The Feminist Queendom 20 Charlie’s War © Copyright 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.
Colonel Wilson Vindictive misanthropist doctor.

Chapter 20.

“So what’s it to be?” Chloe asked. “A fully blown ascent into space or a low-level flight check.”

“Low level I think. I’m no hero, The only thing I can be certain of is that hull doesn’t leak at one atmosphere. This is the first lift off using all the pads.”

“Well, it’s dark enough, you’d best get on. It can’t be much different to Doris.”

“I’ll just take her up a few metres, stand back.”

Chloe stepped back with Charlotte in her arms and soon the armoured cigar started to rise soundlessly. To Chloe it was eerie watching the craft ascending without any audible tell-tale signs until it stopped at about a metre above the ground. The door opened and Charlie stood looking down.

“Well, she’s stable, not a wobble, not a judder; nothing.”

“Are you going any higher.”

“Of course; do you want to come.”

“Give it a longer test first.”

“Oh come Chlo’. You and Charlotte fly around in Lady all the time. There’s no difference.”

“I’ll let you be the judge of that.” Chloe grinned. “Do your flight test first.”

“Okay,” Charlie shrugged, “Never let it be said that you weren’t offered a chance at history, first woman to go to Mars or something.”

“You’re not taking it that far are you?!”

Charlie grinned.

“Course not. Time enough for that, I was kidding.” I’ll just take her for a circuit around the hill. The defence radars won’t detect her at these ranges.”

“Okay, I’ll make a cup of tea ready for when you come back.”

Charlie smiled to himself as Chloe’s offer rang in his ears and he cautiously ascended to a height equal to that of the modest mountain where their outback home lay. Never rising above the peak, he conducted manoeuvrability trials and after half an hour he returned contentedly to the grotto and parked the craft next to the ‘Ute’.
Chloe had purchased the utility truck for Charlie’s outback activities, then Charlie had modified it to fly using anti-grav.

The grotto at Coach had by now been excavated sufficiently to accommodate, all five craft, namely,
Lady, Chloe’s high performance saloon car;
Doris, Charlie’s Mobile Home;
Poppy, now a cut-down flatbed trailer:
Ute, the shared standard pickup mostly used by Charlie ;
and finally, the flying cigar that Chloe and Charlie had yet to name.

Chloe watched Charlie manoeuvre the space-ship into the grotto then met him as he emerged and handed him the promised cup of tea. They settled contentedly on the outside seat as Charlotte toddled contentedly at their feet.

“Well; she works,” Charlie observed. “Tomorrow’s the big test, threshold of space, then space proper.”

“Aren’t you going to name her?” Chloe asked, knowing Charlie’s penchant for anthropomorphising his craft.”

“What would you call her?” Charlie asked.

Chloe paused thoughtfully.

“You could call her Dawn, she’s a precursor of the new day.”

“What day’s that?” Charlie wondered.

“The end of the feminista regime.” Chloe almost whispered.

“That’s a bit ambitious,” Charlie cautioned. “Let’s put her through her paces properly first and see what she can do. – Mind you,” he added, “Dawn seems to fit, - - - - yeah, Dawn it’ll be.”

Having finalised the name, they put to bed and slept deeply until Charlotte’s cry demanded food at dawn.

“How synonymous”, Charlie thought as he rose and padded to Charlotte’s cot. “Come and meet the dawn” he whispered as he sniffed her nappy before stepping into the grotto to check his latest creation.

Happy that the space-craft had not run away in the night, he ‘pottied’ charlotte, relieved his own bladder then carried his daughter back to their bed.

“She was dry,” he informed Chloe as father and daughter re-joined mother between the sheets. “

Chloe smiled sleepily as she welcomed her precious family back into the bed. While Charlotte squirmed contentedly between her parents, Chloe and Charlie prepared for their day. It was Saturday and some ‘home-building’ was required to furnish Dawn with the essentials before taking their first flight together as a family.

“I thought a trip down to the McMurdo Range so you could see what it’s like.” Charlie offered.

“I’d prefer a trip into town, we need supplies.”

She saw the disappointment whisper across Charlie’s features so she relented.

“I think you like it down there. What makes it so attractive, - I mean- you’ve told me it’s a freezing desert with no snow or ice.”

“I dunno’,” he confessed slightly defensively, “I suppose it’s the remoteness and pristine, frozen condition. It won’t stay like that if everybody has antigrav and can just whizz down there like we can. The place will become littered with tourists and rubber-necks.”
“And all the junk and litter.” Chloe finished.
“Well, I must confess, I left some planks and stones down there.” Charlie admitted.
“Come on then, We can tow Doris behind us and collect our rubbish. If nothing else, we can become tidy spacemen.”
Charlie spluttered.
“Have you seen the junk left up there?” He pointed skywards.
“Yes we all know about it.” Chloe observed. “Space junk is not our problem, the junk around McMurdo is.”

“Ha! Just wait until you become ‘space-girl one’ and you have to pick your way back to earth. You’ll curse every piece of metal that’s orbiting around up there. Come on, we’ll clear up our mess and then you’ve got Carte-blanche to visit anywhere on earth.”

“Is there anybody manning the international space station at the moment?” Chloe asked.

“I’ve no idea,” Charlie grinned knowingly, “you fancying that ‘fly-bye’ you mentioned? Give them the alien finger.”
“It would be fun.” Chloe grinned. “Just put the visor down over the pilot screen so they can’t recognise us, then do a few gymnastics to emphasise our manoeuvrability.”

“If that’s what gives you a buzz, lead on McDuff.” Charlie nodded. “Though if we just dimmed the visor so we are just vague shapes, I’d have thought seeing human shapes inside a craft they don’t recognise, would reeeally stir up a hornet’s nest.”

“Somebody down at Anston Aerospace is bound to realised it’s Charlie Sage and Chloe,” Chloe observed. You’re the only person they know for certain has cracked gravity.”

“Like I care anymore?” Charlie shrugged.

They both chuckled as they prepared to fly.

ooo000ooo

For practice, Charlie let Chloe operate the controls and he smiled at the idiot grin wrapped around Chloe’s features as she easily ascended into orbit while increasing speed as the atmosphere thinned to almost pure vacuum. Once they were at an altitude that Chloe had learned to be considered space proper, she turned to Charlie.

“Now what?”

“Well, you head north until we reach the main orbital belt where the vast majority of satellites are circling in orbit then we check the satellite almanac and find out where and when the international space station next passes. Alternatively you can speed up and head straight towards it.”

“And shout Boo! When we surprise them.” Chloe giggled.

“What speed can we do up here?” She asked.

“Depends how long you push the drive. Best practice is to set the sol-stat drive ratio to fractionally less than one so that the energy accumulated by the solar panels slightly exceeds the amount of thrust generated by the antigrav.”

“A sort of energy equilibrium but with a bit to spare for emergencies.”

“You gorr’it girl. It’s a three dimensional dodgem-car.”
“Oh this is going to be fun!” Chloe squealed as she accelerated to a respectable twenty-five thousand knots.”
“Won’t we fly out of orbit at this speed?”
“No. We’re independent of gravity. If you set the radar altimeter to the same altitude as the international space station the drive will keep you at the same height by constantly correcting your trajectory. Thirty-five minutes and you’ll be in sight of the station. It’s always best to chase the satellites otherwise the velocity differentials following different tracks will almost certainly cause collisions.”

“Chloe nodded her comprehension.” Flying lady on occasional night-time forays down on earth had already taught her of the dangers of collision at high speed. In space the speeds were infinitely higher and collisions invariable totally fatal; - utter destruction.
As Chloe experimented with the space flight controls, Charlie simply looked out of the downward visor and memorised various images of the earth to create a mental map in his head. Eventually, Chloe’s squeak alerted him.

“Isn’t that it?”

“The very one,” Charlie agreed. Now do you want to make your and Charlotte’s profile visible while I do the twiddly bits.”

“This is going to be fun!” Chloe chuckled as Charlie grinned.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” He observed.

“You bet!” Chloe almost growled through tight lips and clenched jaws,

“They owe you this Charlie for all the crap you have had to endure. For all the education you were denied. For all the insults and put-downs you’ve had to swallow.”
Charlie shrugged resignedly. Having been raised from childhood in a climate and culture of aggressive femininity, where even the slightest display of protest or non-co-operation would have brought down excessive censure or punishment, it was difficult to envisage righteous solution without recourse to violence. He was struggling to shake off a ‘slave mentality’ that had been instilled in him since infancy.

The irony was that his extraordinary problem-solving capacity in the fields of maths, science and engineering did not extend to problem solving in societal structure or social engineering. Never having ever had a history lesson left Charlie devoid of insight or direction towards social solutions.

As they approached the space station Charlie first matched their speeds to allow the occupants to get a prolonged look at Dawn then he quickly rotated her and did a barrel roll around the space station as shocked faces followed through their viewing ports until Dawn was on the opposite side and blocking out the sun. There they stayed for fully an hour while he and Chloe discussed their next step.

“We should reduce the visor shading so our images are slightly clearer.” Chloe pressed.

“Naah, there’s no point,” Charlie countered, “they already know we’re human, look at the messages they’re writing on their message pads. Look, they’re asking what frequency we use.”

“We could write a message saying we don’t have radio; we wish to avoid voice recognition. That would convey that we’re somehow outside the law.” Chloe suggested. “Some sort of rebel group.”

“We’re not outside the law though,” Charlie argued. “As far as I know, building your own space ship is not illegal. Nobody owns space, just like nobody owns Antarctica. Just write ‘No radio’, - the more cryptic the message, the more they’ll fret. Finish it off with ‘See you around’.”
“Why -‘see you around’?” Chloe asked.

“It implies we’re going somewhere else, we’ve something better to do than hanging around, wasting time talking to passive flotsam locked in a fixed orbit. It emphasises our superior mobility and manoeuvrability. “

“Action speaks louder than words,” Chloe finished as she wrote the message and carefully stuck it in the corner of the ‘windshield’.

“Step back from the window,” Charlie cautioned as he reduced the visor shading until the message was clearly visible against the armoured glass.

The occupants of the space station got a brief glimpse of the written pad and the interior of Dawn’s cockpit then she accelerated ferociously and in seconds she was out of sight. Already the video pictures where being sent to the mission control.

“So now where?” Chloe asked.

“Let’s do the same to the Asian space station. That’s antipodean to this one.” Charlie suggested.

“Yeah,” Chloe smiled, “we might as well be even handed.”

Fifteen minutes later, they played the same trick on the Asian space station then decided to return home to Coach.

By their return, the internet was alive with traffic but the family were too hungry and tired to take much notice.

ooo000ooo