Cast in Time 05 - Earl of the Marches, page 1
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Book 5: Earl of the Marches
Cast in Time
Book 5: Earl of the Marches
By Ed Nelson
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my wife, Carol, for her support and help as my first reader and editor.
With special thanks to Ole Rotorhead for his technical insights on how things really work.
Then there are my beta readers: Ole Rotorhead, Lonelydad, Antti Huotari, Brent, Craig, and Don.
And never forget the professional editor: Morgan Waddle.
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
The Richard Jackson Saga
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
Stand Alone Stories
Ever and Always
Mary, Mary
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.
Copyright © 2024
E. E. Nelson
All rights reserved
Eastern Shore Publishing
2331 West Del Webb Blvd.
Sun City Center, FL 33673
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 work of fiction. 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 978-1-953395-88-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 20239124
Table of Contents
Contents
Cast in Time
Dedication
Quotation
Copyright © 2023
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Backmatter
Chapter 1
Now that we had conquered the Franks and started to absorb them into our culture, there was an immediate problem that resulted from our victory.
We now had a border with the Gauls. They were related to the Celtics and could communicate with many of our people.
This territory was the area that would become known as Germany. The Gauls were an expansionist group due to pressure from the Slav tribes. Broken into small tribes, they could be handled easily. Once one of the tribes became dominant, they would be a handful.
Our ability to communicate with them was another opportunity for us to change their culture.
Unfortunately for me, there was a dominant tribe at our northern border. This area would become Alsace-Lorraine in the future. Alsace-Lorraine would be the site of many future battles between modern France and Germany. The area is rich in coal and iron ores, which was a constant bone of contention.
I wasn't ready for a battle with the Gauls then, so I had to stabilize our mutual border to avoid war.
By stabilizing the border, I meant making it so strong they wouldn't dream of crossing it. Sure, they could dream of crossing our border but not do it.
Our common border was too long to build a wall along its length. At least all at once.
We had done this enough that my people had it down to a science. First, we kept a large army stationed along the border to prevent incursions while we built our defenses. This tactic was countered by the Gauls stationing troops on their side of the border.
The only difference was that we understood logistics and the need to provide food to our army. The Gauls were still at the point where they lived off the land.
Living off the land worked for an army on the march, not for a stationary army. They soon had killed off all the deer and wild pigs in their area. They had to go further and further to keep their men fed. Any farmer in their area had long fled, leaving little in their wake.
On the other hand, we cut roads immediately so supplies could be brought to the new front. In some cases, we were able to rehabilitate old Roman roads. Our frontlines had been laid out. Along the frontier, we had a series of forts built. At first, they were nothing but rough camps built like the old Roman marching camps.
As soon as one of these camps was ready for occupancy, we usually started on a more permanent version in a few days. They could withstand anything less than cannon fire with double-wide concrete walls and watch towers.
Inside the walls, we built standard barracks and support buildings. We also added oversized warehouses. The idea was to have more than enough food to feed our people and provide the Gauls with food if needed.
I wanted to be a good neighbor while being prepared to fend off attacks.
The surveyors started laying out the roads and railroad paths to connect Paris to the northern border. There would be three main roads and mainlines out of Paris. There would be several roads crisscrossing so traffic could be diverted from one location to another as needed.
While the physical stuff was underway, we also opened a dialog with the chieftains along the way. We wanted the local Franks to benefit from what we were doing and to influence the Gauls on our border.
We ensured that our Franks were well fed and had MASH units visit them to address health problems. Baroness Agnes had started with a single mobile hospital. She now had one hundred of them fully staffed and working our country and our allies.
They moved freely about the country. We always sent a guard contingent along, but it was woe to anyone who attacked a MASH unit. They were hailed as miracle workers everywhere they went, and to attack them was madness. The locals would hunt them down and kill them to a man. It only took a couple of times, and the units were sacrosanct.
All along our border with the Gaul, we sent teams to upgrade their food and grain storage and improve their roads and MASH units to help with their health care.
We also provided radio sets to every village. They could receive and transmit. They were told we would respond if they were attacked to call us. These were for communication. We also provided battery-powered receiving units so they could listen to our music programs.
The batteries could be exchanged for new or recharged ones at the many trading posts we established along the border. We kept them fully stocked with a full range of goods as usual; mirrors were the most sought-after items. The next item sought after was small telescopes.
We even set up photography studios at each marketplace. For a very small fee we would take pictures of anyone requesting.
Since we had a tavern at each trading post, we had the normal amount of drunken rowdiness. Drunks were thrown in the drunk tank for the night and released the next morning. We took their fingerprints and pictures to start a database of troublemakers.
Most were innocent farm boys out on the town for the first time. Others were thieves and troublemakers. We also had a guest registry at each marketplace. Our 'guests' were entered into the census database we were starting on the Gauls.
In Vietnam, we called it hearts and minds. The only difference was that we had a chance of it working here. The Gauls were segmented into so many tribes that they were always in a low-conflict situation with each other. As such, there was no organized insurgency.
We met with the local chiefs in each area and agreed with them. We would defend them from open incursions if they didn
That plan worked about half the time. There was always something stirring between the tribes along the border. That was fine with me as long as they left us alone.
Only once did we have to send in troops to retrieve our citizens, which had been seized in a raid. They would have been sold as slaves further into Gaul. The village warriors thought they could resist and paid the price. Once our people were safe, they leveled the village. No woman and children were harmed directly, but they were left without food and shelter.
Pax Cornwall was a harsh pax.
We had twenty thousand troops to secure the border with fifteen hundred cannons in support. Two thousand of the troops were mounted cavalry.
As the roads were built, the track beds for our trains were laid. These were the first tracks with four feet eight and a half inches between them. This width was the United States standard gauge. We had developed steam locomotives that were Atlantic class 4-4-2 engines. With that, we could haul full-size railcars.
We instituted the first in France since there were no tracks in place. A replacement program was underway in all Cornish territories, but it would take years to implement.
In a bit of nostalgia, I had the box cars labeled forty and eight. They could haul more, but it seemed fitting for me to use that marking in France.
While all this was happening, I realized it was time to start on another level of invention. Maybe we were ready for the vacuum tube to improve our lighting and radio system. Developing a working light bulb would take a lot of trial and error. Though I knew what Edison and his technicians had gone through, it would still be a chore.
With all that going on, you would think I wouldn't have time for my family. It was just the opposite. I finally had a bureaucracy set up that could handle the day-to-day affairs of Cornwall. The military was operating under the command of their officers, and the officers were supported by a staff similar to the Pentagon.
The only difference was that our "Pentagon" staff officers had to buy in for any changes the field officer corps wanted. The Pentagon, in turn, couldn't force changes on the field officers, only suggestions. This policy left the ones at the sharp end in control of their fate.
We now had an Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force. The Air Force primarily comprises observation balloons, but work was ongoing to manufacture large dirigibles for long-distance flights and heavy lifting. Heavier than air flight was a long way away. The biggest drawback was finding a source of helium to replace the dangerous hydrogen. The only one I knew of was in what was to become Texas.
Hydrogen could be used, but it was extremely dangerous if not handled correctly. We would have to develop a lightweight internal combustion engine before developing lighter than air transport. There would be a long wait.
The army had developed a steam-driven tank corps. I didn't have much hope for them except on a set-piece battlefield. They were rattling, clanking monsters that broke down every five miles. I only let them be put into service to allow a battlefield doctrine to be developed. We would need it when we developed the diesel engine.
Tom and I had many arguments over the usefulness of these monsters. He envisioned them leading our troops to victory across Europe. I envisioned them broken down or mired in mud.
He pushed his people into building more reliable machines. This practice did help with our overall manufacturing program, as tighter tolerances helped us all the way around.
We also had a 'state department,' which was charged with diplomatic relations with the other countries in our orbit. Their staff was chosen from the ranks of officers who had served in those countries. I wouldn't have a group of new students decide my foreign policy.
That has always caused problems in the US government. As a former military officer, I knew I was biased, but I had to clean up too many of their failed policies.
I also kept a tight rein on any CIA off the book's wars under my watch. Those were other messes I had to help clean up.
It was a grand and glorious day when I opened our new postal service's first post office. We now had enough educated people to make smooth white paper so that people could send letters to each other.
My picture was on the one penny stamp, the most common usage. Elanor is on the highest-value stamp. Hers was a one silver stamp which could mail a twenty-pound parcel. We hadn't set a weight limit on what could be shipped, but I clarified that no drunks could be mailed home.
Chapter 2
In addition to carrying out my self-appointed duties, I went through another exercise that I seemed to do every year.
I asked myself, "Why am I here, and how did I get here?"
By here, I mean in the body of a young Baron in eighth-century Cornwall. I know I died in my sleep and woke up here, but some mechanism had to make the transfer.
Was it God? I'm not even certain I ever believed in God, so why me? Was it a random chance thing in this universe? I had read a little about what Einstein called spooky action at a distance or quantum mechanics. If so, what triggered it?
Being here with my knowledge appeared to be more than a random chance. If it wasn't random chance, then there was a reason I was here. Why wasn't I made aware of the reason?
I had to be in an alternate reality or what would be an alternate reality to my beginning point in the future. That had to be true, whether triggered by God or random chance. I was reluctant to think it was a random chance because of my background and the knowledge I carried in my head.
Even that might not be true. Maybe many thousands or millions of other people died and were awakened to this reality. Most would have failed to survive their first day on this path.
It was a brute force method, but the keyword was a method. That ruled out random chance, or at least I thought it did.
I prayed to the God I didn't believe in and wasn't surprised when I didn't get an answer. Maybe he or she didn't believe in me.
I couldn't think of any experiments I could run to prove either point. Even if I could prove it was God or chance, what good would it do? I was here and had to make the best of it as I could. I was the one defining the best of it.
If it were random chance, it would explain why I didn't have an overriding direction. If it was God, why could I do what I wanted? I know about free will and all that, but this was taking it to an extreme.
As with every other year, I couldn't arrive at any answers or even a theory that would hold water. I could only live on my terms and let it play out.
If it was random chance, I was left with all I could do was live my life. If it were God, all I could do was live my life.
I reach this conclusion every year. Maybe I could let it go next year and just live my life.
After my annual bout of introspection, I got back to work.
I wanted a mindless enterprise to clear my head, so I called my team of scribes together and started dictating every book I had ever read about light bulbs and vacuum tubes. There weren't very many.
Once the books had been transcribed and the paper copies turned over to the print shop, I went to our new engineering school and spoke to the dean.
I needed to assemble a team for the tube and bulb project. I asked the dean for recommendations for team members. I told him they had to be familiar with electricity and glass making.
The dean came up with a list of five students. She had three people who concentrated on electricity and two glass experts.
The glass people came from families specializing in making glass and majored in the subject. The electricians were the highest ranked in their class on the subject.
I quizzed her about the different team members that she had submitted. They may be experts in their field but must learn to work together as a team.
After discussing the various team members, we decided that one of the electricians had too much ego to integrate into the team. The next person on her list was knowledgeable and considered easy-going, so we went with them.
