CHAPTER NINE
There was no doubt in anyone’s mind the Milton was indeed a very skilled pilot. What he pulled off just a few hours ago was beyond everyone on the crew’s imagination. However, what Captain Ratmire was asking him to do now would be the toughest test of skill, he had ever faced. This task was the only reason that Captain Ratmire turn over all control of the mission to Milton to plan. It was true that the Captain had sent him the basics, but in order for that to be executed, Milton was given a lot of latitude.
It was good that the hours that Milton spent putting the plan together, nothing else pressing came up.
When Milton reappeared at his pilot’s station, all eyes were on him.
He took his time in arranging everything at his station. When he was done, he turned and faced the others.
“Captain, my fellow officers, I have sent what I will be needing from you to your computer screens. Every assignment is complicated, but if we are to be successful, must be executed correctly and in the time, frame laid out. We will have about an hour before we need to begin, so that would be the time to ask for anything to be clarified. Captain, any further instructions? Milton asked.
The Captain looked at his screen and smiled.
“No, it appears you have everything covered. All I will add is that everyone will need to strap in, because this appears that it will be one wild ride!”
Captain Majors was truly impressed with the way Sara went about inventorying the supplies on the ship.
“It appears you have this under control, I will leave you with it. Make sure I have your complete list as soon as possible.”
Sara stood at attention and saluted. His serious expression on her face, quickly gave way to a smile.
The Captain walked away shaking his head and mumbling something Sara was sure she didn’t want to hear.
One of the Sargent's extra projects, beyond monitoring the distress channel, was to also monitor the earth’s military channels. That was a pretty standard assignment. What surprised the Sargent was that he was also to monitor the local news media broadcasts. This was part of the “program X” that they were operating under. The Captain himself was not sure why this was included in their instructions, but he was not, at least at this point, disregard it.
The Sargent easily tied into several networks. They all were quite dull and boring, and it was difficult for the Sargent to stay anywhere engaged in what was being said.
He tried finding something a little more interesting, when he came across a comedy marathon on one of the stations. The program at the time featured three characters and was mostly made up of what humans called physical comedy. At first the Sargent did not understand the concept, but he found that the more he watched it, the funnier it became. He actually enjoyed it so much, he never heard Sara come up from behind him. It took her three times calling out to him, before he heard her. In a panic he switched the channel and tried to gain composure before he answered.
“Yes, what do you want?” He asked gruffly.
“Sorry to disturb you, but the Captain assigned me to inventory the supplies and there are a few items here…”
She went on to explain the few things she was not sure about. The Sargent quickly helped set things straight and answered the few other questions she had.
“Thanks Sargent. You can go back to your important duties now,”
She turned and got a few steps away before she added,
“That was one of my favorite shows as a kid,”
When the Sargent was sure Sara was out of sight, he turned the station back on to see a commercial dealing with a huge outdoor rock concert that was going to be held nearby. Normally that would have not made a hill of beans difference to the Sargent. However, when the broadcast showed a map of the location and that the promoters were expecting the crowds to number close to one hundred thousand, he called out to Private.
Private came in carrying a sandwich,
“Look at this!”
The Sargent replayed the broadcast for him.
“Wow, that’s big!”
“Is that all you can say?” The Sargent blurted out.
“Um, sounds like fun?” He added.
The Sargent slapped the sandwich out of Privates hand.
“Hey, I just made that!” He complained as he scrambled to pick up all the pieces that went flying.
“We might be in just as many pieces if we do not figure out a wat to keep these concert goers away from our ship.” The Sargent stated.
“What is the problem? We have our shields up, they can’t see a thing.”
“Look Private, I have studied up on some of the activities that go on at these concerts. No matter how many mind-altering drugs these young people are on, continually running into something solid that can not be seen, is going to get someone somber minded attention.”
“The Sargent is right, this has problems written all over it,” the Captain stated as he walked up on the conversation.
The Captain then had the Sargent replay the broadcast for him.
“Humans have some really strange habits. Sargent what did your research show goes on at these events?” The Captain asked.
Because Sara was now present, The Sargent chose his words carefully.
“When does event take place?” The Captain asked.
“In two weeks, but they will begin preparations in ten days.” The Sargent told him.
“Okay crew, everyone knows we can not risk moving the ship again. Work on this, I want possible solutions as soon as possible!” The Captain ordered.
The Captain was already in a fowl mood because of being unable to work out a way to get more information to Commander Ratmire to assist him in locating them. Now again another situation arising that might ultimately cause them to have to move the ship yet again.
“Captain?”
“What is it Sargent?”
“The latest message from the Courier ship is that the time/space conduit is shrinking.”
“Not surprising, given the lack of inactivity over the years. Now more than ever, we have to stay put if we are to have any hope of a rescue.” The Captain stated.
“Okay everyone, we knew we needed to stay put before, now with this conduit situation, it just makes it clearer that we have to find away to keep humans away from the ship.”
“Captain, if the conduit continues to shrink…”
“Private!” the Captain shouted, the lowered his volume.
“Everyone listen up. We have no control over a lot of things that are happening right now, and really have no way of knowing what others are trying to do in our behalf. So, we do all in our power with what we have, and things we can control. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes Sir!”
“Now, if it is helpful, I have been in many worse situations, and lived to talk about it, so I expect everyone to stay focused so that this will be yet another situation that was conquered.”
The Captain left to go to his quarters and everyone else, after looking at one another for a moment, went back to their assignments.
A few days before the construction for the concert was to take place, a discussion took place between the Sargent, Private and Sara. Sara had been trying to explain why they called it Rock music, when the idea came to Sargent.
“Rocks, rocks,” he continued to mumble, as he rapidly began to type things into his computer.
“What are you doing?” Private asked.
“I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. This area is full of different rock formations. As long as no one has taken a recent geological scan of this area recently, what difference would one more make?” The Sargent stated with a smile.
“I don’t understand.” Private said in a confused tone.
“It is very simple. Ten years ago, the human military destroyed the mountain cave we were hiding in. all those pieces of rock are scattered all about. I am not proposing rebuilding the mountain, I am merely suggesting that we stack enough rocks to where wondering young humans don’t run into an invisible ship,” the Sargent explained.
The Captain gave his approval, and the crew transferred enough of the nearby boulders to do the job. Three days later, the stage crews were on sight erecting everything that would be necessary for the concert. Two days after that, some of the bands equipment arrived and their crews were doing sound checks. Not only was the “noise” annoying, but it also seemed to be affecting some of the Exons equipment.
“This is not good! I already am having trouble sending and receiving the signal from the courier ship due to the portal disintegration. Now whatever frequency those, those, whatever those things are that they are testing, is making it worse! Right now, they sounds are short and infrequent. From what I read about these concert things; the ‘music’ could go on for days.” The Sargent complained.
“Sargent, can’t you do something to muffle that sound? I can not hear myself think!” The Captain said as he held his hands over his ears.
“Captain I am doing my best, but that noise is effecting all our systems,” the Sargent explained.
For the next thirty minutes the crew tried to adjust their equipment, while trying to hold their hands over their ears at the same time.
“This is nuts! These idiots are going to do more damage to us than their military did. I don’t understand how the frequency on those instruments could be interacting with our ships power.” The Private complained.
“Instead of fighting against it, can you find a way to make use of it?” Sara asked.
Of course, The looks she got at first was one of, ‘What would a human know about how alien power and equipment works?’ However, it didn’t take Private long before he started fooling around with a few things. Sargent saw what he was doing, and he too started making some adjustments.
“You know Captain, she may be on to something.” The Sargent stated as he continued to work at his station.
“Private, bring up the plot map from our last time jump,” the Sargent ordered.
“Already on it…Sending it you now.”
The Sargent and Private worked together for about five minutes before stepping out of the way for the Captain to see.
In typical Captain form, he did not speak as he went through everything piece by piece. When he finished, he went over to his Captains chair and sat. There he pulled up several screens and studied those for a bit before he shut all that down, He drew in a deep breath.
“In all my years of service I have not seen a wilder, more improbable plan in my life!”
He took an extremely long pause.
“However, given our latest set of circumstances, I do not see any reason for not giving this a shot. I will quickly add that any of these actions will NOT be made a part of our official record, and they are never to be mentioned to anyone anywhere. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
“Yes Sir!” Was the enthusiastic reply.
“Now Private, are you going to be able to manufacture what the Sargent needs?
“I believe so Sir, but I am going to need to get a better look at the humans equipment so that I can get an exact match.”
“Very well, take Sara along with you to keep you out of trouble,” the Captain said.
“That would be interesting to watch,” the Sargent mumbled.
Sara slugged him.
Private and Sara took some time to study some of the slang of the ‘70’s. then they looked into the “appropriate clothing, or lack thereof that was worn at an outdoor concert of that era. Both were quite embarrassed when they came out to show the others.
“I am sure glad this was not the time period that we were assigned, and if we are ever sent back on another mission, I will make sure it is not in this time frame!” The Captain stated as he shook his head.
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