The Feminist Queendom Charlies War 83

© 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 83

The first trip, delivering ore and inviting school parties aboard Dawn 4 had been a trial run. It had worked successfully because no attempts to rescue any anti-feminist had been tried. Dawn 4 and her escorting space fighters had returned to Oz without incident.

Keen to accumulate wealth and knowledge, Juliet forsook a work break and took Dawn 4 back to the asteroid belt to commence selecting assorted precious ores and rare earths for the second delivery.

After harvesting her second load of assorted ores, Juliet was loitering in space some several hundred miles above Woomera, when he learned that his ship Dawn 4 was to serve as the basis for a top-level diplomatic trade mission when next she returned to the UQ to deliver her second precious cargo. He re-read the government orders and sighed.

‘I suppose I’ll have to dance attendance on all sorts of flunkies and hanger’s on. So now I’ve got to land this monster somewhere near the Canberra parliament buildings in order to collect the Ozzy prime-minister and god knows who else. Hope I don’t crash into the building.’

As he set course for Canberra, Laura’s voice broke through his reverie.

“Hi Julie. I’ve got to park Dawn 3 at Woomera and join you on that big lump of iron. Apparently, Chloe is bringing Dawn 2 to the party and then we’ve got to take her ship on board your ship to be used as some sort of visitor ferry after we’ve discharged the cargo.”

The rest of Charlie’s spacemen assembled at Woomera then flew to Canberra in Dawn 2. Once there, everybody digested the plan and equipped themselves accordingly. Dawn 2 and 4 were to be the diplomatic convoy proper while Charlie would operate hopefully undetected in Dawn 1, finding and gathering the many friends and families who were known to be at risk and hiding from the Feminista authorities in the UQ.

For the purposes of the secret rescue, everybody was given diplomatic status and listed accordingly on the visitation list, This was mainly to give Charlie some small extra protection. As topping on the cake, six space-fighters were to again accompany the mission.

There was little doubt that the UQ military and security interest would almost certainly be concentrated on the Australian space fighters which were known to have taken out the Chinese hypersonic missiles.

Nobody outside Oz knew that Dawn one and Dawn 2 had also captured or destroyed some of the Chinese weapons actually in flight.
The crumpled sample presented at the Singapore and United Nations inquiries had been the crashed missile from the outback recovery. The one caught in actual flight was captured in space and intact. This would be a powerful inducement to the UQ government to show co-operation in exchange for a study of the Chinese advance technology.

The attendance of the ‘space fighters’ as escorts to the mission were the cause of much discussion and debate within the UQ government. They, and their antigravity propulsion, were the ‘elephant-in-the-room.’

ooo000ooo

The diplomatic convoy arrived to find the UQ stockyards had now been partially roofed and this time the cargo discharge went smoothly without much dust escaping The UQ minister for trade and their Chancellor of their exchequer had boarded Dawn 4 on arrival.

Buying cheaper ore from space would hugely assist the UQ’s balance of trade exchange and the supply train security was an immensely reassuring bonus. There would be no more Chinese extortionate blackmail.

As the ore poured noisily into the designated capture bays, the diplomats were first taken on a tour of the passenger section of the huge ship while avoiding the dust and dirt of the busy cargo holds.

“How do you clean her after discharge?” The UQ trade minister asked.

“If it’s a repeat cargo there’s no need;” Juliet explained. If we have to wash down to change cargo, we take water from Europa, that’s one of the moons of Jupiter and return the tailings back to the asteroid belt. The water we keep. It’s a very valuable resource. Especially in Oz and on the Moonbase Alpha.

I’ve drunk the water from Europa and it hasn’t made me sick yet.

“Is it safe to import it? I mean alien life forms in the water and stuff.”

“Yes. If any life forms have evolved to survive on Europa the heat on earth would be lethal. Captain Sage has been occasionally drinking Europa’s water for nearly two years, without any apparent side effects. Anyway, you accept the assorted ores don’t you? They come from space.”

The minister nodded then asked again, “But you do keep check don’t you?”

“To the best of our knowledge, yes. ”

It was the best reassurance Juliet had to offer and by the time they had completed a tour of the safer parts of the ship, the discharging was early complete. Juliet explained as they returned to the command bridge.

“We’ll be moving to the same place on the beach after lunch. Then this afternoon, the school educational trips begin to arrive. Tomorrow we open up the application office for any people willing to work in space. We need more miners. The pay is high but the work is hard.”

“There’s some contention about that in our government, there’s talk of you employing men.” She almost spat the word as she pursed her lips.

Juliet simply shrugged and smiled disarmingly.

“I’m not involved in the politics. The plain fact is, men are more cost effective, they’re stronger and they give more bang for the buck after all the costs of equipping them with space suits and life support systems. Hauling bloody great rocks of ore around in zero gravity still takes muscle. The rocks may not have weight but they have mass and inertia which makes them difficult to control once they are moving. Miners can get easily crushed but men have stronger, denser bones and withstand heavier knocks. As I said, the work is dangerous!”

“Have you done it?” The minister asked.

Juliet nodded,

“Charlie Sage and I were the very first to go prospecting through the asteroid belt. Moving about between tumbling rocks several metres across is bloody frightening.”

“But surely; you use machines!”

“Of course we do; now, - but occasionally some very valuable stuff might have to be prised from a pile of dross. To do that takes hands, strong hands.”

“Machines can also be dangerous working around men in space suits. People have to be trained and men are more spatially aware when moving between large rocks spinning and tumbling in zero gravity.”

“Our experiments show that women have better balance.” The minister argued as they re-entered the accommodation area.

“In gravity, yes, probably. We, however, are working in zero gravity.”

Before going to eat, they removed the protective work suits and joined several people at Juliet’s captain’s table.

The mood amongst the UQ politicians was clearly one of envy and expectation.
ooo000ooo

As the captain of Dawn 4, Juliet took her seat at the head of the table and the seats started to fill. People did not all sit down simultaneously because it was a working lunch not a diplomatic lunch. Eventually a group arrived and Juliet recognised them as the UQ security team responsible for ensuring the Australian visitors were safe. Juliet recognised the head of the team from descriptions Charlie had shared with Juliet during their early shared exploration voyages.

“Ah! General Wilson I believe.” Juliet smiled. “Everything to your satisfaction I hope?”

The General squinted at Captain Juliet and recognised all the tell-tale signs of a feminised mal but she was baffled by the report that the attractive young lady who had escorted her around the ship was noticeably pregnant by this same captain.

“Oh good afternoon Captain. Yes, everything appears to be in order; you have a remarkable ship here.”

“Thank you General. Will you be staying aboard during our visit? We have plenty of spare accommodation.”

“Yes. I believe that is the arrangement. Particularly as both Prime Ministers will be paying a visit tomorrow.”

Juliet nodded and smiled as Lieutenant Engadine leant down and kissed him before taking her place at his side. It was a deliberate and provocative move to shake a few embedded UQ, Feminista mores. As Engie took her seat, heads turned to see that she was noticeably pregnant. General Wilson seized the opportunity to express her surprise.

“Lieutenant Engadine tells me she is carrying your child.”

“Yes, that’s quite right General. Engie and her partner requested my services so I obliged. And we all three are very excited with the outcome. I expect to be a father by March.”

“A menage a triose!” General Wilson struggled to contain her feminista disapproval.

“My choice General!” Engie retorted. “I can’t think of a better father for our children.”

“Do you live as a threesome?” The General asked; the disapproval dripping off her tongue.

“Sometimes,” Engie replied provocatively. “When our duties coincide.”

“And sleep together; as a threesome?” The General’s voice rose an octave.”

“I think that’s a somewhat personal and invasive question General.” Juliet objected.”

Engie however, was not encumbered of Juliet’s sense of privacy and propriety. She answered the General in no uncertain terms.

“How we share our lives and our beds is not your concern General. Every one of us is free to choose and, if we choose occasionally to indulge our three shared intimacies, then that is our right.”

“But what about military discipline and good order?”

“This is a merchant ship, not a warship General. We carry cargoes and passengers. My rank is purely a professional award, not a government commission. Discipline aboard Dawn 4 is maintained through respect, loyalty, honesty and – dare I say it; affection.”

“But Lieutenant Engadine, hers would be a military commission!” General Wilson argued.

“Not when applied to her position on this ship. Here, Engie is an officer aboard my merchant ship. Her own command is occasionally a spacefighter or one of the smaller antigravity research and exploration craft. Our younger officers often move smoothly between commands as and where circumstances require. Engie uses her commissioned rank when commanding one of the space fighters which is quite definitely a warship. When operating one of our ships she has the professional status of officer or captain depending on what she is doing.

For example today, Engie is captain of Dawn 2 and second mate of Dawn 4 simultaneously. You no doubt saw Dawn 2 in the docking area abaft the Passenger boarding foyer.

“Yes. I did, quite a useful looking craft if I might say. How many people does she carry?”

“At a maximum about fifty without full equipment, and about twenty-five if all are wearing space-suits. In space, when ferrying miners around, she carries perhaps a dozen with all their rock handling kit. As you can see it varies.” Engie finished talking as she started her meal.

“Where is Dawn 1 then?” General Wilson asked. “The diplomatic Itinerary stated that Dawn 1 will be here.”

“She arrives tomorrow I believe, with our Australian Prime Minister.” Juliet replied. “Then she returns to space and resumes her other duties.”

“Will Charles Sage be aboard her?”

“Yes. He delivers our PM then retires to space again. Captain Sage is a busy individual.”

“Too busy to attend our prime minister or even the queen, it seems.”

“Is the queen coming? I wasn’t told!” Juliet retorted.

“It’s being discussed right now. The queen has expressed a wish to see this ship.”

The whole table fell silent at this unexpected turn of events.

ooo000ooo