The Feminist Queendom Charlie’s War 74.

© 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.
Juliet Charlie’s Mal engineering assistant.
Laura The second mate of the Second Dawn
Kate (Katherine Bergson) The Australian defence minister.
Lieutenant Engadine Asi Charlie’s second prisoner.
Charlotte Charlie and Chloe’s older daughter
Michael, Jessica & Lucy Charlie and Chloe’s younger triplets

Chapter 74

As Charlie and the Australian delegation rose from the table for a tea/coffee break the UN contingent quickly moved to accompany them to the restaurant. Charlie looked askance at this move until the Aussie Foreign Minister explained.

“Most of the detail and negotiations are hammered out over working lunches Charlie.”

“So what is left to be hammered out.” He asked.

“Several countries are seeking your co-operation with spaceship and antigravity engine construction.”

“There is no co-operation; well not from me personally.” Charlie declared. “If there’s going to be strife during my meal, I’ll eat alone onboard Dawn 2 or even Dawn 1.”

“Oh come on now Charlie,” Katie added. “Surely we can talk while eating. You can enlighten them as you chew. Several countries have approached us concerning what we’ve done in Oz.”

“They don’t need my help in that quarter. Besides, if I stuck my oar in, I’d be accused of meddling and old-style colonialism. The feminista would even charge me with *mangineering * a new patriarchy. That’s not me.”

“You did it for us Charlie; well maybe not a patriarchy but a functioning democracy.”

“All I did was place a deal on the table and say ‘take-it-or-leave-it.’ Oz was ready to pop anyway, mainly because so many men had chosen to live in isolation in the outback. There wasn’t enough available male muscle to do the slave work, the unpleasant stuff, the shitty stuff!”

“There are quite a few other countries in that situation Charlie. We’ve had several approaches; - well more than several. Twenty-seven to be precise.”

“Well, if they’re in that position why should it take antigrav to return them to some sort of functioning, liberal democracy. If it takes some sort of perceived threat to their current political systems, to make them see sense, they’re not ready.

Besides, making anti-gravity engines for all those hopefuls would mean me having to go into some sort of mass-production and I’m not prepared to turn myself into some sort of robot. The moment production becomes automated, it becomes reproducible and others will steal the secret very quickly.

Intellectual property theft has been China’s way ever since they industrialised before the great upheaval. They and other countries have never respected patent rights.
It won’t work.” Charlie concluded. “I have to keep the operation small and very selective; at least until the whole planet has some form of functioning liberal democracy.”

ooo000ooo

Having made his observations plain, Charlie signalled to Juliet that he needed to go to the lavatory. Juliet approached and explained.

“There’s only you and me here plus the male members of the security council and we cannot trust them. I’ll have to watch your back.”

“Yeah. I just realised that. Have my spacers guard the door please, let Engie and Angie and Laura come in with me if needs be. It’s an ideal place for an ambush.”

Juliet smirked and wagged his head in mock despair.

“Do you remember when it was girls who moved in gangs when going to the lavatories?”

“Yeah, ironic isn’t it. Still, I’ve gorra’ pee.”

Juliet stepped boldly through the lavatory doorway and checked each stall before clearing it for Charlie.

“There’s nobody here. You’re good to enter, girls can you watch the door and perhaps a couple come in as well?”
“Engie and Angie could not suppress a grin as they joined Charlie and Juliet in the men’s room.”

“Never been in one of these places before, bugger me it smells!” Angie observed as she sniffed and wrinkled her nose.”

“Yeah, men are dirty bastards especially some from third world countries. Look at the permanent stains on the floor, they just don’t aim straight into the urinals!” Charlie observed.

“What are the cubicles like.? Engie asked.

“Don’t even go there unless you like wading in piss.” Juliet cautioned.

“What’s that smell?” Charlie asked.

“Shit!! Everybody out!” Engie shrieked, “Hold your breaths. Gas, Gas!”

Even as she spoke, Laura fired a burst of automatic fire into the exit door and kicked the smashed lock open with all her force.

As she and Engie exploded into the corridor they found half a dozen black uniformed assailants outside wearing gas masks.

Without using breath to ask questions, Laura just opened fire as she noticed her own security team coughing on their knees and choking painfully. Being a well-trained special forces protection specialist, Laura had held her breath and killed or injured all six of the gas masks before the gas overwhelmed her and sent her coughing painfully to the floor. However, before succumbing to Laura’s bullets, one of the assassins had managed to release a stun grenade.

The gas masked attackers had also been carrying guns and stun-grenades as ‘back-up’ for they had hoped to silently knock Charlie out and kidnap him precisely when he was vulnerable going to urinate. They had not calculated on Laura’s quick-wittedness and total commitment.

The gunfire, explosion and screams brought guards running from every direction but the ambush was over before it had begun. All the security guards found were eleven people spread out on the corridor floor around the lavatory door. Some dead, some unconscious, and some coughing and retching.

The gas however had not finished its work and several of the first responders were forced to stumble back as the gas still burned throats and irritated eyes. It was fully five minutes before the corridor was cleared of gas and first-aiders could attend while the UN security guards nervously pointed their weapons in every direction and at everybody.
ooo000ooo

“So who were they and how did they get clearance to enter such a heavily restricted area?” The Australian PM demanded to know.

“We haven’t got answers yet, just questions.” The head of security admitted.

“We’ve all got questions!” Charlie snapped angrily. “It’s a good job the treaty hasn’t been signed yet.”

“But it was due to be signed today, the UN Secretary General protested.”

“That was before the attempt to kill me or kidnap me. The deal’s off!” Charlie stated flatly.

There was a soft curse of despair from the UN contingent but they could not raise a protest. The attack had clearly been some sort of attempt to derail the negotiations and it had.

Katie took Charlie’s arm and tugged it gently.

“If whoever it was, was trying to put a spanner in the works, your refusal plays straight into their hands.”

“No.” Charlie observed. “Whoever made that attack was trying to demonstrate that the agreement arose out of discord and dispute. There will always be grounds to claim the treaty was invalid due to the violence and deaths surrounding the signing. Before I move a single millimetre, I want the perpetrators brought to book.”

A still half-stunned Charlie continued as he wiped the chemically induced tears from his burning eyes.

“Somebody in this building knew about the ambush, six black-uniformed assassins cannot just walk into the UN, loaded with guns, knock-out gas and stun grenades. One of the security council delegations knows more than they’re letting on. Have they traced where their security passes came from?”

“They’re on it right now.” The Secretary General declared though she could not be certain.

Charlie declared loudly to the PM, Katie and the Secretary General..

“Bring Dawn 1 to the garden promenade, she’s my personal transport. Hereafter I’ll repossess my ship and await events aboard Dawn 3. If the UN has not identified the source of the attack by tonight, - midnight; I leave and I’ll treat the Solar system as my own bloody backyard.”

With these arrangements fixed Charlie turned to his dazed but recovering companions.

“Anybody wishing to accompany me can do so aboard Dawn 3. The other ship, Dawn 2 will ferry you there. I’m going to get my wife and children.”

As he stalked away, Charlie threw one last remark to the UN Secretary General.

“I suggest you relocate the UN to a safer country. This place is obviously not secure!”

ooo000ooo

After contacting Chloe and his Children on the ferry taking them to the Statue of Liberty, Charlie brought Dawn 1 to the island. Then he had his family and their security guards quickly cross the pier and dash up the cargo ramp.

Thousands of tourists were shocked but excited to see the much talked about ‘flying pastie’ collect the inventor’s family and disappear again to re-join the now famous giant ore-carrier spaceship that was hovering by the UN building. Within seconds, the event went viral worldwide.

That evening, as the Australian delegation were dining aboard Dawn 3, the information came through from the UN Headquarters security. The assassination attempt had been orchestrated by the Feminist Queendom of Atlantica!

Charlie's own ‘mother country’ had attempted to kidnap him in a supposedly legitimate endeavour to recover what they claimed was their commercial property. Namely the gravity engine that they claimed he been researched in the workshop and Laboratories of Anston Aerospace before he had emigrated to Australia.

They claimed that the work had been enabled by the materials Charlie had ‘stolen’ from the rubbish bins of the repair shops at their factory in Bristol during the years that Charlie had worked for Anston Aerospace.

The attempted kidnap had been simply a mechanism to extradite Charlie back to The Feminist Queendom of Atlantica, to charge him in the British Courts with theft of commercial secrets before he had married Chloe. Unfortunately, their plan had failed and violence had ensued un-necessarily.

Charlie and Chloe were incensed when they heard the claim but all their paperwork was lying at home in Hammersley WA.

“Do you need to collect the paperwork?” The Australian MP and the UN Secretary General asked Charlie.

“It’s only our paperwork concerning our marriage and eventual legitimisation of our entrance to Australia.” Chloe explained.

“That’s all in order,” the PM confirmed, “I remember signing your papers myself when we learned about your work with gravity. You were exactly the sort of Migrants that Australia wanted and needed.”

“So what about your research work?” The Secretary General pressed. “I mean there must be some scientific papers somewhere.”

Charlie gave a tight little victorious smile as he replied.

“No. It’s a well-known fact that all the knowledge, all the research work, all the painstaking experiments were conducted in my head. There is NO paperwork!, No research papers, no notes, no drawings, no models; - nothing save for Poppy, Doris and Lady.”

“What are they?” The SG (secretary general) asked.

“They were our pet names for the primitive little hovering cars that we modified and experimented with.” Chloe explained. “We’ve still got them hidden away in Australia. They were our ordinary cars originally and we have the registration documents to prove they are owned and paid for by us.

Those three little babies will be exhibits one day in Charlie’s museum of gravity. They were the very first primitive hover cars that are now commonplace today and they work by reacting with close proximity ground gravity

The gravity engine proper; the later invention, exploits the environmental gravity that’s all around us, even the sun’s gravity, the gravity that holds space and time together. That’s the big, biiig secret!

Anston Aerospace in Bristol had no part in that science. Dawn one was built in Australia.

Doris the converted mobile home was just a crude precursor that could never go into space, all she could do was fly higher than the hover engine; a sort of halfway-hybrid as Charlie developed the science.

If science ever learns of Charlie’s secrets, Doris would be referred to as ‘The-missing-link’ of gravity engines.” The step twixt ground effect gravity and the universal gravity field, you know, that stuff that holds space and time together.

“Good god!” The SG exclaimed. “I’d love to see her one day.”

“Maybe; one day; perhaps.” Chloe replied. “When Charlie’s dead and gone.”

ooo000ooo

*Mangineered* = Engineered by men for men with pure functionality in
mind and without regard to style, form or fashion.