The Feminist Queendom Charlie’s War 86

© 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
Queen Sophia Young UQ monarch recently crowned
Princess Victoria Her fourteen-year-old daughter

Chapter 86.

For several nervous moments Charlie stood pondering on his side of the main machinery space door. He was not nervous for himself but he was worried about the whereabouts of the young queen and what sort of detention she was under. As he debated with himself, he placed his mobile in a charging unit as he looked around to seek inspiration.

Then he found it.

“Aahh!” He sighed victoriously. “You dopey bastard Charlie!” He scolded himself as he noticed the security camera set into the deck-head above and behind the door.

“Now why didn’t you think of that before, Charlie stupid Sage?”

He left his mobile plugged into the charger while he took a pencil from the security station beside the machinery door and jotted down a series of Passenger accommodation stations where security cameras gave him a clear view of situations around the Ship.

Cautiously he scanned at least fifty locations until he was satisfied he had a good idea of where the delegations and meetings were located throughout the corridors, cabins and communal areas. He smiled contentedly as he recognised friends and foes then quietly started closing essential fire doors and locking them down.

Normally, these safety operations would only be done during fire and escape drills to the large ‘space-lifeboats’ if Dawn 4 had found herself in danger while carrying passengers. Indeed Charlie and Juliet had practised several such drills during trials after building. Now her preoccupations with safety were bearing fruit.

What pleased Charlie was the seeming lack of concern or panic amongst the passengers when they discovered that a fire-door to a certain section was closed and they could not access certain areas.

He wondered if the UQ citizenry had become so conditioned to oppressive security controls by the Feminista authorities that it had become commonplace to be denied access to what had previously been public areas. His suspicions were in fact correct though he did not know it. Throughout the UQ many common spaces had been separated under the pretence of providing safe places for women and containing men in smaller, secure areas.

Men were not allowed into ‘women’s areas unless accompanied by a woman or unless they were castrated.

Content now that he had secured a closed path to Dawn 4’s bridge, Charlie opened the machinery access door with his mobile then locked it behind him and cautiously proceeded down the path he had prepared. At each juncture he would carefully scan the next spaces then lock and unlock assorted doors to secure his front and rear

It was only after about twenty minutes of his cunning manipulations of the fire doors that he noticed from his hacked cameras that people were beginning to show concern. Several Feminista security guards had clearly realised they could not go where they had previously walked freely. Charlie still needed time to find Queen Sophia so at the closed fire doors he posted messaged on the electronic information boards at each closed door.

‘Please be patient. This is a fire drill. This door will re-open in ten minutes.’

His ploy worked and eventually, he located Queen Sophia in the main dining room accompanied by several ‘assistants’ whom Charlie could not decide were friend or foe. He did however conclude that the four Feminista ‘guards’ were most likely gaolers.

By now he was behind the access door to the Bridge and his camera hacker told him that there were only two armed guards casually sitting on the command chairs with their feet up on the bridge window ledge.

‘Typical sloppy discipline!’ He told himself. ‘Just the sort of lazy natures born of having total control with no need for diligence.

He left all the bridge doors locked and all communications to the bridge turned off. The two guards were now isolated but did not yet know it.

He was now only one skin away from the open air and suddenly his mobile beeped. He opened it to find a text from Juliet.

It simply read. –

‘Kill Wilson first! Imperative!’ 8246!

Charlie knew the number code. Any combination of those four even numbers was confirmation that the message was genuine and Juliet was safe. That meant it was essential to locate General Wilson.

He decided to start his search from the top deck down and BINGO!

He found the megalomaniacal bitch sitting in the captain’s cabin at the captain’s desk. Her uniformed Jacket hung on the nearby coat-stand and she had obviously made herself at home.

‘Probably fantasising at being captain of the most powerful ship in the world’! Charlie smiled to himself. ‘Well you’ll soon realise what being in command entails bitch!.’

“Without further ado Charlie tapped her mobile phone to put the whole of Dawn 4’s passenger accommodation in ‘lock-down’, then he stole quietly down the Captain’s alleyway and knocked respectfully on the captain’s door while simultaneously un-holstering his pistol.

“Come!” General Wilson commanded.

Charlie was never one to stand on ceremony so he eased the door open until he saw enough of the General’s back just as she was turning meet her visitor. While her body still provided enough of her back to make a decent target, Charlie shot her low in the spine.

Her screams went unheard for all the fire-doors were firmly shut, but as she lay paralyzed from the waist down she was clutching the desk and desperately trying to reach for her uniform jacket.

As she slid out of the chair, her useless legs crumpled under her and she scrabbled with her arms to drag herself to the coat stand.

Her efforts were so obvious that Charlie quickly realised there was something of enormous importance in her jacket. He stepped over her then grabbed the jacket as she tried to make grab for his testicles. Charlie was too tall and she could not sit up. Because the bullet had smashed her spine right through her sacrum.

“This what you’re looking for bitch?” Charlie snarled as he removed some sort of ‘zapper’ from the General’s pocket.

She cursed him but he showed no sympathy. Instead he lifted the little flap and removed the nine-volt battery before pocketing the device. Then he threw the battery down the captain’s lavatory. Finally he ripped the jacket to shreds and made sure there was nothing else in it. She watched with eyes blazing.

“You’ll die for that you animal!”

“No you’re the one who’s going to die bitch. You’ve tried to kill me one time too many!”

“You’ll never escape.”

“Do I fucking care?” Charlie cursed back. “What is this device for?”

“Fuck off!” She cursed.

Without saying anything, he brought the pistol close to her left hand and shot it. She screamed again as blood spurted across the deck but still she refused to say. Charlie had to admire her courage, but it was the courage of a mad woman.

Instead, he patched into Dawn 4’s comm's and called Juliet who was by now on the moon with Laura and Princess Victoria. He texted his message.

‘Can we talk?'

Juliet came back four seconds later with speech.

“Yes. Have you killed her?”

“No but I’ve disarmed her, there was also a zapper but I’ve disabled her and disabled the device.”

“Thank god. Is Queen Sophia safe?”

“Not yet.”

“I’ll put Princess Victoria on. She’ll explain.”

“Hello Princess. What’s all this about?“ Charlie asked.

“They’ve planted an explosive device in my and my mother’s necks. General Wilson has the trigger thing.”

“What did it look like.”

“A giant key fob.”

“What like this?” He took the disabled device and Victoria gave a wail of relief.

“That’s it. Have you disarmed it?”

“Of course. Do you know if there are any others.”

Princess Victoria shook her head uncertainly.

“I think so. If there are, that prime Minister bitch might have one.”

“Okay, I’m coming to that. Stay on the moon with Captain Julie for now. If there is another zapper it won’t have the range.”

He watched princess Victoria visibly relax so he asked for Juliet.

“Look after the kid Julie. Ask the base surgeon if he can find and remove the device from the girls neck.”

“Oh we know where it is. There’s a tiny scar under the back of her skull. The device is located by the Axis and Atlas vertebrate.”

“What about the two guards?”

“For an answer, Juliet panned the phone camera around the passenger cabin of Dawn 2. There was blood everywhere and two spacers were busy cleaning up. In the corner the two perforated bodies lay awaiting disposal.

“You or Laura?” Charlie asked.

“You have to ask? Just remind me never to cross her!”

Charlie smiled as he closed his mobile. Now he had to save Sophia.

ooo000ooo

By now tensions were beginning to mount throughout the ship. As people discovered that they were separated into discreet sections of the accommodation and unable to contact each other. Charlie used his phone to ‘dial-up’ different security cameras until he was certain he had a clear picture of where all the important people were. All importantly he could now keep a constant watch on Queen Sophia and her captors.

There had to be a way of creating a diversion and Charlie reckoned he might have found it. The fire extinguisher system.

Normally, the fire detector system detected a hot spot in a specific location and the extinguisher system would inundate the area with whatever suitable flame retardant was deemed correct for that space. For instance in oil spaces, foam was usually exuded into the area so that the area was finally full of foam and no air could get to the oil. This was usually reserved for oily places and lower engine room platforms. Higher up either foam or retardant liquids were sprayed out of fine nozzles.

In electrical areas, CO2 was injected into the space while all the fire doors were kept shut. The important factor was to make sure all personnel had evacuated the space.

In passenger spaces water was sprinkled from ceiling outlets while galleys had dry-powder or foam. The passenger saloon where Queen Sophia was being detained was obviously under a sprinkler system but Charlie had to somehow get the system to activate while bypassing the detector activators.

Back down to the machinery spaces did Charlie have to go. Once there, he located the bank of dining saloon sprinkler feed pipes and quickly set about forcing the feed pressure to the sprinklers. He did this easily with a pump injector bleed off the emergency fire pump.

The high pressure quickly burst the rated glass pressure heads on several of the nozzles and within seconds, the dining saloon was awash with hundreds of streaming sprinkler jets akin to Monsoon rain. The spray and ensuing mist was so dense it was difficult to see across the saloon and that perfectly suited Charlie’s plan.

As he emerged from the fire prevention and CO2 room, he dashed up to the dining saloon and checked his mobile camera. It was impossible to clearly see any figures from the ground, but the security cameras were set up above the sprinklers and one could just see and identify distinctive figures above the mist. A scan of the room through different cameras identified Queen Sophia sitting on a ’top-table’ dais, struggling to keep her head above the choking mist of spray. Charlie duly noted the position and diverted to the Kitchens while unlocking the main servery door.

Through the mist, the four security Feministas located by each of the passenger doors, could not properly see the relevant galley doors and when Charlie bent low, he could not be seen across the thirty metres of spray and mist. From memory he quickly located the back of the dais and suddenly snatched Queen Sophia backwards while covering her mouth.

In shock, she bit down hard on her abductor’s hand and Charlie let out a curse. In the hissing mayhem she did not recognise his hoarse voice and she continued struggling but his powerful hand prevented her from either turning to identify her kidnapper or scream. She did however keep biting hard until blood began to flow copiously from Charlie’s fingers.

“For fuck’s sake girl. It’s me Charlie Sage!” He whispered hoarsely as he finally dragged her into the calm of the galley

“Charlie!” she finally gasped whilst keeping enough wits to not scream.”

“Yes! Come on!” He cursed again. “We haven’t got much time, just stay close to me!”

“Thanks,” She gasped as he yanked her painfully out of the galley and down towards the machinery spaces.

“Where are we going?” She asked as she recovered her wits and kicked off her stylish heels.

“Down the engine room, deep down into the engine room, you’ll see, just stay close to me.”

“But Charlie, my neck, my neck!”

“Don’t worry about that!” He reassured her as he took General Wilson’s Zapper out of her pocket and showed it to her.”

As he unlocked the Main engine room door he turned nervously towards the Queen.

“Princess Victoria told me there might be two Zappers. D’ you know who might have the other?”

“Yes.”

“Well don’t play games. Tell me quickly!”

“Me!”

“You! Why the fuck would you have it?”

“I stole it.”

“Stole it!! Who from?”
"The new Prime Minister!"

“The Prime Minister? Charlie wondered. "What you mean this current feminista bitch?”

“Yes. When she came for her first audience, my security camera’s spotted her fingering it before she slipped it into her winter coat last January. She knew that anybody attending upon me, had to go through the detectors, so she left her coat in the antechamber.

The next time she attended I had one of my last faithful retainers steal it for me while I kept her longer than usual with a lot of questions.”

I was expecting the shit to hit the fan, but she never mentioned it. That made me think that there may be more than two; but a few weeks later, when that Bitch Wilson was threatening me, she let slip that she and the new PM were together in this. She told me that the PM had the other one so it was pointless me trying to get hold of one without the other.

Well, for some reason the PM must have been too afraid to tell her that she'd lost it; while I had the spare zapper all the time. When I learned that you were bringing the Australian Prime Minister for the trade talks, I thought there might be hope that a tough cookie like you might help me. You have thank god; and once again, thank you.”

“Okay, but I’ve still got one last question for later. Down here now,” Charlie indicated the ballast tank lid.

“What down there? It’s filthy.”

“It’s safe!”

“How. We’ll be trapped like rats.

“You’ll see now hurry up.” He ordered her while tapping his phone.

As the Queen peered down into the stygian darkness she suddenly noticed some lights come on and she immediately recognised Dawn 1.

“How the hell did your ship get in here.”

“Don’t ask just go down the ladder and ignore the mud and stuff. I’ll explain once were away.”

Queen Sophia did as instructed and soon found herself in the cockpit of Dawn 1. Charlie followed her while busily tapping his mobile phone. Finally there was a whooshing, gurgling sound then Dawn 1 was carefully exiting through the huge de-ballasting doors the same way she had entered.

“We’re out and free,” Charlie reassured her. I won’t give her back to those bitches until I can get Juliet back on the bridge.”

“Does your little phone control that whole ship?”

“Yes.” Charlie revealed. “But more importantly, I want to know how Wilson or whoever, managed to implant those explosives against your spine; and can they be removed?”

ooo000ooo