CHAPTER ELEVEN
Commander Ratmire and Captain Majors went back a long way. Therefore, when the Captain asked the Commander to postpone his desperation move as long as he could, it was for a good reason. Both in charge wanted to have the greatest odds of success, and Captain Majors knew that all aboard Ratmire’s ship had already made great sacrifices. He then turned to give Sara and Private, last-minute instructions.
“First of all, try to stay as covered up as much as you can, I can’t believe young humans roam around together in a little more than underwear. Anyway, Private gather your data as quickly as possible. If those humans decide to turn their equipment up any louder, there will be nothing left of our ship to come back too.” The Captain said as he placed his hands over his ears.
“We are hoping to use boosting their frequency without having to increase the volume, Of course we will need some time to make the modifications, but the result sound be pretty cool.” Private stated.
“I do not care about the temperature, I just want results, the Captain shouted.
Sara and Private smiled at each other, and Private simply replied,
“Yes sir, and he and Sara left the ship. The two of them were practicing their 70’s speak, as they made their way towards where the crews were setting up all the lights and sound, for the concert. As they got closer, Sara noticed the tool box that Private was carrying looked to modern.
“Hang loose there a minute Private.”
“I Prefer not to hang at all.”
“Just wait a moment, will you?”
Sara found some old pieces of rope, and other pieces of discarded material, laying around and attached it to Private’s tool box in an abstract pattern.
“It’s not perfect, but it should attract less attention.” Sara said in a satisfied tone.
“Private looked at what she had done then raised his eyebrows as he looked back at Sara.
“If you say so,” he said in an unsure tone.
“One more thing, I read that all young men in this era had log hair, so, I brought this for you.”
Sara opened her bag and pulled out a brown curly wig and put it on Privates head.
“Sara, what do you think…” Private stated as he struggled with her to get it off his head.
“Stop being a big baby, You can’t tell me that with all the places you guys have traveled, that you did not have to where things you normally would not, so you could fit in.” Sara said with one final tug on the wig.
“Where did you get this? “Private asked.
“Sadly, I needed several of them. Many times, the officers I had to meet with in order to get sales, they had a preferences of hair color. It is a long story, besides, I actually like the way it looks on you.”
Private was not sure if she was telling the truth or not, but he did like the smile she gave him. They had traveled a distance from the ship and were about to emerge from the edge of the Exon’s shielding.
They looked for a route that would bring them close to where everyone was setting up, without looking like they just came out of nowhere. They used the rock formations as cover, and as the finally emerged they went past a young couple rolling around under a blanket making odd noises.
“Are they hurt, do they need help? Private asked as he started their way,
“No!” Sara said grabbing Private by the arm.
Her face was flush as she rushed him along.
“It is part of this ‘free spirit’ movement…I think. Anyway, I hope we are in and out of here fast enough not to witness anything ‘freer’. Sara said as she fanned her face.
As they made their way towards where a lot of the equipment was kept, a few members of a band was on stage and began running through part of a song. The volume of the music was so much louder out in the open that both Private and Sara, could barely stand it. Sara fumbled through her purse and found some tissues they could plug in their ears, which helped. They made there way over to one of the sound boards. Their was a guy and a girl messing with the board as the members played on stage.
“The base is not coming through like it should,” the guy said, in a huff, and walked off towards the stage.
“Sara, see if you can keep her busy, while I get some readings off this devise.”
Sara looked at Private as to say, ’How should I do that?’ But made the effort to get close enough to speak to the girl left at the board..
“Does he always speak that rudely to you?”
“You know it sister, he is a big bummer.”
“Here momma, let’s take five and rap about it, and let out a little steam.” Sara said quite proud of herself.
“Right on!” The girl replied, and they moved off a little to talk.
Private took as many scans as he could before the guy that was there earlier returned.
“Hey dude, don’t mess with any of that stuff, I am having enough trouble getting the settings right as it is.” The guy shouted.
“Be cool man, I didn’t touch a thing, however if I were you, I would Adjust the gain by .0382 on panel two. I think that will get you what you’re looking for.”
Private went over to where Sara was.
“Let’s go babe, I want to check out those massive speaker columns.” Private said with a smile.
Sara said her goodbyes and they made their way to the speakers. Private made his way around the back of the speaker column, while Sara was in front. While Private was taking his scans, Sara was approached by one of the road crew.
“Hey hot momma, checking out my work of beauty there?”
Sara rolled her eyes. She then gathered herself and smiled sweetly.
“Yeah, me and my old man think they are a work of art.”
“Far out! I think you are a nice piece if art yourself, why don’t we find a place to be alone for a while?”
Sara glanced around and saw Private headed her way.
That’s okay, me and my man, have got a good thing going on.” Sara said and grabbed Privates hand we he got to her.
“That’s cool, little momma. I will be here all weekend if you change your mind, peace.”
The young man made his way back over to the stage, and Sara took Private by the arm, and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“I am sticking with you from here on out. This “free love” stuff, is way to out there for my taste.”
“I am with you momma,” Private said with a wink, then added,
“We only have a few more things to check out.” Private said as he made his way towards the stage.
“What is taking them so long? Private should have at least sent a report by now.” The Captain complained.
“I did not think sending those two alone was a good idea,” the Sargent mumbled, as he tried to contact Private.
“Private? What is your statis? The Sargent sent in code.
The Sargent had to send the message three times, before he finally got a reply. What Percy sent back was the results of the scans of the sound boards and the specs. on the speakers. Two minutes later the Sargent messaged back that they would need to do a lot of modifying to get the kind of power they would need to get the results they were looking for.
“Come on Sara, lets take another look at those sound boards, I have an idea, Private said as he took her hand and made his way back.
“Now listen carefully, I have brought some items, with me that I hoped, I would not have to use.”
Sara stopped him.
“What do you mean?”
“Look Sara, it has always been our policy to not cause any damage on any planet we research. Most of the time anything we use has been tested to that effect, We are in a desperate situation, and this is our last hope of being rescued. In my expert opinion, this will not cause any harm to anyone or anything on this planet, but it has never been tested.”
“What if you are wrong?”
Private started pulling her along again.
“I am not wrong, but if I were, it will simply mean that several, thousand rock fans demanding their money back. Now listen, I am going to cut the power to the sound boards and then climb up to them and ‘fix them.’ This devise will restore the power. I need you to stay down here, and when I raise my arms in the air, push the button.”
Private rattled all those instructions off quickly and climbed up to the sound boards before Sara could argue. When he reached the top, the sound technicians were scrambling around yelling at one another.
“Hey, who are you? One of the technicians asked?”
Private glanced down at the brand name on one of the boards.
“I am with the Bose company. I am on vacation and was hoping to enjoy a concert!”
Percy pushed his way over to and opened up all the boards. He looked over all of them, then asked,
“What idiot wired these?”
“Look man, I have been running things like this for years…”
“It is amazing you still have a job. This is a mess!”
Private rewired several boards then reached in his pocket and pulled out five small boxes and wired one into each one of the sound boards.
“Hey man, what are those things?” the main technician asked.
The newest thing in Bose technology. I figured that something like this might happen at this event. It always does. Percy shut the boards and declared,
“All fixed! As he raised his arms in the air.
Sara pushed the button, and the technician motioned for the band to test their instruments. The sound was fantastic. Percy climbed back down and took Sara by the hand and started to walk off.
“Hey dude, um thanks. Can I at least get you some free tickets to our next concert? The technician called out.
“Thanks, but no, I will be too far away for the next one,” Private replied.
When he and Sarah got back to the ship, the Sargent was frantically trying to align his equipment with what Private had set up.
“What in the name of Targa, did you use, nothing lines up!” The Sargent yelled.
“Only the newest in Bose technology.”
“What?” The Sargent yelled and stood up.
“Okay, calm down, I attached one BB1 to each of their sound boards.”
“You did what?” The Captain now yelled.
Before the Captain could give the Private more heat, the Sargent adjusted his equipment.
“Captain, look at this!” The Sargent called out.
“Amazing,” was all the Captain could say.
Private cleared his throat, hoping to get a congratulations, or good job, from the Captain. However, all he got was take that mop off your head.
Sara pulled off her wig off of Private and whispered,
“I think it made you look cute.”
“Well Captain, as long as those kids continue to make that noise, they call music, Commander Ratmire should have no trouble locating us.” The Sargent said, as he finished fine tuning his equipment.
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