The Feminine Queendom. © Copyright to Beverly Taff June 2021
Charlie’s War 4

List of Characters.

Charlie Sage Maths and electronic genius.
Shirley Sage Charlies elderly mother
Chloe Charlie’s one time early school friend.
Josephine Flint Surgeon and associate of Chloe’s.
Mrs Anston Director of Anston Aerospace.
Ronnie Garage mechanic at top of lane
Pauline Garage owner, Ronnie’s sister
‘Poppy’ Charlie’s little micro-runabout.
‘Doris’ The armoured mobile home.
‘Lady’ Chloe’s Sports Car.

Chapter 4

That morning when Chloe turned up in her classy grand tourer saloon, car the Professor smiled at her as she entered the faculty laboratories.

“Glad to see you’ve got your own car back; it didn’t look right with one of our top readers in Genetics turning up in her boy-friend’s old banger.”

“That’s not his fault, it’s all he’s allowed and all he can afford. You know the Feminista regulations.”

“It still looked bad, you slumming it in that yellow monstrosity. Creeping about like some sort of giant beetle.”

“He creeps because man-cars are restricted to fifty miles per hour.”

“Quite right. It stops the danger of road rage and crazy police chases.”

“Charlie doesn’t get road rages and he never exceeds fifty anyway. I’ve never hear his governor kick in.”

“Yes, we’ll he’s the exception and – he’s an odd-ball anyway.”

Chloe bit her tongue and went to her laboratory. She wanted to discuss with a couple of her colleagues the potential for irradiating genes to split and splice.

After gathering a lot of information and pointers, Chloe spent two days putting together a plausible hypothesis concerning the irradiation of Y chromosomes to reshape the human genome. She knew that several of the senior faculty members were up for anything that might disadvantage possessors of the Y Chromosome and, if microwave radiation could be used with a sufficiently accurate precision to effect such an alteration, those bigoted, antediluvian bigots would elect to try it without too much conscionable criticism.

Such was Chloe’s reputation with other genetic breakthroughs that had brought the faculty some international plaudits, she soon had permission to initially explore the idea.

Within a fortnight, Chloe had provisional permission to explore the initial idea and this of course entailed making the designated research facility microwave proof. To this end, Chloe was allotted a disused brick building on a remote corner of the campus. Naturally, the building had to be blanketed with Radiation-Absorbent-Material. (RAM).

Three weeks later, the professor was reviewing the materials bill.

“This RAM stuff. It’s quite expensive. Do we have to have it?”

“I’ve located a source of second-hand used material at a military depot on Salisbury plain. It’s less than one twentieth of the price your contractors are asking.”

“Oh, that sounds better, go and sound them out.”

“It’s ex-military grade material, I’ll need a special end-user license.”

“Where d’ you get that from?” The professor asked.

“We could write a letter to the ministry of defence but the Dean of faculty would have to sign it. I’m just a reader. I could endorse the argument though. My work with irradiating plant genes will carry enough kudos to give it weight.”

“Very well, write your letter and I’ll see the Dean.”
Within a month with Chloe working behind the scenes and the Dean always looking to enhance the university’s reputation, the requisite permissions were obtained. The following week, Charlie and Chloe found themselves entering a large military complex with all sorts of armoured vehicles clattering and roaring around.

Eventually they found the requisite offices and met an officious major who was actually glad to see a substantial portion of the RAM taken out of her sheds.

“Bloody stuff’s been lying there for years, just eating up valuable dry-storage!”

“Does it break-down?” Chloe asked, “you know, like rubber and stuff.”

“No, it’s very durable polymer comprising micro-balls of assorted materials. They tried it on aircraft at first, but it proved too heavy then they tried it on tanks but that was a total waste of time. Tanks only have to lay low in forests or ditches or behind sand dunes and radar can’t find-em anyway. Its weight didn’t bother tanks but it was an un-necessary [complication and they dropped this particular material, It’s quite heavy. I’ll get a squad of oiks to load it for you. How much d’ you want.

“We have to line out a large laboratory; does the stuff work?”

“Oh it definitely works, excellent stuff for aircraft but it’s so bloody heavy the aircraft takes twice as much distance to take off; - and it ruins manoeuvrability. That makes it useless for ‘air-superiority’ combat aircraft. As far as we’re concerned, you can take it bloody all!”

And that is exactly what Charlie and Chloe did!

ooo000ooo

When Chloe and Charlie finally got the RAM back to their barn they were exhausted with the manhandling of the heavy rolls to unload their hired van.

“You were right to hire the bigger van,” Chloe panted, “It’s not the amount of stuff it’s the weight.”

“Can you follow me back to the hire company please and drive me home? That’ll be you and I finished for this weekend. I could sleep for a week.”

“Same goes for me,” Chloe croaked. “This stuff is all over me, I’ll need to shower for a week.”

They were forced to wash out the van to avoid cleaning penalties by the hire company and it was nearly five o’ clock before they got back to the hire firm just before closing. It was an exhausted couple that had hurried showers in the mobile-home before collapsing onto Charlie’s bed. Sleep came instantly by eight that Sunday evening.

During breakfast, the next morning they talked at length about their horde of RAM.

“There’s more than enough to cover Doris.” Chloe observed as Charlie loaded her plate with a ‘full English’.

“Am I reading you right? Are you thinking of covering Poppy or Lady?” Charlie hazarded.

“Could it be done?” Chloe wondered.

“I don’t know.” Charlie confessed. People might wonder at the paint job on your classy car. It would probably lose its smooth matt finish, plus I don’t know what the joins would look like. I think the best solution would be to cover Doris first and then apply a typical white or cream paint job to see how well the RAM coating is disguised. If it works, I’ll do Poppy next because I can change Poppy’s colour without many questions being asked at work. She needs a respray anyway.”

“What about Lady?”

“Will your colleagues at work start to wonder, - you know; ask questions?”

“A girl can change her mind you know. I’ll just say I was bored with Matt-midnight-blue.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see. Let’s test Doris out first.”

Charlie’s caution made perfect sense so Chloe agreed and they made their separate ways to work.

For the rest of that week, Chloe chose to stay at Charlies because the builders were finishing off the cottage. On the Thursday, the pair had their first bath in the cottage and Chloe savoured the luxury of Charlie’s supersized bath that Chloe had helped pay for.

During the evenings, the pair had been carefully cutting and shaping the panels of RAM to attach to Doris’s flat steel sides and they soon realised that the panels actually disguised the boiler-plate armouring that would protect Doris from missiles or shell fire.

“She’ll be like a flying tank.” Chloe giggled as she smoothed yet another shaped panel of RAM onto Doris’s front end. “What weight is she?”

“Weight doesn’t matter,” Charlie explained, “the anti-grave technology actually reverses the effect of gravity through the pads and whatever weight the vehicle is, gets complemented by the support offered through the anti-grave discs. Doris can be any weight within the bounds of reason. Judging by her original register weight and the weight of heavy steel plate and RAM I’ve added, Doris is about thirty tons.”

“Will she be airtight?” Chloe asked; “you know, I was thinking about going high into space.”

“It depends how good my welding is.”

“Why don’t you get Ronnie to check the welds?”

“It’s just another risk to my secrecy. Ronnie’s a mate but you’d be surprised how jealousy or greed can quickly erupt into treachery.”

Chloe wagged her head despondently.

“Gosh Charlie don’t you trust anybody? Ronnie’s been a good friend.”

“It’s the way I am love,” Charlie admitted. “Hardly surprising really is it? Being treated like some sort of dumb, low-life vermin all my life.”

“Do you trust me?” Chloe asked bluntly.

“Of course, I’ve trusted you with anti-grav haven’t I?”

“Well, yes;” Chloe conceded, “but will you be good to Ronnie if your secret brings you success?”

“Yes; I will, and to Pauline and the kids. I appreciate kindness and support. Like a pet dog responds to kindness.”

Chloe nodded and smiled.

“I’m pleased to hear it. So when are we taking Doris out for a test flight?”

“I’ve got to test her for airtightness first.”

“How?”

“Ronnie and I are going to dig a ‘swimming pool’ down by the water-meadow. Ostensibly, it’s for us and Ronnie’s kids to swim in but I’ll simply fly Doris secretly into the pool very slowly one evening and check for leaks. No bubbles escaping out of her steel shell and no water entering into her interior means we’ve got ourselves a functioning space-ship.”

“How fast will she go?” Chloe asked.

“I’ve no idea. I won’t be speeding in the Earth’s atmosphere; the friction heat might damage the Radiation Absorbent Material.”

“And what about in space?”

“We’ll just have to suck it and see. I certainly won’t be taking any risks.”

“Glad to hear it!” Chloe riposted. “Space travel is known to be dangerous.”

“Only if you’re perched on the end of a thumping great firework then light the blue touch-paper. My anti-grav is infinitely safer.”

“What about fuel?”

“Same as cars down here; batteries and what’s more, we’ll be able to use solar cells to recharge them. Plenty of sunshine in space!”

Chloe nodded appreciatively. She couldn’t wait to fly, but she couldn’t help but smile at the image of a mobile-home silently whispering around the earth’s immediate space while she and Charlie learned how to pilot a space ship.

‘The authorities would be going ‘ape-shit’ if they ever detected it!’

“Can you imagine waving to the international space station as we fly-by?” She giggled.

“That’s something I intend to avoid like the plague.” Charlie declared vehemently. “The less the feminista know about Doris, the happier I’ll be.”