Down Pad 8 - Conclusion

Initiative / Casablanca / Lessons Learned / Tenere Altum

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Initiative

Denny sat by his father’s bedside at the hospital.

“Thanks for getting me out, Dad,” he said. “Not pressing charges.”

“They still gave you that Article 15, though, Camden,” he said, grimly. “They had no right to stick their noses in where they didn’t belong.”

“I go by Denny, now, Dad,” he said. “And I fought in the barracks. That’s against regs. I deserved it.”

“Self defense,” his dad came back. “I pushed you. And I’ll call you whatever I damned well please, Camden.”

“It wasn’t self defense,” Denny countered. “No threat, no violence. I could have gotten you out of there without hitting you.”

“Don’t be so sure…,” said Mr. Tanner, but then he had to stop, wheezing.

When Mr. Tanner had recovered his breath, he added, “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m not a threat to anyone, anymore. Not even to you. Camden.”

Denny lowered his head as if he’d been struck. But then he forced himself to raise it again. “Like I said, thanks, Dad. You want to see me, you know where I live.” And he walked out of the hospital room.

---

When he got back to his barracks room after his first day back on duty, he spent his time cleaning. He took the trash out, swept, made his bunk with fresh sheets, and threw the old stuff in a bag to take to the laundry room. He looked over the room, then. Not as bad as he’d thought it might be. But the floor looked dirty, even after sweeping. He should mop it. But he didn’t have a mop or any floor cleaning stuff. Jake had taken that with him when he’d left.

Laundry then, he decided. He threw two big bags of laundry over his shoulder and walked down to the laundry room. No one said hi. Then the room cleared as it got close to dinner time. He finished his laundry alone, took it back to his room, and put it away. Then he grabbed some energy bars and Mountain Dew that he had in his room for dinner.

After he’d eaten, he went over to Budd’s room and knocked on the door.

“Just a sec,” he heard. “Coming.”

When Budd got to the door, he just stood there for a moment. Denny had never come to his room before. Then he stepped out into the hall. “Kameel wants some privacy,” he explained. “What do you want?”

“I know I… screwed up,” said Denny, “but… um, just wanted to let you know. It would be… uh… cool…. If you wanted to go running this weekend. Um, just outside around the barracks. I’m… uh… restricted to barracks and duty and the mess hall for a while.”

To his surprise, Budd smiled at him, then. “Cool!” he said. “So how long are you restricted?”

“Two months,” answered Denny. “And half pay. And an LOR.”

“Letter of Reprimand is tough,” said Budd. “That can affect promotion. Especially if they leave it in.”

Denny shrugged. “It is what it is. I’m not getting any suspension.”

Budd looked at him strangely.

“Oh,” said Denny. “That wasn’t a dig. You deserved it. I didn’t.”

The smile came back. Denny suddenly realized that he could read Budd’s face. Because it wasn’t just open. It was honest. He could trust him.

---

Jake met Denny and Budd to go running that Saturday morning.

Later that day, Denny was in his room working on a programming module for his personal checklist when someone knocked on the door. He opened it and said, “Hi Budd,” before he realized it wasn’t Budd. It was Jake and Yael.

“Um,” said Denny. “I’m… er… sorry about the scene at your Party.”

Yael gave him a hug, and then sat down in the desk chair that had been Jake’s.

Jake just stood there and gave a sharp nod of his head. “No problem,” he said, then added, “You got this place back in shape.”

“Yeah,” said Denny. “It wasn’t that hard.”

“So,” said Jake. “Budd said you needed this.” He reached into the hall and brought a mop and some floor cleaner into the room.

Denny grinned. “Whoa, man. You didn’t have to go all out for me!”

Jake laughed. “That was just to soften the blow,” he said. Then, more seriously, “Sammy doesn’t want to see you.”

Denny bit his lower lip and nodded his head. “Right,” he said. “Well, not much chance of that for two months anyway, is there?”

Jake shook his head.

“Well, tell her…,” said Denny. “I’m sorry. I’d like to say it in person.”

“I’m not sure it would make a difference,” said Yael, gently.

Denny nodded his head. “Didn’t really expect it to,” he said. “I let it go too long, didn’t I? And now there’s someone else….”

“Do you love her?” asked Yael.

“Didn’t get that far,” said Denny. “I might have…. But still, I am sorry. Tell her for me? At least until I can do it in person?”

“You got it,” Yael said. And gave him another hug.

Casablanca (spoilers)

Another Friday night, after dinner, Budd knocked on the door.

Denny opened it. “Yeah, Budd? You need something?” he asked, with his neutral face.

“Yep,” Budd answered. “Kaseem and Hannah. Again. Although I really could go down to the common room this time….”

“It’s okay,” said Denny. “I get plenty of time to myself these days.” He waved Budd in, then closed the door, and sat back down at his desk and focused on the screen again.

Budd smiled and nodded to himself and scratched his head. Then he went over to the second desk and plugged his Notepad into the station.

Denny worked for awhile, then finally seemed to reach some stopping point. He stood up from his desk and stretched. “I’m hungry,” he said. “Want something to eat?”

Budd looked up from the course he was taking for his personal checklist. “Do you have anything besides energy bars?” he asked.

“No, but I could order in. Want a pizza?”

Budd wasn’t really hungry, having actually had dinner at the mess hall, but decided to go along with it. “Sure, I’ll pitch in. What do you want?”

Denny ordered on-line, then looked over at Budd’s Notepad. “More programming?” he asked.

Budd nodded. “Let me look,” Denny asked, and actually gave Budd a chance to hand it over instead of grabbing it out of his hands. He didn’t turn out to be very helpful, though. Budd was too tired to deal with both Denny and programming.

“Thanks, Den,” he said. “But no thanks. Take a look at the motocross races?” He threw the Notepad onto one of the desk station screens.

Denny watched for a moment, then lost interest. “They just go around in circles,” he said.

“Right,” said Budd. “And a kiss is just a kiss.”

“Say what?!” said Denny.

“Casablanca, man,” said Budd. “You never heard of it? The bikes ‘just go around in circles’ like ‘a kiss is just a kiss.’”

While Budd was talking, Denny had already brought up the song with Frank Sinatra and started playing it.

Budd came over. “No, no,” he said. “Not that one. Too smooth. Get Dooley Wilson’s version. D-O-O-L-E-Y. That’s the one from Casablanca. He’s Texan. From Tyler.”

“Oh, jazzier,” said Denny, playing that one. “But he’s singing ‘a kiss is still a kiss.’ Doesn’t work.”

“Wrong one, then,” said Budd. “It’s the other scene.” He typed something in and another video came up.

Denny sat and watched the whole scene with Dooley Wilson and Ingrid Bergman, continuing with Humphrey Bogart walking in and meeting with Claude Rains and Paul Henreid. “What’s that about?” he asked.

“Just one of the best movies of all time,” said Budd. “World War II resistance against the Nazis in Morocco.”

They got the notice that the pizza was there, and Budd went and got it from the Specialist at the desk. He brought it up to the room, where Denny had already found Casablanca on the streaming service.

“Ready?” Denny asked, and then started it when Budd nodded.

Just a few minutes in, Budd paused the very first chase scene, where the Vichy French police were rounding up people suspected of killing the German couriers. “See that? Looks like a Mercedes, but see, it’s really a Lincoln model L. They just put a Mercedes radiator on it to make it look Nazi.”

“And here come the Nazis,” said Budd a little later, when the main antagonist of the movie, Nazi Major Strasser, arrived by plane, without pausing the movie this time. “In a Fokker Super Universal.”

“Oh, that’s Dooley Wilson from the clip you showed me,” said Denny, when the scene switched to the inside of Rick’s Cafe Americain. “Is he really singing that or is he just an actor?”

“Really singing it. He sings all the piano songs,” said Budd.

Denny watched the characters moving around Rick’s Cafe for awhile, then paused again. “The digital re-master is really good. Look how sharp everything is.”

“It’s not the re-master,” said Budd. “That’s analog film, black and white. They can just make it look that good.”

“Better than color?” asked Denny. “How does that work?”

“I don’t know,” said Budd. Then seeing Denny starting to look it up on his second screen, said, “Maybe wait until after the movie is over?”

Denny glanced over some search results, then sighed. “It looks like it’s related to the way our eyes process color vs black and white…. Yeah, too complicated for a quick answer.” He unpaused the film.

When they got to the flashback scenes re-creating Rick and Ilsa in Paris, Denny got impatient. “Yeah, yeah, they’re in love. Got it.”

“Well,” said Budd, “I wasn’t bored the first time through, but they do go on.”

“Finally,” said Denny, when the flashback got to the Germans advancing on Paris, “some action again. And the planes are?”

“The fighter is a Messerschmitt Bf 110, the dive bombers are Junkers Ju 87 Stukas.”

“She’s gonna dump him,” said Denny. Ilsa was making up excuses not to marry Rick. “The bitch is gonna dump him.”

When they got to the scene with Rick looking at the note from Ilsa by the train, Denny paused the film again. “She… didn’t show. Wow. No wonder Sam thinks she’s toxic. Her husband wasn’t dead. She was cheating on him. That’s why she couldn’t go with Rick. Or get married.”

“Watch the movie,” said Budd.

“‘Wow finish’,” said Denny, repeating Rick’s exact words in the drunken scene with Ilsa in the cafe, after it was closed for the night. “She deserved that. And there she goes. Just walk away from it, honey. Don’t face up to it. Don’t talk about it. Just walk away.”

“Bee-atch,” said Denny, when Rick met up with Ilsa the next day in the shops along the street. “What the hell did you expect? And now, ‘oh, no, I’m not going to tell you, you were meeeeen.’ She did cheat on her husband, didn’t she? Whoever he was…. Laszlo, it was Laszlo? Oh, write her off, Rick, write her off.”

Denny paused the movie again after the scene where black marketeer Ferarri tried to convince Laszlo to buy just one visa, for Ilsa, because he didn’t want to take the risk of selling a second one for Laszlo to leave as well. To Denny’s surprise, Ilsa didn’t agree to leave Laszlo in Casablanca, where he would almost certainly be killed if he couldn’t get away.

“She’s not going off alone,” said Denny. “Hmm. Maybe she… so it was a fling with Rick but she really loves Laszlo. Okay, I can see that. Sucks to be Rick, but maybe…. Oh, yeah, they thought he was dead. Okay, so that’s it. She thought Laszlo was dead, Rick was there…. So, why didn’t she just tell him?”

“Maybe it was just hard, Denny,” said Budd. “Maybe it was just hard.”

“Oh,” said Denny. “She’s… the Bulgarian chick’s going to sleep with Renault for the visa. So… but Ilsa, she didn’t have to sleep with Rick. It’s not the same….”

“Tough situation, though,” said Budd. “Both girls.”

“What was tough for Ilsa?”

“Just keep watching,” said Budd.

“Rick’s helping the Bulgarian. Her husband is winning at roulette. Oh, sweet. Rick really takes care of his people doesn’t he?” said Denny.

“Well, that was kind of a dick move. Ask his wife? He can’t just help him?” said Denny, after Rick refused to help get both Laszlo and Ilsa out of Casablanca. “She thought he was dead.”

Budd smirked. “We know that, but Rick doesn’t. Watch the movie.”

“Oh, shit, he knows. Laszlo knows about Paris. And she doesn’t know he knows. She really can’t read him. She loves him but she can’t read him,” said Denny.

“Funny how that happens,” said Budd.

“And Rick’s being a dick again. After the Marseillaise, sure he’s neutral,” said Denny, watching Ilsa confront Rick again and beg for the letters of transfer.

Then he heard Ilsa say, “one woman has hurt you and you take your revenge on the rest of the world…,” and call Rick “… a coward and a weakling….” Denny paused the movie and sat there, motionless. Just when Budd was starting to think he wouldn’t continue with the movie, he started it up again.

“She loves both of them….” said Denny, as the movie continued with Ilsa’s explanation. “So finally, she’s talking and he’s listening…. And that’s why she was dodging the marriage thing… that was when… So that was the bad thing, like with the Bulgarian girl.”

“… he won’t have you….” Rick said in the movie.

“Oh, shit, Rick’s going to…,” said Denny. “They both know and they both love her and she loves both of them… and she leaves it up to Rick to decide.”

“She had to decide by herself the first time,” said Budd. “His turn.”

They both watched the rest of the movie in silence. Budd didn’t even identify the most famous plane in the movie, the one that took Ilsa away from Casablanca and Rick with her husband, Victor Laszlo.

“Wow,” said Denny, when the movie was over. “He did it. He let her go.”

“It was the right thing to do,” said Budd. “Sometimes losing the girl is the right thing to do. And now he can do the other right things he needed to do.”

“Budd,” said Denny. “I never told you why I hit you.”

“Over Sammy?” he asked.

“No,” said Denny. “She’s the girl I lost, but she’s not the one who hurt me.” And he explained about the girl with the OnlyFans page.

“Oh,” said Budd, trying to understand. “Maybe you could get it taken down?”

“You ever hear of the Streisand effect?” asked Denny. “For all I know, it’s not up anymore anyway. The last thing I want to do is bring any attention to it if it’s still there. I doubt anyone’s jerking off to that video. And judging by the posts I read, they’re not even laughing much. Mostly just grossed out. Too much of me and not enough of her.”

“I’m… really sorry, Den. What a jerk. I wasn’t thinking….”

“Yeah, well,” said Denny. “I bet if it was you, you’d be a real draw to her site.”

Budd smirked. “Are you joking?”

“Sort of,” said Denny, trying to hide a grin. “At least you wouldn’t have hit me for being impressed.”

“Ah,” said Budd. “I… um, think you’re right.”

And they both laughed.

Lessons Learned

It was a Friday. Budd and Jake stopped by Denny’s room as they often did.

“So week from Tuesday, I make Spec2,” said Jake. “Finally get to velcro a rank on my uniform. And another two weeks after that, we get to take Denny out to the Down Pad. Your two months are almost up.”

“Yeah,” said Denny, but he looked pre-occupied.

“Something wrong?” asked Jake.

“I got this e-mail the other day,” said Denny. “I’m getting an Entry Level Performance and Conduct Discharge.”

“What?!” said Budd. “They can’t do that! You’re doing everything they said.”

“I – I looked it up. It’s – I mean it looks like – the reprimand, it was for fighting, and I guess when you’re under 180 days…,” said Denny. “I don’t know what to do. I – don’t want to get out.”

“That’s not right,” said Jake. “You got to talk to someone. Major Goldstein, your CO in the dungeon? The First Sergeant?”

“I’ve been going through all the legal stuff I’ve been able to find on-line, but…. It’s too complicated. I mean in a non-tech way. I know I could learn it, but not in two weeks.”

“Ozzy,” said Budd. “You got to talk to Ozzy. He’s just a legal intern at a law office, but he’ll know someone. Denny, you got to fight this.”

---

Denny walked into First Sergeant Anders’ office.

“You may be seated,” Anders said.

“First Sergeant, I don’t want to leave the Space Force,” said Denny. “Tell me what I have to do. I mean, please tell me what I have to do, First Sergeant.”

“You have a Reprimand in your record, Specialist Tanner and you’re under 180 days,” Anders answered.

No shit, Sherlock, thought Denny, but he didn’t blurt it out. “I realize that, First Sergeant. So can I get the Article 15 filed locally? Instead of in my OMPF [note: Official Military Personnel File]? That could fix it, couldn’t it?”

“Specialist Tanner, your behavior a couple of months ago got a fellow Specialist put in the guardhouse, and your CO is not interested in filing the Article 15 locally or suspending any part of it.”

“I’m prepared to file for an appeal,” Denny said. “But I don’t want to. Please, give me another option.”

“An appeal?” said Anders.

Denny nodded. “My ex’s boyfriend is a legal intern at this firm. He knows how to get it done.”

“Your ex?” said Anders. “You’re on that good terms with her?”

“Um… yeah,” said Denny, confused.

Anders looked again at the file in front of him. “Your reviews show that you’re having trouble acclimating to military life.”

“Um… yeah,” said Denny. “Look, I know I got a rough start, but…. This isn’t about hitting my dad?”

“Your CO doesn’t want you and you have a reprimand in your OMPF,” said Anders. “One or the other we might be able to overlook but…. Specialist Tanner, given your ASVAB, the fact that your CO still wants you gone….”

“What if I could find a CO to take me on?”

“Son, this isn’t a bad kind of discharge – your legal expert should have told you that. Especially in your field – any number of contractors would take you on. This isn’t that unusual in the Space Force. It’s not enough to be smart. You have to be able to work in a military environment. It’s not for everybody.”

“But if I could find someone?”

“If you find someone, ask him or her to contact me. But make it fast. The paperwork on your DD-214 has to be dated before a week from Tuesday. If we hold it up past then, you’re not looking at a simple Entry Level Discharge. You could end up with an other than honorable discharge. And that would have an impact. You might never work in space again.”

---

“Specialist Tanner,” said Major Goldstein, calling him to his office a couple of days later.

Denny went up to his desk. “Sir?”

“First Sergeant Anders has asked to see you again,” he said. “At 1:30 pm.”

“Yes, sir,” said Denny.

“Tanner?” said Goldstein.

“Sir?”

“You mess this up, you’ll get worse than Entry Level Discharge. And don’t think I’ll put in a good word for you with the contractors if you make a problem for me.”

“No, sir,” said Denny. “I won’t make any problems for you, sir.”

“You already are,” groused Goldstein. “Dismissed.”

---

When Denny walked into the First Sergeant’s office this time, he wasn’t sitting behind his desk. He was standing next to a small table with a physical folder full of paper.

“Specialist Tanner?” he said. “Get yourself some coffee or whatever. There’s water in the fridge, too, if you’d rather have that.”

Denny stood still for a moment. Anders’s complete change in manner from the other day caught him off guard. Then he went over to the coffee station next to the door.

He set the machine for French roast, black, and put a cup in place. Then he asked, “Can I get you something, First Sergeant?”

Anders smiled. The other day, he would have been surprised at the question. After looking through the papers in this new file, though, he was less so. “Coffee black. French roast.”

Denny set his brewed cup to one side, and pressed the same button again, with a different cup. Then he brought both cups over to the small table and sat down.

“Well, Specialist,” said Anders, opening the file. “Looks like you’ve been busy.”

“More like my friends have been busy,” said Denny.

“Indeed,” said Anders. “I have a request from a Tech Sergeant Carrington over in Shrike Retrieval Operations. Seems he could use a third IT geek. And his captain agrees.”

“That works,” said Denny.

“That would be quite a demotion,” said Anders. “Not rank – you’ll still be on track to make Spec2 – but you won’t be on the fast track to jump to officer. And that’s what you need if you want to go into space.”

“Understood,” said Denny. “But those guys are looking at some cool stuff over there. And I can wait.”

“You realize I still can’t get rid of your Reprimand. Major Goldstein has to do that. And it’s going to hit you again when you go for Spec3 and Spec4.”

“That’s okay,” said Denny. “I’ll take that as it comes.”

“Specialist Tanner,” said Anders. “You’re sure you don’t want to take the easy way out? Work for a contractor? You could get back on a fast track there.”

“You don’t just need people to fly, do you, First Sergeant Anders?” asked Denny. “Don’t you need people planetside, too?”

“Yes, we do, Specialist Tanner,” said Anders. “Yes, indeed, we do.”

Tenere Altum (Hold the High Ground)

They were in a quiet launch period. When it was busy, they had two or three boosters to check-out and route a day, but today they’d only had one. It was after lunch, and everyone was back working on various projects.

Denny and Johnson and Salinas were sitting around Denny’s table. He called his set-up the “cafe.”

“Den,” said Salinas, “you’re right about the wavelengths but look at this. It’s wrong for the material. It’s not going to penetrate.”

“No,” said Denny, “you’re wrong.”

It sounded like a heated argument between Tanner and Johnson and Salinas, but Carrington knew the way his guys talked. They were working on a modification to the booster scanning software.

As it got closer to quitting time, Jake and Budd and Corea returned from the transporter garage. Corea came up to Carrington. “So, we got the transporter upgraded. It’ll stand an EMP now, even with the controller on.”

While Corea was talking to Carrington, Jake and Budd went over to the cafe and waited for the argument to die down. “So how about we head to the Down Pad?” asked Jake. “Everyone will be there.”

“Not me,” said Budd. “Jordan has other plans. I’ll see you guys tomorrow – take the bikes out, right?”

“And Denny,” said Jake. “Ozzy has this chick he thinks you’d like. Old black and white movie fan. She’s coming tonight.”

“Yeah?” said Denny. “See you there. Tenere Altum.”

The End