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2121 in the lap of the gods

 It was still cool in the fields as she came in at 2:00. The clouds meant a storm was coming for sure but Ashe needed to put her body where her mind was. She wanted to get those tickets! The field nerds would just have to manage the bots without her for a bit, tickets opened in an hour. She'd check her program once more.

 The concert would be an immediate sellout if Rolling Stone had it right. Her hologram needed to be in line with proof that she wasn't a scalper and application in hand at 8:00 AM sharp New York time. She'd been up late tweaking and re-tweaking the wording trying to give herself every edge. One of the field nerds, Giorgos had months before hacked her a copy of the algorithm the promoter was using but this wasn't a simple reverse engineering piece. There were subtleties. Being Ashe Artemis Anderson might have gotten her to the front of alot of lines even at Caltech but this wasn't dodge ball and you couldn't use dogecoin!! This was platinum grade pure and simple.

 Heck, she'd even tried some of the social hacks her husband had taught her for their olive oil business. The case of extra virgin oil had been returned without so much as a note. If Neten had been alive he'd know how to seduce even a God damned German promoter! She'd hoped that the fact that she was born the same month as the inaugural flight the concert celebrated would give her an edge. But she'd been unable to tell if the algorithm could even do the damned math. Nobody gave a dam about 96. Did the stupid program understand that 96 now meant 100 at the concert in 2121. In her heart she knew centenarians would be dime a dozen watching the blues at the Virgin Terra Ithaca coliseum. She'd just have to rely on the application. Twenty minutes till send.

 She'd been to Burning Mars twice before but this promised to be her last real trip. One tends to slow down in the last 50 years of life. Sure she'd kept her figure and her health walking the olive fields with Neten but even he had died ten years before barely 120, men are just weaker that way. When she'd seen the Virgin Galactic 100 year anniversary Imagine Blues concert would be held just a half days rover ride outside Terra Ithaca she knew she was going. It might be four years away but the whole city would be packed. The olive trees would just have to grow without her.  'sides he'd set the business up with solid people even if she acted like they needed her hovering. He was a good man almost as old as her father when they'd met, solid in his business and Oh his beautiful Greek looks. She'd loved him since they met at that art gallery in New York. Perhaps on the way back from Mars she'd stop in New York and visit family. When she had the tickets in hand she'd look for an O2BNB but not till she knew! Ten minutes till send.

 Giorgos banged at her office door in the back of the estate. "Kupia Ashe, Kupia Ashe"!  He'd run from the field office and the estate was close but straight up the stone littered hill. Clearly he'd fallen his shirt elbow ripped and a little blood on his cheek. "Kupia Ashe they've changed the algorithm!" He gasped out. "I thought they might. I checked last night but just now, just now!" "This, this is the change right here! - See?" She scanned the code "Those tricky bastards - wait, wait, here their giving a priority point to locals - a whole point!" " I could just give my address as Ithaca. leave off the Greek and Earth. Perhaps it will fool the code?!" "Ah Kupia no it would see right through that. I could set you up an IP address on Terra Ithaca but it would need to show age not set up today. how much time do we have?"

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