Cast in Time

 

 

Book 7 Duke of the West

 

 

By Ed Nelson

 

Dedication

 

This book is dedicated to my wife, Carol, for her support and help as my first reader and editor.

 

 

And never forget the professional editor, Janet E. Rupert

Quotation

 

 

"According to 'M' theory, ours is not the only universe. Instead, 'M' theory predicts that a great many universes were created out of nothing."

 

Stephen Hawking

Other books by Ed Nelson

Book 1: The Beginning

Book 2: Schooldays

Book 3: Hollywood

Book 4: In the Movies

Book 5: Star to Deckhand

Book 6: Surfing Dude

Book 7: Third Time is a Charm

Book 8: Oxford University

Book 9: Cold War

Book 10: Taking Care of Business

Book 11: Interesting Times

Book 12: Escape from Siberia

Book 13: Regicide

Book 14: What's Under, Down Under?

Book 15: The Lunar Kingdom

Book 16: First Steps

In the Richard Jackson World

Mary, Mary

Stand Alone Story

Ever and Always

The Cast in Time series

Book 1: Baron

Book 2: Baron of the Middle Counties

Book 3: Count

Book 4: Earl

Book 5: Earl of the Marches

Book 6 Duke

Copyright © 2025

E. E. Nelson All rights reserved

 

Eastern Shore Publishing

1150 8th Ave SW Unit 2901

Largo, Fl 33770

 

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

 

This story is a fiction work. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is coincidental.

ISBN 979-8-89434-025-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 20239124

Chapter 1

 

Having survived the bad landing due to running out of fuel in the air over the Amazon, having my gold worries taken care of, and now facing a campaign in what will be Germany, I felt good about things. If I could see the future I would have fled the scene.

I was still determined to visit all my territories. The only ones I hadn’t been to were those in the Americas. This time I would fly the normal route instead of something stupid like Dakar to Natal without navigation aids in place.

Before taking off there were some economic decisions that had to be made at home. We had all these wonderful tourism ideas to get people to open their pocketbooks and spend their silver and gold. We estimated that it would take five years or more to have the tourism spots open.

We needed to up the silver velocity much quicker than that. My son Doug was the one who had the best idea. While the new construction was going on, we would advertise that people could get a special stamp on their tourism passport.

The tourism passport was my contribution based on the US National Parks system.

Those who had the early bird stamp would be recognized as the first official visitors to the attraction. The stamps would be of a local bird. It would give them nothing but bragging rights.

A visitor’s center would be opened at each site to register guests. It would have a model of the completed attractions with hotels and other amenities. Guided tours would be given to natural attractions.

There would be tents or simple cabins for the guests to stay in. Pictures would be taken of the guest in front of their accommodation so that they could show their friends what is was like in the “old days”.

We hoped this would get our economy sped back up. When an economy gets too slow it goes into a death spiral. We weren’t close to that but wanted to head off any possibility of that happening.

From the way people started signing up for adventure trips, it was going to work. We called everything an adventure trip. Each of the territories created their own bureau of tourism and allowed tour companies to go into business.

A tourism tax was added to the cost of the tour and in the long run recoup the dukedom’s investment. This project was too large for me to support out of my pocket, so I had to get the approval of the dukedom’s council. It proved to be an easy sell because we were allowing public investment in the projects, so each of the councilors would have a chance to invest and make a lot of money. Not a fortune but still a lot of money.

That was true of everyone but my friend Baron Smith. Tom had made so much money that he was always looking for a new investment. He would make a fortune if the wheels didn’t fall off this scheme.

Tom had started going to fat as he wasn’t working his forge anymore. That is until Countess Agnes caught up with him. She considered him a national treasure and had him accompanied by his own dietician and exercise team. He tried to get out of it, but his wife came down on the countess’s side.

I kidded him about having his nanny team. The only reason I didn’t have one was that the castle cook Marian had become our personal chef. Eleanor was my exercise person. I bet she was tougher on me than Tom’s people.

We finally were able to report that Italy was now a territory under our control. There were still a few hold outs in the hills but there weren’t enough of them to make a difference. It reminded me of the Japanese soldiers who hid in the jungle years after World War II was over.

Wherever possible my staff presented a list of people to be barons in control of the small towns and villages. The larger cities and area capitals rated having a count. I hadn’t created an Earl of Italy yet. In some areas there was no one who was deemed capable, and the staff was looking for someone.

The pope asked to be the Earl of Italy. He was lucky that I was informed by messenger. My reply was a flat, “No.”

I was still determined to make my planned stops on my world tour. The plan was to fly to eastern North America, southern North America, the Panama Canal Zone, the fueling stations, and ending in western North America.

From there we would fly cross country back to New York. A southern route of small airbases for refueling were now in place across the old United States. These were at what was Phoenix, Dallas, St. Louis, Columbus, then New York City. I even gave the airfields those names to make it easier for me to remember and place them.

Gold from the California gold fields would go through the Panama Canal as the ships then could come straight to Cornwall.

The new clocks being used for navigation were proving to be winners. Even with the improved technology we weren’t doing flights from Africa to Brazil until we had radio beacons in place. It was suggested that we have several ships with powerful radios stationed across the Atlantic.

I turned that down because, as sure as shooting, a ship would have to leave station at some critical time for an aircraft making the crossing. We would have to have land-based beacons that would reach across the sea, along with a backup.

I remembered the half a million-watt station WLW in World War II. It could be heard in South America and Europe. Located near Cincinnati, Ohio, it had a cluster of towers. The tallest was eight hundred thirteen feet with a diamond shape in the middle. It was so strong that the radio frequency was often picked up on barbed wire fences, water facets, rain gutters, and just plain piles of junk.

When it was broadcasting for Voice of America during WWII, we troops were most interested in stars like Ma Perkins and Red Skelton.

If I remembered right, and I usually did, the trick was to develop high powered tubes for transmission. I put a team to work on that, and another team was involved in all the rest of the equipment.

We would have stations in Natal, somewhere in central Europe, and the western United States. This would give us coverage of all my territories and could be expanded as we grew.

These, along with smaller stations at each airfield, would make navigation much safer.

An expedition was sent to the Amazon in hopes of finding the downed aircraft and recovering the bodies of those who were buried there. I didn’t have much hope but realized it was the wise political move. Who said I was getting cynical?

One regret I had is that we hadn’t left blazes on trees on the way out to the river. At the time all we were thinking about was saving ourselves.

Eleanor was traveling with me while Doug and Cathy had other business to attend to. They were both now heavily involved in my government. Both were being trained to take over at need.

My concern was that Doug would be jealous of Cathy as she was the heir to my budding kingdom. It would be fair to say that what we had now was a kingdom and that it was a budding empire.

I wanted to take it slow and get people used to a worldwide government. It was like slowly heating the water to cook a frog.

The stop in eastern North America was the last in which an entire fair was set up. The rest of the trip would be to small bases which didn’t have the population to require one. In a way those at the small stops were the winners as each person would have a better chance of interacting with us.

The fair for the Iroquois Nation was well attended. The wandering life of the hunter gatherers was rapidly becoming a thing of the past. The people were moving into towns for a better quality of life.

We found in our stay with the Indians (they had taken to the term as a general description of themselves) one of their kids’ favorite games was Cowboys and Indians. The Indians always won.

I had to keep a straight face as one of my duties was to inspect a troop of Indian Scouts of America. Their program was centered around the old ways with emphasis on building confidence in the new ways of doing things.

They had based their program on several books by Baden-Powell which I had written down and then had printed. Instead of Star, Life, and Eagle they used Wolf, Bear, and Eagle. The Eagle was retained because at some point I had mentioned I was an Eagle Scout.

At least I didn’t have to fast and spend a night in a sweat lodge. I was glad I had never written about or even mentioned Lewis Wetzel, also known as “Death Wind”. He was better left in the depths of time and history.

There were balls every night of our two-week stay. It was an interesting dichotomy to see women wearing everything from the latest European fashions to beaded blouses and dresses. I preferred the beaded dresses as those wearing them looked more comfortable. Not only in fit but in culture.

I quickly found out that it didn’t matter where you came from; the problems were the same. I had to judge in several land cases and one criminal. I had the criminal hanged and wished that I could have done the same for several of the land cases.

Then there were the businessmen or better yet the con-artists. None merited hanging but several did end up in Panama digging the canal.

There was still a large contingent of followers determined to accompany me on the entire world tour. Their numbers were dwindling as life caught up with them, as it often did.

Some died; most had family or business reasons which made them drop out. It got to the point that I actually got to know a few of them on sight.

Eleanor on one of her frequent calls home learned that Doug had proposed to Lady Bethany. We were happy to hear that as we liked both her and her daughter Sally. The wedding would be held after we returned home. That would be almost ten months from now. I mumbled something about it not being a shotgun wedding.

That earned me a sharp poke in the ribs as Eleanor had found out what that meant in one of the romance novels I had downloaded from my memory. That convinced me not to add anymore to the genre.

Romance and romantic comedy were enough for this world. I didn’t want to be responsible for dark romances, enemies to lovers, or even shifter romances. Enough was enough.

Another bright spot on the trip was the news that the tribes as far west as the Mississippi were inquiring about the new lifestyle. I was all for addition without warfare. During my previous life I had learned that war as a pastime was overrated.

I was going to order that roads be started towards the new territory when I was told that the Iroquois had already started. They saw the money-making possibilities and wanted to be first in.

As we were wrapping up the fair we received a message from Doug in Owen-nap. Since he had announced his engagement to Lady Bethany, the bureaucrats and news outlets had publicly asked the question where Sally would be in the line of succession. As she wasn’t his natural child, she couldn’t inherit his titles but could his land. This started a public debate that was growing out of control. Doug asked me to make an official statement on the matter so that he and Bethany could go out for a meal without being besieged by the paparazzi and real reporters.

My announcement was short and direct.

“As to the question of Lady Sally’s position in the line of succession upon marriage, she will be the Princess Sally as Lady Cathy is now called. She will be educated as a full member of our family and in the direct line. Any further questions may be asked while the questioner is digging the Panama Canal.”

That shut everyone up other than the speculation that I was getting testy in my old age.

Chapter 2

 

After visiting the Iroquois Nation, we proceeded south to Florida where we had our first refueling station. I had been adamant that the station would be on a spit of land known in my time as Cape Canaveral.

There was already a team in place working to transfer all rocket launches from Owen-nap to the cape. Canaveral was chosen by NASA because it had a long flight over water before crossing Africa at height.

Considering the number of test failures anticipated it only made sense to move the liftoffs to Canaveral.

While there we entertained visiting Native Americans. They were curious about what was going on. They were puzzled that we insisted on giving them gifts of spears, knives, and axes. They didn’t believe us when we told them we would be doing this every year as a form of rent.

It took two days for them to understand what rent was. Once they understood, they raised the rent! It was double the number of tools which was no big deal to us but was a sign of things to come.

These were the ancestors of the Seminole tribe of Indians. They were the only Indian tribe that never signed a peace treaty with the United States.

It had taken our people six months to be able to understand their language. Once that was done things moved along quickly. Two Iroquois came south to explain how they had made peace with us and transferred from a hunter-gather-small-farm society to a full farming society.

The Seminole, as I thought of them, divided into two groups. One group wanted to remain in their traditional lifestyle, the others wanted the new one.

The first group disappeared into the Everglades and only came out on occasion. The others took up farming and town building with passion. Our MASH units and education system were welcomed. They soon had a land office up and running and a tax system in place.

The tax system was heavily slanted towards taxing out of towners. Much like Florida was in my time.

My peoples’ efforts were under control and the building of a launch site well underway. I planned to return for the first test rocket countdown. No doubt it would fail in some manner, but it would still be thrilling to watch it go. In the early days of the US program, they had over one hundred fifty failures.

Our local infrastructure was well underway. The runways for the airport were built, of course. A modest control tower wasn’t even manned, except for the Tuesday and Thursday supply flights.

There was a port in progress. The rockets and their fuel would come by steamer. The rockets would have a final assembly at Canaveral. Aircraft fuel was currently coming in by flying tankers.

There would be a complete village here within six months just in time for all the support people who would be required.

While I worked on the launch site, Eleanor worked on her tan. She had a private cove which had only one land approach. There was a guard stationed there to prevent unwanted visitors. This was because Eleanor, our female world travelers, and local wives were sunbathing topless.

The locals made certain that she didn’t burn in sensitive places by reminding her to turn over or get out of the sun completely. By the time we left she was a golden brown. When we got home this would give Florida tourism a large boost.

I appreciated her efforts to increase our economy. I ended up with a farmer’s tan. That is a dark tan on my face and arms while the rest was lily white.

The world travelers, as I thought of them, had chartered two aircraft to follow us on our journey. Canaveral wasn’t a planned tourism destination, so we weren’t set up to house them. Surprisingly cheerful, they lived in tents with the lizards, sand fleas, mosquitoes, and other Florida wildlife. The palmetto bugs did freak a lot of them out.

In their travels lifelong friendships were made and several marriages were held. I heard that there were some affairs but didn’t want to know anything about them. If I did want to know, Eleanor could give me chapter and verse.

Since it wasn’t an official stop on the world tour, there wasn’t a welcome station set up or even provisions for a stamp for their passports. I ended up signing each and every one of them. They would have value as collector items someday in the future.

The future was only a day away as some songs went. One of our contingent got word from home that due to poor investments they were in dire financial condition. They had their passport with my signature auctioned off for a small fortune. Being a good sport, I provided them with a new one that had all the stamps current and signed them.

It was my birthday while at Canaveral. I was now fifty-eight years old. This was counting the twenty years of the young Baron whose body I had inherited and the thirty-eight years I had been here. When I thought of all the progress that had been made, it was amazing.

That reflection made me realize that our daughter Cathy was now thirty-four years old. I wondered if she would ever settle down, get married, and have an heir to the throne. If not, it would be Doug, then Sally, that is if Cathy outlived Doug, if not it would go directly to Sally. Now I understood what all the uproar was about.

Would Cathy be another Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen? I hoped not. I brought this up to Eleanor, and she laughed at me.

“You worry about the wrong things. More importantly is what sort of person her current boyfriend is. They appear to be getting serious.”

“How serious?”

“Very, they are now openly living together.”

This was different. Cathy never openly lived with her previous boyfriends.

“Has he been investigated?”

“I had that done nine months ago. He and his family are very loyal supporters of us.”

“That is good to hear. I hope if they get married that she will bear a child soon.”

“I just learned last night that you will have to get your shotgun out. She is three months pregnant according to Countess Agnes.”

“Why are we hearing this just now and from Agnes rather than Cathy?”

“Agnes told me they didn’t want to get our hopes up.”

“Well, you had better start planning a wedding.”

“I will, but they have been married for six months. It was a very small private wedding with only Doug and Bethany as witnesses. Oh, and Sally as a flower girl.”

“I bet she was cute.”

I no sooner said that than I exploded. “Why weren’t we told about all of this sooner!?”

“You will have to ask them.”

“Damn right, I will.”

Damn was the strongest language I used anymore. My GI days were long past.

Upon that note we left for the local airport for Natal. The flight was uneventful, and we arrived late in the afternoon. Natal was different from the Cape. It was one of the first coaling stations and as such was well developed.

We were met by the base commander and shown our rooms where we unpacked for our weeklong stay. Thomas the base commander was a short well-built man with dark hair and a pronounced nose. He could have played Cyrano de Bergerac. However, we soon found out that his love life wouldn’t be a tragic tale as he had a wife and three children.

Our entourage was okay with a meal of cold sandwiches. After eating, Eleanor and I, along with most of the reporters, guards, cooks, doctors, nurses and several odd bodies, turned in.

As usual some of the younger reporters settled in for a long evening of drinking, playing cards, and general tomfoolery. The same people would be up early and ready to challenge the world. Oh, to be young again. I quickly banished that thought remembering the last time I made a similar wish.

The next morning, we had the breakfast that I called a full English. After that we were given a tour of the immediate base. Later in the afternoon, the ladies would check out the shopping in the small village that had grown up around the coaling station.

I spent the afternoon going over the books with Thomas and his accountant. They were meticulous and well written with supporting evidence of each expenditure. If there was any fraud going on, they would be world class fraudsters.

There wasn’t much in the way of industry. As a coaling station, it was as expected dirty and stinky at the coal docks and well-kept in the main areas.

There were several children accompanying their parents so there was a one room schoolhouse. Watching the teacher’s work with the different ages in one room left me nostalgic as I spent my first school years in a similar school room.

I think overall it was an advantage. We were allowed to work at our own pace and given support where needed. That support included a sharp rap across the knuckles for those who weren’t doing their work.

Two planes landed after dinner. It was our followers. They were held back a day to give us a chance to settle in and for me to do my bookwork.

A tent city had been set up for them. It consisted of large tents along with bathing facilities and restrooms. As our world followers dwindled in numbers they were given better quarters at each stop. They had to pay for their rooms, but the cost was the same everywhere even though the accommodations kept getting better.

Our next stop at Buenos Aries had barracks built for them with the amenities of a modest hotel. When we got to the gold fields, the hotel would be rated at four stars, if we had such ratings. That was a thought I needed to discuss with Eleanor.

During our first dinner/ball a messenger from the radio room ran breathlessly up to Thomas who along with his wife were sitting with us.

“Sir, the radio station at Buenos Aries just went off the air.”

The man had run several hundred yards to deliver his message. Thomas told him to catch his breath and slow down. Going off the air while not a frequent occurrence did happen occasionally.

“I was doing a routine time check with them when the operator at the other end, shouted, “Mayday, Mayday. Then I heard what sounded like gunshots and the air went dead.”

This sounded bad. The music from the gramophone kept playing but all talk had ceased in the room. Someone turned the machine off, and now it was a silent room. I stood and announced that something serious had happened in Buenos Aires that had to be checked out. Please continue the dance.

Thomas and everyone else from our table walked quickly back to the radio room. The operator was trying to contact the Buenos Aires station, but it was like their radio set had been turned off.

The navigation beacon still was broadcasting as it was on a different system in a well-protected location.

After a quick discussion it was decided that I and my guards would fly to Buenos Aires to see what was going on. We limited the number of passengers to keep the aircraft weight down to save fuel. If we couldn’t land there, it would be nip and tuck getting back. I didn’t fancy another walk through the jungle. Well, the pampas of Argentina.

At least we would know where we were most of the time. We would follow the coastline loosely going down and returning.

It was a seven-hour flight at our speeds. If we left now, we would arrive at about four in the morning. We decided to leave at midnight to arrive at daybreak. Everyone on the flight was instructed to get what sleep they could.

I spent my time on the radio with Owen-nap. A relief expedition would be assembled and flown to Natal as soon as possible. This included a dirigible which could land troops anywhere. Altogether a force of one hundred fighters was on its way. It would take them the better part of two days but would be in position if needed.

Once we knew the situation on the ground, other support forces would join us.

Chapter 3

 

The flight down to Buenos Aries was tense; we had no idea what we were facing. Enroute, we received a radio message from Natal.

People were holed up in the radio beacon fortress. When the fighting started, a squad of riflemen held off the invaders while the women and children, along with most of their guards, locked themselves in the beacon tower. One woman and her two children were unaccounted for. They had been out walking when the trouble started.

When the emergency beacon was constructed, it was surrounded by a literal fortress for security. It was intended to be a defensive position of last resort. All the radio beacons throughout South America had them.

They held plentiful food supplies, had a well or water piped in underground, and a sewage system. Underground water piping was encased in cement. Most of all they had two cannons mounted on the roof of the fortress. These were the only cannons at the coaling station.

They had a modest armory, but the main armory was at the headquarters. This was a concern because if an invader captured these, they were fighting on par with us.

It was a relief to know that most of our people were safe. At the same time, we had lost men. I guessed it was the ten-man squad and the radio operator who had sent their last transmission.

The emergency beacon had been switched back to the beacon channel, so we found the base with no problems. That is until we started to land. At least it looked like we were going to land. Rather than flaps down and reduced speed our pilot flew us over the runway at three-hundred miles an hour.

It was a good thing he did because at least one-hundred men on the edge of the runway opened fire. Since they were our modern rifles, it was one heck of a barrage.

Later a few holes in the fuselage were found, but there was nothing critical.

As we circled back high over the emergency beacon fortress, we received a message from them. They were okay and good for some time. The invaders were the local Indians who they thought were friends. A few of the Indians warned them of what was about to happen.

The warning was of such short notice they had to do a fighting retreat, losing the rearguard in the process. They were good for several months so we could take our time to resolve the issue. The man on the radio recommended we negotiate a peace treaty with them.

Without telling him, I decided on how to proceed. It didn’t involve any treaties.

We let them know that we were returning to Natal and for them not to have any communication with the invaders. No treaties were authorized. The man on the radio, who it turned out was the coaling station manager, tried to argue that that was the civilized thing to do.

I requested to speak privately with his second in command. When he came on, I ordered him to relive the manager and take control. He confirmed he understood my orders and would comply with them. I also had the same conversation with the captain of the guards.

He confirmed he understood their orders and would comply. Satisfied that there would be no communication behind my back, we turned to Natal.

I had seen what some of the United States bureaucrats in the State Department could get up to and wasn’t having it.

When we got to Natal, I sat down with the Natal managing director, my chief guard, and Eleanor. This was my temporary staff.

The first problem we faced was refueling the aircraft that would be landing our troops in Buenos Aries. The problem was that if the natives had blocked the runway or for some other reason we couldn’t land, there wouldn’t be enough fuel for the aircraft to get back to Natal.

Additional troops were on their way from Owen-nap; there was also a dirigible to provide support. Since time didn’t seem to be an issue right now, we decided that a rough runway would be set up an hour north of Buenos Aires station.

It would consist of Marsden matting. The steel sections were ten feet square. We needed a runway 1000 by 150 feet so the matting would have to come by ship. We had the matting in storage in Africa ready to put runways in. A steamship was available so it could be in position off the coast of Argentina in five days.

They would bring barges with cranes to unload the ship and get the matting ashore. A steam shovel and two bulldozers were available so they could do most of the backbreaking work. The ship would also be bringing enough tents and food to shelter and feed all our troops.

This could be done within ten days. In the meantime, our dirigible would be shuttling to the new airfield the troops that were being flown in.

While the airfield was being installed, the ship would return to Africa to bring aircraft fuel in one-thousand-gallon bladders. All of this would be an enormous and costly effort, but it would show the world that we took care of our people. Reporters embedded for our world tour would have a huge story to cover.

There would even be a live broadcast from the new airfield which I named the Uruguay base. It was north of Argentina across the river Rio de la Plata. The river was not crossed easily so it gave the base some extra security from the Argentine Indians.

The base would be fenced in with twenty-four-hour patrols circling it. After this operation security would be beefed up. In the meantime, I assigned staff at Owen-nap to evaluate all our coaling stations to avoid a repeat of this debacle.

We were congratulating ourselves on a well-thought-out plan when we got disastrous news from Buenos Aries. The missing women and her two children were now accounted for.

They had been brought just out of rifle range of the fortified radio beacon. There a crude altar was put in place. The woman was sacrificed by having her heart cut out while she was still alive.

The children, a six-year-old boy and a ten-year-old girl. quickly followed their mother. Our people couldn’t hit them with rifles, but they were in range of the cannon. Fire had been held until all hope was lost. The cannon opened fire loaded with grape shot. They fired three rounds before the last of the Indians got out of range.

They estimated one hundred Indians were present. Twenty were counted running away. The rest lay dead on the field.

In a way it made our next step easy. I ordered our zeppelin to drop fuel air bombs on the Indian village. None would survive. It was done at night when they thought they were safe behind their adobe walls.

Altogether we lost fourteen people, the Indians over five hundred. If nothing else, it demonstrated to the world that we weren’t to be challenged lightly. For a while I was called the butcher of Buenos Aires, but it didn’t stick. As though I gave a damn.

Normally we would have negotiated with the local people to buy land and to establish a modern economy. That wouldn’t happen with this culture of human sacrifice. Every one of their temples within five hundred miles was bombed out of existence.

A delegation from the Inca came to us under a white flag. Where they learned that custom was an interesting question. The delegation had representatives from twenty different tribes. The indigenous natives weren’t a cohesive group. The tribes had their own languages. About the only thing they had in common was their Inca religion.

They wanted to know why we were killing them while they were only practicing their religion. They understood that in my country all religions were allowed. Now I was very curious about where they were getting their information. I was not present being back in Owen-nap to catch up on the doings in my territories. A radio set let me participate.

Rather than play games, I had my people ask them directly about where they learned about us. It seemed that some of our people were trading with the Inca. They were offering steel knives and axes for gold.

The Inca were told that human sacrifice was totally abhorrent to us and that we would continue to wipe out all those that practiced it. An Inca priest told those present that they would all die before they abandoned their religion.

I guess when it came to other people’s lives, they didn’t care, but when it was their own, they cared greatly. The priest was seized and clubbed to death with one of their stone embedded clubs.

They stated the practice would stop in their areas but each of the many tribes would have to decide on their own.

I wanted to kick myself. Even though I wasn’t a history buff and had stuck to hard engineering, I knew that the Inca were aggressive people. In my time they had set out to conquer all their neighbors and had done so.

The only way to make them change their ways was to put them down and put them down hard. While Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, the great Inca emperor who conquered most of South America, was active in the fourteen century my time, they were still a fearsome foe in this time.

The capital of the future empire was Cuzco. Located in the Andes at over 11,000 feet in a lush valley, it would be difficult to take by an army on foot.

The city was unique in the fact it was laid out in the shape of a puma. Though interesting, this had little to do with my plans.

Using dirigibles, I had the city leveled with fuel air explosives. Not very sporting but these people had to be stopped if I was going to rule over South America.

I wondered if I was turning into a megalomaniac. Eleanor assured me that I was only a little crazy. That made me feel a lot better. Not.

The dirigible was stripped down to bare bones to reach the height of the mountains around Cuzco. The original airships at their zenith could reach 20,000 feet but ours weren’t capable. We would have to revisit the design later.

One advantage we had was that the bomb load required was less than half of what the original dirigibles carried so once they were dropped the airship would be comfortable at those heights.

Once the mission was completed by wiping out the entire Inca nobility, we proceeded with our normal procedures in introducing our society.

This included schools and MASH units. These had the most immediate impact on any conquered territory. The Inca were sophisticated in the handling of water. Their roads were rudimentary.

The integration of new people into my budding empire was made easier by the emergence of a true merchant class. With this new market being opened they fell upon it like buzzards on a roadkill.

This took a lot of the burden off my staff, army, and budget. All to the good. While we had to station troops to protect the merchants, it didn’t take long for their need to dissipate. There would always be a need for protection as the merchants went into new areas, but they now were welcomed with open arms.

The most welcome products were toilet paper and women’s cleanliness items. Who would have thought that the mighty Inca would be conquered by toilet paper? Well, that and judicious bombing.

Now that the Inca were under control and the Buenos Aries fueling station secured, the next step was to fly from Buenos Aries to Valparaiso. It was only 900 miles through several passes through the Andes, so it was considered easy. My experience demonstrated there was nothing easy about flying in this part of the world.

Our world travelers were finally allowed into Buenos Aries for their stamps. Their stay wasn’t long as the infrastructure put into place for them was all destroyed by the Argentine Indians when they invaded.

We had already built a secondary airfield at what would become Santiago. That lesson had been learned.

Chapter 4

 

Conquering the Incas caused us to set back our timetable of going into Germany. We had to move the troops that were being assembled for our Germany incursion to South America.

Though we had broken the back of the Inca Empire, it would take at least several more years to bring them completely under our control.

To meet all my objectives the standing army would have to be expanded. Currently we had one hundred thousand men under arms. To meet all my goals it would take close to a quarter million men.

We had been working with an all-volunteer army, and I wanted to continue that. That would require us to pay a fair wage. The one thing I didn’t like about my army in the future was how little the lowest ranks were paid.

It wasn’t fair to them, and more importantly, with our economy so good low wages wouldn’t be competitive. The gold fields in California had been opened just in time.

Even getting the manpower wouldn’t give us an effective army. Personnel would have to be trained. Common infantry could be fielded in less than a year. The sergeants and officers to lead them took five to eight years. To speed the process up we could promote existing trained soldiers.

The question was did the existing forces have enough personnel ready to promote to make up the organization? There was a limit to how many men could be pulled from existing forces without weakening those forces. Incidentally, I use the term men, whereas both men and women are in my army.

Women were not in positions where upper body strength would be important in combat. You could make the argument that all soldiers could face combat, but the reality was that a mortar team would be at the fore of the frontline troops and would be retreating if the enemy were advancing. Tank crews were even safer.

These were fighting positions. Logistics and staff were natural for women. Sexist I know but that is the reality of the world.

All of this made the annexing of the Germanies set back for several years. We could advance our cause with the border cities by exposing them to our way of life. If we were fortunate, they would voluntarily join us. They already had our toilet paper and women’s sanitary products so we couldn’t do an Inca on them.

Staff recommendations were that we provide low-cost improvements to them. For example, build a sewage system for a town at low cost. We could even provide financing. This would bind them to us. Enough of this and we could start calling in loans. The loan would be forgiven if they joined us.

This method would work in the Germanies only because they were fragmented into many small city states. No one or two states could provide enough forces to take back a city-state which had declared for us.

Since there was no existing leadership that could combine all of the city-states into one entity, this would work. While this would work for Germany, any nation unified under a government would resist this method.

These considerations kept me in Valparaiso longer than planned. The coaling station was a planned stop on the world tour so the thirty-seven-faithful caught up with me. They were looking ragged as they were living rough at most stops. Tents were the only lodgings available at this time. Hot water a dream.

I was signing their tourist passports after stamping them. These would be worth a lot of money one of these days. Those who had sold earlier earned ten thousand silver. Those who completed the trip would be worth many times more.

All was in order at Valparaiso, so it was an easy stop from that prospective. The local natives knew little or nothing about my trip so there were no large events planned. Two formal dinners and a ball, which was lightly attended, and we were off to Panama for refueling for our trip to California.

This trip around South America could have been avoided altogether, but I wanted to say that I had visited all my territories. Also, it didn’t hurt as a demonstration of our power.

Having already made the formal stop on the world tour, we spent one day there resting while the aircraft was serviced for the long flight to San Franciso and the gold fields. I used the names I was familiar with as there was no one to gainsay me.

The entire aircraft had a thorough review. I’d had enough of crash landings in the jungle of elsewhere. The same would be done with the tourist aircraft. They were one day behind us as per plan. They were now down to one aircraft. The group had started with three, but as the group dwindled the planes were employed elsewhere. We didn’t have enough aircraft yet.

The factory was working at capacity. The capacity had been deliberately limited. We didn’t want a boom or bust cycle to start in the aircraft manufacturing sector. One bust would cause workers to be laid off. Several would reduce our overall capability and create safety hazards.

That and having a well-trained core group would enable us to expand quickly if needed. Think war in India and China. Little did I know at the time, but events would force us to expand much sooner than I desired.

The flight from Panama to San Franciso was long and tiring. Four hours in the air was like twenty hours on the ground. I had never gotten used to relaxing while flying. I wasn’t afraid of flying; what I feared was that if I didn’t pay attention something would go wrong.

I couldn’t sleep or work on the flights. I did read reports but didn’t order or propose any actions as I knew from experience that once on the ground, I would throw out everything I had done.

Usually, I would stare out the window and think random thoughts. Many times, I wish I had taken notes as I was certain that I solved most of the problems in the universe. I did this at least 42 times, coming up with a different answer each time. Not very productive but it did keep my mind occupied.

Our backup airstrip was in Fresno, but we didn’t use it. I would check it out later.

After we landed in San Franciso it was a half an hour trip to the first gold site. In my time it was Sutter’s Mill, near Coloma. The name Sutter’s Mill didn’t stick. My people called it Gold City, and that was it.

Proper roads were under construction. At worst they were graded paths. About half the distance was poured concrete with pull offs and markers. The markers were what we called Bot’s dots. The reflector type was proving difficult to manufacture. We couldn’t get the right reflection angle in the plastic lens.

Our R&D people finally gave up and asked me what they should do. I suggested that they start out with a single cavity instead of the eight cavity molds they were using. Our standard mold beds would take eight of the cavities so that is what they tried.

With a single cavity they were to start off with a ninety-degree angle. We knew it would be too much of an angle, but not how much. When the first angle didn’t work, they were to shave off one degree of angle. They were to make ten of each of the prototypes. These would be tested in a dark room.

They were to continue shaving off a degree of metal until they hit the proper angle. To make certain that it was the best angle, they were to continue five degrees past that. Thirty degrees proved optimal for our needs. With the poorly lit roads they helped our vehicles stay in the correct lane at night.

When we arrived at Gold City, it didn’t look like the early gold mining camps. Some battles aren’t worth fighting. Using books and drawings I had seen, they made modern trammels and wash beds.

We would get about a million ounces of gold from our efforts. The 49ers only got about one hundred thousand ounces by panning and the use of rocker boxes. Instead of four thousand miners active the first year, we were doing it with one hundred people. Most of those were in support. Miners needed to eat! We wouldn’t be sending laundry to Hawaii to be washed; instead, a waterpower generator provided electricity for all the convenience machines. Our miners were spoiled. They didn’t have to use a toasting fork over an open fire for their toast in the morning.

Barracks with individual rooms were set up for the single personnel and small houses for the married ones who brought their families along. We set up a healthy profit-sharing plan to lessen the thoughts of theft. Still, cleanouts were done in the gold room with multiple people keeping an eye on things.

There were thefts, certainly, but it was kept down to a dull roar. If caught the transgressor become a digger at the Panama Canal. There weren’t as many comforts at the Canal Zone, at least for prisoners.

We even set aside a stretch of water where the miners, their wives and children could pan for gold and keep what they found. The area was fenced off and people were checked to make certain they weren’t bringing gold into the area. It was one way they could be stealing form the main operation. Bring gold into the set-side area and then claim they panned it that day when they left. Each person had their own logbook and what they found each day was weighed and a description given of the gold. If a person kept showing up with gold nuggets in an area where no one else was finding them, it was grounds for suspicion.

One guy even used his kids to try to scam the system. I felt bad about him being sent to Panama until I found out his wife was the one who turned him in. She kept her job as a cook and panned for gold honestly every day. The kids were watched for a while to make certain they weren’t being used by Dad and not thieves themselves. At eleven and thirteen they could have been felons in the making.

In the meantime, surveyors were working their way up the Little American River drilling sample holes as they went. We knew there was gold there, but not where the largest concentrations were. Paths for a road along the river were being surveyed and the trees and brushes were taken down.

As a general policy we cut firebreaks around every building site and planned on doing controlled burns.

There were small tribes of indigenous people who were barely surviving in what was basically a desert. Until major waterways were diverted most of southern California was unlivable. The natives were glad to take jobs with us. They were paid our normal wages and were able to raise their standard of living tremendously.

Though she had never visited here, Countess Agnes was revered as the strongest medicine woman of all time. Her MASH tents became treaty zones for tribes that had been at war for many years. As the natives’ standard of living rose warfare declined. Before they had little to live for; now they were wealthy by their standards.

When our tourists caught up with us at the last stop, we had a party, not a ball, a party. Food for the gold camps was flown in weekly using the route across the continent. Eleanor, Cathy, Doug, Brenda, and Sally joined us bringing a load of goodies with them. We hadn’t eaten that well in months.

At dinner that night Cathy whispered to Eleanor and me that she had an announcement for us. She held out her left hand to reveal a diamond which rivaled the Hope diamond. It wasn’t that large but appeared like that when I first saw it.

Chapter 5

 

To say I was confused would be an understatement. Cathy was married and pregnant. Why should she be displaying an engagement ring now?

“Ladies, help me understand. I was told you and Lord Dunstan were married in a private ceremony. Isn’t it a little late for an engagement?”

Eleanor gave me a smile that was full of understanding. Understanding that I was the village idiot.

“Dear, this engagement is for public consumption. This is a way to break the news that they are getting married.”

“I thought the private wedding was to settle any thoughts that the child was illegitimate. It will be hard to have a big public wedding and all that entails before the child is born.”

“The private wedding was and still is serving its function. We will let one of the scandal sheets discover the secret wedding. Once the dates are established all questions about legitimacy will be settled.”

“How will we explain the need for a secret wedding?”

“That is easy dear; it’s all your fault. The kids were afraid of what you would say about her being pregnant before they wed.”

Why me, Lord?

“Then I have seemed to have changed my mind.”

“Yes, dear, it took a lot of doing but I managed to lighten you up.”

That is another thing I’m guilty of, bringing my slang terms with me.

“Why will the people care? This is normal for them. Most women are pregnant now before they get married.”

“True, but you are such a stick in the mud for propriety.”

“Am not!”

“Are so!”

That did it. Since we were alone, I had to tickle Eleanor. This led to what it always did when we were alone. I love that woman.

I hadn’t met this Lord Dunstan yet. He was to arrive tomorrow to formally ask for my daughter’s hand in marriage. Thinking about it gave me a headache. Why ask when the deed was done? Better to ask forgiveness.

Cathy was mature enough now that I didn’t think of her as a little girl anymore, but still I could have been brought into the loop a lot sooner. I probably wouldn’t have done anything more drastic than exile him to Antarctica, which we hadn’t even officially discovered yet.

It was probably too late to do that now. My grandchild would need a father present in his life. I had seen the results of single parent families. They weren’t optimal.

Lord Dunstan was escorted into my office. I had thought about cleaning my weapons, but on second thought that ship had sailed.

My chamberlain knocked on the door and opened it when I said, “Enter.”

I don’t know what I expected but first looks were favorable.

Dustan was a little over six feet tall, which was very tall for this day and age. This told me that he came from a wealthy family which could provide a proper diet and health care.

I had chosen not to be informed of his background until after I first met him. I wanted to be influenced by the man, not a paper report.

He was fair complected but with a slight tan which told me he spent a lot of time outdoors. His hair was black. So strong of a black that as the light played on his hair as he moved across the room, it had a dark blue sheen to it.

He was thin with a body referred to as whipcord. As he got closer, I realized that his tan was from windburn, like he had spent time at sea or in high places where the wind blew freely. It was not a day- at-the-beach tan.

Standing ramrod straight, he stopped about three feet from me and gave me a slight bow as my due as his duke.

I held out my hand to shake. He grasped my hand with a strong grip, not trying to dominate. It was hardened from work.

Just from his appearance and the way he held himself, I was felt an instant like for the man.

He spoke up in a mild baritone voice, “Your Grace, I have come to ask for your forgiveness in my handling of this matter. Also, may I have your daughter’s hand in a public marriage?”

As soon as I heard him ask for forgiveness, I was on his side. It appeared that we looked at the world the same way.

I started to speak then stopped myself.

“You are forgiven. I was about to ask how you could provide for my daughter and her child, but I can see that won’t be a problem. I must confess that I know nothing of your antecedents. Would you please enlighten me?”

“I’m the heir to the count of the Western Marches. Count Dunstan has held and expanded his lands for many years, until you took him into your service.”

This said a lot right there. A count of the marches was entitled to all the land he could take and hold along his borders. Well, the borders across from his country’s territories. The count of the Western Marches was renowned for the amount of land he took and held, plus the fortune he accumulated by his stewardship of that land once he held it.

“I haven’t met your father. Once he joined with us there were so many things on my plate that I ignored him. After all, why would I want to interfere with such success?”

“He has stated several times that he appreciated your letting him get on with things and not trying to second guess him.”

“He and I are in accord. I must ask, how did you and Cathy meet?”

“It was at a ball in London. My father insisted that I spend the winter season there to learn about society and possibly find a wife.”

“I don’t know about society, but you certainly found a wife.”

“I’m the luckiest man alive. I was with friends, and they bet I was afraid to ask Princess Catherine for a dance. Never one to back to down from a challenge, I asked, and she said yes. I could have fallen over right there as I was prepared for rejection.”

“Later I asked her why she accepted my request that night, and she told me she was tired of towering over all of her dance partners.”

That was when I realized that his eyes were even with mine. He and Cathy would make a striking couple.

“After the dance we sat and talked awhile, then circulated the room speaking with friends and acquaintances. I noticed that she liked the same people that I did and shied away from those that she found distasteful. I felt the same as she, so we started talking about our outlooks on life.

“I called on her the next day and found myself to be welcome. From there events progressed to today’s circumstances.”

“How much of a role have you played along the way?”

“Besotted lover, that is until we had an argument about how to treat the poor. She is a kind person but thinks that everyone should be able to take care of themselves. I don’t believe that is true. Some people need our help, and we owe it to them. The difficulty of course is knowing who needs the help and those looking for a free ride.”

“How was the argument settled?”

“I took her into the worst slums of London and let her figure it out herself.”

“So, you managed my daughter to educate herself.”

He looked a little nervous as he replied, “Yes, your Grace.”

“That is wonderful. Cathy has always been headstrong, and she needs a partner to rein her in on occasion. Note I said on occasion. I wouldn’t like to see you try to totally control her.”

“I would never even try to do that; she would have an extremely bad reaction if I tried. It would destroy our relationship and probably me along with it.”

“I’m glad to hear that you understand her. She is my heir and will end up running most if not all of the world. She will need a strong partner at her side, but not one who would try to take her birthright from her.”

“Again, not my desire.”

“As a change of subject, I gather you have been working your father’s lands learning how to run a large estate.”

“Yes, sir, I have been acting alongside the stewards of our many properties learning the job.”

“You will find that my job is similar, just writ on a larger scale. If you read my daily notes, as you will someday, you will find that my days are scattered, jumping from one situation to another. Somedays I feel like a chicken with my head cut off.”

“That is not how the world sees you. You present the appearance of a man in control of everything that you are involved in. Because of that you are seen as a serious person with little humor as you handle the problems of your empire.”

“We don’t call it an empire at this point in time, however it is the end game. I’m using the boiling a frog theory to get everyone used to my dominance.”

“Everyone I know sees what is going on and approves of how you are handling it. The territorial expansion is not disrupting their lives and that is what they care about. That and all the wonderous inventions you have introduced to make their lives better garners you all their support.”

“Good to know. Now do you have any questions of me?”

“Why have you pushed to the California gold fields while the South American field is closer with easier access? I read your book on the geology of the world, and it was very descriptive.”

“Good question. While physical access from a geographical point of view is better, there are other considerations.”

“Such as?”

“The native population, in South American there are large, organized tribes which we would have to fight. As seen by the Incas, they have no interest in peaceful trading. We would have to fight our way to the fields, then fight to maintain them.”

I continued, “California has weak tribes which we can absorb without fighting. While closer, the South American field would cost a lot more in manpower and treasure to access.

“Plus, the Amazon jungle and its environs have many more diseases than California. What looks good on paper it not good in reality.”

“Thank you for that explanation; it is now clear that California is the better choice.”

“You have been easier to convince than my staff. We argued for days until I laid the law down. That is one of the few times I have had to overrule and totally disregard their advice.”

We chatted for another hour. The more we talked the more I liked this young man. While he agreed with me on most items, which made him a smart person, at least in my estimation, he wasn’t afraid to say we must agree to disagree. No “yes man” here!

We finally wound up our conversation and went to join the women. Cathy and Eleanor were waiting just outside the room. Cathy looked a wreck. That is when I realized that she had been afraid that I wouldn’t approve of the young man.

Since we came out laughing and smiling, it was apparent I approved. From the look I got from Eleanor I was in hot water for making them wait for so long. I wondered if I should do Dunstan a favor and warn him off. No, too late for that.

Once we were past that first tense moment, all was well. We went to a late dinner, just the four of us. I asked how far along they were in the wedding planning and how much money did they think they would require to do it right.

I think I saved my night in the doghouse by recognizing they were the planners and I was the wallet.

Chapter 6

 

Things seemed to be moving smoothly. That in itself should have been a warning sign. Nothing ever went that well.

When the shoe dropped it was a big one.

One of our trading vessels to India radioed about a trade they were offered. They wondered if we would be interested in rifles. Our trading captain was smart enough to say he would look at them.

He was shown a smooth bore flintlock musket along with the required powder and ball. The construction of the rifle was equal to our earliest efforts in rifle making. The captain, on my instructions and promise of paying him, bought all that they had. It was a stand of fifty muskets. With the promise of making him well on all lost profits, he steamed to Cape Town where the muskets were offloaded and flown to Owen-nap.

There they were examined thoroughly by the engineers at our rifle factory. They even tested them from a sample of five of them. Their conclusion was that they were of Chinese manufacture and their manufacturing process was in its infancy.

The muskets had many interchangeable parts but not all. Small intricate parts had signs of hand making and weren’t interchangeable. The quality of the gun powder provided was mediocre at best.

Right now in a stand up battle, our rifles would have longer range and better accuracy than the Chinese muskets. This advantage wouldn’t last long. If they got their hands on one of our rifles and the cartridges which they had to have, then it wouldn’t take them long to duplicate it.

I estimated that it would take them a year to match our rifles. After that it was Katie bar the door on any invasion plans I had.

My plans for Germany had to move up and quickly. The Germans had money so they could buy the new weapons. The current ones would still leave us at an advantage but that would soon end.

Poland, Russia, and the countries in between didn’t have the funding to field a large army. The ones to watch out for were India and China. The sooner I could bring Europe under my control, the better.

Other news poured in. A series of tunnels had been found under the Inca capital of Cuzco. At the end of the tunnels was a huge cenote which had a water depth of over one hundred feet. The cenote had a manmade platform just off the edge of the deepest portion of the sinkhole.

The platform had an altar where human sacrifice had been performed. A hole at the top of the cavern where the cenote was found let in sunlight directly at noon. The water was so clear that you could see the bottom.

Items at the bottom of the cenote reflected a gold light. Gold objects had been thrown into the water for almost a thousand years. The water was too deep for unaided divers to make it to the bottom to retrieve anything.

This information was relayed to me at Owen-nap. After a discussion with my staff on whether it was morally okay to take the treasure, we decided to proceed. Any skeletons would be left at rest where they were found.

Only loose objects would be picked up; anything such as necklaces and bracelets on bodies would stay in place. I knew there was not a chance that this would be followed one hundred percent but at least it wouldn’t be on my conscience.

Diving teams were sent to Cuzco along with support staff. The staff included auditors who would take charge of anything brought up. The items would be photographed by historians on site and locked away.

The project started with divers bringing items up in baskets. It didn’t take long for large baskets with long lines to haul them up were put in place. Gold was being pulled up by the ton. The Incan gods may be displeased with me, but it was their bad luck.

A team was separating the small statues into those that were recognizable as such and those that were damaged beyond use. There were also gold ingots in every size and shape imaginable. There were also many rings, necklaces, and bracelets found.

The statues and wearable items would be auctioned off, the rest melted down and minted into our coin.

There were people who objected to these actions and wrote nasty letters to the editor about not respecting the religious beliefs of others. When asked about this by a reporter I had a thought-out reply.

“The Incas practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism. I have no desire to respect their practices and beliefs. Shame on those that do. If they feel so strongly about it, I will provide transportation for them to South America where we are still trying to stamp out those practices. I’m certain the Incas would like the addition to their diet.”

To say this raised a ruckus, as my uptime father used to say, was to be putting it mildly. The Inca lovers as they were being called, called me every name in the book. These people were in the minority, and I ignored them. The vast majority of my citizens didn’t take the Inca lovers well.

They showed their displeasure by carrying saltshakers to sprinkle on the Inca lovers to prepare them for their trip. It got so bad I had to go on the radio to ask my people to stop the practice. I did receive a message from Timbuktu saying they were disappointed as their salt sales were way up.

I finally gave up and said a pox on all their houses and ignored all sides after that.

One entrepreneur announced he was opening a shop selling human meat. Before I could have him arrested, his shop was burned down with him in it. People can be crazy at times. At least he didn’t have a wife or children.

In the meantime, almost a thousand tons of gold had been hauled out of the cenote. That took care of our coinage problem for some time to come. We had to hold a lot of it in our treasury to keep the purchasing power of gold on an even keel. Uptime economists would have been having fits over what was going on.

My reaction was to have surveying teams look for more cenotes.

Robert Dunstan and I were getting along famously. While the ladies were involved in wedding preparations, I was giving Lord Dunstan an overview of the projects that I had ongoing.

The one that caught his attention was rocketry. The thought of going to the moon left him agog. He wanted to be part of it. I had to inform him that he was probably too large to fit in the space capsule we would use.

That didn’t satisfy him, and I had several engineers take him through the math of what it would take to send him along. Not that I planned to let my son-in-law go on the mission under any circumstances. Since I knew the math would burst his bubble, I didn’t let him know that he wouldn’t be going no matter what.

When the engineers let him know that the rocket would have to be four times as large to accommodate him, he handled it well. Better than I did when I found out I was too large to go.

He asked me if he could be involved in the project at some level. I was pleased to say yes. He would be the official spokesman when we went completely public on our mission to the moon.

My only requirement for him was that he had to undergo the same training as the astronauts. That was like giving a large bag of candy to a five-year-old.

When Cathy and Eleanor were informed of his participation, they smiled and murmured about boys and their toys.

We had just launched our seventh rocket, and it made it to orbit. It had a payload of a small radio satellite. It was more powerful than Sputnik and had a larger battery pack so it would broadcast for several months.

Robert really dug into the mechanics of space flight, studying everything I had dictated on the subject. When he read about the Enterprise shuttle and learned the history of its name, he used his authority to start a radio program called “Star Trek.”

He explained that he wanted to create a thirst for space exploration. I was skeptical at first, but after the first episodes, I was completely sold on the show.

Since we had successfully put a radio transmitter in orbit, we decided to go public on the entire space program. I wished that our television project was more advanced. We had a working TV. The only problem was that it had to be within two hundred feet of the transmitter.

The problem wasn’t the signal power. The receiver inside the TV couldn’t handle the power required. A larger receiver would add another eighty pounds to the one hundred-seventy-pound set.

A large portion of the existing weight was the cathode ray tube. The project engineers were working around the clock to make a set that could be used at home.

I suggested to them that they create the monster set that weighed a ton and sell it to bars and taverns. They objected that there wouldn’t be enough programming to justify the set.

I reminded them that many of these pubs and taverns were known as sports bars. How did they think the bars’ profits would grow when they were able to show games live?

My hide-bound staff on the development of the television still was hesitant. So, I approached my friend Tom Smith, and he agreed to go into partnership with me. He owned a small chain of ten pubs. He would host the TVs if I would provide them. We would split any increase in profits fifty-fifty.

The development team would provide the broadcast crew. They didn’t like it, but I told them it was that way or the highway for them. We named our network Cornwall Sports Network, or CSN. I tried hard but couldn’t make ESPN work.

We invited several reporters to see our inaugural broadcast. The first week that games were broadcast live the attendance at the pubs didn’t rise. The only viewers were the regulars that were there to listen to the radio broadcast of the game.

It was a football game between Owen-nap and Tintagel, bitter rivals. The game was an exciting one. Those watching stood up for most of the game.

During the fifteen-minute halftime there was commentary on the play. Players who had done well from both teams were interviewed on the field by a lovely young lady. Previously an unknown data keeper for the radio station, she was a household name before the week was out.

The next week, game day at the pubs was standing room only. Tom and I had placed advertisements for his pubs before and after the game. In an interview after the game Tom revealed that we had increased the profits of the pub chain by over five hundred percent.

He went on to report that he didn’t see this occurring forever as other pubs would install sets, and our monopoly share would decrease.

The next week found four hundred orders for the monster sets. These were only available on our island at the time. There were many inquiries from the continent as to when broadcasting would be available there.

It didn’t take long for the hidebound staff to get unhidebound. Is that even a word? Anyway, TV production was being ramped up.

The development staff had been approached by an independent inventor who told them he had a method of making a cathode ray tube much thinner and lighter. They had turned him away without even looking at his tubes.

He sent me a letter which worked its way through my mail sorting team. All incoming mail was reviewed for its content and forwarded to the appropriate department. Normally this letter would have been sent to the development team but the person who did the reviewing realized that I needed to see it.

Chapter 7

 

After talking to Stan Powell, I fired the entire television development group. Stan, who had developed the lightweight CRT, had thorough documentation of what went on when he tried to present it to the developers.

I got sidetracked in my thinking, Stan Powell wasn’t an eighth century Cornish name, it was from my day and age. A simple investigation brought to light fifty percent of the names given to children twenty years after I arrived were modern names. They were all derived from the fiction books I had dictated.

I was now 58 years old. That meant that few people who were alive when I arrived were now alive. Not only the physical lives of people had been affected by my presence, but the entire culture changed.

I had destroyed a way of life. In many ways it was for the better but also sad. I had been so busy that I hadn’t noticed what was happening.

Setting this thought aside and turning over television development to a new team headed by Sir Stanley Powell, I concentrated on the bigger problem. The recent introduction of firearms by the Chinese. They had been stealing our ideas for a long time. Until now I didn’t realize for how long.

There were many questions to be answered. The first, was it a private venture or was it sponsored by Emperor Wuzong of Tang. The answer to that question would tell me how much force needed to be applied. There was no question that I was going to interrupt the production of firearms.

We had few boots on the ground in China and it would take months using the land routes. A ship was dispatched with a group of my spies who were capable of operating in China. On the way there they would stop in India and see if they could find out exactly where the firearms were produced.

My plan was simple: destroy the production facility and kill the production managers and, if possible, kidnap the brain behind the operation. If they couldn’t kidnap him, kill him.

Totally ruthless, I know, but how many of our lives would be saved by destroying their arms industry. I doubted that it would gain us more than another year of our enemies having firearms, but the longer the better.

I held a family meeting where I spelled out to everyone what my plan was. I was interested to see how Lord Dunstan reacted.

It turned out that Robert wasn’t squeamish at all. As a matter of fact, he suggested that we find out if China had a patent system and, if so, destroy their offices after ascertaining where records were kept.

He also thought that we should interview where possible as many of the workers as possible to see if any of the managers could be bribed. Once we had an inside source, find out if there were any records kept elsewhere.

We adopted all these suggestions. I knew I liked this young man. He had been brought up correctly, at least for this day and age. I needed to meet his father.

It looked like China would come into play sooner than I had thought. Based on that I had my staff plan for increased spy operations, especially in Kaifeng.

This was the current capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. Known as the City of Calligraphy, it would remain the capital for the next two hundred years or so unless something major happened to change that. I was thinking about making a major change.

I was long past worrying about how my actions would affect the future. That ship had sailed with penicillin and smallpox vaccinations.

My general army staff presented me with a plan of action for taking out the arms industry. It included all the actions that the family had talked about. There was also one interesting addition from General Sun, General of the Armies.

I asked that General Sun explain his plan to me. The general appeared at the appointed time dressed in full uniform. I felt shabby as I had been playing catch with Sally and was a hot mess.

The tall general never blinked at my appearance. I guess being commander-in-chief had some privileges.

The general was a tall man for this day and age and could look me straight in the eye. His name of Sun wasn’t typical for Cornwall or anywhere in Europe. He had escaped from a trading junk from China where he was worked as a slave.

He joined our army forty years ago and worked his way to the top. This was a man to be admired, and cautious of. His hair still had a lot of black in it and his dark brown eyes missed nothing. He had his sword at his side, but it was peace bound. By the time he could draw it I would have shot him with the pistol attached to the bottom of my desk.

There was nothing to give alarm as to his intentions, but I had learned to be careful a long time and many assassination attempts ago. I hoped to get to know him better and be able to place him on my trusted list.

He didn’t salute me as we were indoors but did take my hand when I offered to shake his.

“General Sun, I understand that you have a significant addition to our plans for China. I have read the report but would like to hear in your own words what it entails.”

“Certainly, Your Grace. The main thought is to establish an air route to China. Simple flying time for the fifty-two hundred miles at four hundred miles per hour would take a little over thirteen hours.

“That would be if we could fly straight there, but as you know there are a few mountains in the way that we can’t fly over yet.”

At the he opened a map tube that he had carried with him. Security had checked it before he entered the room. He rolled out a map of Europe and Asia. Laying it on a nearby conference table, he pointed at the best route.

“As you can see from the markings, it follows the major route on the Silk Road. This raises another concern but more on that in a minute.”

He continued, “If we could fly straight, it would require five refueling stops. Following this route, it takes seven. Each stop would be at least two hours. That would increase the take-off to landing time to twenty-seven hours. No flight crew could handle that safely.

“We are proposing that replacement aircrews and aircraft be stationed at each of the five refueling bases.”

I wondered about the security of these bases if they were next to the Silk Road route but listened to see if this had been considered.

He went on, “Of course we have to consider the security of the stops as they are near the Silk Road. It would be best if we could hide them completely. We don’t want anyone to know our capability to reach China quickly.”

Pleased that my thoughts had been considered, I asked, “How would these be kept hidden?”

“First of all, even though we are generally following the Silk Road, we will build these bases over one hundred miles from the main track. Most of the country along the way is sparely populated, though eventually reports would get out.

Each stop would be mostly underground. The planes would be lowered and raised on elevators. The aircraft used would be capable of landing on unimproved ground. When not in use dummy boulders or trees would be used to disguise the airstrip.”

He continued, “Where possible, operations would be run at night. The runways would be lit up for as short of time as possible. Each base would have a radio beacon for the aircraft to home in on.”

“I can see that once everything is in place, that it will work well. My question is how will you get the bases up and running?”

“We will survey the area by taking many photographs. Once an area is identified as being a possible site, we will drop airborne troops in to rough out the first runway.