After a half hour correcting his insignia, Chief Master Sergeant Membrane strode out of his barrack wearing his Dress uniform. That day the Lieutenant Colonel was going to give him the "promotion of his life." He pretended to correct his oversized glasses and his cover when he was actually fidgeting from the anxiety he was feeling.
He was a professional, an Air Force Chief Master Sergeant He was hailed in his brilliance in the field of computer science, he got into the Air Force Academy with exceptional marks, but there was still one thing missing. Every other cadet was more social and outgoing than he, whenever a higher grade would pass him Chief Membrane would just be another cadet. A blank face.
"Ah, well if it isn't Dib!" Lieutenant Colonel shouted happily, snapping Chief Membrane or Dib out of his reverie as he opened the door. Dib then took off his cover and rendered a salute as customary. "Don't give me that! We're here as friends! Not colleagues! Here have a seat old friend!" The fat man said grabbing Dib by the shoulders and sitting him down forcefully. "Here, have a drink. This is going to last some time so you might as well get settled right Dib?"
Dib cleared his throat and said, "Sir, I'd rather we spoke with military customs and courtesies." The Colonel turned around sharply, a bit irritated at the fact that Dib was not submitting himself to normal civilian conversation. "Alright, I assume you want to skip the small talk and get down to business eh?" Chief Membrane nodded weakly and the Lieutenant Colonel sighed.
Lieutenant Colonel took a seat and began to speak in a low, serious tone. "Chief Membrane, I would like to inform you that everything said in this room is confidential. It's not that 'don't ask don't tell' crap, your life will be on the line if anyone finds out you speak a word of what I tell you. Got it?"
"Yes sir. I understand."
"For the next year you are going to be living inside a base. Not a barrack, but a base. At this time I cannot disclose the specific location of said base, but I CAN tell you that there you will be needed for taking off some virus things... I don't know your computer language only they're just getting some signals that are really getting on their nerves and also some idiot tried to hack into their database."
Dib coughed and then said, "The person is obviously not an idiot if they caught the attention of them."
"Okay geek, I'm not here to discuss this with you, I just tell you your assignment. Anyways, you have all day tomorrow to say your goodbyes to your family-"
"That won't be necessary sir." Chief Membrane interrupted. He knew that his sister Gaz was too busy being a rough and tough marine and that his father could care less.
"Then I'll arrange for you to leave tonight. Go and pack." There was silence between them for a moment. As if Dib had needed these last moments he will have in his home base for a year to take it all in, to breathe in the last dust covered breaths of his memories. "That's an order Chief!" The Colonel screamed hesitantly.