The Feminist Queendom Charlie’s War 44 ©Beverly Taff

Chapter 44

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.

Chapter 44

As the Second Dawn approached the moon, Charlie kept a seasoned eye on Juliet’s landing and nodded approvingly as he landed her without the feintest whisper of a bump. The two girls appointed to first learn the controls after Juliet gave a supportive clap and a cheer as she stood up from the command console.

“Well done Julie.” Charlie applauded somewhat less enthusiastically than the over-excited girls but still with a kind supportive nod.

‘After all the shit Julie's had to endure as a canteen skivvy, he deserves some genuine applause.’ Charlie mused privately before stepping up to the next task.

“Right everybody, helmets on and check each other’s suits for airtight integrity.”

Because this was the first ‘real deal’ of going out into the vacuum on the moon, everybody checked and double checked each-others while Juliet checked each one independently.

“They all seem okay boss. Who goes into the airlock first?”

Charlie shrugged philosophically.

“Suppose I’d better, leader of the expedition, untested danger and all that.”

There was a chorus of protest from Juliet and the girls.

“Not bloody likely Boss. We need you to get back if things don’t work out!”

“Is that a unanimous thing?” Charlie asked, “if it is, you’d better pick straws.”

This was accepted and one of the girls got picked. Five minutes later she was ‘spring stepping’ through the fine layer of dust, just as the earlier astronauts from Apollo missions had done so many years before.

“It’s definitely the easiest way to move around,” she confirmed through her mouthpiece. Who’s next?”

“Your chosen partner and she’s feeding out a tie-line to climb back up the ramp.

After her, Juliet is bringing one of the buggies down the ramp.”

Through the viewing windows, the rest watched as the procedures went mostly as planned except the the buggy wheels skidded on the ramp an it slewed perilously close to falling off the side of the ramp. A note was made about traction on the ramps. Finally after double checking everything and having Juliet return to keep post in the cockpit, Charlie descended the ramp.

For the rest of the stay each team member kept up their own private recorded commentaries inside their helmets describing any problems they encountered while simultaneously pressing the ‘chest mounted speaker pad’ to talk to each other.

After the regulated six hours, Charlie called everybody back on board even though the base unit was not totally complete.

“We could have finished it boss, just a couple more sections.” The girls protested.

“No. We’ve got the solar panels up and running and there was a problem with sections aitch four and aitch five. There are to be no un-necessary risks, at least, not until we’ve got a functioning, habitable base unit. The buggies are protected from direct sunlight and I’m sure we’ll be back before the end of the month. Let’s prepare for take-off. Once we’re launched, we can do the initial de-brief on route back to earth. Which one of you girls want's to do the take off.”

The huge enthusiasm indicated ‘straws’ again and the winning girl joyfully took the command stick while Charlie stood back to appraise her work.

Once they were clear of the moon, and the earth loomed invitingly in the control platform window, they settled down to debrief.

The first and most obvious problem was the gloves. Everybody unanimously agreed that better, less cumbersome gloves were needed as the fingerless, airtight, mittens had proved hopelessly inadequate.

“I felt as though I had elephants feet at the ends of my arms.” Juliet complained to a chorus of agreement, that included Charlie’s voice.

“Yes, that caused our biggest fail as I see it, we failed to complete the first structure for Moon-base Alpha.” The female leader lamented.

“Well at least it serves to protect the two lunar buggies. We can complete it next time.” Juliet replied.

“When will next time be?” Another girl asked.

“I should think as soon as we have the upgraded space suits.” The acting team quartermaster opined. “The ship is pretty much available all the time. -Just like a truck or a bus.”

“How long will it be before Dawn Three is ready?” Juliet asked Charlie.

“I will take about a month to complete the engines for her. She’s half as big again.”

“But she’s mostly cargo hold. She only carries a construction crew of four plus two flight crew.” Juliet explained. “Basically, she just ferries crew and materials to Base Alpha. In the meantime, we simply use Second Dawn to continue the programme.”

By this time the earth was filling the windows of Second Dawn and the team took their seats for the landing back on earth. As the girls filed back to the cabin Charlie turned to the trainee pilot.

“I have to ask, why do they all take seats like in an old-fashioned airliner? It’s not as though Second Dawn has to land at speed on a runway. She settles down as softly as a feather. You could have at least two other observers here on the flight-deck watching and learning.”

The trainees eyes widened with realisation. The science of anti-gravity had taken flying into a completely new realm. People could be working or eating or sleeping while a spaceship docked or landed.

She landed the ship without mishap and the team wasted little time on formalities as they removed their recorders from their helmets and took them to the debriefing section. Then they got scrubbed up and savoured a fine meal before retiring. They would have a full debriefing the following morning.

ooo000ooo

“Where’s Captain Sage?”

The now officially appointed second officer asked Juliet, who had been acknowledged and accepted as first officer, - or ‘mate’ as used in the old parlance of merchant shipping days.

“He took off in his own ship Dawn. It’s being retrofitted with security devices to prevent theft and he’s gone to sort out the security settings for him and his wife. He’ll be back before noon. That’s when they’re having the debriefing after they analysed each of our helmet tapes.”

“Jeeze, he’s a lucky bugger just whizzing right across Oz and back in a few minutes. I’ll be glad when we all have antigravity ships for personal use.”

“Amen to that,” Juliet concurred as he unlocked Second Dawn’s flight recorder and electronic journey log ready for the debriefing.

“Don’t suppose there’ll be much of interest on that except technical recordings and instrument readings. I mean, for much of the passage she was on automatic pilot.”

“No, I suppose not,” Juliet surmised. “Shall we go and see how Dawn three is coming along?”

“She’s just an empty hull in the fabrication shed at present but apparently, she’ll be the blueprint for the class of space cargo ships Australia hopes to have.”

“The class threes; yeah, that has a good ring to it. We might as well call the whole team together and make it a collective visit.”

The visit was quickly organised and the team would actually find it useful as they had spotted issues on the plans that would certainly be difficult to sort later on in the construction. The loading ramp being too steep was a considerable issue because low gravity gave dis-proportionately less traction. Two of the ten engines that Charlie had described to the girls would obstruct the ramp lever hinges because they would need bigger recesses.

The strangest and most humorous issue was the provision of sufficient laundry facilities to clean the crews diapers. Boy or girl, - once a crew member was in their spacesuit and working outside, it took at least one or even two people to assist a companion in a lavatorial visit. - Removing and then donning a space suit took upwards of an hour so it was expensive on the moon and lavatorial visits were consequently frowned upon.

Diapers, and adult water-proof pants were supplied for use under space suits. Nobody much liked it, but logistics necessitated it and, if later crews were to spend a week working on the moon, there had to be laundry facilities.

“Water’s going to be a problem, isn’t it?” One of the team wondered.”

Juliet smiled as he revealed some thoughts that he and Charlie had been sharing.

“Charlie reckons we could build a large tanker type spaceship on the moon once the supply chain is established; then it could travel to the moons of Jupiter. Europa’s got more ice and water than the Earth so there’s no shortage of the stuff. Ganymede and Callista also have huge water surfaces so the potential to extract it and deliver it to Earth, Mars and the moon is very promising.

“We might need to build a huge evaporation plant in orbit around the earth then send the fresh water to Earth and Mars in smaller ships. The operation would be entirely an Australian venture and we would become a major supplier of yet another valuable raw material, - cheap, fresh water!”

“And all this depends on the Oz government reversing the Feminista laws, giving back equality to men.”

“Basically yes.” Juliet replied but did not smile.

“It puts a lot of power in one man’s hands.” One of the team cautioned.

Juliet wagged her head slowly.

“You’ve all met and worked with Charlie; does he strike you as some sort of megalomaniac?”

There was surprising degree of consensus in the girls’ responses that gave Juliet hope.
Having informed all the girls of the day's plans: he approached the fabrication shop manager to confirm the permission for the team to visit the half built 'Dawn Three' but the yard manager was of the Feminista old school.

“Where’s your boss?” She demanded officiously as though determined to belittle him in front of the girls.

Inevitably, her attitude raised the hackles of the girls who had grown very fond of Juliet. He was a reasonably effeminate mal who the girls all knew well, he therefore posed little or no physical threat whilst his knowledge, accumulated under Charlie was second only to Charlie’s.

Indeed some of the girls believed Juliet’s practical abilities possibly surpassed Charlies, who himself tended to go around with his head in the air thinking about strange maths equations and then eventually transposing the theories to technology and product.

The pair, - that is Charlie and Juliet, - worked well together but the girls found Juliet the easier to get along with and they were now highly protective of their particular mal.

This scenario now surfaced amongst the girls who were literally standing behind Juliet while he had been insulted. All six of them had had metaphorically ‘got Juliet's back’. The ‘second mate’ - herself a fairly high-ranking executive; who now owned additional kudos as an operational space crew; - stepped from behind Juliet.

“Lady, be careful. I’m a grade four exec myself and I consider this mal to be my team leader. He’s also Captain Sage’s executive officer so I suggest you let us examine the class three spaceships that we will be commanding as they come from the yard!”

The yard manager visibly shrank as she realised she was confronting the core operational crew that would lead Australia into space and well ahead of any other countries.

“Oh I’m sorry!” She smarmed. “I’ll get one of the official guides to show you. I’m presuming you’ve got official clearance.”

There was a distinct feeling amongst the female team of; - “Who is this silly bitch?” But strangely it was Juliet who smoothed the ruffled feathers.

“These ladies and I are the team that yesterday landed on the moon, I believe that demonstrates we have maximum security clearance. Oh! And I believe if you look up there, you’ll see the now famous Dawn approaching her own secure, private, landing pad probably with Captain Sage and maybe his wife.”

Everybody looked up to see Dawn reducing speed and alighting with all the precision of an insect on a flower.

“Shall we wait for him?” One of the team asked.

“I think he’s going into a board meeting before the full debriefing. We’d better be getting on with the visit.” Juliet observed as she turned to meet the approaching guide.

Having now been pre-warned, the guide was all courtesy and solicitation.

“If you ladies would like to follow me please,” She offered, “I believe you’ve got some suggestions to add.”

“Yes,” Juliet replied with a respectful and courteous smile. “Lead on please miss.”

ooo000ooo