Educational Tour (M/L, AU, Mature) Complete 9 May

Finished stories that feature the characters from the show, but there are no aliens. All fics completed on the main AU without Aliens board will eventually be moved here.

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thumper1942
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Educational Tour (M/L, AU, Mature) Complete 9 May

Post by thumper1942 »

Just a little something that came to mind recently. All hail Jason Katims; a marvelous creator but lousy show runner. This is just for fun people. Don't take it too seriously.




Liz hid behind a mound of rubbish; carefully staying very low but listening and trying to stay absolutely still. To be seen would be to either die or wish you were dead. She had learned that in the last two days. She had seen terrible things happen. In one respect she was lucky to be very small; easier to find places to hide. Problem was she was a young woman and attractive; a lousy thing to be in a war zone.

This was supposed to be the educational experience of a lifetime; and while one could argue that was still the case what Liz was learning she truly had no wish to know.


Who knew six months ago when she put in her name to be included on a tour of Greece that this would happen. There had been some worry due to the economic conditions there; austerity budgets had made the people very unhappy. But still it was not thought to be a real concern; and when they had left 4 days ago it had seemed things were fairly quiet.

Liz however had gotten bad feelings as soon as they left the airport in Athens. The streets were dirty; garbage was not being picked up. Overall there was a climate of sullen anger and resentment. They were going first to the ancient area around Sparta; then back to Athens. Liz was fascinated by many things; Ancient Greek history one of them. She had taken a crash course in Greek and was reasonably able to make herself understood. But this reality was not one she wanted and certainly not expected.

The time in Sparta had not been too bad; but she was able to understand enough from what she was hearing as the small group toured the countryside to get the feeling things were getting worse. She had no close friends here; they had been picked from High Schools all over New Mexico and Arizona. She was the only one from Roswell.

Then two mornings ago as they were about to spend their last day around Sparta the tour director called them together.
“We just got word there will be another General Strike called for tomorrow; we are going back to Athens right now and are looking to get out tonight if we can make the arrangements; if not we will camp out at the Airport; that is probably the safest place to be.”

There was grumbling of course but not much; even the most oblivious of the students knew things were not good. They had left the hostel they were in at 9 and headed for Athens in the tour bus. They never got there.

City workers in Corinth decided to go on strike a day early. And they sabotaged the traffic light system. The two bridges over the canal there became parking lots. Almost 50 miles from Athens. And you had to go all the way through Athens to get to the airport. Liz had the very bad feeling that it might as well be 1000 miles away.

After 2 hours when it became very clear no one was going anywhere the tour director and the local Greek guide got them off the bus; just in time as a mob began to cross the bridge smashing windows and over turning any vehicle that looked like it was either official or contained foreigners. Foreigners were being blamed for forcing the Government to cut subsidies and to try and curb the rampant draft dodging which was just about a Greek National Sport.

At that point things got really bad and for all intents and purposes it became every man and woman for themselves. Liz had dressed carefully that morning to look as Greek as possible; with her dark hair, dark eyes and somewhat darker complexioned skin she could fit in pretty well; as long as she did not say anything.

A bunch of youths showed up and the group scattered. The youths attacked a couple of the more obvious ones; blond and dressed too well. Liz dropped everything except her backpack and moved as quickly as she could to get off the bridge.

A few hours later she was holed up in an abandoned building that had not been finished; she had grabbed a few bottles of water from a looted restaurant and some packaged food. She decided to wait until dark then try and carefully move towards Athens. It was not like she had many options.




Greece was coming apart at the seams; at least that was how it looked to Liz. All the city and local workers were on strike; joined by just about everyone else. She saw no police on duty and no military either. She figured that they would be concentrated around Athens and the other major cities; Corinth was not important enough, she guessed.

She considered trying to find a small boat and head out into the Mediterranean Sea; she had to figure that there would be international shipping there and warships from other countries looking to get their citizens out. But she knew very little about boats and she could run into not so nice people around the waterfront.

She wondered if she should just try and find a place to hide for a few days; this could not last too long.


Liz liked to think she was pretty smart; and had a fair amount of common sense. But she was very scared and very alone.





She managed to get some sleep despite the sounds of destruction and rioting. She woke up after dark; it was quieter but she could also see fires burning out of control. She could see some hills in the distance and decided to head for them; it seemed a safer alternative then staying around a city that seemed to be burning down and had mobs of people running around destroying everything they could.

She carefully moved; going from point to point; slowly working her way out of the city to the hills.

Unfortunately once she got there she found there was absolutely nothing; no buildings or much of anything else. So she figured out which way was east and began to move towards Athens again. By morning she was able to see a road sign that said she was near Theodori, about 60 KM to Athens. She began to look for a place to hide during the day and eventually found a looted market that had been really cleaned out; she felt no one would be looking anymore and went to the second story and hid.

About noon the next day she woke up to the sounds of yelling; shouting; and what sounded like violence of some kind. She found a window and peaked out. There was a mob gathering in the square just a small distance away. She figured it was time to skedaddle. She left out the back and worked her way steadily east using back streets and alleys. Luckily there were not many people out that were not in mobs. She wished she was not one of them.

And there she was hiding; she had seen a couple of foreign businessmen beaten to death. Somehow she had not thrown up. She had found a long sharp knife in that market and kept it with her; she hoped desperately she would not need to use it.

After a while the mob moved on leaving the area fairly quiet. Liz moved on.

She found a wrecked market and hid in there until night; and then carefully moved on. She barely found enough food and water to keep herself going; but knew she was lucky to find anything at all.





She steadily moved down the coastal road; but quite often had to hide and wait for mobs to move on. She figured she was making about 1 mile an hour; so that meant about 5-6 miles a night and 8-12 KMs.

On the fourth day she hid in Megara. IT worried her that nothing seemed to be getting any better; if anything things seemed to be getting worse; if that was possible. Then she found herself stopped by what looked like a massive camp of people that were not going anywhere. She figured she would have to go up to the hills and many miles out of her way to get around them. She got close enough to listen and while she had indeed learned more Greek in the last few days what she could understand scared her even more.

Martial Law had been declared and the Greek Army had taken over. And they were dispersing mobs using lots of bullets.

She backtracked some and headed for the shore; and luck was with her when she found some boats that had been abandoned due to no gas for their engines. She had remembered passing by a gas station; she went there and found a couple of jerricans and filled them; they were heavy and she had to rest a lot but by nightfall she got back to the boats. Picking the smallest one with an engine she filled the tank and was able to get it started. And she went out to sea.

Athens seemed to be in terrible shape; the Army was basically shooting anyone that was on the street; a total curfew had been put in place. And a fair number of Greeks were not taking that lying down.

The small boat was like a dingy; maybe 8 feet long. She slowly headed out to sea; there was no reason to try and get to Athens now.






Liz was glad she had taken Astronomy as she was able to head due south using the North Star as her guide.


The engine was small and not very powerful; Liz figured she was not going much faster than a few miles an hour at best. Luckily the weather was good and the sea pretty calm.




By dawn she knew she was running out of gas; and spotted a big island. She headed for it.

Racking her brain she was able to recognize the Island as Aegina; and she remembered it was a tourist area. She was able to land just as it got light; and found a place that she could drag the boat up a little. She found an old empty farmhouse and curled up and fell asleep; the trip had exhausted her.

She slept until after noon before the heat woke her up. She finished off the last of her water and food. Then carefully began to head towards the port she had noticed; she figured it was about a mile or so away. She found the city pretty calm; there appeared to be no rioting or the like going on. But she did notice groups of people that were talking and in some cases arguing.

By this time Liz was a fairly scruffy looking person and frankly fit in pretty well with the locals. With a hat that she kept low so that no one could get a good look at her face she moved in close enough to listen.

While things had not gotten any better on the mainland they appeared to have stopped getting worse. Which was small comfort.







Maximilian Vardinoyannis was a member of a very wealthy Greek family. Unlike most of them, his part of the family were large land owners; and farmers and the like. One of the largest pistachio farms in Greece was located in Aegina. He was the oldest son; and would one day inherit most of it. His younger brother had no interest in business; and his younger sister was a socialite. Max had worked hard to learn the family business; after University he had started to work alongside his father learning the business from the ground up. They not only farmed but processed the pistachios and other products. Then shipped and sold them around the world. A small shipping company did that; and they had made it a point to own the whole process from the trees that grew them all the way to the people that bought them. At the age of 31 he would be taking over the business before too much longer; his father had married late in life and was in slowly failing health.

His mother, probably to take her mind off of her husband’s failing health had started to push Max into looking for a suitable bride. He was glad that the old tradition of arranged marriages had fallen by the wayside; his father had found his mother by himself and their very happy marriage had convinced both of them that a sensible young man like Max would do better choosing his own bride.

But at least right now that was not something he had to contend with; not with the situation in Greece as it was. He was deeply ashamed of most of his countrymen; they had been lazy and corrupt for far too long. Instead of working for their money they always had their hand out to the government; and stupid politicians had been mortgaging Greece’s future for more than a generation. And the bill was coming due.

The family was in no danger; at least as long as the economy did not totally self-destruct. Most of their products were sold outside of Greece. One reason he was here and not in the family mansion in Athens was the situation there; luckily his father and mother had left for the country and their home far away from the cities. Here in Aegina it was nowhere near as bad; the tradition of hard work had not eroded too badly.

Dressed casually as he did not want to draw attention Max listened to the crowd in the city square; he was proud that most of them were also ashamed of how far too many Greeks had acted in the last few years and especially lately.

Then for some reason he noticed a young woman nearby; she was slender and small; and somewhat scruffy; but then he looked closer and realized her clothes were not Greek; if not too different. He noticed the way she was looking around and how careful she was not to attract attention. Intrigued and frankly bored with the talk in the square he followed her as she slipped away.

Liz felt a little better; things were clearly not as bad here. But she still needed to find a way to get home. She noticed a small store and went in and bought some water and snacks; being very careful on how she spoke. Luckily the older man behind the counter just took her money and said nothing about her. She was glad she had a fair amount of money in both coins and paper.

Max could not explain why he was following the young woman but he felt he needed to.

Liz had decided to get a good night’s sleep and then come back to the town and get some clean clothes and then quietly look for a tourist agent.

She was careful to keep an eye on things but did not see the young man that was following her.

Max saw the young man and was suspicious; he had a look about him that screamed trouble.






Liz got to the old ruined farmhouse and sat down and ate and drank some water; then she heard something. Quickly she pulled her knife and moved into a corner and waited.

The young man thought that he was going to get himself some this evening; no one would hear her. He slipped into the old farmhouse and smiled.
In Greek he leered “No use hiding; I will have you no matter what.”

Liz struck; terror and anger warring inside her.

Max heard a scream and ran into the farmhouse; he saw the young woman with a bloody knife and a young man cowering in a corner with blood running down his chest from a jagged cut. Suddenly the young man leaped out of a broken window and staggered off.






Liz turned like a wild animal at bay with her knife out; it dripped blood.

Max held up both hands; somehow he knew he needed to use English.
“I mean you no harm. I saw him following you. I am Maximilian Vardinoyannis.”

Liz was breathing hard; she stared ferociously at the older man. He was better dressed then the thug had been; probably around 30 or so. But adrenaline was still pumping through her and she stayed silent.

Closer he could see her dark eyes; and the look in them would make any man take a step back. No helpless female she. She was petite and had thick dark hair; her complexion was lighter than most Greek women. He knew she was a foreigner; and then somehow he knew. Her clothes.

“Are you an American?”

Liz blinked; then slowly she relaxed just a little. She nodded her head.

Max gazed at her; she was younger than he had thought. She was alone; not likely a tourist at that age.

“Student?’’

She nodded again. Then in a low contralto that was very attractive she said
“Educational Tour group. Things went bad in Corinth on our way to Athens.”

He blinked at that. “How did you get here?”

“Stole a boat.”






Max was now beyond intrigued; he was fascinated.
“Stole a boat and came here?”

“As bad as things were in Athens I figured to try and head south and hopefully find a cruise ship or something like that. Landed here last night at dawn. The boat is a little thing; not far from here. Ran out of gas.”

He slowly nodded. Then thought some. “My family has a farm near here. You can stay with us for the time being. Things will settle down; I cannot believe they will not.”

Liz thought on that; probably her best option. Even if she could find a tourist agent, odds were nothing could be done right now anyway.

She gave him a measuring look and finally nodded. “Elizabeth Parker.” Picked up her back pack and followed him back to town where he had his car parked. It was not fancy or anything like that; basic transportation.





However when he stopped at the ‘farm’ it was a different story. Liz could tell calling it the family farm was an understatement. Acres and acres of Pistachio trees along with Olive trees as well. The ‘farm house’ was more a small mansion.

Max led her up to the front door which was opened by what she bet was the Greek equivalent of either a butler or major domo. Her Greek was good enough to follow what Max said.
“Herodotus, we have a guest. Put her in the main guest room. I recall your younger sister has a girl about her same size?”

“Yes, Mr Max.”

“See if Elizabeth can find some clothes she can wear while hers are being washed.”

“Yes, Mr Max.”

Herodotus then bowed to Liz and led her up the main stairway to a room that was very nice indeed; sitting area, large bed room, with its own complete and luxurious bath. Liz looked around and sighed in pleasure and then just sat down and rested her feet. About 10 minutes later there was a knock on the door and Liz called out in Greek “Come In.”

A woman in her 40’s that was clearly a relative of Herodotus came in and placed some clothes on a chair. “I will be back in a few minutes to pick up yours to be cleaned.”

Liz nodded and thanked her. Then when she left she looked over the clothes; a simple sun dress and sandals. No underwear; which did not surprise Liz as she had a hunch that this dress was for a much younger girl. Liz luckily had saved a set of underwear that she had not yet worn. She quickly got out of her clothes and put what she had in her backpack out as well. Then took the sundress and the rest into the bathroom.

There were bath salts and shampoo and everything she needed. Liz proceeded to take a long hot bath.






About an hour later she got out and dried off; the only think she lacked was a hair dryer; so she just wrapped her head in a towel. Then sat down in a very nice chair and dozed for a while.

A knock on the door woke her up; she saw that she had been napping for about an hour. She felt a lot better. She called out “Come In” and the same woman came in; Liz checked and found that her hair was dry. The woman nodded to her and beckoned Liz to follow.

She was led to a rather ornate dining room where Max was waiting.

“I take it you feel a lot better now?”

“Much. A nice long hot bath was just what the doctor ordered.”

Max could appreciate Elizabeth in that sun dress; since it was actually for a pre teen it was rather short; she had superb legs. He pulled out a chair and Liz sat down; she kind of liked old fashioned courtesy like that.

The food was very good and Liz pretty much made a pig out of herself; Max was awed at how much the petite young woman put away.

Finally stuffed Liz sat back and sighed.
“Best meal I have had in a long time.”

“I am amazed at how much you ate. Do you have a hollow leg?”

Liz giggled at that. Max found himself very much attracted by that sound.
“You are not the first to be amazed at how much I can eat when I am really hungry.”

Max nodded. “Where are you from?”

“Roswell, New Mexico.” She grinned at his eyebrow going up.

“And yes I happen to believe something did occur back in 1947 that was no weather balloon. I have talked to some old timers who were around back then and the way the military was acting it was something way beyond that. But we will probably never know.”

Max nodded again. “We have offices in Athens that right now are closed because of the turmoil. But I believe things will settle down in the next few days and when they are open I will call them and have them check on when flights out of Athens will be started up again.”

Liz was thinking. “I probably need to call the American Embassy.”

“Of course. I should have thought of that myself. Come; we will do that right now.”






While the phone system was working, there was no reply from any of the numbers Max could find; Liz had a list but got nothing. She looked troubled. “I wonder if they evacuated the Embassy?”

Max thought on that for a minute then led her into another room where there was a large TV. He turned it on; and found a Greek News Channel. As expected they were sensationalizing everything; not that the situation needed it.

Liz was able to follow along pretty well; then sat up straight when the channel showed pictures of American Helicopters evacuating the US Embassy. She sighed.
“Well nuts.”

Max shook his head as well. “My cell phone is not working; I was frankly amazed that the phone system was working at all. Let’s see if we can make an international call.” Unfortunately nothing was going out of the country. Liz only had her US Cell phone which was useless even if the cell system was working. Then she had a thought.
“Do you have internet?”

He nodded and took her into his office and sat in front of a computer on a large desk. He worked for a bit then smiled.
“Yes it is working.” He got up and Liz sat down; it took her a bit but Max was able to help her figure out the Greek on the screen. She finally got to Yahoo and put in her Email address. Then sent an Email to her parents; and to her friends Maria and Alex.





Jeff and Nancy Parker had been on the phone to the State Department as soon as things went south in Greece. Unfortunately they found out nothing and then were told the Embassy was evacuating.

Maria was hyperventilating and Alex was trying to keep her calm; a truly Herculean task.

Then 4 days later they all got emails.

“Mom and Dad. I am fine. I am on the Island of Aegina staying with a Greek farm family; actually the oldest son and calling it a farm is an understatement; it’s more of a plantation. How I got here is a long story. But I am fine and will just wait until things settle down and the Airport opens up again. Hopefully in the next few days. I will try and send an Email each day. International phone service is down.”

“Maria. I am OK. Hopefully will have a long story to tell.”

“Alex. Take care of Maria, I am fine.”

She then gave all three of them the phone number for the farm.





Max checked with the workers; everything was OK for the moment. Trees like these did not need a lot of maintenance. Occasional spraying for bugs and such but that was pretty much it. So far they had a sufficient supply of everything they needed. The harvest was several months off. This was the quiet time for the farm.





With her parents and friends now informed, Liz was pretty much at an impasse. So she asked Max to show her around. Which he was quite happy to do.

After the farm he took her back into town which was still quiet; and then despite her objections found a small store and bought some clothes for her.
“Liz, these hardly cost anything and you do need more clothes. It could be a week or more before the Airport opens up again.”

Over the next few days she and Max spent a lot of time together; and she realized she was falling hard for him. His mixture of old fashioned gallantry and modern attitudes really attracted her.

For his part Max was astonished that Liz was only 18; she seemed much older and more mature then any 18 year old girl he could remember.

Max’s mother had found out about his house guest and was of course VERY curious. Max could see what was coming and tried to hold her off; but it was futile. His mother was coming to visit. The family had a relatively modest yacht and she would be there the next day.

Liz blinked when told; she could read between the lines.

Liz shook her head; what Max called modest was not to her. The ‘modest’ yacht was over 100 feet long. Max smiled at her.

“For a Greek family of some repute this is small. But then our part of the family is nowhere near as rich as others are. We also do not see the need to spend on things like huge yachts and mansions and the like.”

Helene Vardinoyannis was tall and matronly; only in her late 40’s she seemed somewhat younger. She was also very forthright.
“So my son you finally have a girl.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Mother.”

“I have eyes; I can see.”

Liz was a little overwhelmed by Max’s mother; she seemed to automatically assume that they were already a couple. Not that Liz was at all averse to the idea; but she would be gone soon and that would be that.

While trying to downplay it, Max was indeed thinking about Liz in that way. However she soon would go home.





Then the next day all three watched as the Government fell. Max sighed.
“This is not good; they were trying to fix things but so many are still wanting their hand outs. I just hope we do not get someone from either extreme right now.”





Meanwhile Jeff and Nancy kept after the State Department who kept telling them they really could do very little right now. There was hope the Embassy would be reopened in a week or so but that was all the news they had.

The markets had not taken what happened in Greece very badly; most had expected something like this; and in the end if Greece left the Euro many felt that would be best for all.

The governments in the EU were quietly thinking the same.

In Washington the president called a meeting to figure out what to say to the public.

SECSTATE: We hope to reopen the Embassy in a week.

POTUS: What about our citizens there now?

SECSTATE: most seem to have found places to stay. One worry we do have is a High School Tour group that got scattered in Corinth. So far we only have one of the 20 students that have been able to contact their families.

POTUS: I want action there; we cannot afford to look like we are sitting on our hands. He looked at SECDEF.

SECDEF: We have the Washington and her battle group waiting; they have already evacuated some of our people; and other countries citizens.

POTUS: I want contact with someone in Greece; probably someone in their military. They seem to be mostly in control now.

SECSTATE: That is true. They are the only real federal authority right at the moment.
POTUS then looked at the Treasury Secretary.

SECTREAS: More and more we see Greece pulling out of the Euro while staying a part of the EU. Probably the best remedy for all. Greece needs to reform in a major way and frankly I do not see that happening as part of the EURO.






Hiro Draklopos was a far left member of parliament. Relatively unknown until now.
That changed when he gave a speech to a rally that drew over 100,000.

“What has being part of the Euro and the EU brought Greece? We must make our own choices; not forced upon us by Bankers and Politicians from outside.”
The crowd roared.
“How long have the rich ruled us? TOO LONG!”
The Crowd roared Louder.
“They have too much and you have too little!”
The crowd went nuts.
He then called on people to rally each day until the new elections which would be in 6 weeks.

At first most of the mainstream media and others ignored him. But after a week in which his rallies steadily grew larger and larger, they found they could no longer ignore him. And he began to get more and more attention. His agenda was simple; take from the rich and give to the poor. Things would get better for most and worst for only a few. Greece was a rich and strong nation; there was enough for the majority if the wealth was distributed better.

Many who knew what the real problems were (rampant cheating and downright ignoring of taxes; corruption; too generous handouts; etc) became alarmed at how much support this demagogue was getting. Then knew if he got his way things would get worse quickly. The rich would flee and Greece would get poorer; businesses would close and more would be unemployed; tax collections would drop and the budget deficit would sky rocket. In the end Greece would be much worse off.

But too many had been spoiled by the politicians over the last 20 years. They did not want to think about things; they just wanted and did not care where it came from as long as they got theirs. Cheating on your taxes had become the nation’s pastime. They did not want to hear about belt tightening and austerity and working harder.





Liz had spent 10 days so far with Max and with word that the Airport would soon reopen they began to make plans. He would take her in the family yacht to a small port not far from the airport; on the other side of Athens. That way she would not have to go through the still percolating capital.

Liz wanted to leave less and less; Max wanted her to go less and less. But neither could tell the other that.

Helene looked at the two of them and shook her head; for two supposedly intelligent young people they were certainly acting very stupidly. So she decided to take action. She found that the international phone system was once again operational so she called Elizabeth’s parents.






Jeff and Nancy were both listening using extensions; they were a little bewildered.

“Mrs. Vandir…” “Call me Helene it is much easier.”

“Helene. You think Liz needs to stay?”

“Yes. I think she and Maximilian will suit very well. But they need more time together.”

“Liz is only 18.”

“Bah! She is much older inside. She not tell you what happened; or I should say what she saw happen while trying to escape. She aged years there in days. I do not have all details but I have eyes.”






Liz was stunned when her parents called and said she should stay a while; no point in leaving yet. She looked at Max who smiled widely.
“We can go to the Family home in Thebes.”

Three days later Liz stared out at the beautiful sea aboard the Yacht. It was called the Helene after Max’s mother. It took only half a day for the powerful engine to get them to the port of Eleusina where a big long white Limo picked them up and drove them to Thebes. And there to the Family Estate which was HUGE. Max smiled at her.
“There are more than a few much bigger.”

“Well this is big enough.”

It had over 100 rooms. But then a lot of the family lived there and Max was engulfed by a horde of children. Liz stood back and watched him; and her heart melted. Max would be a great father.

Hellene observed all of this and smiled.

Liz was then introduced to a myriad of relatives; mostly in their 20’s and 30’s.

They were noisy and boisterous and Liz felt right at home; which was strange as she usually liked a peaceful setting.

Meanwhile Draklopus kept gaining support from the radical and stupid and greedy and lazy. Unfortunately that was a considerable number of voters.





POTUS looked at the SECSTATE and shook his head.
“I think you need to get some different experts.”

“Sir as crazy as it sounds that is looking more and more like what will happen in the election in 2 weeks. One big problem with having elections only 6 weeks after a government falls what you often get is a knee jerk reaction. People do not have enough time to really think about things. Now I am certainly not defending our year’s long Presidential campaigns but 6 weeks is much too short for people to get over anger and the like. Draklopus would never have survived one that was say 3 months long. But he has a very good chance if not winning the election becoming a significant power broker; and the left will clearly win big.”

Draklopus had early on secured a very smart election expert; and he had guided him very well. Hammering away with a few simple slogans worked virtually all the time; and turning down debates as nothing but PR displays. The Socialist Party Leader was forced to step down due to the overwhelming support Hiro was getting. This fanned the flames even brighter as it motivated his supporters to work even harder. Which was ironic in itself since he was promising them more for less.





Max slowly put the phone down and sat back in his office. That had been the family Election and political expert. They employed him to keep his ear to the ground and warn them of bad things to come. He got up and headed upstairs; his father was getting better but was still weak after his heart attack.

“I can see from your face the news is not good, my son. So just tell me.”

“Our political expert says there is at least a 50/50 chance Draklopus is the next Prime Minister; and the odds are dropping by the day.”

Alexis Vardinoyannis had seen many things in his 75 years. While he had been a child during WW2 he had still been able to understand many things. There had been very hard times in the years after WW2 and he had grown up then. So what was happening now was not a shock to him. Saddened him; disappointed him in his countrymen; but not a shock.
“What did he say about his proposals to redistribute wealth?”

“Disastrous for the family.”

Alexis sighed. “Very well. Then we must make plans if this happens.”

“How do we shield the family?”

“That is the question. Our fortune is important; but as long as we have the land and the farms we can survive.”

“There is talk about forced redistribution of land to break up the large estates and farms and plantations.”

“That is the real threat; we can shield a portion of our fortune overseas.”

“I have already made significant shifts by putting our money in American Bonds that are very safe.”

“Very good. How much?”

“500 million EUROs.”

“One third of our liquid wealth.”

“I am not sure what to do otherwise; government bonds will be hardly worth the paper they are printed on.”

“Agreed. Take one third and invest in something; not controlling interest. That way it would be hard to get at.”

Max nodded. He had some ideas on that.

“We will leave one third in the banks; they will take most of that and more than likely be satisfied for the short term.”

Max took a deep breath. “What about the land?”

“We will divide it up in the family. That way we will be seen to already have distributed it. They will know why but it will be hard for them to do anything about it.”

Alexis then decided to talk about something much more pleasant.
“When will you ask her?”

Max smiled softly. “Next week at the party.”





Liz was watching the Greek news; which was all about the election coming in 2 weeks. She could not believe that that crazy man had a chance to become the Prime Minister. She would never claim to be an economist but even she could see huge holes in his plan. Why was it not obvious to everyone else?

The media was actually starting to do that; but they were as distrusted as the rest of the elite were now in Greece and many turned a deaf ear to the warnings.





Helene had bustled her off to a dress maker in town to make her a Party dress; every year just before the harvest there would be a huge party thrown at the Mansion. They had moved the party up a few weeks this time; Helene had decreed it. Liz was supposed to leave in 3 weeks; and Helene had no intention of letting that happen. She had gotten very close to Liz and was very much in favor of her becoming her daughter in law. She had long admitted that somehow she and her husband had badly failed their two other children. Constantine wanted to just party; and Helena hardly had a serious thought in her head beyond fashion and gossip with her girlfriends. IT was then very important to her that the one child that had never disappointed them; and had indeed on several occasions delighted them; should have his heart’s desire.




Liz knew she had fallen in love with Max; and wonder of wonders it looked like he felt the same way about her. Yet she was conflicted; she had planned to go to a major university and study biology; yet here she was seriously considering dropping all of that to become a wealthy wife and mother of what she knew his parents wanted which was a large family.




Max knew of Liz’s plans; but was determined to make her his wife; he could not conceive of ever finding a more perfect mate. Lovely and strong; sweet and sexy; gentle yet firm. The perfect woman.




One of the plans Max had come up with to shelter a significant part of the family wealth where greedy government hands could not get at it was to buy a 45% stake in a massive Pistachio farm in New Mexico. Not far from Roswell. The farm was over 10,000 acres and was worth about 1 Billion Euros or $1.6 Billion dollars. It came with a processing and packaging plant as well. That coupled with a huge investment in US Treasury Bonds meant that just over 1 Billion Euros of the family fortune would be out of the reach of the new government.

Already he had signed the deeds which transferred 5000 acres of their Pistachio and Olive tree plantations to 50 in the family. The rest of the land would be split up with the other part of the family.





Liz looked up as the music stopped. Then Max took her and set her down in a chair that suddenly appeared in the middle of the Ball Room of the Mansion. Then he kneeled down in front of her and brought out a black box.

Liz gasped then began to cry as he slipped the ring on her finger as his family shouted in joy and congratulations.






Liz spent the next few days in a daze as she phoned her parents and Maria and Alex. They were of course all shocked; but Liz was firm.

“I love him Maria. More than going to Harvard and anything else.”

“Alex. I will marry him and that is that.”

“Mom, Dad when you meet him you will understand.”

Helene had of course began to plan the wedding which would be huge; deaf to Liz’s pleas that she did not want a circus for a wedding.

“You are marrying the future head of the House. Tradition demands a large wedding.” And that was that.





Almost unnoticed in the excitement came the election; and as had been expected in the last two weeks Hiro Draloptus had been elected Prime Minister when the Socialist Party won 201 seats in the Parliament; a huge victory that gave him a powerful majority.

He wasted no time and in 10 days had all of his vital new laws put in place.





POTUS shook his head. Then looked at SECTREAS.
“How long?”

“My people give him a year before things get really bad; at most two years before everything collapses. Already people are leaving and everyone who can is putting their money elsewhere.”

Draklopus quickly moved to stop any movement of money or wealth out of Greece; freezing all transfers. Then put in place the laws to redistribute wealth and land.

Alexis and Max looked over the laws with their lawyers; they had already to a great extent either complied with or protected the family wealth from them. Already there were lawsuits and challenges; but the Greek courts would move slowly in this. At least a year would go by before the first court case would be heard; by then it would all be a fait acompli.





Max arranged for a charter jet to bring Jeff, Nancy, Maria and Alex over for the wedding. They would all be staying for a week before and a week after.

Liz had made it very plain that she would choose her own wedding gown; and that meant a lot of Email and phone traffic between Maria, Nancy and Liz. The wedding would be 2 months after the engagement.

Finally Liz settled on an off the shoulder gown with an 8 foot train and traditional veil. Hellene found after thinking it a little scandalous that she liked it very much.

It was very emotional when they arrived and greeted Liz.






Late that night Maria and Liz were at last alone. Maria fixed her gimlet stare on Liz.
“OK. Spill. I noticed you did not say much about what happened before you met Max.”

Liz sat back and considered her friend.

Maria could already tell the changes in Liz; she seemed much older. She knew some bad things had happened.
“Spill Chica.”

Liz sighed. She had not even told Max everything.
“It was bad the first few days. I ran and hid. I was very lucky. I saw two men beaten to death; and saw a couple of others literally torn to pieces. And I knifed a man.”

Maria’s jaw dropped, fell off and rolled under the bed. For one of the few times in her life she was speechless. Finally she was able to squeak
“You KNIFED a man?”

Liz sighed again. “Actually that happened right as I met Max. I had gotten to Aegina and had slipped into town; purchased a couple of bottles of water and some food and went back to an abandoned farm house I had found. Unfortunately a thug followed me. Cornered me in the house and I knifed him. Cut him right across the chest and belly. Did not quite cut his guts out; did not get deep enough. He ran squealing like a stuck pig.” She paused for a moment to take a deep breath.
“Max saw it all.”

Maria thought about that for a few minutes then slowly nodded.
“And he still fell for you after all that. Well that is good.”

Liz blinked. “What?”

“Chica, for all his modern ways Max is still a bit old fashioned. But what he saw you do will be in his head always. He knows what you are capable of. And he seems to accept it. That is what is good.”

Liz thought about that and then slowly nodded. She had not thought of it that way.





The next day Alex produced a picture of Liz in the Crashdown Waitress Costume. Liz then threatened to gut him. Max and the rest were highly amused.

When Maria told Alex about what Liz had done, Liz’s threat no longer seemed as funny to Alex.





The wedding amazingly went without a hitch despite Maria’s comment about a cast of thousands. There were not quite that many; only a little over 700.

They spent their Honeymoon on the Yacht sailing around the Aegean for two weeks.









POTUS looked at SECTREAS. “Worse then you thought?”

SECTREAS: “I did not nor did any of my advisors think he would go this far this fast to virtually seal off Greece from the rest of the world. Bank transactions are now heavily monitored for any Sum of over 1000 EUROs. He has employed a large number of people to collect taxes from the middle class and wealthy; which actually is a good thing considering all the tax dodging over the years. But the climate for business is very bad and getting worse; especially for anyone trying to start a new one.”

POTUS: “What does this do for your predictions?”

SECTREAS: “He bought himself some more time with all the Tax Collections going as they have been – that has brought in a fair amount. But it will not last. You can squeeze just so much before it comes up dry. With businesses already in trouble and no new ones starting up, the cascade effect will start to occur next year. I would say 2 years from now and Greece will be in bad shape.”

POTUS: “What effects will all this have outside of Greece?”

SECTREAS: “For the moment no more than it already has. Markets are already writing off anything Greek connected. The good thing about this is that in a year or so no one will want to go down the same road. At the moment no one wants to anyway; some are looking but no other country is anywhere near what Greece was. When Greece crashes and burns it will seriously damage the far left socialist agenda. More countries will be willing to go the other way; austerity towards long term balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility.”

POTUS: “So Greece will be the example of what not to do.”

SECTREAS: “Exactly sir. Frankly for the rest of the world outside of Greece it will be a salutary lesson that should stick for a while.”

POTUS: “But for Greece?”

SECTREAS: “IT will get very bad. Depends on how long he can hang on how much damage he will do. But it will take a decade or more to repair it.”





Max sighed as his financial advisers left his office. His honeymoon memories were all he had to cheer him up right now. Luckily for his family they were in good shape due to the precautions they had taken. But for many others it would not be as good.




Liz was still glowing a week after getting back from their honeymoon. Max had been everything a girl could want for her first lover; and Liz would be quite happy if she never had another. She poked her head in Max’s office; she knew he had scheduled a meeting to discuss the government’s latest moves. Even a business neophyte like she was knew things were getting bad.
“How bad is it?”

Max looked up and smiled at his bride. Lovely and caring and gentle and sweet and yet so passionate in bed. The perfect woman; and smart and intelligent as well. He knew some of his countrymen did not prize brains in a woman; they were fools.

“Our precautions should see us through the next two years which will be hard. The stupidity of this government will do a lot of damage to Greece. We will be many years fixing things.”

“How is that farm going that you bought near Roswell?”

“With things in Greece bad, the price of Pistachio’s have gone up and our 45% interest there is already making money for us. But with the way things are here we will dare not bring any of that here.”

Liz sat and nodded. “Reinvest there?”

“That is a possibility. I am also looking at investing more in something else; using part of the money we put in US Treasury bonds. We took out almost $150 million in one year bonds. That combined with the revenue from the farm will be quite a bit.”

Liz remembered something her father had told her when he was here.
“They are looking for investors for a UFO museum in Roswell. With as many crazy tourists as we get there that should make serious money.”

Max looked thoughtful. “That would certainly be different.”





IN the next 6 months the business climate in Greece continued to plummet as the first effects of the new government began to show themselves. But due to the draconian Tax Collections and land redistribution many still supported the government.





Max looked at his top financial adviser.
“The rest of the family is not doing as well as we are.”

“NO they are not. While we are at the moment maintaining our Pistachio production the prices here are lower; we are not exporting what we used to. But our fall off is not bad. The rest of the family is not ding nearly as well; banking is in a severe slump and the shipping lines are just as bad. We are ironically doing better with our Olives; the prices there have remained fairly steady and we have increased production. While we did lose 250 million Euro’s to the new taxes overall our gains overseas in the American market and with the yields on the bonds doing better than expected that almost makes up for it. Since we had already distributed more than the new law required as regards land, there have been no problems there. And it is helping out the rest of our side of the family since their share has made up for many of them losing their jobs as businesses go down.”

Max nodded. “The Roswell investment?”

“Sir I was skeptical; but the early results are very good. For just over $100 million we will be getting 70% of the profits; and tax breaks will help as well. While the Museum has only been open for 1 month, profits are already 40% higher than expected. Of course we will only know more after it has been open for a while.”




The UFO Museum was the largest in the world by a factor of almost 3. And its energetic staff was constantly collecting new things to put on display. An idea to pay tribute to Science Fiction entertainment that mentioned Roswell had also worked out well.





Max shook his head. “Sad to say but when this government is finally kicked out and things start to return to something like normal we will be in a very good position to take advantage of the many bargains that will be available.”

“In an excellent position Sir. With our liquid assets we would be able to bypass the banks and directly purchase. Cash in hand will be very much in demand.”






Liz found herself very happy; she spent a lot of time with the other members of the extended family, getting to know them. As the wife of the head of the House she found herself in an almost feudal position like a Baroness or something.

The only part that bothered her at all was the way so many of the other women expected her to be already pregnant. Not that she did not want to be but still.





The one thing that did not set well with her was the mess Greece was in. She could not believe how many had not yet realized what a disaster the new government was. Sadly she had to agree with both Helene and Max that far too many of the young in Greece had their hands out rather than work for a living.





The family was doing much better than many others; the plans and precautions that Max had put in place had worked better than expected. The share that the new land owners got in the Pistachio and Olive plantations made up for the loss of many of their jobs. Any company that produced food had major exemptions to many of the onerous new regulations and taxes that had been put in place. It was other businesses that were getting it in the shorts.




Liz was quite proud at how well the new UFO museum in Roswell was doing since it had been her that had given Max the idea of investing in it and becoming the major shareholder.

Alex had sent her an email that day (they talked once a week and emailed almost every day) about an idea he had had. Being a true geek he kept in touch with other geeks and they were talking about something that some of them felt would put the IPod out of business. If had been developed by a small company in Utah that Alex had found out. He suggested Max look into investing in it. She had asked for more details but would be talking to Max.

Max while fairly computer literate was totally in the dark about the IPod; something he frankly felt was more of an expensive toy than really needed let alone useful. So when Liz mentioned a competitor to it he listened with half an ear but asked his financial adviser to check on it.

A month later the adviser came back very enthusiastic.
“Sir your wife has truly unearthed a real possibility. I recommend immediate serious investment.”

So Max made some calls and shifted $100 million into that company, which since it had just started to look for serious investors got Max a very good deal. 35% of the company. They intended to launch their new device, called the Tool, in 6 months.





They had married in June; and it was in early February when Liz began to suspect she might be pregnant; she was a week late which never happened and she had some early morning nausea which so far she had been able to hide from Max.

A week later he caught her throwing up and was concerned.

She took a deep breath.
“I am pretty sure I am pregnant. I scheduled a doctor appointment for today.”

Max insisted on going along; and found himself the only man in the waiting room of the women’s clinic. Rather embarrassing.

But the news drove all of that away.

That weekend they through a serious party; Liz wanted to wait a while longer but Max could not and above all else neither could Hellene.


Somehow Liz kept from rolling her eyes at the way all of the older women seemed to be acting.

Her mother and father were of course over the moon; and Maria was a trip.
“I admit I was a little surprised it took this long Chica; the way I know the two of you were humping away I expected this months ago.”






By June Liz was already showing; though on her petite form it did not take that much. Hellene was firm in believing she was either having twins or a very large son.

Alexis was very calm; he had officially retired after his heart attack and luckily the damage had not been that great; early fears to the contrary.
“I am very glad you are having children early. It has always been my regret I did not meet Hellene years earlier.”

“Father, you married her when she was 21. You could not have done it much earlier.”

“I know my son but I still will miss a great deal of my grandchildren’s lives. You on the other hand will get to see much more; and probably well into your great grandchildren.”

Liz had become a great favorite to Alexis; she brightened everyone’s life.

By October Liz was huge and it had been indeed confirmed she was carrying twins. Which was a surprise since Max’s family had very few and as far as they could tell on Liz’s side none. It was getting harder and harder for her to get around and she began to vegetate.

Max had the room next to theirs made up as a nursery with everything known to man that concerned babies as far as Liz could tell.






POTUS: “When?”

SECTREAS: “Tax collections have fallen for 6 straight months; no surprise to anyone with a brain. With the Drachma already a very weak currency they will have to start borrowing soon. And the rates will be very high.”






Max looked at his financial adviser. “When?”

“I have heard next month that the government will have to start borrowing. The rates will be over 10% just to start.”

At the one year mark of the Government the handwriting was on the wall. But the PM refused to believe it and proceeded to push for even more extreme changes.

However his support in Parliament had steadily decreased as the problems in Greece increased.

At the 18th month a vote of no confidence went through and the government fell.






POTUS: “What can we do to help?”

SECTREAS: “We can back their loans. It would cost but no one else wants to. Not even the Chinese; and the way the Greek government treated the rest of Europe no one there wants anything to do with them.”

POTUS looked at his Chief of Staff. “Politically?”

COS: “Well we are in good shape at the moment economically and the midterms are still a year away. If we are careful we should be OK.”

POTUS looked at SECTREAS. “Quietly approach them.”





The new government pledged to right the ship of state and repeal the “stupidity of the last government.”

Support for the left was virtually nonexistent except for the hard core socialists and even many of them were quietly glad to see changes made. The Grand Experiment had been a total failure.





Max realized that because of chance and a little planning his family would come out of all of this richer than before since the opportunities were almost endless as regards good companies ripe for the picking. One law not repealed was that any Greek company for sale or on the verge of bankruptcy had to give any other Greek company the right of first refusal.

The Tool had become in only 6 months a huge success; threatening to overtake IPOD sales by the end of the year. Because he had been the initial heavy investor Max had gotten more of the company than anyone else had except for the owner.

“How much?”

“Our share of the profits at this time look to be $500 million. Indications are that will at least double next year.”

“The rest?”

“The UFO museum has been successful beyond all expectations. Our profits will be over $50 million. The Pistachio corporation profits will be over $100 million.”

“So in actuality we will be wealthier then before this all happened.”

“Yes sir. The land stayed in the family so no real loss there; and the 250 Million Euro’s in new taxes and other losses will be made up and more.”

“Have you made a list of possibilities?”

“Yes sir. Here it is.”






Alexander and Helen made their squalling debuts on December 1, a week late. Liz was more than happy to have it over; even with the 17 hour labor.






In the next 6 months the family made serious investments and purchases in Greece; and within a year the overall wealth was considerable above what they had started with just over 3 years earlier.

Liz got pregnant again and this time had a single girl, Maria. The years to come would be even better; and more than a few were very glad a young woman had come to Greece.
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