't mind if I ask a lot of questions do you?"

"As long as they are questions that show you're thinking about it first, I do not mind a bit." It came out more severely than she had meant it, but Richie seemed to take it as she meant it.

He slid off the sofa and took his slate, clipping it back to his belt. Now he'd be able to work on it anywhere, and Momma could be really surprised when he finished it. "Thanks Ms. Benes. This will be just perfect. "

Sandra smiled back, truly pleased to begin this endeavor with young Richard. "Richard," she called out to him as he was about to leave.

"Yes, ma'am?" he relied, stopping at the door.

"Since we are friends and workmates you may call me Sandra if you wish."

He looked undecided for a moment then his face flushed and he smiled broadly. "Okay, Ms....uh, I mean Sandra." Red-faced and beaming he turned and started home.

Helena Koenig filled Alex and Emma's plates as John filled their glasses. She gave John a worried look. It was unlike Richie to be late for dinner. Especially since he was trying so hard to earn his freedom. Until now Helena had resisted the temptation to locate their youngest son by his slate, but it was obvious that worry was winning out. She was about to pull her own slate from her belt and locate Richie when the door to the apartment opened and Richie came in. Taking his usual seat next to Emma, Richie muttered an apology in his mother's direction. This apparently did not satisfy John, and Helena could tell that he was about to grill Richie about his tardiness.

Trying to diffuse the situation and avoid a negative scene, Helena decided to try a distraction. "How was your day on the simulator, Emma?" she asked quickly. It wasn't the most brilliant of plans, but she hoped it would throw John off track-- for the moment any way. John glanced up giving her a knowing look. She knew he still intended to get some answers.

After the dinner dishes were dried and put away, Richie asked to be excused to his room. John started to follow him, but Helena put a restraining hand on his arm. "Let me talk to him," she whispered.

Knowing Helena would handle this situation more tactfully, John yielded. His methods of dealing with his young children did not have pleasant results. Their mother usually had better luck.

Helena walked down the hall and stopped in front Richie's door. Emma and Alex had gone to the gym so the house was quiet except for the sound of him tapping on his slate. Knocking gently, she opened the door. Richie turned and saw his mother in the doorway to his room. He promptly hid his slate.

"Hi, son. Mind if I come in?" She was already in the room and asked only out of courtesy.

"Sure, Mom." He turned and sat up. Sliding his slate under the covers of his bed as he did so.

"How's you after school project coming?" She wanted desperately to ask him what it was and where he was working on it at.

"Real good. It may take awhile, though. Sorry I was late tonight. I got busy and forgot the time. Is Dad mad?"

"You know we like everyone to be home at dinner time. He's a little upset." She sat down on the edge of the bed. "You know, if you would like to invite your friend over here to work and have dinner, it's ok."

Richie looked tense. He didn't want to lie to his mother, but he couldn't tell her the truth, yet. "Thanks, but we have everything set up at... my friends house. Maybe when we're done my friend can come for dinner." He knew that would probably never happen, but he threw it in to make his mom feel better.

Helena stood up. She knew she couldn't ask anymore questions without giving herself away. She didn't really think he was doing anything wrong, but he had never done anything like this before. She decided to give him more time. "That would be nice." She moved toward the door. "Try to remember to be on time from now on, or call." Still uneasy she left the room.

John was busy working on his own slate when his wife sat down on the sofa next to him. It had taken a good bit of will power to let her handle this, but he knew she would be more diplomatic. "Well?" he asked, placing his arm around her shoulders.

"He's sorry he was late for dinner and he promises it won't happen again," she let out a long sigh and rested her head against John's shoulder.

John didn't say anything. He knew something else was bothering Helena. Probably the same thing that was bothering him.

Finally, after a long pause, she continued. "What do you think he's up to? Billy Reilly came by today and said he hadn't seen him for a couple of days and didn't know where he had been."

John kissed his wife on top of her head and got up. "I don't know," he said with a stern tone, but it's my turn."

Richie was deep into the reading that Sandra has suggested to him when there came another knock on his door. This time it was heavier and more deliberate so he knew it was his father. Again, he threw a blanket over his slate before sitting up.

John entered the room, scanning its contents. Finally his eyes came to rest on Richie. "We need to talk, son," his voice was quiet but left no room for argument.

Richie knew this was coming. He figured he could deceive his mother for a while, but his father would be a different story. The best way out would be to take his father into his confidence he knew. "I'm sorry about dinner, Dad."

John closed the door and took a seat by the bed. "You've been gone a lot after school the past couple of days. After dinner you always lock your self up in you room," He looked his son in the eyes. "Your mother and I are very concerned. We want to give you some freedom, but we really need to know where you are. Now, your mother isn't going to come out and ask you, but I am."

His father left him no room to do anything but tell the truth. Perhaps it would be helpful to have his father as an ally, helping to keep his secret until he was finished. "I've been going to a friend's.... Sandra...Ms. Benes... she's helping me with something."

John looked at his son without expression for a moment. "Ms Benes...." the words suddenly brought understanding. " Sandra Benes?"

"Yeah, Dad. I've been going over there in the afternoons and---"

"You've been going to Sandra Benes?" Now John started to suspect his son was not telling the truth.

"Yeah, Dad. She's---"

"Richard, Sandra doesn't invite anyone into her apartment especially ten-year-old boys. I---"

This time it was Richie's turn to interrupt. "I know, Dad. I don't know why. She's got all this great stuff. Lot's of pictures and a statute of this guy named Buddha."

John stopped and listened. No one would know about the pictures or Buddhist statue unless they had been there. These things weren't exactly common knowledge. Perhaps Richie was telling the truth. "How did you get into Sandra's apartment?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you,". Richie took a deep breath and related the story of finding Sandra and convincing her to help him with his project. When he was done he sat back and looked at his father. "We can't tell Mom. It's a surprise and you've got to help me, Dad," he pleaded with his father.

John looked at his son again, feeling pride where there was only suspicion before. He was relieved by what he had heard, not only because it belayed his fears that his son was in to trouble, but because for the first time Richie shown interest in a potential vocation. Assuring his son that he would keep his secret safe and put his mother's fears to rest, John slipped back out of his son's room and headed down the hall to Helena.

Helena was still sitting where she had been on the sofa. He slid beside her and took the slate that she had been studying. Putting it on the table he reached over and took the wine he had poured for them before going into Richie's room.

Helena looked at him with a worried expression. "Is everything OK?"

Pulling her next to him he whispered "Everything is just perfect."

"So, what's next?" Richard was kneeling on a chair and peering over Sandra's shoulder as she skimmed through the code on the computer screen. This was the third time she had scanned the entire file. Sandra swiveled the chair around and smiled at his youthful enthusiasm. She had finally found an attribute he shared with his father, an exuberant energy that could carry others along to complete his dreams. "Now you enter the testing stage. We need real data, used by the people this was designed for.

Richard sat back on his heels. " I have to show it to someone else and let them use it?"

"It is time to show your mother, Richard."

Freckles became more prominent as he paled. "What if-- if she doesn't like it?"

"You have been very thorough. It is time to test it to see if it works well. Then you must change it if the users need the information presented in a different way. You and I are not experts in the field. The experts must show us how to proceed from this point."

He nodded, still obviously reluctant. He twisted around and sat on the chair, and pulled his knees up and considered. After working with him for three months she was used to his response to completely new concepts. She couldn't help but be impressed by this thoughtful and engaging little boy.

He looked up and gave her a smile of pure Koenig charm. "Will you be there with me?"

She hesitated. This had been Richard's project, not hers.

His eyes lit up as he began to elaborate on the idea. "When we first started? And I was late for dinner? Mom said maybe the person I was working with could come over for dinner when we were done. It would be great! I could tell her we're done and ask if my friend could come for dinner tonight and she'll say yes, because she's been dying to know what I've been doing. Then you can come home with me and we'll tell her together! Do you like rice pudding?" The words had tumbled out of him with great excitement, the question asked hopefully.

Sandra had a hard time keeping a straight face, she considered giving a polite answer but decided he deserved the courtesy of the truth. "I intensely dislike rice pudding. But," She had to smile at him. "if your mother wants to invite me to dinner, I will accept."

Richard gave a bounce and quickly pulled out his slate.

Sandra added quickly. "You must be the one to tell her, Richard. You have worked too hard for this."

Richard nodded impatiently and keyed the pad to contact his mother. "Mom?" he asked as soon as her face appeared. "You know that project I've been working on? Well, I need to show it to you." He glanced up quickly for Sandra's supportive smile. "Can my friend come over for dinner and be there when I show you?"

"Of course, dear," came the reply. "Your sister is spending the night with Dinah anyway. "There's plenty to eat. Your friend is quite welcome."

"Thanks, Mom. We'll be there on time."

Helena nodded. "See you then."

When Richard and Sandra arrived at the Koenig apartment, his parents were in the kitchen, kissing. Although they kissed a lot, lately it had begun to make Richard feel kind of fluttery in his stomach, especially when he was with friends. "Hi Mom," Richard said, wishing he weren't blushing.

His mother pulled away from his father and turned to smile at him. Then she saw Sandra standing next to him and her polite-mom face changed to one of surprise. "Sahn! What are you doing here?"

Richard glanced at Sandra to gauge her reaction.

She gave an amused smile. "I was invited to dinner."

It was funny watching his mother's face register confusion, then understanding, then curiosity. "Richie, this is the friend you've been working with?"

"Uh huh." Richard smiled and stepped forward to hug his mother.

His father kissed Sandra gently on the cheek and offered her a glass of wine. She accepted the wine and Richard noticed that the kiss made her blush.

"Now, what have you two been up to?" his mother asked.

His father winked at him as he poured wine for the adults. "Your mother is about to burst from curiosity." Richard laughed at the thought.

"It is a long story," Sandra said. "Perhaps it should wait until after supper."

"I'll probably survive that long," his mother answered with a smile.

Richard helped his mother put supper on the table. Alex arrived, smelling of some kind of fertilizer from hydroponics and was sent to shower. He arrived minutes later smelling much better and they sat down to eat. Sandra was given Emma's usual place next to Richard. Richard kept a close eye on her, making certain she could reach everything and was comfortable. He knew she rarely left her quarters and he wanted her to like it here. His parents seemed pleased to have her here too, and conversation stayed away from Richard's project.

After supper, his father drafted Alex for dish washing duty and sent Richard off to show the project to his mother. Richard's mouth felt dry as he sat on the sofa next to his mother. Sandra had remained sitting at the table, the chair more comfortable for her than anything in the living room. Richard glanced at her and took comfort in the encouraging smile and nod she gave him. He noticed that she looked much younger when she smiled. "Well," he started slowly, pulling out his sister's larger slate which she used to design things. It had a larger screen. Daddy and Mama used it too, sometimes so it was kept in the living room. He logged on, and retrieved the program from Computer. "I heard you and Dr. Bob talking about how the medical database you use is outdated. I wanted to help." Richard warmed to his topic as he showed his mother the database. Sandra had already coached him not to talk about the code, but about the way the database would be used. He showed her the reports and files. He told her the capabilities and capacities. Finally he took a deep breath and said, "Now we need someone to use it and test it. I've included all the old fields and a few new ones that should be useful. I can't upload any real data to it without your authorization codes and I need you to try it out and tell me what else you need."

His mom looked kind of dazed. She looked over at Sandra," You and Richie designed this?"

Ms. Benes shook her head. "I tutored him in database design and gave him references. Richard designed it."

"Do you like it?" Richard was worried. She hadn't said hardly anything.

"It's wonderful." his mom was looking through the field names and report lists. She put her arm around him. "It's an incredible piece of work. I'm very proud of you."

Richard knew he was blushing again, but this time it was okay. He pressed close against his mother's side as she kissed him on top of the head. She looked over at his dad who was sitting at the table by Sandra.

"How do I go about transferring the data? I don't know anything about this."

Daddy shrugged. "Sandra can do it. She will need your access codes." He looked at Ms. Benes. "I assume you'll take all precautions in protecting the data during transfer."

She nodded. "We need to run dual platforms for at least three months, but I have already checked and Computer can handle the additional memory requirements."

"Sandra says we need at least five different people with different jobs to use the new system and make sure everything works," Richard explained. I can show them how to use it, then they can tell me what they don't like about it so I can change it."

His mother considered this. "That sounds reasonable. I'm sure I can find several who are willing to try it."

"Also, if you have anyone who has more than one file in the old system, we'll have to do something special to merge the records."

"I do have a few like that. I've got a list," his mother said.

"Merging records requires high level access to the main system," Sandra said. "Richard may observe, and of course, he has top access to his own database."

Richard hadn't told her about designing any trap doors. Alex had explained those to him, but he wasn't surprised that she knew.

"I will handle the transfer myself. Helena, if you would contact me tomorrow we can make all the proper arrangements."

"Of course."

"It is getting late. I enjoyed my visit, but it is time for me to go home."

His father helped her stand. "I'll walk you home."

Richard noticed that Sandra hesitated, and almost turned him down, then relaxed slightly and gave a small nod. The two left slowly.

Alex sat down on the floor beside their mother and pulled the slate into his lap. He scrolled through the reports. "You did all this yourself?"

"Yep."

"Wow."

Richard wasn't blushing now. He was glowing.

His mother nodded. "I agree. Wow." she said firmly. "So, do you want to be a programmer now?"

"Oh, no," Richard said, shocked.

"You don't?"

"I want to be a doctor, like you. "That's why I made this."

His mother just stared at him. For a minute he thought she was going to cry, and that confused him. "Wouldn't that be okay?" he asked hesitantly.

She pulled him to her and hugged him tight. "Oh yes, dear. That would be wonderful!"

Paula Austin &Ellen Lindow

July, 1999