The Feminist Kingdom 30 Charlie’s War.

©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.

Chapter 30.

Chloe could tell as Charlie left the house that her worst fears were confirmed. Without waiting for any confirmation, she burst out of the clamshell and ran screaming towards the woman that Charlie was supporting.

“Where are they you bitch!” She screamed. “What have you fucking done with them!”

The woman greyed momentarily until she realised the demented creature screaming towards her was just a woman and not some armed alien. Charlie stepped between them as Chloe hurtled towards them.

“Whoa! Whoa! Chloeee! This silly bitch is a victim so cool it!”

In her blind rage Chloe still collided with Charlie’s arm before she saw the cuts and bruises around the woman’s face and arms. Charlie still had to hold his arm up to protect the guard as he explained.

“She says they attacked this morning. They can’t be far!”

“What happened you bitch? Can’t you even protect my kids?!”

“There was a whole platoon of them. They overpowered me.”

“Overpowered you?” Chloe screeched. “Where were the rest of you? Fucking sleeping I suppose!”

“There was just me with my pistol and they were all fully armed with machine pistols and assault rifles. I couldn’t let the bullets start flying or the kids might have been shot.”

Chloe’s eyes blazed with rage, and she slipped under Charlies extended arm to land a vicious swipe on the officer’s face that drew blood. The officer cursed and grabbed Chloe’s arm then twisted it to throw her violently to the ground. Chloe let out a scream of pain and Charlie heard the shoulder joint give as the officer continued manhandling the injured mother and trying to force the dislocated shoulder into handcuffs.

For a desperate moment Charlie stood frozen with an uncertainty born of years of ingrained restraint through a lifetime under feminista rules. Then as Chloe screamed in pain and stared up at her husband beseechingly, he finally acted. He seized the officer’s arm in a vicelike grip and snatched both pistol and taser from her belt before she even realised what was happening.

“Stop hurting my wife!”

“Let go of me you know the penalty for a male assault!”

“I was defending my wife. You’ve dislocated her shoulder!”

“I was restraining her, you’re in real trouble big-boy!”

Charlie had by now thrown caution to the wind as he set the officer straight.

“No officer. You’re in trouble. You failed to defend the children thus putting your government in breach of a written undertaking to my wife. Your government promised to protect them, and it hasn’t.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’ll find out soon enough, but first we’re taking Chloe to the hospital and on the way, you’ll tell me every detail about your attackers. You can start by calling your own police station on your radio and asking them to call this number, - on a secure land-line!”

“What is it?”

“The Prime Minister’s office in Canberra.”

“The officer paused uncertainly before arguing. You’re bull-shitting!”

“Just try me miss. Those kids have been kidnapped and I’m in no mood to be fucked with! - And I don’t think your Prime Minister will be either, -when she learns about it.”

Charlie tucked the officer’s gun and taser through his belt then helped Chloe towards Dawn as the officer hurriedly called her police station. Her first shock was boarding the spaceship to find a car parked in the cargo hold then by the time they arrived at the hospital she had received confirmations from her superiors at the police station.

It was a very subdued officer who next spoke to Charlie.

“I’m to put myself completely at your disposal and there is a back-up team coming here as we speak.”

“Good!” Charlie replied brusquely as he handed Chloe over to the triage team. “’Bout time we had some sense around here. Do you know how to drive a hover car?”

“Of course, all our police cruisers are hovercars.”

“Good, then get yourself to the airport and find out if any private or charter planes have left since you were attacked. What’s your police frequency? My ship’s got a frequency synthesiser so we can stay in touch. I’m going to do a high-level sweep of western Australia from thirty thousand metres altitude. I’ve got a ‘look-down’ radar on my spaceship that’s better than any military stuff.”

“How the hell! –“

“Don’t ask. You’ll find out one day soon.”

The police officer wagged her head for she felt way out of her depth. Instead, she followed Charlie back to the Dawn and listened intently as Charlie unloaded the car then gave simple instructions.

“It’s pretty much the same as an ordinary hover car except it can go much higher and much faster. You can use it until my wife is discharged from hospital and by then you’ll have your own cruiser back.”

“Talking of giving things back, can I have my pistol and taser please.”

“Oops! Sorry I forgot.”

He handed the pistol and taser across then handed a small white handkerchief.

“What’s this?”

“The bullets and the taser battery. Sorry but apart from my wife Chloe, I don’t know who to trust. See you later, byee!”

So, saying, Charlie dashed into his ship and closed the doors before the officer had loaded gun or taser.

‘Jeeze! He’s a cagey bastard.’ She concluded as she started Chloe’s super hover.

ooo000ooo

As the police officer privately marvelled that the super-hover casually ascended to a hundred metres before levelling off, she searched the sky for the spaceship that the man had flown away in. There was no sign of it and for such a large object to disappear so quickly was proof that said spaceship obviously had a far superior technology.

Having realised that the ship was beyond her reach and authority, she drove Chloe’s super-hover to the airport to find out what traffic had passed through the remote local airfield.

“Yes,” The local air traffic controller confirmed. “It was a twenty-seater, super-stream, twin jet engines with extended range.”

“What was the flight plan?” She asked.

“It was a private flight posted to destination Diego Garcia.”

“Passenger list?”

The controller rifled through the departure forms and the officer thumped the desk.

“Come on! I haven’t got all day!”

“You’re too late anyway. The flight departed twenty minutes ago.”

“Let me be the judge of that,” she scolded the controller as she called the spaceship Dawn on her radio.

“Hello Charlie. Yes. It departed about twenty minutes ago for Diego Garcia. It lists twelve mining executives and four minors on the passenger manifest; no names for the children though.”

“Is there a Wilson on the adult list?” Charlie asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s got to be them. Diego Garcia is nearly three thousand miles and even in their jet it’ll take six hours or more. We’ve got them. Join me outside the airport, I don’t want to be inundated with paperwork by landing on their tarmac.”

“Seriously? Can you catch them?”

“Watch me!” Charlie warned bluntly. “Outside by the main gate, now.”

The officer needed no further encouragement. If she were to see what flying in a spaceship was like, this was likely to be her first and only opportunity. She dashed out of the little terminal to see the now familiar shape descending a couple of hundred metres from the main gate. Already, a security guard was shouting to her to stop but her police uniform prevented any shots as she ran towards the ship/

Breathless from her sprint, she staggered through the clamshell cargo door and hesitated in the cargo bay. The connecting airtight door opened to reveal the cabin quarters and she almost leapt into the sanctuary as the clamshell clunked shut. Once inside she paused uncertainly as the airtight door closed behind her.

“Take the seat behind mine.” Charlie advised as the officer already noticed the ground falling away.

As she recovered her breath she gasped.

“So, this is the UFO that’s been bugging our defence force!”

“The same,” Charlie riposted, “but it’s no longer unidentified. Your own prime Minister and her Defence colleague have travelled in it.”

“Bloody hell! Are you going to chase that jet?”

“Yes, so fasten yourself in. Atmospheric flights can get bumpy but first we’ll be doing the chasing from space.”

She settled back behind Charlie, yet she strained to peer over his shoulder. The horizon started to curve while Charlie buried his face in the screened scope.

“That looks like it.”

“How can you tell?”

“She’s not following any regular commercial flight paths, she’s on a perfect great circle going maximum speed.”

“What’s that?”

“She’s doing about four hundred and eighty-five knots.”

“Can you catch her?”

“Behave kid! Dawn does one hundred and fifty thousand knots; in space that is; that’s why we’re up here. Down there we’re restricted to about three thousand knots, friction you see.”

“Bloody hell! You’re serious, aren’t you?”

Charlie twisted around to face her.

“Missy; I’m always serious, there’s no frivolity in my life; I’m a man!”
She glanced at her wrist which was now beginning to show the bruise from Charlie’s earlier vice-like grip.

“Yes. So, I’ve noticed; and you don’t take prisoners either.”

She showed the Charlie the bruise, but Charlie just shrugged.

“I was protecting my wife, who’s shoulder you dislocated by the way; and I was worried for my children. I still am!”

“Worried for your children? Are you their father?”

“Of course. That’s the whole issue. Those bastards kidnapped the children to blackmail me; - and Chloe of course.”

“So, what are they after you for?”

“Who do you think built this ship, who do you think is writing messages on the moon?”

Her jaw sagged as the truth dawned.

“You?! Of course! How did you do that?”

“I’ve got a big skeg that drops out of Dawn’s belly. There are a couple of plough shares that rip furrows in the ground and then I use my ship like writer’s pen.”

“So, she rips up the earth.”

“Yes.”

“This thing must be built like a tank or a bloody bull-dozer.”

“Precisely! Charles Sage, farmer, miner and astronaut extraordinaire, at your service!”

ooo000ooo

She continued gaping as her mind tried to consider the hundreds of consequences that would arise if Australia’s enemies got hold of either the spaceship or the man. Eventually she found her voice.

“You’re a valuable man and obviously a clever one!”

“Duuh!” Charlie riposted. “Point taken, now we have to get my kids back.”

“And punish that gang of kidnappers.”

“That’s for you and Australia to worry about. I’ll just worry about my kids and my wife, though at least she’s safe.”

“So, what do you plan to do. You can’t shoot the plane down, you’re kids are on it!”

“D’ you think I don’t know that! I’m wracking my brains here. I wish I had some sort of weapon so that I could force the bastards back to Australia.”

The police officer fell to thinking while Charlie scanned his ‘look-down’ radar and confirmed that he was now directly over the jet but several thousand metres above it.

After nearly an hour of silence the officer finally collated her thoughts.

“I think I might have a plan.”

ooo000ooo