Communism Without Coffee
Copyright© 2026 by A duck named TEF
Chapter 4
A duck named TEF
The capitol building descended into a labyrinth of catacombs built upon the backs of a slave race, and still more additions were being added. The slave race here never saw the light of day. They had been bred specifically for silent servitude, free-will had been beaten out of them centuries ago. Once they had been quite human, now they appeared more like mottled zombies. Lobotomized at birth; they were little more than creatures. Beasts of burden, and despicable to their masters.
Giovanni de Sorona always felt repulsed by these creatures when he saw them, Even now, as he made his way to the main hall, he regarded them with disdain. They were necessary though, a race designed to work these halls and rooms far below the rest of humanity. Many had been augmented with new technology as well, soon all the upper echelon would need to do is program the desired tasks into these organic husks. Their ideal paradise was quickly being realized.
“I thought I heard a familiar swagger.” The sultry voice of a rather voluptuous woman purred. She tossed her long platinum blonde hair over her shoulder and with her other hand traced Giovanni’s jaw-line. “Did you give the little mouse her assignment?” She added as she walked around the man.
Giovanni gripped the woman’s wrist tightly, “Refrain yourself my dear sister. I understand your jealousy, but if this man is of our brother’s line then we need to be careful. Better to sacrifice a pawn.” The words were meant more to assuage the woman in his midst. Yet there was a strange melancholy undertone.
The woman’s countenance changed as soon as the grip on her wrist tightened. She didn’t much appreciate the reply either. “I grow weary of the mundane.” She hissed but quickly back-tracked to her original purr, “Throw your sister a bone dear Mephistopheles?”
He arched a brow, this woman was the only one who still used his old name. None of their other brothers or sisters of the fallen race used the old names, only the two of them. He felt her wrap an arm around his waist as she positioned herself to his back, gently nibbling at his neck. “Lilith you’re incorrigible.” He rested an arm against hers.
“You say that...” She whispered in his ear and gently gripped his groin with her other hand, “But this is telling me another story.” She continued to press herself against his back, he could feel through his uniform her hard nipples. As usual she wasn’t wearing any undergarments. Lilith was adept at using her body and sensuality in order to get her way, but that didn’t mean she was any less intelligent than he, or anyone else. She probably wanted something more than to hunt down the traveler personally.
Giovanni, Mephistopheles, pulled himself away from her grip and pulled her around to face him once more, “What else do you want, I’m a bit busy controlling humanity at the moment.”
Lilith pouted at having her advance foiled, “Such a mood killer.” She huffed and pulled her hand from his grip, “Donovan wanted me to inform you that the gateway is running again. The last batch of testing was ... Oh what did he say again? Seventy-nine percent successful. He wants to advance to full human test subjects. Preferably not lobotomized so as to get a better report.”
Finally some good news, Giovanni thought as the two walked to the main hall together in silence.
The ‘gateway’ was to be their answer for the lack of a traveler among their ranks. The appearance of this previously unknown traveler proved to be quite serendipitous to their cause. Once they had him in their keep they could take samples and measurements to develop precautions against the dangers of time travel for one not born for it naturally. Not to mention, a way to control where and when they could go.
Though many of the upper echelon had been gifted as convergent blood lines, they had lost the ability to survive more than a few trips through time due to their fall. Thousands of years of breeding with the humans didn’t produce the right line for a traveler either, something had happened long ago that seemed to cause a true extinction among travelers. Giovanni believed it was interference from the Almighty. Time itself refused to make it easy for them.
The two entered the main hall, took their seats, and waited for the meeting rituals to commence. Giovanni afforded one solemn look to the seat on his left, empty, waiting for their lost brother Kalispher. Lilith noticed and set a hand gently on his knee. She knew how close those brothers had been.
“That’s a terrible idea.” Georgia stared at Denver, astounded by what she perceived as the worst idea yet. She could tell he wasn’t joking either. The worst part? He was starting to make sense, and she felt that meant she was just losing a battle between the voices of reason, and stupidity.
Denver was sporting his usual boyish grin, “Well you haven’t come up with anything nearly possible so far. At least this plan involves doable action.” He watched Georgia, her expression didn’t change which only made him feel like he really had gone off the deep end with this idea.
They weren’t making any progress, and something had to be done soon. He’d done far worse on other missions alone, at least this time he had someone with him he felt he could trust.
Georgia heavily sighed, a clear sign she was at her wits end, “You want me to hand you over to my superiors just like that?”
“Yes. I don’t see much of a choice. You’ll be there, somewhat. I have faith you can get me out if shit hits the fan.” The thunder was getting louder, and he could feel a ping of static electricity whenever there was a flash of lightning, “Well, if it hits harder than what we’ve got now.”
“Denny, it’s suicide! What do you think you can accomplish? If what I think is going on, really is going on, even I wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Can’t you like ... make a mental force-field or something?” Denver asked. No hint of sarcasm in his tone. Only a child-like curiosity in his eyes.
“What sort of teenage sci-fi bullshit is that? A force-field? Seriously? Not one of the blood-lines can do anything remotely like that, let alone a psychic. You’re such an idiot at times Denny.” The tone she had was like that of a mother scolding their child.
The part she couldn’t deny was that he did have a point. A terrible one, but it was there. If they carried out his plan, he could get to the lower levels. If he was in the lower level, she could use him as a psychic Trojan horse of sorts. It was all theory, but it was better than nothing.
She wondered if something like the Trojan wars had happened in this timeline or not. With history documents being so heavily guarded she didn’t know much of the details on humanity’s past. Some things she knew, but it was more or less a short distant past, not an ancient past.
Denver kept looking at her, sporting that ever increasingly annoying grin of his. Georgia rolled her eyes and raised her hands in defeat.
“Fine, lets go with your suicidal plot. Just make sure you keep your mind open for me, and locked down like fort Fifty-one for anything else.”
“Fort Fifty-one?”
“Yeah, you know, the place that the US stored all their gold?”
“That was Fort Knox.”
“No, camp Knox is where they keep the aliens.”
“Georgia, I think we have a few timelines mixed up.”
She rolled her eyes again, “No, you just keep fucking little things up and not bothering to re-educate yourself on the history that is.”
Denver shook his head and laughed. It didn’t make much sense to him, but then, time travel was one hell of a mind fuck. “Well, we’ve got an eventful day coming up, best to get some sleep while we can.”
Neither of the siblings had been able to rest that night. Georgia was feeling like she was about to offer her brother up as a sacrifice, Denver was spooked by how Georgia was behaving and the thought of possibly becoming a human lab-rat. He also wondered if Georgia, as a psychic, had an ability to keep others awake at night because she herself was up too or was it his empathetic side picking up on her distress?
The night passed restlessly, and the two were visibly tired. They spent the morning in silence, getting ready for what was to come. The anxiety in the flat was painfully palpable.The storms outside seemed to mirror the emotional storms the siblings were sharing that moment.
Finally Georgia stood from the table they had silently been eating at. She smiled half-heartedly, knowing there was no changing courses now. Denver nodded in recognition and offered his own smile of reassurance, not quite as good at it. Denver never was good at lying.
Donning her coat, Georgia once more looked Denver in the eyes, her gaze piercing him to his core, “Not too late to turn back now. We go out that door though, there’s no going back.”
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