Hundreds of years in the future. Grecca- a young woman with an attitude. As spoiled and famous as she is, she’s still a girl who deep down wants what we all want: love and respect from the people she holds most dear. She doesn’t look to her future because it doesn’t seem to matter, but she’s in love with a past, a time when she thinks things must have been different. Her family, though, is integral to the present time and in ways she doesn’t fully understand. The more she learns, the more her life changes in ways she can never undo or take back.
Want to start at Chapter 1: Grecca Through the Loops, or just at the last installment: Grecca’s Bad Dream?
The tinting of the windows in the car was turned up to the highest level which meant people couldn’t see in and Grecca couldn’t see out. The visor between the front seat and the back where she sat was also set at high opaqueness. She was in a moving box and at Ariston’s mercy. Who knew why she trusted him.
A holoscreen slid down in front of Grecca. She leaned back and scratched her shoulder where the material of her “new” jumpsuit irritated her skin.
“What exactly am I going to see here, Ariston?”
“It’s a historical video, something to help me explain the situation you’re in.”
Grecca raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything. She pressed the air next to the screen, and the video started playing.
“Old Rockets? What does this have to do with me? I know next to nothing about rocket and space travel history.”
“Doesn’t matter what you know. You’re a direct descendant of the man with the vision to get us into space. This dates back to when Elon Musk started making leaps and bounds in commercializing space travel. It was rudimentary compared to what we have now, but your family has played a huge part in getting us where we are today, good and bad.”
“What’s your point?”
“The point is, you were high-profile before you were ever born. You’re father didn’t marry your mother just because she was beautiful. She’s the last in a long line of Musks who’ve carried the family business forward. Your father wanted to control the empire they built.”
“My father is not the best dad in the universe, but are you saying he’s a gold-digger?”
“Do you even know what that term means?”
“I studied early millennial culture for three years, Aries. Yes, I know what a gold-digger is.”
“Just surprised is all. Most people don’t care about our history or how we ended up where we are today.”
“There was never a question for me. I’m a little obsessed with the turn of the century. Life was so different then. The world was angry and boiling, ready to pull itself apart.”
“And it did, at least partially. The ruination brought on by several wars across the globe was devastating, but it brought unity to some peoples and places. Rebuilding was a task beyond imagining. We’re lucky to have not had to live through that time, Grecca.”
“For a chauffeur you sure do know a lot about history. I get the feeling you’re about as deep into the forbidden histories as I am. So, instead of telling me what I already know, tell me what I need to know.”
They turned a corner. The abruptness of the change tipped Grecca to the side. She slid forward when Ariston stopped the car with almost as much force as he’d turned the corner.
“Hey, watch it!”
She righted herself and glared at the divider. It dissipated, opening the space between them.
Ariston unbuckled and twisted in the seat. “Grecca, I want to tell you everything, but there are things you’re just not ready to know, and I can’t put your life at risk by telling you too much.”
“Tell me why Red wants my eyes.”
Grecca watched Ariston’s internal struggle play across his face. He opened his mouth and closed it several times.
“They are a key.”
“That’s what she said. What does it mean? A key to what? She was willing to kill me to get them if I didn’t cooperate. I’m seriously at a loss here as to how I should feel.”
“You’re doing fine, Grecca. Better than I expected.”
“My brain’s about to explode with questions, Aries, so just answer.”
“Right. Grecca, when your mother became ill and your father took over as head the family business you were just a baby.”
“How would you know any of that? You’re barely older than me.”
“I’ve done my homework. Listen, I don’t have a lot of time here. Your father decided the best way to protect the most important family secrets was to install an old-fashioned locking system, which includes retinal scans.”
“You mean using the retinas of my eyes in place of gene-coders? How is that better? Aren’t there easy ways to copy my retinas?”
“Your father went old-school, as they used to say. The tech is so out-dated our newer stuff can’t even touch it. Today’s tech has no way to interpret and override, which was ingenious on your father’s part. It takes your eye and only your eye. It has to be alive in order to read, so if she’d followed through on her threat she’d never have gotten what she wanted.”
Grecca gripped her head and closed her eyes. It was all too much. One simple question.
“Grecca?”
“I’m fine. Just shut up a second.” She took a deep breath, the thought of the frog dagger tucked into her handbag bringing back memories. Grecca’s eyes popped open. “She almost killed me anyway. Is there another way in? What if, what if something did happen to me? Then what would my father do?”
“You’re it, Grecca. The last line of defense against secrets able to finish off the world. If things in that vault got into the wrong hands, life on earth would soon be over.
“You’re father isn’t a gold-digger. He married your mother because they shared a vision and she trusted him like no other. He’s put all his trust for the future in you.
“If you died, Grecca, or fell in to the wrong hands then he’s set in place a back-up plan to destroy it all, in effect losing hundreds of years of advancement and history. I think he sees himself as a protector of the past and future. Probably where you get that curiosity from.”
“So what do you have to do with any of this?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
“Grecca, I want to explain, but I can’t. Now, it’s time I got you home before any more suspicion arises.”
Ariston turned in the seat and the opaque screen resumed between, leaving Grecca just as much in the dark but a whole lot more curious than she was before.
This is a totally fictional tale, aside from Elon Musk. He is a current, real world icon for technology and advancement. My hope in including him in my fictional story was to show full respect to his creativity, drive, determination, and genius, just like if I’d used Einstein as part of a historic fictional story. 🙂
Rachael Ritchey 
Please leave a comment, question, or idea! I’d love to chat!