The Feminine Queendom Charlie’s War 37

© Beverly Taff August 2021

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.

Chapter 37.

With the rescue plan agreed, Charlie manoeuvred the Spaceship Dawn to hover completely silently above the highest point of the rocky outcrop. When Margaret and the negotiator looked down, they were pleased to see they were only ten metres above the rock.

“It’ll be a doddle if we have to abseil down from here,” Jacky opined.

“Yes, well let’s hope we don’t have to,” Margaret riposted, “hopefully we can get that woman to see sense and surrender the child.”

Secretly, Charlie had little hope of that. If the woman had been mad enough to kidnap his children, she was crazy enough for anything. The chief negotiator had opened her lap-top and was studying a psychiatric analysis of the colonel and she was frowning.

“Problems?” Charlie asked.

“We don’t have much to go on. Your UQ government won’t release any information about Colonel Wilson.”

“I’m not surprised.” Chloe observed. “They never were a nice bunch, especially the feminista bunch that got elected the year before I emigrated. Misanthropic to the extreme.”

“How on earth did they get themselves elected?” Margaret asked.

“Oh they had a populist leader who promised them the earth, yet it was all based on the benefits that Charlie’s science promised.”

“Is this true Mr Sage?” The chief negotiator asked.

“Pretty much,” Charlie nodded as he was retiring to the bedroom. “Those hover-trucks you guys ponce about in were my invention, - well the antigravity discs were.”

“And this ship, all yours as well?”

“Yes. Every bit of it.” Chloe retorted as pride and anger laced her voice.

“No wonder they’re trying to drag you back.”

Charlie shrugged philosophically as Chloe snapped angrily.

“No bloody way. He was virtually a bloody slave back there.” Chloe finished.

“Yeah. Seems like the old country’s really gone down the pan.” The Negotiator confirmed. “So, Mr Sage tells me you’ll be doing the pilotage manoeuvres if push comes to shove.”

Chloe nodded as she scanned the positional settings.

“I will. We are all set here now, so might I suggest you communicate with that crazy bitch.”

“Just checking that all units are properly prepared and positioned.”

The negotiator finally checked her last item on her commitment list then turned to Charlie.

“I’m ready in all but name; how ‘b’ out you?”

“All I’m doing is whatever you ask me to do. Then once everything is cleaned, I reclaim my Charlotte. Or rather, WE, reclaim Charlotte.

Within seconds the blare of the bullhorn was rebounding around the rocks as the negotiator called out Colonel Wilson’s name. Inside the Dawn the sound was slightly muted but still painfully audible, however, inside the little bedroom of the Dawn, all was peaceful. The exhausted Charlie was ‘dead to the world’.

It was several hours, and night had fallen before contact was made. Taking advantage of the darkness and utter silence of the Dawn’s antigravity ability, the negotiating team had collected, then added some infra-red camera drones to the Dawn’s equipment list. Chloe and Margaret were studying the images when Charlie awoke. The wails of the waking triplets invaded the cabin as Charlie emerged.

“They need feeding and changing,” Charlie declared unnecessarily as he went to study the screen.

Chloe went to the bedroom while Charlie checked with Margaret.

“So?” Charlie asked. “What’s the situation?”

“She’s not prepared to release the child until she’s spoken to you.”

“I’ve nothing to say to her. I’m not prepared to return to the UQ until the political climate changes and universal rights are restored.”

“Universal rights?” Margaret queried.

“Yeah. There was once a declaration made listing a thing called universal rights. I remember my Mummy reading them to me when I was an angry, frustrated teenager.”

“Your Mummy? Is that what you called your mother?” Margaret struggled to stifle a snort of amusement.

“What! What’s so funny?” Charlie asked.

“Oh nothing, nothing I suppose. It’s just that ‘Mummy’ is the sort of word a young daughter might use to address her mother. It’s a bit infantile for an adult.”

“Yeah. Well at least she stayed by me during the shitty years and didn’t just dump me in the Rookeries. So, she read to me and helped me get past the hurdles surrounding the UQ, schools; - - - including the emotional shit! Sadly, she was a biologist so she couldn’t help me much with maths and that’s why I ended up inventing my own!

I’ll not have her name besmirched by the likes of you or anybody else so leave it there. Any more aspersions about Mummy and I’ll walk out on the deal about gravity. Okay?”

“Oooh! Very touchy aren’t we!”

“Yes! She didn’t have it easy, but I didn’t realise that as a kid. I do now but it’s too late, she’s gone, so shut it.”

Margaret quickly realised that Charlie’s problems were very much tied up with his mother’s battles with the Feminista and probably arose from her traditional views about biology and family. She promptly did as asked and fell silent until Charlie had finished scanning the screen.

Finally he asked her.

“Any progress with the negotiations?”

“None at all,” Margaret advised. “She’s a tough cookie and she’s familiar with all the tricks of the negotiating trade.”

“Which one of the blobs is Colonel Wilson?” Charlie asked.

“None of them. She’s obviously gone back into a cave. The outcrop seems to have several where she can hide. The moment she emerges again, we’ll spot her.”

Charlie turned from the screen and sighed as he poured himself a coffee. He caught Margaret looking at her.

“D’ you fancy a coffee as well?”

“I thought you’d never ask?”

As he took Chloe’s mug from the rack Margaret asked.

“Is that instant?”

“Yes,” he confirmed, “common or garden, cheap, supermarket instant. I don’t have fancy tastes. It’s this or nothing except cheap tea bags.”

“Don’t you have expresso or a percolator or something?”

“This is a spaceship not a fancy restaurant. Think of it like a truck. Just drive and sleep.”
Margaret bit her lip, there was hardly anything she could say without putting her foot in it for it was obvious that Charlie was on tenterhooks. She accepted the coffee as it came while Charlie returned to the bedroom. She heard him talking softly to Chloe and eventually, they emerged with the triplets. Chloe explained.

“The negotiating team said they had nappies available because of the triplets. We need to wash them and change them.”

“Are you both going?”

“Of course.” Chloe riposted. “Charlie’s a super dad. If he had tits he’d feed them as well!”

“Ugh.” Margaret pulled a face. “That’s weird.”

“No weirder than denying a child a father altogether.” Chloe retaliated.

“D’ you think so?” Margaret challenged.

“Just look at bitches like Colonel Wilson. Kidnapping three-year-olds and holding them hostage. Unbalanced family background obviously. No decent woman would do that.”

“Hey-up!” Charlie warned. “There’s another blob appeared on the screen. Is that her?”

Margaret span around and stared at it.

“It could be, ah! There’s the second blob, where’s the kid?”

“One of them could be carrying her, the first blob looks bigger.” Charlie replied as he studied the infra-red images.

“You may be right,” Margaret agreed as she alerted the marksmen.

“Everybody, don’t shoot until we know where the kid is!”

Outside, they heard the negotiator on the bull horn and recognised a cluster of blobs slowly approach the target. Obviously a deal had been struck but the three inside the spaceship were not a party to it. As Charlie and Chloe watched fearfully, Margaret’s earpiece crackled almost inaudibly.

“Is she carrying the child?”

A weak reply came back. - - - “We think so, it’s pitch black, but it looks like the outline of the child in the adult’s arms.”

“Which adult?”

“Not sure.”

“Then make sure!”

As Charlie, Chloe and Margaret watched, the two blobs separated slightly but they still could not identify them except that one looked to be carrying the child. There was now about fifty metres separating the fugitives from the four pursuing blobs.
Suddenly the fugitive blobs disappeared into what was probably another cave. Margaret’s voice asked urgently.

“Can you still see them?”

“No but we can hear them splashing in water and that’s affecting their infra-red images on the girl’s night-sights.”

“You’re not going to lose them are you?”

“Don’t think so but there’s a noise of running water. We can’t make them out very well nor can we follow their splashing. The running water is too noisy.”

With both pursuers and fugitives now inside the cave, the screen on the Dawn offered no information to Charlie and he fretted anxiously until three blobs reappeared followed by the report on Margaret’s radio.

“They’ve got the child and the trooper in custody; she surrendered, but the colonel’s gone deeper into the cave.”

“Is Charlotte safe?” Chloe begged.

Margaret checked back and smiled

“Yes. One of our troopers is carrying her. That’s the lumpy blob on the infra-red scan.”

“Well thank fuck for that!” Charlie cursed. “Bring her aboard, now! It’s the only place she’s safe.”

“They want to check her for injuries first.”

“They can do that here. I doubt she’s got physical injuries, but she’ll be terrified and wanting Chloe. Bring her to us. This is the only safe place until that lunatic colonel is caught.”

Margaret could see the sense in Charlie’s argument and explained to the chief negotiator who declared that the child would be re-united with her mother after the checks. Charlie conceded the argument and suggested that they removed Dawn to hover over the medical truck which was parked next to an ambulance. She had no useful function hovering over the rocky outcrop now that Charlotte was safe.

“They want you to remain on station over the cave entrance.” Margaret conveyed the message.

“Why? The further from the rocks we are, the safer my family is. I don’t have any weapons and the sun-lamp is pointless when every trooper searching for Wilson has got night-sight on their helmets.”

There was no answer forthcoming from the search team and Charlie became suspicious. The drones were still functioning satisfactorily so Charlie could see no justifiable reason. Without declaring his intentions, Charlie simply swung his command seat around and tapped in some instructions to the console. With un-nerving silence the Dawn covered the half mile from the rocks to the ambulance and took station behind it just as Charlotte was being delivered.

Chloe did not wait for the rear cargo ramp to lower, she simply jumped down before it touched the ground. She was waiting at the ambulance door as her screaming daughter was delivered.

“What are those scratches on her face?” She demanded of the handcuffed trooper.

“There was a struggle. I had decided to surrender; the situation was ridiculous I had to fight to get the child off Colonel Wilson.”

That was all the information Chloe got as the trooper was taken for questioning. They tried to prevent Chloe from taking Charlotte in her arms, but the child recognised her own mother and fought desperately to reach her. The doctor nodded to the police officer who was glad to release the screaming, kicking child, and the moment Charlotte was in Chloe’s arms, peace returned.

Once the situation concerning Chloe and her family had ‘normalised’, Charlie approached her quietly while the pursuers were preoccupied with rooting out Colonel Wilson from the labyrinth of rocks and shallow but interconnected caves.

“I want us to get out of here, we need to get to a safe place well away from here.”

“I’m with you,” Chloe agreed. “I don’t think our home at Coach has been compromised. They were swarming all over my house on the mineral road near Hammersley, but I never went near Coach, so they won’t have a clue about its existence.”

“Well we’d best sneak off while it’s still dark and put some distance between us before they miss us. Look around you, everybody is pre-occupied with the hunt or treating that trooper in the ambulance. Let’s collect the triplets. I’ll cause a slight distraction about Charlotte’s scratches and bruises while you sneak the other three into Dawn. Look, there’s nobody watching that ambulance and you’ve every right to visit your kids. I’ll join you when you’re ready to snatch them.”

The plan worked well because it was helped inadvertently by Colonel Wilsons desperation. In the stygian darkness of the caves, she had fired at a sound and hit one of the pursuers. This put further demands upon the first aiders, and the ensuing commotion enabled Charlie and Chloe to snatch their children and take refuge in their spaceship Dawn.

When they slipped silently into the clouds it was fully twenty minutes before the Dawn was missed.

ooo000ooo