The Feminist Queendom Charlie’s War 71

© 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.
Charlotte Charlie and Chloe’s older daughter
Michael, Jessica & Lucy Charlie and Chloe’s younger triplets

Chapter 71

It was the detector station located above Singapore that first detected the massed hypersonic missile attack originating out of China.

On being alerted, the ever-watchful Singapore Blacraft squadron of four spacecraft launched within minutes and moved to block missiles that were obviously aimed directly for Singapore. The alert was instantaneously relayed to all the Australian squadrons and within minutes all twenty-four Blacraft space fighters were space-bound.

The massed attack had comprised seventy missiles in all but only twenty were destined directly to hit the Singapore air-force base. The remaining fifty were despatched into numerous sub-space orbits that enabled the missiles to reach their maximum speed without overheating in the rarefied air whilst yet being able to manoeuvre and change direction.

Using conventional anti-missile missiles these ‘controllable’ missiles were almost impossible to shoot down as they streaked through high-altitude, subspace. Especially as they could receive in-flight instructions from strategically placed warships scattered worldwide. China now had a genuine blue-water navy and amongst those seemingly innocuous ships there were telecommunication vessels that could connect with the hypersonic missiles passing overhead.

Whilst still in low orbit and ‘over-the-horizon,’ the missiles could alter course anywhere in their sub-orbital flightpaths and thus attack Singapore from virtually any direction at very short notice.

As the attack was being mounted Juliet was returning from the moon in Dawn 2 when a hypersonic missile passed beneath her. It had been programmed to pass over the north pole then circumnavigate the earth to pass over the south pole and approach Singapore from the south. To do this meant the missile would have to pass over Australia while flying north towards Sumatra.

At that moment, the whole Australian Blacraft force was furiously busy chasing down other missiles as they approached Singapore from the south, East and West, The Singaporean Blacraft were similarly busy destroying the first early missiles arriving directly from China.

This particular missile having gone ‘the-long-way-around’ via the north and south poles, was much later arriving to strike but circumstances had meant that the Ozzie Blacraft were indisposed to reach the ‘Jonny-cum-lately.’
Juliet suddenly received an unexpected request from Woomera.

“Dawn 2, Dawn 2, this is Woomera, come in.”

Normally, Dawn 1 and 2 would normally arrive at Woomera in complete radio silence to keep their activities secret so a plain-speech message meant some sort of emergency. Juliet cautiously answered the encrypted sub-message.

“Go ahead Woomera?”

“Dawn 2, this is Woomera; Singapore is under a massed missile attack and one missile is currently passing over Antarctica. What is your position?”

“Seventy-five south and a hundred and fifty-five east; travelling north, why?”

“Can you intercept a hypersonic missile?”

“Give me its position, course and speed.”

Woomera promptly gave the dead reckoning for the missile and Juliet checked his figures.

“Yes. I can easily intercept it but I daren’t ram it. This is not Dawn 1. I’m not armour plated.?”

“What about your hydraulic construction arm?”

“If you think I’m gonna’ try and grab an armed missile packed with explosives, then think again. Anyway, what would I do with it once I’ve got it? I can’t land it on earth, it would probably detonate or something.”

“Can you give it a nudge and point it off into space proper. It will have no control then, no air to affect its ailerons.”

“I suppose I could try. Is there any update on its position?”

“When if comes within range of our southern detector station we’ll call you. For now continue your intercept course.”

Juliet shrugged and sucked his bottom lip thoughtfully as he alternately searched his port side and checked his ARPAR collision radar.

Almost simultaneously Woomera advised him of the missile’s exact location just as Juliet picked it up with his own radar. Quickly, he readjusted his approach to place the missile on his starboard side where the construction arm was located. In under a minute, Juliet had the missile where he wanted it, five metres off his starboard side and in easy reach of his construction arm.

Satisfied with his positioning and matched speeds, Juliet turned to the construction arm control and cautiously extended the pincer jaws. At first he intended to do only what Woomera had requested but then he decided to try and gather the evidence. Cautiously he manipulated the pincer to pinch the dorsal aileron then slowly turn the missile around to face the moon.

At five thousand knots he could easily place the missile in a low orbit around the moon once its fuel was exhausted. There it could remain until an Ozzie bomb expert could defuse it. After a quick calculation he obtained a solution and returned whence he’d come back to the moon.

ooo000ooo

“Don’t you fucking dare bring a loaded bloody missile near Moonbase Alpha!” Charlie nearly choked with alarm. Put it in a fucking equatorial, lunar orbit as high as possible!”

“I had no intentions to bring it to the base,” Juliet protested.

“Thank fuck for that. What’s going on anyway?”

“Well if you guys came out of that crater occasionally you’d know that China has attacked Singapore.”

Charlie, Engie and Laura stared dumbfounded at each other before a collective curse erupted.

“Shit!

“Do they need us?” Engie asked.

“I don’t know, the last I heard was that the attack had been repulsed but some missiles landed. Don’t know where, or how much damage has occurred.”

“You’d better put that missile in a northern polar crater, where the sun can’t set it off. Best not to leave it in orbit, there’s no knowing when we’ll next be back. Then join us back to Earth.” Charlie ordered.

Juliet had no hesitation obeying Charlie’s instruction for it absolved him of responsibility. He proceeded directly to the moon’s north pole, found a very small but deep crater and carefully placed the fuel-exhausted missile on the ground. Two hours later, he re-joined the other three as they were finishing up at the base. Three hours later, they were arriving at Woomera amidst pandemonium.

“Well thank god you’re back!” The base commander sighed with relief.

“Why? Their attack was pretty well stymied wasn’t it.” Charlie wondered.

“We could have done with your help.”

“But you managed it without my help. That proves you’re up to scratch.”

“There’s one missile unaccounted for. That’s the one we asked your first officer to destroy.”

“He’s not my first officer, he’s captain in his own right, the commander of Dawn 2.”

“Sorry Captain. We never found out what happened to the missile he went after.”

“It’s safely stored on the moon. Evidence that the attackers were the CCP.”

“You definitely saw it.”

“Yes. Juliet brought it to Moonbase Alpha and we asked him to put it somewhere safe and far away, so he took it to the north Lunar pole where it is not affected by the sun.”

“Or visible from Earth.”

“Exactly,” Charlie confirmed, “and when we next go a’ moon, we’ll take a bomb disposal expert with us, then bring it back as proof that China launched the attack. Have they admitted it by the way?”

“They are still denying it but everybody believes it was them, trouble is all the other missiles got destroyed; shot down or flipped over and crashed.”

“Well mine is safe and sound on the moon unless it has self-detonated,” Juliet interjected. “Have you got anybody with knowledge enough to disable it.”

“We don’t know, we’ve never had access to one. They were top secret.”

“Well they ain’t secret now. Mine is intact except where I pinched its dorsal aileron and punctured it’s skin. The skin looked like some sort of ceramic compound to resist heat, though I never took the missile atmospheric, not with a great big rip in the dorsal aileron. It should still be there when we next take a load up. Have a couple of your bomb disposal guys ready go a’ moon. They should like that.”

“Not with bloody great space suit gloves on. Bomb disposal is delicate work. The only practical solution is to sling it under the belly of a spaceship and bring it to earth then land it gently before we can look at it.”

Charlie released a derisive snort.

“If that thing is to be carried to earth, it’ll have to be hanging off a bloody long wire! I’ve just been looking at the crater one of those bloody missiles makes. The one that reached Singapore blew out half a bloody city block!”

“Can Dawn one do it?”

“D’ you mean ‘can Charlie Sage do it?”

“We can’t afford to risk you; - anti-gravity and all that.”

“No matter who brings it back, you’re gonna’ need two miles of wire and an armoured under-belly for the spaceship. Plus there might be a problem with static affecting the missile trigger mechanism. There might just be a crude barometric air-pressure switch and the thing could detonate above ground. The blast could smash a spaceship out of the sky. You’ll need a much bigger ship with an armour-plated hull; or at least, an armour-plated under-belly.”

“We might be onto that. We are already building a small ore-carrier. It’s not massive, only about thirty thousand tons tare weight. We could modify the bottom to receive a suitable winch and cable. You could lower the missile with five miles of wire if there’s no wind.”

Charlie did a quick calculation then nodded thoughtfully.

“You’d need about sixty of the engines that power the space-fighters. That would take about six months unless I can employ a safe, loyal partner to help me build the engines. Somebody who’s not likely to reveal the secrets.”

“And you’ll not be prepared to do that I presume,” the base commander opined.

“I dunno,’ I knew one day it would have to happen, just not as soon as this. There’s too many enemies keen to exploit the science. If the world were a more peaceful place; -“

“And a happier one,” Juliet added.

“Yeah, that as well.” Charlie sighed. “This is a bummer; it’s all happening too soon!”

“Well six months is not too long to wait, unless the CCP gets belligerent again.” The base commander concluded. “It’s best that you sleep on it Captain Sage, I’ve got other matters to attend to.”

“With these words, he left Charlie and his fellow spacers staring at each other across the table. It was Lieutenant Engadine who broke the silence.

“Thirty thousand tons! That’s a bloody battleship.”

“Not really,” Juliet responded, ”for an ore-carrier it’s tiny.”

“Well, we’d best go and look at what they’re building, Laura suggested.”

ooo000ooo

“It doesn’t look anything like the ships at Port Hedland.” Laura observed.

“Why should it?” Juliet asked. It’s not going to be floating in rough seas so there are virtually no dynamical forces like pitching and rolling. It won’t even need waterproof hatches, there’s no seawater in space and nowhere to sink.”

“It’s just a large box!” Laura lamented, “no style or finesse at all. It’s as crudely built as Dawn 1!”

“OY!!” Charlie almost screeched. “Don’t you be knocking her; she’s never let us down yet! And she’s taken a few knocks! I love her, warts and all.”

Laura chuckled as they walked amongst the prefabricated sections on the slip.

“I never had you down for a romantic Charlie.”

“You just wait until your space-fighter saves your life one day, then see!”

For several minute all three spacemen teased Charlie about his giant Cornish Pastie as they mooched about between the sections until a yell warned them to watch out for the giant crane. Eventually a somewhat irate supervisor approached them until she recognised the spacers.

“Oh it’s you four. You’ll have to step aside for the moment, we’re going to position the first prefabricated section and it’s critical.”

“Where d’ you want us to stand?” Juliet asked for she was the most frequent visitor to the building yards.

“Stand by me, we’ll be inching this section onto the corner marks, it’s critical to a millimetre.”

They stood back behind the supervisor who was talking to the driver of the goliath crane as the huge rectangular centrepiece edged forward. Eventually it settled into position and the supervisor nodded with satisfaction as she turned to the four.

“He’s a new crane-driver, not bad for a man.” She smirked provocatively.

“Watch-it.” Charlie grinned as he realised she was just on a wind-up.

“Come on guys, lets get a coffee. Nothing we can do here, - yet.”

ooo000ooo