| abstract
| - Cass Lowry had played halfback while on Grantville High School's football team, and had been a standout player. He was friends with Bernie Zeppi while they were on the team together. Lowry had planned on to go to college on a football scholarship, and dismissed studying as a waste of time. However, when he failed to get a scholarship, he blamed Bernie for keeping him from studying, and their friendship ended. Even after high school, Lowry never seemed to get over the sense of entitlement that went with being a standout athlete. He also showed a tendency to believe that any setbacks he experienced were someone else's fault. After the Ring of Fire, he placed the blame for his problems on both Michael Stearns and down-timers in general. He also showed unreasoning disdain for and prejudice against down-timers. In 1633. Lowry was tasked by Vladimir Gorchakov and Brandy Bates with delivering Bernie's car and up-time resources to Russia, where Bernie was helping Russia's own think tank. He was sent because he was the only person who knew about cars that was willing to make the trip. Lowry brought his own guns, a pump-action shotgun and a down-time-made revolver modeled on the up-time Colt Peacemaker. Lowry arrived in Russia in November of 1633, with the car and 55 gallons each of gasoline and motor oil. His boorish manners quickly began to alienate the Russians who had traveled with Bernie to pick up the car. That many of them knew some English, and Vladimir's sister Natalia Gorchakovna was almost fluent in it, did not help. However, they realized that Czar Michael would want to meet him, and that Russia needed what he knew. On the next day, as the group was traveling back to Moscow, it was attached by armed bandits. Without a thought for his own safety, Lowry rushed to the back of Bernie's car and armed himself with a pump-action shotgun and proceeded to shoot the attackers while engaging in broken-field running. His unexpected and unfamiliar action, along with the unexpected power of the shotgun, confused the bandits, which played a role in repelling the attack. However, Lowry only survived because of a lucky fall and Bernie's steady covering fire. After the attack had been repelled, the group made camp, and Lowry proceeded to get heavily drunk. This worried Vladislav Vasl'yevich, Natalia's guard captain, as Lowry had never let go of his shotgun. Lowry attempted to enter Natalia's tent, but was stopped by Bernie and Vladislav, and roughed up by Vladislav. He also got punched by Natalia for not telling her that her brother Vladimir wanted to marry Brandy Bates; though he was unaware of that, as Vladimir's letter mentioning it had caught up with him while he was en route to Russia. Lowry met Czar Michael in December of 1633, and had just barely managed to be polite to the czar. Boris Ivanovich Petrov decided to accept Natalia's idea of assigining him to the military. Specifically, he was assigned to Andrei Korisov and the "Gun Shop". While there, he introduced Korisov to the idea of drop forges, which allowed parts for the AK3 to be made more quickly, and also allowed them to make enough AK3s that they were able to skim some to sell on the side. In addition, copies of his revolver sold very well. Lowry also assisted Korisov in developing a workable interrupted-screw breech for cannon, coming up with the idea of determining how many threads would be needed by using a quarter charge and working up. In February of 1636, he was sent to the Dacha, which was under the control of Leontii Shuvalov, a retainer of Fedor Ivanovich Sheremetev, who despised Lowry. It soon became clear that Lowry had not changed, except, perhaps, to get worse. In March of 1636, Sheremetev appointed Lowry as the Dacha's "political officer", which meant that he was effectively in charge. He decided that the Dacha should limit itself to "strictly practical" applications, with him as the arbiter of what was practical. For example, he wanted them to develop fixed-wing aircraft. He also instituted punishments for lack of progress, "wasting time on unprofitable hobbies", and even idle comments. In June of 1636, while very drunk, he barged into Natalia Gorchakovna's apartments, and attempted to rape her. He was shot dead by Natalia's personal servant/friend Anya, who was able to get to Natalia's revolver.
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