The Feminist Queendom Charlie’s War 89

© Beverly Taff

List of Characters.

Charlie Sage Maths and electronics genius.
Shirley Sage Charlies elderly mother
Chloe Charlie’s early school friend become wife
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
Katie (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 35-year-old monarch of the UQ, recently
crowned
Princess Victoria Her fourteen-year-old daughter

Chapter 89.

For a long moment silence reigned and nobody moved. Laura began to get twitchy as Victoria scanned the faces.

“Is Doctor Chloe Sage here please?”

“Yes, that’s me,” Chloe declared as she rose beside the Australian Prime Minister, “I’m Captain Sage’s wife. Is he safe?”

“Yes, but I think he would like you to go to the Captain’s Cabin and confirm that General Wilson is dead. You’d better take one of the Ozzy security guards with you.”

Chloe nodded and having been given a task that extended the unique privilege of neutrality to all doctors; she left without hinderance with her guard in tow. Princess Victoria then turned to the Australian Prime Minister.

“I Believe that if the UQ PM is being held pending investigations, then you Prime Minister, are the senior officer of state. That being so, might I suggest to go to the main gangway to receive my mother. “

The Ozzy PM could hardly contain her enthusiasm and Victoria silently congratulated herself on a skilful diplomatic move. She knew her mother would need all the friends she could get.”

As the situation slowly unravelled itself, Victoria was becoming more reassured. After having despatched the Queendom Prime Minister to a secure room under guard, she spoke to Charlie.

“It’s safe for you to come out of your ship no Captain Sage.”

“I’m on my way,” Charlie confirmed, “I’ve been re-adjusting the control systems to connect my phone directly to Dawn 4’s controls. I’ve nearly finished.”

He emerged as Angie and Dawn 2 were berthing in the giant docking bay and twenty Ozzy Miners emerged all armed. They were all trusted men and Victoria at last felt safe. Despite this, she was glad that Laura still stuck to her like glue.

“As they grouped in the landing dock Princess Victoria suggested, “I suppose we’d better go and meet my mother with all the flunkies.”

“You lot go,” Charlie observed. “I want to see what the situation is with Wilson.”
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They separated and Charlie made his way up to the Captain’s cabin. When he got there, he found his wife Chloe bent over the crumpled form of General Wilson while the accompanying Guard was applying mouth to mouth resuscitation.

“You can’t be serious!” He yelled. “It’s been over twelve hours since I shot the bitch!”

“She’s still alive Charlie, I’ve called the ambulance.”

“Oh fuck! Here, let me finish the job!”

“No Charlie!!” She shrieked. “I’m a doctor! Besides, she needs to face a trial.”

“Well yeah; I suppose the publicity might change a few feministas minds.”

“No, she goes to trial for what was done to those two women!”

“Wharrabout the treason thing; assaulting the royal person and all that?”

“Well yes, maybe that as well, but whatever goes down, I’m determined to get her to trial.”

“Jeeze!” Charlie cursed. “What a waste of time and money. She’s a killer!”

With that a commotion presaged the arrival of the paramedics and Charlie stepped back as Chloe diagnosed the injuries to the crew.

“Bullet entry to the sacrum at a fine angle and penetrated to the head of the femur. The Sacrum is split while the ball and socket joint is shattered but no intestinal perforation and no signs of peritonitis. She was very lucky. The hand has stopped bleeding but she’s lost a lot of blood, have you got any plasma in your van?”

“Yes doctor, it’s a woman’s ambulance.”

“Oh yes, of course! I forgot, feminista medicine. Good for girls, bad for boys. Okay, I’ll come down and fix up a drip for her so you can take your time driving, I don’t want that split sacrum to twist or distort anymore.

Charlie followed Chloe and the stretchered General Wilson down the main access where they encountered Queen Sophia and her reception. The queen on seeing the stretcher and Charlie, immediately stepped out of the reception and walked over the Charlie.

“What happened to her.”

“I had to shoot her.”

“Good god, why?”

“To dispossess her of the hand trigger that was designed to blow your spine apart if you ever tried to disagree with her or that bitch in handcuffs over there.”

(Charlie pointed to the now arrested former UQ Prime Minister.)

Queen Sophia visibly brightened at the certainty of definitely having both criminals and both trigger mechanisms safe in custody.

“Who actually has the triggers at the moment?” She asked.

“Me;” Charlie confirmed as he took them from his pocket to show her, “both of them have been disarmed, look.”

He flipped back the battery lids to show the empty battery spaces and the relief was evident in the queen’s eyes.

“It remains now to get those evil devices out of your necks, My wife Doctor Chloe Sage is a specialist casualty surgeon and she is well qualified to proceed or simply assist the royal surgeon in removing them. Can you trust your royal surgeon because so far, neither Wilson nor your Prime Minister have revealed who performed the original procedure?”

Queen Sophia could not resist fingering the fearsome little lump at the base of her skull while looking concernedly at her Daughter Vicky.

“I think I’d prefer to have your wife do it. I don’t know who to trust in my own government, and that includes my royal surgeon.”

Charlie signalled to the ambulance team where Chloe was setting up the drip in the general’s arm. As she had just finished doing this she acknowledged Charlie’s behest and dispatched the ambulance with an Australian ex-military moon-base constructor as an escort. She came over to Charlie and the queen promptly lifted her hair to expose the scar.

“When can you remove this?”

“As soon as I can get you into the surgical theatre aboard her.” (Chloe pointed to Dawn 4.) “I’ll ex-ray you first to check there are no booby traps.”

“The queen’s eyes widened uncertainly.”

“Have you had experience of this?”

“Funnily enough, yes your majesty. Some of the underground miners at Hammersley choose to have location chips inserted in their bodies. If there is a subterranean fall, we can activate the chips to locate them and monitor their body functions if they are still alive.

The chips are by no means compulsory but most of the guys have chosen to have them after we located a group who’d been cut off by a roof-fall. We drilled down to them to supply air, water and essentials until we could get them out. Everybody was saved and now most of the subterranean teams elect to have them. I insert the chips and always check that it’s voluntary.”

Chloe grinned as she continued.

“The really funny thing is that many of the guys chose to keep their chips in after they’d finished their subterranean stint. They say it enabled them to prove who they were and where they’d been when the old feminista police in Oz came searching for suspects. The guys couldn’t be unfairly accused if their chip proves they weren’t there.

Of course the feminista abuse has ended in Oz now we’ve defeminated, but the convenience suits the guys and they like to think of themselves as a club. – ‘The where the hell have you been club?’ They’ve even got their own bar in Hammersley, complete with a tracker. Even their wives approve.”

Queen Sophia couldn’t help smiling and asked Chloe to accompany her as she completed the reception. Then with no more ado, she invited Chloe to check out the spine-bomb. Naturally, Princess Victoria followed closely.

“I’ll wait outside,” Charlie declared, “no point in invading a lady’s privacy,” he grinned.

An hour later, the Dawn 4’s regular nurse emerged from the theatre and handed Charlie the two tiny bombs.

“You can add these to your collection Captain Sage.”

“I don’t want them.” Charlie protested.

“No, but the courts will and you’re the only person her majesty trusts with their safekeeping.”

“Is she awake?"

"Yes but her daughter’s still recovering. The queen says you can go in.”

Charlie popped his head around the door to see the queen sharing a glass of water with Chloe.

“Everything okay?”

Chloe nodded. “Yes, it was a simple procedure. Ah now Vicky’s coming around. You go and do what you have to do.”

Firstly, Charlie met Juliet, Laura, Engie and now Angie on the command bridge and each debriefed each other as they sketched out a way forward.

“Well frankly,” Laura opined, “I think you’re pushing at an open-door Charlie. The whole rotten façade is about to come crashing down.”

“Perhaps,” Charlie cautioned, but it’s not like OZ. The mood through the whole country was pretty much anti-feminista. Here the mood is still undetermined, I mean people are only beginning to learn about the threat to the Queen. So far I haven’t seen any crowds or demonstrations screaming around the Dawn 4.”

“We’re hovering above two metres of water Charlie; they’d get pretty wet.” Juliet chuckled.

“You know what I mean Julie! What are your thoughts anyway?”

“Get the queen to commandeer the media and put it about. If we can get the media on our side the job’s a long way to being done.”

At that, Engie and Angie’s phones pinged simultaneously. Angie read the text and handed her phone to Charlie.

“It seems the Princess is ahead of you. She’s posted pictures of the op to remove her spinal bomb. Chloe must have given them to her from the main surgery cameras.”

“Then the queen must have authorised it.” Charlie concluded.

“Sophia’s been very clever here,” Engie added, “she hasn’t shown her own surgery what with respect for the crown’s dignity and all that; but she’s allowed Victoria’s Surgery to go viral. That’ll win the support of all the young things.”

“Does that help us much?” Laura asked. “I don’t follow this queen and royalty thing much, though she comes across as a decent sort of person. I mean she struck me as not too keen on the feminista when I chatted to her on Dawn 1 while Charlie was driving.”

“She told me the same,” Charlie confirmed, “I’ve no reason to believe she’s got any sympathy after the abuse with the spine bomb. Their PM is simply an extreme extension of where hateful feminista logic can take a person. Anybody who stood in her way was fair game and nobody understands that better than Queen Sophia. I’m pretty certain she’s very much a convert to the realms of reason.”

“They must have somehow knocked her out and anaesthetised her to do the implant,” Engie observed, “that’s a bloody serious assault.”

“I think we’d better go down and join the conference crowd and gauge the mood.” Charlie concluded.

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