The Ultravisionary Aryans

"Hi. I'm Rita Kashirina. How's your day been?" the svelte redhead in the long brown coat asked him as she sat down at the coffeeshop table with her morning coffee. Time to see how this date'd go.

"Guten tag. Avgustin Kryuger." He smiled a little at that, sinking into an easy manner. He wore a collared shirt, a loose red tie, and trousers. It was all neatly pressed.

"That's an unusual name. Are you a German?"

"I'm Deytsch."

"I'm sorry, what's a Deytsch?" she asked. He in turn noted her fox fur shawl and heels that almost certainly were purchased on the black market.

"A Deytsch is a culture. From Perm. There aren't many of us left. Most found our conduct to be...untoward."

"...Then you are a fascist?"

"Oh, no, of course not, I'm a devout Ultravisionary, as I'm guessing you are. I'm an Aryan, but I figure that if the Ultravisionaries beat us they must be strong enough to be Aryans in turn. It's clear that this country's best have an Aryan conquerer's state of mind."

"...The Brotherhood enslaved people," she said.

"Yes. We did, but so do you. You just call it work camps, community service, or re-education. The Federation has a lot in common with Permhaym, I found it easy to adapt. Still, I am a true believer, don't you worry. Science for the benefit of all is a lovely dream."

"You are a social fascist," she hissed.

"Rita, what do you do for a living?" he asked, gently.

"...Why're you asking me that?"

"I just want to know. We may as well have this conversation so you can report the harmless Ultravisionary who chooses to use a Deytsch name and believe in silly things like Aryan Ultravisionaries. The one who was always known to be striving to be a Hero of Ultravisionary Labor and who hasn't done a single thing wrong, who has always followed the party line despite a few quirks."

"...Fine. I work at the People's Commissariat of Science. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Sure. What do you do in the Commissariat?" he asked.

"...We're working on this socialist productivity drug."

"I assume you test it on rats?"

"No, rats wouldn't give an accurate assessment. We do it on people."

"Whether they want to or not? I really don't mind, why don't you answer truthfully?"

"...Yes, we don't take their wishes into consideration. You are...transparently a heartless bastard," she said.

"And you are more subtly heartless. I'd be willing to bet that neither of us actually care about proletarians or Russians or the like. In fact, I don't think I have the brain chemistry for it. As far as I can tell I was born without empathy and without a conscience, and I've been a law-abiding citizen despite that."

"...Fine." She looked around, noting that the coffee shop was mostly empty. She took a sip of her coffee. "You're right. I...I don't know what that feels like either, and I'm doing just fine. I'm not a sadist, I want to make that clear. I just...don't feel some emotions, I never have."

"Then you are an Aryan woman." he smiled, raising his coffee. "Cheers!" She followed suit and they clinked paper cups, even as her face scrunched up.

"I guess we're together in being savages," she said, though she didn't seem to bothered by that. She was more obviously annoyed that she'd been called out, frankly.

"No, we're Aryans and New Soviet People. Maybe I'm a savage, in the USF, someone who can't get over a little religious movement he was a part of, but you? You're the kind of person who gets things done. You're the kind of person who this country was made for. You're the kind of woman who's going to win us this war against the Hitlerites. Vagner had a lot of good ideas, and I liked being part of the Deytsch culture, but the Germans stopped being divine once Hitler died, and by now the United Soviet Federation is far more Aryan than the decadent Germans ever were."

"Vagner was a moron, a cult leader, a slaver, and a mass murderer."

"Do you actually care, or are you just saying that?"

"Well, I don't, except for the moron part. I don't think you should give respect to fools," she noted.

"He was less dumb than he looked, even if he lost. He kept the movement together. He was a visionary, like Hitler, like Bukharin, like Zhdanov."

"You're a strange man, Mr. Kryuger," she noted, though something in her seemed to be coming to life.

"I am. That's your advantage. You're a normal woman. I'm bound by my fondness for my traditions, but you? They'll never see you coming."

"I don't want to have some kind of grand plan, though. I just want to do my work in the Commissariat and then go back to being a surgeon," she noted.

"Surgery. That requires cutting into people, right? I bet you'd find that easy. We aren't saddled by the issues that the sheep who the state watches over are. I like you, Rita, as much as people like us can. I just wish you wouldn't default to pretending to care about things like slavery."

"It's a habit. I dislike slavery on ideological grounds, in that it prevents class consciousness, but yes, on moral grounds I'm not qualified to judge. Honestly, it's quite rare that I talk so openly about this kind of thing." She sighed and rubbed her temples.

"...You know, you would have made a great Aryan Sister, if Vagner hadn't been emulating the worst parts of the Nazi government like their hatred for women. We could have doubled our armies with Aryans like you, but Vagner was too focused on being a man than being an Aryan. Again, I don't like all of what Vagner preached, but he got a lot more right than wrong."

"That's about how I feel about Zhdanov, comrade."

"I like Zhdanov better. I just wish he was less of a hypocrite. I think he genuinely believes this country is for the downtrodden proletariat. If he really wants his far-future galactic empire, he should stop pretending he's Suslov." He laughed a little hollowly at that.

Rita nodded at Avgustin. "What about Serov? I was always fond of Serov when I lived in Komi back in my twenties."

"That fool? Russians aren't the master race. Only people like us are the master race. Serov was as much of a moron as Himmler."

"I can't tell if you're a rightist or a very self-serving and elitist leftist."

"I'm a leftist in Zhdanov's nation and I was a rightist in Vagner's territory, but my beliefs are the same. I just fight for the advancement of science now instead of for Aryan glory. Though, as I said, they really are one and the same."

"Maybe we should go out for drinks next time," she said, a cocky smirk crossing her face as she ran a hand through her hair to get a strand out of her eyesight.

"We should."

*Author: RiverDelta*