It was a different world a hundred years later, although in most things, it was all largely the same.

There were fewer wars now, or at least fewer than in the 2020s, and they were making strides in stemming global warming and its devastating effects. But in most other things, global society was about the same. The worldwide population was so high now that many countries were only twelve months or so away from economic collapse.

There were lots of economic incentive programs, though, to ensure a decline of national population birth rates – nothing as draconic as the One-Child Policy of the late twentieth century, but in some of the richer and more advanced nations, there were signs of a population decline. In fact the current year was the first to show a net global decline. Granted it was just a 0.02% decline, but many still claimed it as a triumph.

And, sure there was more tech and more science, but the fundamental human condition had not really changed.

One thing, though, that remained the same was that the world was still oblivious to the real work of the Endowment.

One of the bigger things that happened, however, was that Greece was now a monarchy – has been for years now. It was ruled by Queen Aphrodite (the name, of course, was just something that the queen adopted), but through her benevolent rule, Greece was now considered one of the world’s major powers. She had ruled for over sixty years but had quietly passed away in her sleep just weeks before her ninety-first birthday. And though the country was in mourning, they were secure in the thought that the queen’s successor was waiting in the wings to take over the throne and continue the reign of the royal family of Calista (many felt that the name was appropriate – the name “Calista” meant “most beautiful” in Greek – just like the queen and her daughter).

The new queen had chosen the name Aphrodite II, and was to take the throne in historical Athens, in the Palace of Aphrodite, a royal palace erected by a grateful people of Greece fifty years ago, and modeled after several ancient Greek structures. Several hundred meters away from the palace was the tall Lelantos Corporate Tower. Lelantos was one of the most powerful, maybe the most powerful corporation in the world. Among many other things, it also ran the Aristotle Endowment, a large nonprofit organization which was famous for running the “Endowment Schools” – there were now fifty of them all over the world.

Anyway, the palace was now the royal residence and seat of power, and Queen Aphrodite II was to take her oath there in a few days, in a ceremony to be officiated by the country’s President of the Supreme Court in the palace’s main ballroom.

Copies of the new sovereign’s portrait had been distributed to all of Greece’s government offices and included several dozen specially-commissioned ones that were destined to replace her mother’s portraits in several museums and galleries in the world. The best ones, though, were hung in the Parthenon of Nashville and the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago – Faye’s old hometown - replacing the current ones of her mother.

The new queen was very beautiful, just as beautiful as her mother. The museum’s curator was on record saying that the new queen bore a great resemblance to her mother and even said that they were like twins. But then he said, wasn’t that the case between mothers and daughters? That the child would look like the parents?

- - - - -

Faye walked to her bedchamber from yet another reception with several heads of state. She was hard to miss – besides being totally gorgeous, she was six-foot six. She was surrounded by her royal retinue.

In times like these, she’d have much preferred to be surrounded by her friends instead of a bunch of employees and sycophants. She missed her folks and her old gang, especially Arianne and her irreverent humor. But she most missed Carla and Michael, her two closest friends in the world. But they had all passed away. All that was left of her old friends were Dr. Penny Castellanos and Dr. Maia Griffin. If one were to look at Penny, though, Penny looked like a well-turned out older lady of about fifty, even though she was actually a little over one hundred-fifty. Maia, though, looked more like an eighty-year old, and was wheelchair-bound now, even though she and Penny were roughly the same age.

As for herself, she looked just like how she did in her twenties. Over the years, she used hair coloring and makeup to look older so no one would twig to her essential difference, but since she was having trouble keeping up appearances, she decided to pass the torch to her “daughter,” although it was just actually just her without any makeup or hair coloring.

Faye wondered if she really was immortal, but it didn’t really matter. She suspected that if her head was cut off or had a spear thrown through her heart, she’d probably die, but if she didn’t suffer any physical kind of traumatic injury, she could very well live for as long as she liked. She suspected that she won’t want to live forever, though, but she wanted to at least get the Endowment to a position that it’ll be actively impacting humanity in a big way.

So far, in Faye’s one hundred years, they have never found another person with a one hundred Kodikos score. They’ve turned up a few people with an eighty-five score, and thankfully none of them were psychotic like Smith, and all of them were currently positive and productive members of Penny’s staff. Also, none of them were a match to the Ares map, but she had given orders that, just to be safe, if they find another Ares match that has a score higher than seventy, they weren’t going to progress that person and allow that person to pass to age twenty without any ambrosia.

When they understood what happened to Smith, Faye might rescind that, but it’s best to play safe. They even have Smith’s body in deep freeze so they could continue testing him and maybe discover how he became that way. So far, they couldn’t find anything. The best theory at the moment was that Erin was mentally unbalanced to begin with (which was corroborated by her history).

Joey, one of their Eighty-Fives was leading the team that was handling her new coronation. His map was a Zeus match and he was a great leader and take-charge kind of guy, and everyone hopped to it when he gave some instructions.

Another of their Eighty-Fives, Abbey, was in charge of one of their new companies which was into product R&D, and they’ve had several patents already for devices that have a high sales potential for the DIY market. The revenue will go a long way to keeping the Endowment’s operations going.

Faye knew she was doing okay because the Endowment was growing from strength to strength at the moment. The Endowment now had fifty schools spread throughout the world, in countries where Eugene, another of their Eighty-Fives, had ascertained had high Kodikos potential. Eugene’s DNA match was the Aphrodite map, just like Penny and Faye, and he was the most gorgeous boy she’d ever seen. If one was looking for a poster boy for the stereotypical pretty boy, Eugene was it. He was perfectly sweet and kind. Also, he was one of the Endowment’s gay graduates.

Faye, Penny, and Maia had a new theory (well, actually an old one) that the behavior of the graduates was influenced by the Kodikos map they were matched with. There was a bit of correlation between behavior and the DNA map, but only if the person had a score that was seventy or higher. For everyone else, it didn’t matter. Faye used this as a yardstick, and, of course, her people followed her lead.

Among the many new developments in the twenty-second century was something Faye was very interested in. There were possibilities now that a multi-generational spaceship that was able to fly at eighty percent the speed of light was just around the corner, and it should be a reality in ten or twenty years. She was therefore in a hurry to get her house and the Endowment in order, and find a worthy successor. Both for her throne and for the Endowment, because what she really wanted to do now was to be part of this effort. Actually, what she wanted was to be part of the first interstellar crew to explore a new planet.

One thing at a time, of course. Get the coronation over, fix up the Endowment and then find a successor. Her Star Trek dreams will have to wait.

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