The Feminist Queendom Charlie’s War 39

© Beverly Taff

List of Characters.

Charlie Sage Maths and electronics genius.
Shirley Sage Charlies elderly mother
Chloe Charlie’s one time early school friend.
Josephine Flint Surgeon and associate of Chloe’s.
Mrs Jane Anston Director of Anston Aerospace.
Ronnie Garage mechanic at top of lane
Pauline Garage owner, Ronnie’s sister.
Briony Pauline’s teenaged daughter.
Billy Pauline’s middle son.
Abigail (Abby) Pauline’s youngest daughter.
‘Poppy’ Charlie’s little micro-runabout.
‘Doris’ The armoured mobile home.
‘Lady’ Chloe’s Sports Car.
Dawn Charlie’s armoured spaceship.
Colonel Wilson Vindictive misanthropist doctor.
Margaret Thomas ‘Failed’ police security guard.
Sally. 1st Oz Special forces trooper
Jacky 2nd Oz Special forces trooper.

Chapter 39

Initially, Charlie settled in one of the conference chairs but quickly realised that his time would be infinitely better spent getting things for Chloe and making sure there was stuff immediately to hand as she juggled triplets and breasts and bottles. He smiled as Chloe occasionally rolled her eyes when the procedures failed, or a bottle dropped.

As he recovered a dummy after rinsing it in the steriliser bucket he grinned.
“You need four boobs love, like a dairy cow.”

“Just watch it you, or I’ll slip prolactin into your food, and you can grow a pair of boobs to help.”

“I’ll manage just fine with the bottle thanks. Interesting idea though.”

“What! Chloe squeaked. “You’d like to grow boobs?”

“No.” He replied softly. “Don’t make jokes about it. If Mummy hadn’t risked her life and limb, I’d be like those poor feminised wretches you see around, like the defence minister. Mummy lost her job through protecting me. She survived by selling herbal medicines she made herself.”

Chloe quickly sobered up as she finished feeding the last triplet and handed him to Charlie for a top up from the formulae bottle.

After everybody was fed Charlotte resumed ‘flying’ in the cargo bay while Charlie and Chloe discussed their plans.

“We can’t stay up here just drifting around in space. The ship’s
too small for starters.” Chloe reflected.

“Well Antarctica’s too cold except for brief visits to exercise our legs, and Charlotte hasn’t got suitable clothes anyway.”

“We could find an uninhabited island.”

“Seems like the best option or we could return by night to Coach and lie low in the outback.”

“The island sounds like the best option.” Chloe reflected. “There’s always the chance that Mad Colonel Wilson might find us in Oz before he’s caught.”

“Okay. Tonight we go island hunting but for now, we return to Coach to give Charlotte some space.”

As Chloe took her place alongside Charlie at the command console she found time to reflect and gazed in wonderment at the stars around her before turning to Charlie.

“All this and yet down there, they’re more concerned with squabbling over who’s entitled to what.”

Charlie turned apologetically and pulled a wry, thoughtful expression.

“I ain’t responsible for the human race, nor for its foibles like greed, envy, violence and selfishness. Remember what Ghandi said.”

“The world has enough for, - - -.”

“That’s the one,” Charlie responded before Chloe could finish.

“Where did you learn all this stuff?” She asked. “I mean you could not possibly have learned it at seventh grade in school, and you never went to college.”

“I get around,” Charlie fondled the control column and smiled before finishing, “with this. And of course; my dear Mummy helped.”

ooo000ooo

Once the Dawn was settled a hundred miles above an isolated island Chloe made a pot of tea while Charlie entertained Charlotte until she settled down to her nap. Then they chatted as they shared the coffee.

“Your mum; how did she educate you; I mean once she was bounced from the university for not having you feminised, how did she access all the history books that you’ve obviously read?”

“She had contacts.”
“Where?”

“I’m not prepared to say except to say that I used to sit on her knees when they had meetings at our house. I suppose most of those women are gone now, but they used to bring a book each when they came to the meetings, and I devoured them voraciously. Every week they changed the books.”

“So you chatted about history?”

“Oh a lot more than that, - history, law, philosophy, everything. The only time I got bored was when they talked about science. I used to go into the kitchen and make the tea then. The women all thought I was one of those typically lazy, clever boys that weren’t interested in STEM subjects because they were too hard.

The truth was, I found them too easy and their discussions backward, but Mummy warned me not to reveal my insights, so I kept shtum about STEM. Good job I did as well.”

“Why?” Chloe pressed.

Charlie gaped askance at her.

“I’d have been forcibly feminized! That’s bloody what! Read your bloody history or have you forgotten already? Have a chat with that poor bloody defence minister and ask how she feels about losing her boy bits and never fathering kids!”

“I don’t think she’d ever reveal her true feelings.”

“No. I don’t suppose she would.” Charlie concurred. “She’d lose her security clearances and her job immediately.”

They continued chatting until the sun disappeared behind the earth’s curved horizon and the babies wanted feeding. After sorting their family duties out, Chloe navigated their descent to their chosen island.
It technically belonged to one of the South American republics, but it was remote and uninhabited except by birds, fish and other assorted animals. It would suit their purposes for the occasional brief visit.

As they hovered less than a metre above the sand, Charlie jumped down and hacked at a cluster of palms. He threw the decapitated fronds into the sea and guided Chloe into the void he had created beneath the palms.

They both knew it would make them harder to spot as Charlie dug out some green and cream paints and daubed a simple image onto Dawn’s skin. Soon the ship was crudely camouflaged, and Chloe eyed it ruefully.

“Don’t worry darling. It won’t affect the solar panels too much, and it washes off easily.”

“How long are we staying here?” Chloe asked.

“I don’t know. It’s essentially a wild-life reserve. If they’ve got permanent rangers on duty we might have to up sticks and skedaddle at a moment’s notice.”

“Otherwise we live on fish, coconuts and albatross eggs.” Chloe smirked.

ooo000ooo

Eventually, they stayed for a month, and it was resupplying that compelled them to leave. They had not been spotted by rangers or from space. Spy satellites are all well and good, but they have to know roughly where to look. Additionally Chloe and Charlie kept mainly amongst the trees and thy did not venture much to the beach. Very occasionally, Charlotte strayed onto the beach, but it was a risk that Chloe and Charlie were prepared to allow.

When the time came to leave, they departed at night and contacted the Australian authorities by video link from space because it was early evening in Canberra.
“Hello Prime Minister. Have you any news on Colonel Wilson?”

“She’s not been caught yet. We have reason to believe she’s back in the UQ. They had a back-up plan involving a submarine based in Diego Garcia. The sub picked her up off the coast near It was a well-planned kidnap and only your spaceship foiled it.”

“Ain’t that the truth!” Charlie muttered to himself before asking.

“So have you lodged a protest with the UQ.”

“Yes, but typically, they’re denying all knowledge of it, and they claim that the sub might have delivered her to the Feminist Republic of Pacifica, that was old California to you.”

“Bastards!” Charlie cursed again under his breath. “So you don’t know whether she’s in UQ or FRP, nor do you know where or when she might strike again.”

“That’s the crux of it Mr Sage.”

“Fuck!”

Chloe’s curse alarmed the Prime Minister and her defence minister, so they quickly moved to reassure Charlie’s wife.

“If they come near Australia, we’ll catch them Mrs Sage. Though having your spaceship on hand would truly strengthen our suit.”

Chloe turned to Charlie who was deep in thought.

“Penny for them darling?”

He looked at her and sucked his lip.
“It’s the old terrorist equation all over again, isn’t it.”

“Meaning?” Asked the PM but the defence minister explained.

“Colonel Wilson only has to get it right once; we have to get it right every time.”

“Exactly!” Charlie concurred as he added.

“I think I’ve got an idea to help you without compromising my offer about antigrav.”

“Oh! Do tell Mr Sage.” The defence minister begged eagerly.

“Right. How good are you guys at building spy satellites?”

“We can hold our own; - just. The one’s we’ve got up there are okay, but they could do with upgrading.”

“How do you put them up into space.”

“We hire capacity on the space shuttle and put them into orbit, just like everybody else; if they don’t have their own shuttle that is.”

“I thought so. How would you like to have several located directly over Australia but geo-stationary and NOT in orbit?”

“Could your antigravity do that?”

“Yes. Charlie confirmed. If you use the solar panels to replenish the energy packs during daylight, the antigrav will sustain position even during the night. The satellites can be such low altitude that they will see a sunset and sunrise every rotation of the earth. Nor is the size of the satellite a problem. You can employ any size or type of lens or camera you want. My spaceship Dawn, can emplace them for you.”

“Good god!” The PM gasped.

The politicians were so enamoured of the idea that they failed to see Charlies ulterior motive. If he was to assemble and position the satellites, he would need to ‘spacewalk’ - - - and that would mean spacesuits for himself, Chloe and any technicians who were to assist.

The deal was struck a month later when Charlie next took a space trip and made himself easily accessible by satellite to the Australian PM. The Australians had examined all the issues and not spotted Charlie’s weak point. Charlie still had not made a space suit capable of operating in the vacuum of space.

The question of supplying space suits had been so fundamental to any satellite location procedures, that nobody had thought of the enormous consequential potential that they offered Charlie. With a space suit enabling him to step outside his ship, Charlie could space walk or moonwalk and therefore visit any satellite anywhere. He could interfere with it or even disable it at leisure.

The question of Charlie and his family’s safety had still not been properly resolved but now the powers that be in Oz were taking the question very seriously while simultaneously addressing a genuinely bipartite green paper concerning the re-establishment of equal human rights. Charlie found himself moving in very rarefied circles at the highest echelons of government.

Strangely, he found he did not enjoy the experience. He found himself constantly wondering if any person he was dealing with was genuine or just another sycophantic hopeful looking to the main chance. Worse still he was constantly being approached about the secrets of his ship and the antigravity drive that enabled it to reach beyond Earth. He came to rely a lot upon Chloe for judgement calls when meeting new people.

Despite the hang-ups he encountered while the Australians were preparing their super intensive spy cameras, Charlie and the science team finally fabricated and located their devices at strategic locations over Australia. These devices made it extremely difficult for any individual to cross Australian coasts and enter the continent undetected.

For Charlie, it was now a simple matter of sitting back and waiting to see if the UQ were planning any more kidnap attempts.

By this time, Margaret the Police sergeant had become a trusted friend of Charlie’s family, and she commanded of the protection detachment seconded to Charlie’s safety. Under these conditions, the Sage family at last felt their circumstances were approaching normality. Chloe had engaged a trusted ‘nanny’ to help with her babies because Charlie had once again found himself much in demand as the Australian government encountered increasing threats from various feminista governments, while even the Asian patriarchies were getting nervous about the news and politics coming out of Oz.

ooo000ooo