Lothar the Lost vol. 3: Lothar, #3

By Richard R Lockwood

In Volume 1 time travelers arrive in 1920 to prevent World War 2. They form their own military force and recruit the best from the era. Lothar von Richthofen had a promising career as an officer in the new Terran Fleet, but a mistake caused the Fleet Admiral to suspect his intentions, resulting in exile to another timeline a thousand years in the past.

In Volume 2 Lothar continues his adventures in the 10th Century. As he roams over the ancient world, he struggles to recreate what was taken from him. He finds some friends in the Venetian Republic, and after the initial shock recedes he begins to make a place for himself in the Old World. 

In Volume 3 Lothar has almost completely recovered from his exile into the 10th Century. Now his ambition rules him and he gains his own realm and subjects as he strives to make the world more to his liking.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard R Lockwood
• Release date: Aug 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201517311

Richard R Lockwood

Was born in Miami FL. Worked for the University of Florida until I retired. Been married to the lovely Cecelia for 40 years now, proof that I'm a lucky guy. Now living on the Nature Coast in Citrus County. Enjoy all kind of wildlife, especially reptiles and insects, so I'm pretty sure I'm in the right place. When I'm not writing I enjoy wood carving. Both of the heads beside me in the picture are cedar from the Chassahowitzka Forrest. I also love to walk my dog Bark Anthony. Probably need to go do that now. A Chronology of the Twins Alternate Universe novels and some thoughts and rationales - https://www.ricklockwood.net/Chronology.html My Books on Books 2 Read - https://books2read.com/ap/RaZ9Br/Richard-R-Lockwood  

Book preview

1

Dorotea was flying one of the new airboards around at Dyrrachium. She said when questioned, You said you’d pay a flier twice as much, Dominus.

Lothar shook his head. The whole charcoal business he’d set up at the estate here was now unnecessary unless they could find a new market. His new factories could easily supply better ammunition for his own weapons with far less trouble. He’d have to get Cosmo working on selling old-style ammunition to go along with his Venetian shotguns.

After eating lunch with Dorotea and his centurion Beningo, he inspected the factory field; he was not ready to call it a complex yet. His older-model factories were still tasked with producing rifles and ammunition. At the newest factories, his twenty factory seeds were ready. He spent an hour setting up a new field for them, spreading them out over a few acres of rocky land near the old one. He initiated the new factories, then set the last-generation ones to produce twenty of the new model flighters, then headed to Crete.

At Heraklion Harbor, his Greek builders were busy with the brickworks. It was another labor-intensive industry, but Lothar did not intend to replace human workers with his factories. He remembered Bob’s opinion on the subject and found no flaw in the argument to keep people busy. Rhangabes was pleased to show him a preliminary plan for the new fortress, and Lothar was just as pleased to make a few improvements in it.

After that, he visited Tibros Kanakis in his house overlooking the harbor. As he expected, the strategos had good lookouts and had been warned of the arrival of the Katepan. Lothar was received in a nice room and served a decent wine.

After pleasantries, he said, I’m withdrawing my Venetians. I want you to be my governor over the whole island.

Kanakis raised a polite eyebrow, his strategic senses alert. You have work for them elsewhere, Kyrie?

Sicily.

It would be interesting to know how many times that island has been fought over. If there is any way I might assist, please call on me, Kyrie.

I believe I just doubled your work, Governor.

Ah, so you did.

After that, he visited Carlo in Sitia. He judged Pietro to be the better fighter, Carlo the better general. The Comes of the East entertained Lothar at his new villa. Will we follow the same plan, Dominus?

Things have changed, Comes. Quae Mutata. Stars above, I should make that my house motto.

2

It was late afternoon when he returned to Dyrrachium. The new flighters were all lined up next to their factories, as he’d ordered, but there were other previous versions of the craft flying about. Lothar tried to recall how many, then decided it didn’t matter much. This was a Flighter Five. If it did what he expected, he planned to work on other things for a while.

He stepped out of the shuttle with Savio and approached one of the new machines. A visual inspection revealed no obvious flaws. He sat in the pilot seat and fingered the controls, getting them set in his mind before activating it, then rising into a good breeze over the Adriatic. A big flying coffee cup, he thought, or maybe a soup bowl and a saucer. Four men can fit in here. The flying was all right. It was not supposed to be any great speedster; it was just supposed to deliver riflemen to their target.

When he landed, he sent a repeat order to his new factories for another twenty flighters and to the next-to-last-generation factories for twenty more airboards, then spoke to his Centurion. In the morning, Beningo, I want you and nineteen volunteers to take a flighter to Sitia. Load them up with rifles and ammunition. You’ll take twenty down and come back in five, got it?

Aye, Dominus, we’ll take them to my friend Carlo.

When you return, a silver lira for each pilot. Then you’ll do it again, six trips, until Carlo has ninety flighters. I expect this operation to take maybe three days.

Could we take airboards with us and fly them back, Dominus? That way we could leave all twenty.

It’s a long way to stand on an airboard. You can lie down on them, of course, but if you fall asleep, it will break contact with the board, then maybe you’d fall off. No, it’s not that urgent. I expect Carlo to practice with them a week or two before I need him.

As you say, Dominus.

Yes, as I say. It’s damn nice to be the boss.

3

It was nearing sunset when he returned to Perama. He’d had a full day, he was in no mood to suffer from the women if they were at odds, but Mirella told him that Eun Ha had stayed in her suite most of the day except to walk about the garden a few times.

You both need to exercise, he observed. Should I get some horses?

She looked skeptical, she was not a great or enthusiastic rider. Will Manfred like that?

Lothar snorted. You’re already using him. What would you like to do? Just be the great lady and wave a hand to summon a minion?

That sounds nice. Could I swim at Ligaria?

And live here? You’d have to fly the shuttle back and forth. A flighter would take about three hours.

I’ll swim about in the baths then, if that’s all right, my lord.

The water around the coast here is dirty, as you’d expect near a great city. Let me see if there’s a nice beach house nearby. Plenty of nice water in the Aegean.

As you say, my lord.

Lothar rolled his eyes at her and his own pampering of her. Who had climbed higher in the few months he had been in this time, himself or his concubine? She had certainly started at the bottom. I’d still like to get horses for Eun Ha.

She smiled and changed the subject back to him. And do you get much exercise while flying, my lord?

Not as much as we get in the bath, you little schemer. Is the water hot?

Of course, my lord.

An hour later, he was clean and relaxed. They dressed in light robes and went to supper. A servant was sent to invite Eun Ha to dine, and she joined them a few minutes later.

I hope you had a nice day, my lady, he greeted her, determined to be pleasant to a girl he’d agreed to marry and who now lived in his house.

I’m trying to clean my rooms, my lord.

Trying? He looked at Mirella. Don’t we have maids for that?

Mirella shrugged; she had no problems with the standard of cleanliness.

I wonder who I could ask to hire some better maids, Lothar continued, still looking at Mirella.

I’ll ask Ionis, my lord. We can hire a dozen more, but will they be better?

They better be, or they won’t keep working here. My lady Eun Ha has other things to do with her time.

My lord, said Eun Ha when he looked at her to ask if that would help, I am working, and I am cleaning. I can do both.

I could get some horses for you to ride, if you like, my lady.

I would like that very much, my lord. Will you ride with me?

Yes, when I can.

It’s good to have something to clear your mind. Cleaning does that for me, but horses would do it better.

I saw you had sent a new water device to the factory, my lady.

The water here is not clean, my lord. My grandmother told me everything works better with clean water, and people are healthier.

Lothar smiled, struck by the intersection of her concerns with Mirella’s and well aware of the effects of dirty water on soldiers. So, you’re scaling up the water filters from the shuttle recycler?

Yes. I want to have a filter we can put into the fishponds when they are repaired, as well as the house water supply.

Lothar made a mental note to hire an engineer to help with repairing the ponds. Cleaning it out was not something the lady of the house should do, and Eun Ha, as his intended wife, surely ranked higher than Mirella, though Mirella, soon to be the mother of his firstborn son, certainly had rank. I wonder if the Greeks have a schedule of precedence for that.

Mirella waited until after the dishes began to arrive, but her training led her to get her lord to talk about himself so she could show interest. Did my lord have a productive day? I’m sure you went many places.

I did. I began by giving the emperor new flying machines. The Greeks don’t really know what to do with them, but once they get used to them ...

They are marvelous, my lord. Mauritzio gave me a ride around Perama. I’m sure the Greeks will appreciate your gifts soon.

You should scale up the airboards, said Eun Ha.

Oh? You don’t like the flighters? You helped me design them.

I remember.

Well, I can’t argue with you. The airboards were always meant to fly; the flighters are sort of a hybrid. Hybrid, a polite word for a bastard hodgepodge.

The suggestion got his mind working again. The airboard performed its function perfectly, but it could easily be modified and scaled up to make a barge. You could carry more on it or tow ships with an undercarriage hook. So much to do! Would you like to help me work on that tomorrow, my dear?

You are a better designer than I, my lord, but I would be happy to help.

I have more experience, but I think you’re catching up. Are you finished with your water filter?

Mostly. Grandmother suggested I work on a better scanner.

Yes, that would be useful too, if we ever need to scan Grandmother’s time belt. If we’re going to recreate Tau science, we need to attack in all directions. He looked back to Mirella. Yes, and she carries the first son of a great house, perhaps the greatest ever. Bob had hundreds of children and chose from the best. Eun Ha’s children will probably be exceptional, like her, but should I have some Greek children too? Or— an image of Gerberga came to mind, smiling coyly across the dining table at him, —full-blooded German ones? Tough choice.

4

As the top male and top female at the Dyrrachium estate, Beningo and Dorotea had naturally seen each other as a partner, which led to them sleeping together. As he prepared to fly with the other nineteen pilots, men he had chosen from the scores of volunteers, she asked if she could go on a flight.

I spent a lifetime here, she said when he hesitated. I don’t want to spend my new life here too.

He knew she could fly flighters as well as airboards, so she could easily leave if she wished, but he also knew what she really meant. He had spent a career in the Venetian military and was proud of that career, but since the arrival of Lothar von Richthofen, everyone had new dreams. He shrugged. Not as the leader. You can be a pilot for Guido.

Good.

Lothar arrived midmorning to check on factory production and to send repeat orders to the new factories. He had been playing around with the airboard design; he was not ready to produce a new version yet, but he had discovered how to make production automatic for an order. He set the new design desk at the estate manor to do so for sets of twenty Flighter Fives, then chatted with Guido, who was getting ready to take a flight to Sitia. It’s easy enough to find Crete, Guido. Just follow the coast down, then turn southeast once you leave Greece. If you run into Africa, someone else will lead the next flight.

As you say, Dominus. Do I have to take a woman pilot? She doesn’t need the gold, and if she brings me bad luck ...

Dorotea was listening. Ha! You just brought yourself bad luck, Optio. Better check your bed for serpents from now on.

Guido glared at her, then looked at Lothar, expecting the commanding officer to back him up.

That’s an evil threat, Dorotea, said Lothar, amused. You don’t have work here?

What work, Dominus? The charcoalers don’t need me; the estate has been repaired. I was going to start a garden, but winter is approaching, and we have plenty of food.

Lothar considered her for a moment, a tough, suspicious old woman, now rejuvenated into a tough, suspicious, sturdy young woman. I don’t have another job for you right now, but I’ll keep you in mind, unless you cause trouble for Guido.

As you say, Dominus. Don’t forget I can fly as good as any of these dickheads.

Now that you mention it, Mirella may need a pilot to fly her around Constantinople.

I’d be perfect, Dominus.

I’ll ask her what she thinks, if you don’t mind.

I’m a good shot too, Dominus, so she won’t need a guard.

She needs a guard because she belongs to an important house. You’ll have to learn some manners, and some Greek, if she agrees.

I can already swear in Greek, Dominus. I’m halfway there.

She has the self-confidence, or she’s bored here, and who wouldn’t be?

If I might ask, Dominus? said Guido.

Lothar nodded, hoping that he was about to hear a junior officer try to impress a senior one. If it was another complaint, then Guido would stay an optio for a long time.

I was wondering why we aren’t taking the airboards to Sitia as well, Dominus. They could be just as useful to an army.

Hm, a complaint about senior management? I’m starting a flighter legion. Next week I’ll start an airboard legion for scouts and light infantry. Pietro will command the airboarders.

I apologize, Dominus, I did not mean to imply you had not thought of it, just that I had not thought of it.

Sounded like advice to me,