The Feminist Queendom Charlie’s War 53

© 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.

Chapter 53.

Had Lieutenant Asi continued with the flight of the Dawn, she would have learned that the little spaceship Dawn was capable of more than seven kiloknots.
But there were only three remaining travellers for that second leg of the journey; and two of them were fully aware of Dawn’s true potential. They were Charlie and his chief mate Juliet.

The reception committee at Woomera research station gladly welcomed the pair but they looked askance at their third companion. Rumours about Charlie’s experience at Darwin had already filtered down from the Prime Minister’s office in Canberra to the high security research station, so a new and unexpected face, especially one closely connected to Darwin, was cause for concern.

“The chief medical officer of the Darwin base you say.” The head of security observed to Charlie.

“Yes.”

“Is she safe? We’ve already heard about the attempt to separate you from your ship. How true is it?”

“I’m not sure if they tried to permanently separate me from Dawn but they were certainly very obstructive. Worse still, shots were fired at us as we were taking off.”

“Was she implicated?”

“I don’t know. The truth is I sometimes felt the whole base was implicated. It wasn’t of course but I certainly didn’t feel safe.”

“So what is the security situation as you read it up in Darwin?”

“All questions and no answers.” Charlie explained. “I had no idea who I could trust. Truthfully, I was glad to be out of there.”

“Well, I believe your chief mate Juliet will be safe here. You’ve arrived at an opportune time for we have to plan the ergonomics of the Dawn Two’s flight deck. Then we await your delivery of the engines. Have you made much progress since your left here with the PM.?”

“No, I got tied up with those four intruders and the chase in the Timor Sea. Then the situation up in the Darwin defence base messed us about. Once I’ve returned their chief medical officer to that Darwin security establishment, I’ll do my usual disappearing act with Dawn and build the engines in secret.”

“Okay. Would you like me to supply one of our security personnel to accompany you up to Darwin?”

Charlie had become so paranoid about the whole security situation that he courteously refused the offer. Instead, he arranged for Woomera security to handcuff the Darwin surgeon so that he could deliver her outside the gates of the Darwin base then leave.

The arrangement to handcuff the medical officer infuriated her but Charlie could see no quick, safe alternative. He wanted to return to Coach, his secret base in the Western Australian outback where he could start build the engines for Dawn Two.

He stayed less than an hour at Woomera and the sun had just set as he prepared to leave Juliet with Dawn Two in the construction shed. When he returned to board Dawn he was met with an incandescently furious but handcuffed doctor.

“How dare you do this! I demand you remove these now.”

“Sorry doctor. We are returning to your military base in Darwin and I don’t know who to trust up there. For all I know, you might be connected to the plot to kill Lieutenant Engadine Asi and by extension; me.

My plan is to deliver you to the roadside a few miles from the gates of the Darwin base then leave you to walk home. I’ll be long gone by the time you reach your colleagues. You shouldn’t come to any harm.”

She glared at him but decided he meant her no physical harm and that at least was something for which she could be grateful.

“I hope you’re going to allow me the comfort of a seat while we travel?”
“We won’t be more than ten minutes, but I’ll let you sit at the navigation table. Sorry I’ll have to handcuff you to the table and that’s firmly fixed to the deck.”

“How do you expect me to attack and overcome a man your size? I saw what you did to that security guard!”

“Who nearly killed Lieutenant Asi, as I remember.” Charlie countered.

“That was not my doing!” The surgeon protested.

“Exactly. That’s my whole problem. I have never found out yet who ordered the beating. You will understand my circumspection I’m sure. Now sit tight, this won’t take long.”

The surgeon slumped into her seat and Charlie cleared his departure with the tower at Woomera.

“You’re cleared to depart Dawn. Have a good journey.”

“Thank you Woomera. I anticipate being back with the engines in about a month.”

And with these words, Charlie departed.

ooo000ooo

Once en-route, Charlie called the PM’s office in Canberra,

“Hello Charlie; good to see you’re still safe, have you got any information out of your prisoner yet?”

“I’m getting through to her I think but it’s a slow process. Has your prisoner said anything yet?”

“No, but she’s just shared a video link with your prisoner. Don’t worry, it was well supervised, I witnessed the exchange myself. Your prisoner seems much more amenable.”

“She was the senior officer and in truth Prime Minister; I would offer that my more considerate approach works better than an oppressive technique. I expect to be back with my prisoner later tonight. Now, have you shed any light on the conspiracy to unseat you?”

“There are some leads that Katie the defence minister is pursuing as we speak.”

“Good. I’ll catch you later after I’ve returned my guest to the Darwin military base. Then we can talk in private.”

“Who’s your guest?”

“The chief surgeon from the Darwin military base. She wanted to see what a spaceship was like.”

“You’re not giving any secrets away I hope.”

“None at all prime Minister, catch you later.”

He closed the connection to the Cabinet office and turned to the business of landing the Dawn as close to Darwin military base as possible. It was pitch black by the time he touched down in a grove of trees fifty metres from the road so he handed the surgeon a torch.

“You’ll need this to get to the road, then It’s about a mile to the gates of the base. Take care.”

“Aren’t you going to uncuff me?”

“What for? You can see the floodlights of the gates. Just walk towards them.”

“There could be snakes or spiders. This is bush right here.”

“Oh don’t be such a bloody wimp! The road is just through that grove of trees! The sooner you start walking, the sooner you reach the base. Goodnight!”

She hesitated briefly before the feintest whisper of air told her that Dawn was already departing, then silence returned followed by the inevitable cacophony of bush noises as the fauna realised the seeming danger from the sky had passed. The surgeon had no option but to set out for the base and she arrived none the worse save for the assault on her dignity.

With his obligation to the surgeon fulfilled, Charlie decided to pay a brief visit to Coach, the outback hideaway known only to Chloe and him. Neither he nor Chloe had visited the rocky outcrop for nearly a month and the tailings from their excavations to expand their lair had already started to disappear under the vegetation that had started to cover the rocks and earth. Without Dawn’s pin-point location system, Charlie realised he could easily have missed the site.

He landed Dawn beneath the trees then carefully guided her across the tailings to enter the main grotto of the hideaway. He was satisfied that nobody had visited the site for there were no human tracks or footprints, no aboriginal signs and almost no animal tracks.

Cautiously, he stepped into the cavernous interior and checked every item to confirm there had been no interference until finally he entered the living quarters. Everything was as he and Chloe had left it and seemingly the hideaway was still a secret. He decided to stay the night before returning to their main house.

Satisfied with the situation, he started up his mobile home Doris the following early morning and was soon hovering across the trackless outback to re-join the main Perth-Hammersley Road at a remote location some fifty miles south of Chloe’s home.

He did not need to follow the road because Doris had a sat-nav, but it suited his purpose to appear as some sort of low-cost tourist ‘doing Australia.’
A couple of faster hover cars swept past but that only added to the anonymity and Charlie arrived in the early morning, virtually un-noticed at Chloe’s house.

A short ‘toot’ on Doris’s horn brought everybody out into the orchard to greet Charlie’s return and this resulted in an al-fresco breakfast before Charlie gathered some items of equipment. Chloe recognised the preparations and quietly confirmed with Charlie.

“Coach?”

“For about a month or so. I’ve got some work to complete.”

“Engines?” Chloe confirmed.

Charlie nodded imperceptibly.

“Last ones I make at coach and alone. My secure production facility will soon be completed at Woomera. Totally automated and secure.”

“Will I have you to my self at long last then?”

“Well; more of me but, - “

“There’s always a but isn’t there?”

“Well, we’ve still got a lot of fish to fry; human rights and stuff.”

That night was the first for several weeks that Charlie and Chloe shared their bed. The as night follows day, their morning peace was shattered by Charlotte leaping onto their bed with shrieks of delight as the three younger ones tried to follow suite. Charlie had to reach down and hall them onto the bed and it was this way that Margaret and Lieutenant Asi found the family as the delighted noises caught their attention.

Margaret put her head around the door.

“So; this is what it’s all about is it?”

Charlie paused with his son in his arms as he replied.

“Partly, yes.”

“Mainly actually;” Chloe corrected him and they chuckled as children slithered over the duvet.

As Lieutenant Asi followed Margaret’s lead and peered around the bedroom door, Chloe instantly recognised the glint of envy in her eyes.

“Kids, Engadine. As we were talking about yesterday; family, - mum, dad and kids. –“

“Yeah. I’m getting it and seeing it now. It’s what I always thought.”

Charlie paused as Charlotte clambered over his shoulders.

“Am I missing something here?”

“Na-ah.” Chloe smiled at the ridiculous image of her three-year-old daughter crawling over her husband’s head and shoulders while levering one foot in his mouth. “Engadine and I were chatting about your early days in the UQ.”

“Oh let’s not go there,” Charlie almost croaked. “We’re free of that now.”

“But not entirely,” the lieutenant replied thus partially revealing her views.”

Charlie fell silent. He still had not figured out the lieutenant’s politics.

“It’s okay to talk Charlie, she’s one of us.”

“Oh,” Charlie replied softly and cautiously, “how do you know?”

Chloe sighed as she reflected on Charlie’s defensive secrecy then she turned to Lieutenant Asi.

“Tell him Engadine.”

The lieutenant bit her lip then finally revealed.

“We four intruders were on a mission.”

“Oh. Go on,” Charlie paused.

“The thing is it was a double sting.”

“The two male pilots were intent on finding and destroying your spaceship down at Woomera. Getting the first punch in before Australia had accumulated the power to defeat their hi-tech planes. Their plan was just a straight, blunt act of war. They had detected activity in space, by your visit to their space station; and they knew they were at a serious disadvantage. They genuinely thought that a Feminista regime like Oz would have a devastating first strike capability. They were motivated by fear and confused when their spies learned that the inventor of Dawn was actually a male UQ citizen.”

“Go on.” Charlie encouraged.

“Well my wing buddy and I have managed to convince the same people that we would be better able to infiltrate Australia’s defences because we are girls.

We suggested they include us in their attack and we would bail out somewhere near Woomera. Let our plane’s crash and you Australians would assume all four pilots were men.
They would waste time looking for men while we women could infiltrate into the Australian defence system and somehow sabotage your spaceship or even kill you.”

“That’s a bit primitive and hair-brained wasn’t it?”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures, both our organisation and the Asian country were convinced that Australia had a massive technological advantage.”

“Your organisation?” Charlie wondered. “What organisation is that?”

“It’s loose collection of anti-feminista societies and organisations.”

“I don’t like the idea of ‘loose’.” Charlie opined. “It sounds insecure and unfocused.”

“Oh you can believe me,” Lieutenant Asi spoke softly, “We are truly focused; and we are secure! Have you ever heard of us?”

“No.”

“And yet you find us infiltrated into another country’s air-force, even to the point of flying their jets. – With their permission and encouragement.”

Charlie paused thoughtfully.

“I take your point. So you genuinely are trying to take down the feminista lunacy.”

“Lunacy! That’s a good word for it.”

“Words is as words does,” Charlie reflected, “but I think you’re taking a hell of a risk.”

“Can you think of a better plan?” She asked.
“The best way to break up the feminista stranglehold, without bloodshed that is, would be to discredit it.”

“That’s our intention.” Lieutenant Asi argued. “Defeat them in battle and show that they cannot defend the country.”

“If you declare war on them, as a foreign power that is. You’ll only unite them. They’ll see you as an external threat and then they’ll stand firmly behind their government. That will lead to enormous bloodshed. Especially as Australia is close to conquering space, properly conquering it, travelling to other planets and stuff.

You saw what my home-made primitive ship did to your best jet fighters and that was without firing a single bullet or missile. Think how many Asian soldiers would be killed before those patriarchs accept they cannot win.”

Lieutenant Asi was forced to consider the costs and ruefully concluded that Charlie was right. If the Feminista oppression was to be destroyed, it had to be destroyed from within. Reluctantly, she concluded that whatever tactic Charlie and his tiny band was employing, it would have to spread like a contagion and quickly.

ooo000ooo