Chapter 1 (partial)

The new duke wasn’t particularly pleased about having a provincial court that reported to my supreme court. He realized it was part of the price he would have to pay to be part of the Owen-nap Archdukedom. I hated that title, it was so unwieldy. Since it was the only way to make things work out, I had to live with it.

Then there was the little matter that each of my new nobles in Poland had slightly different laws in their areas. They had to come into alignment with my laws and be consistent within the province. The duke called a convention of his nobles to work out the changes that needed to be put in place. I sent my chief justice to oversee the process. I avoided the whole session by taking Eleanor, Cathy, Andrew, and the twins to Florida to visit Doug, Bethany, and Sally.

The official purpose of the trip was to check up on how the space program was progressing. The real purpose was to get away from the Poles. They were passionate in their defense of how they always had done things. The problem was they had all done things differently. There was one law that I stated would be revised. There would be no serfs bound to the land. That was just a different way of saying slavery. Nobles at the convention wanted to know how they could work their lands if the peasants could leave any time they wanted to. My chief justice told them all they had to do was treat their people decently. That was a revolutionary idea. They wanted to know what decently meant. He then told them the people would tell them. They would vote with their feet.

I was happy to be in Florida. Doug had come up with a neat idea to generate support for his space flights. The flags of all the provinces were painted around the circumference of each rocket. When a newsreel was made, the flag of the province that reel was going to was displayed prominently. Of course, my flag was above all of them with several copies, so it was always in the picture.

With winter coming on we wouldn’t get much construction of the railways into and through Poland. We were able to stockpile all the track, ballast, and ties along the way. The surveyor’s job was easy as the Duke of Poland had laid out his roads with railroads in mind. By stockpiling the materials at major intersections construction would proceed at pace.

At a staff meeting we started talking about conquering the rest of eastern Europe. This included the budding Kievan Rus, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Albania. These weren’t the current names in use but what I thought of them as.

I was an engineer not into social science or political divisions. That said I was completely surprised when the discussion of the Baltic states, namely Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and the Ukraine started.

I opened the discussion with the statement, “Our motorized divisions should have no problems in the steppes of those countries.” Several of my generals shifted uncomfortable in their seats. Finally, my chief of staff spoke up.

Cast in Time Book 8 "Archduke" Now Available!

An Engineer finds himself in an Alternate reality, Cornwall, in the year 715 A.D. He awakens in the body of a young Baron. James Fletcher continues on his world conquest. He has realized that nothing short of world domination will allow him to live in peace.

No matter how he expands the new neighbors will covet his goods and lands. Now it is Italy that is being conquered while James is doing a grand tour of all his territories. With heavier than aircraft it is smooth sailing, well almost.

Earl E. (Ed) Nelson

I have always wanted to be an author. I had my first rejection slip in about 1965. Wish I had saved it. For many years the only writing I did was technical as pesky things like three children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren came along.

My technical writing was in the field of quality in several different journals. I worked in the field of quality for over fifty years, starting as a line inspector and ending up as a Vice-President of Quality and elected a Fellow of the American Society for Quality.

Then a wonderful thing happened. I lost my job and was out of work for almost eight months. To keep from going crazy I wrote. I posted my stories on an online site, and lo and behold people read them and said nice things. Fast forward about eight years and I am retired and writing for the fun of it.

A lot of what is in my stories is based on my life experiences, gasp! Give or take a lie or two that is. The one fortunate thing in my career is that I got to travel worldwide and have been to most of the locations I write about.

In my younger days, I tried hot air ballooning, sky diving, white water rafting, spelunking, and target shooting. I have collected stamps, drove in road rallies, lowly rated by the US Chess federation. I built a Kentucky long rifle and a dueling pistol. I am a licensed HAM radio operator. My hobby is having hobbies.

My true passion is reading. Trapped in a hotel room I would read the telephone book. The TV would not be turned on. I have averaged 200 books a year for the last sixty years. I knew those long flights were good for something.

BTW I was born in the middle of an air raid in England during World War II, the house next door was destroyed and our windows were blown out. That is probably the most interesting thing I have been involved with. Mum never forgave me. Happily married for 56 years I hope my wife doesn’t catch on to what a goof I am.