Lothar the Lost Vol. 2: Lothar, #2

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. The Byzantines are the most advanced nation in Europe of the time, but Lothar is not going to let that stand!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard R Lockwood
• Release date: Jun 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201200855

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

How interesting, he thought as he left the meeting, no one wanted to talk about time-travel theory and the multiverse. Thank the stars! Ship? he said as he settled into the pilot’s seat.

Yes, Captain?

I’ve just been promoted to fleet admiral.

Congratulations, Admiral. Would you like to review the flag protocols now?

That’s it? No verification required?

I am unable to detect any other fleet unit where I might obtain verification, Admiral. In this circumstance, the word of a fleet officer is sufficient. Would you like to review the flag protocols now?

What do they relate to?

Procedure and safety overrides in ship operations. Medical pod overrides. Forbidden weapon production overrides. Lace overrides. Classified information files.

Why do you have these files? You’re a civilian craft.

Unknown, Admiral.

Lothar thought about it a moment and made a guess. Fleet vessels constantly exchanged information; why wouldn’t civilian ones do the same? Someone might have thought a military officer might need an answer while riding on the shuttle, but the answer was unimportant. Lace first.

By the time he dropped Kozmo off, he knew how to look out through the eyes and hear with the ears of anyone who had a lace. He could also listen in on lace conversations between other people. That bastard, he thought as his old suspicions about Kosciusko were confirmed, but now I’m the eye from above.

Savio kept his seat in the rear after Kozmo left. Lothar knew he liked to be able to watch the hatch as well as people in the front. As they sped down toward Candia, he looked through the Venetian’s eyes at the back of his own head. Savio, he asked, do you feel all right?

Savio’s eyes kept moving back and forth as he considered. I’m fine, boss.

Lothar was unable to effect any change—he could not force Savio to focus on anything—but he could, if he wished, change the settings on the lace to a beast status that would enable him to paralyze the wearer. Such a change in status would be apparent to the subject immediately; their lace menus and overlays would disappear, but otherwise it was at the admiral’s discretion. Very interesting.

The storm had broken over Candia in the early morning, and Kanakis was halfway to Heraklion, his galleys sailing rapidly under a steady western wind. A pretty sight, don’t you think, Optio?

You’re feeling better, Dominus.

Yes, I am. That was a good suggestion of yours, to think about tactics.

Then let me offer the Dominus another suggestion.

Go ahead.

I think you respected this Bob, and even though he exiled you, you still respect him.

Your point?

It’s probably not Bob.

You understate like the British. What is your heritage, if you don’t mind my asking? Lothar said.

Nothing special. A Magyar raider raped a Venetian fishwife after killing her husband. I was left at Saint John’s to be raised.

How did you find out?

I had an aunt. She kept an eye on me as I grew up.

Lothar decided to quit probing. Savio was not the kind of man who wanted or needed sympathy. Let’s see how the fortress is doing. The shuttle circled around the main citadel of Muslim power on the island, situated on one of the small peninsulas that stuck out into the harbor. He had burned its gates off and destroyed the gate posts several days ago. Steady sniping had left numerous bloodstains and scorch marks at its sentry posts.

He knew from talking with Kanakis that the island was controlled by another emir, Ahmad ibn Umar. His people had lived in Spain, but one of the frequent Muslim civil wars had driven them into exile. They wound up taking refuge on Candia, then took over the island. They had so far resisted two previous attempts by the Byzantines to win the island back.

A day for destruction. Savio, let’s take down this fortress. It has good stone walls, but wood floors. I want you to cut around the inside; we’ll collapse the floors on their heads.

You don’t want to keep it, boss?

The emperor has offered to build me a new fortress. Wasn’t that nice of him?

As you say, Dominus. Savio got ready with the laser rifle at the hatch while Lothar hovered about two hundred meters above it. After a few minutes of steady cutting, the structure was on fire, and a quarter of the walls had fallen in to feed the blaze. A large group of warriors were gathering behind the fallen gate posts. Savio broke from cutting to sweep across them, killing some and panicking the rest; the survivors fled out across the quay for the town. Lothar swooped down to ground level behind them, and Savio swept them again, cutting most of them in half immediately and maiming those who escaped death. A quick check for survivors, and then they were back to work, collapsing the rest of the structure. Three more times they broke away to cut down groups fleeing. Lothar assumed they knew what would happen from the rest of the corpses beginning to crowd the roads around the entrance but decided they preferred to die in action rather than meekly burning, and he was happy to oblige them.

By midafternoon, the flames were dying down and the leading Greek ship was about to enter the harbor. The shuttle settled down by the pier as Kanakis landed with a few of his officers and disembarked.

The strategos surveyed the bodies and gore strewn about the smoking citadel, yelled an order to his men to gather the bodies and toss them in the water for the fish, then walked over to Lothar and Savio standing by the shuttle. I was a tribune with the last army that tried to take this fortress, he said. It looks the same as it did then, except the bodies on the ground were ours, and our ships were burning.

Tonight, said Lothar, I expect that other groups in town will try to break out to the mountains, or they will attempt to kill your men and steal a ship to escape. I will patrol the city from above through the night and warn you of any movement. This, he took a small box out of his pocket, would make it easier to communicate with you. It puts a small tool in your head that lets me talk to you, even if you were a hundred leagues away. I, and all my commanders, have this tool in our heads. He opened the box and showed the strategos the small white pills inside. I am not ordering you to take one; I am offering you one as a gift.

Kanakis scowled, once again caught up in something he was completely unprepared for, then schooled his face and asked, What if I don’t want to talk to you in my head?

Then refuse it. But think of this: I will offer this gift to the Grand Droungarios. If there were a relay station halfway between us, say on the island of Skyros, then you could report to him at this moment that you landed unopposed on Candia. A man on a mountaintop could watch the Rus as they leave or report immediately if they turn back. Do you think the Grand Droungarios will refuse this gift? Or look with favor on an officer who does not wish to communicate with him?

Kanakis gave in. No. I have five Komes with me. They may as well share the pain.

Lothar shook six pills out of the box and handed them to the strategos. Swallow one, don’t chew it, and tonight after dinner, I will teach you and your squadron leaders how to use it.

Kanakis tossed one into the back of his mouth and dry swallowed it, then turned and began bellowing for his officers.

Savio watched him go as Lothar put the box back in a pocket. One less secret from the Greeks, Dominus.

Lothar smiled. So it would seem.

2

He had Pietro cover the exits from the city to the southeast, Carlo cover the southwest, and shared with them a long, busy night as the inhabitants of Heraklion sensed the doom of the old regime and tried to flee. His orders were to kill anyone with weapons and to spare women and children, but when his men were attacked by groups and some of the attackers turned out to be women or boys, he looked the other way as they were shot down.

Kanakis had one of his squadrons protect their ships while the other four began a house-to-house sweep of the city. Soon they began to hear stories from the women captives that the Emir Ahmad ibn Umar had fled to Palekastro in the east before the ring around the city had been tightened. By nightfall, all organized resistance had ceased, and they began herding the survivors into the city’s poorest quarter to the south.

You were right, said Kanakis as they toured the emir’s old residence, a modest palace with a good view of the harbor, the lace is useful.

Lothar nodded. Strategos, you are now the military governor of this city. I would recommend you make your headquarters in this house.

Kanakis looked around with new appreciation. My thanks, Katepan.

I want you to send a third of your men east to make sure the emir has fled the island or is dead. They will be under the command of Pietro, my First Spear, while they are out of the city. When he is secure in the east, he will return them to you, probably in a few days.

Kanakis nodded and added, The last time, it was a hard, bloody struggle leading to death for most of our men. This time ...

This time, Strategos, we starved them for a month to begin. Carlo and Pietro killed at least two thousand of their finest soldiers before you arrived. Savio and I killed a few hundred in their citadel yesterday. I hope you will include us in your report to the Grand Droungarios.

Katepan, you will have a copy of every report I send to the Grand Droungarios, and you may be sure, each one will include my admiration—and respect—for your leadership.

Good. Grain and food shipments have been piling up to the south of us. Send some men to help bring them into the city. The Venetians will reserve the eastern quarter for themselves; your men may possess any other property south or west of your palace here. All of our men are under your command when they are in the city.

Aye, Katepan. Where will you be?

I have a spot picked out in Ligaria a few leagues to the west. A villa with a private beach. Here is my plan for now. We will build up our forces and our population here. The emperor has promised to help me build a new fortress. We will also improve the harbor and construct warehouses for trade. I expect to take most of a year to prepare; then we will strike for Cyrenaica. Until then, we will keep our men busy by suppressing pirates, particularly those operating from Egypt to Tunisia. He looked at Kanakis for a moment to be sure he had his attention. I will be bringing in a Venetian harbormaster to oversee trade. You will work with him, and we will all become wealthy, or you will be replaced.

Understood, Katepan.

Very good. I will assist my First Spear tonight in chasing our fleeing emir. Get some men started east as soon as you have the city under control and the food supplies started.

Aye, Katepan.

3

Pietro was waiting with his first squad and their commander, a sergeant named Sebastiano. They lifted off in the shuttle and began to follow the road from the city.

The emir may not have made it to Palekastro yet, he told them. Wherever he is, I want him taken alive. I have a use in mind for him.

It is just as likely he would head west, said Sebastiano, and spread the story of heading east.

He came here from the west, replied Lothar. His family were exiles from Spain. No, the best hope for him is in Egypt or Syria.

The first village they came to at Agios, Nikolaos had a number of groups moving through the city headed east, and Sebastiano and half his men were landed as a blocking force on the exit road. He may want to blend in to aid his escape, he told the sergeant, or he may want to look like the emir to command his way through. Be ready for either. Whatever he looks like, he will probably have excellent horses and gold in his saddlebags.

Sebastiano gave a grim smile. We understand saddlebags with gold, Dominus.

Then find them, Sergeant, he said before lifting off to begin sifting through the small town. An hour later, they had killed several groups of Muslim warriors but had not found the emir. He flew Pietro and his men forward to block the next town, then picked up Sebastiano and his men to help sort refugees. Leapfrogging through the night, they came to the town of Sitia in the predawn. A large party of horsemen was just making their way east on the rocky coastal road.

Sebastiano looked at the forward display and said, I smell more gold.

You smell all those bundles your men have placed around my ship, Sergeant, Lothar replied. She waddles through the air like a fat pig with wings. There were a few laughs from the tired men. After this group we will rest, then resume in the evening if we have not found him.

As the light from the sun began to find its way through the morning mist, he let Sebastiano and his men off several hundred meters in front of the horsemen, then had Savio fire the laser up into the air. Many of the riders turned their horses around to flee back to the town, but he was quickly behind them with Pietro and his men filing out of the shuttle to block the narrow road. Rising above the group he ordered through the shuttle loudspeakers, Dismount, if you would live!

As Sebastiano and Pietro moved their men forward, several riders tried to rush past them. The shotguns easily blew them off their horses, and the animals were led to one side. Savio began sweeping the laser around the group to discourage any further attempts as