"Sheldonopolis…"
Summary: In a dystopic future, Humanity's last hope is the visionary metropolis created by the genius of grand Administrator Sheldon Cooperson and Rotwolowitz, the inventor...But is it a paradise or a Sheldonesque version of Hell? And can a savior from the waitressing ranks of its cloned workers change its future?
Sheldon Cooperson, the Master of Sheldonopolis… Dr. Sheldon L. Cooper
Calvin Cooperson, his son… Dr. Leonard Hofstadter
Rotwolowitz, the inventor… Howard, the engineer
Amy, nervous Chief Assistant to the Master of Sheldonopolis… Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler
Penny/Futura, her android double…
The Creative Man…
Death…
The Seven Deadly Sins… Penny, the waitress
The Thin Man… Name withheld by request
Male Worker clones… Howard, the engineer
Grotta, chief clone supervisor for the Heart machine…Female worker clones… Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski
Georgy… Stuart Bloom
Part V…
2056…The Eternal Gardens of Sheldonopolis…
Calvin Cooperson, transfixed by the appearance of the saintly figure guiding the children of the worker clones of Sheldonopolis to the remote Olympian heights of the central complex of the megacity to view the beauties of the glorious gardens, stared as she led the children back through the huge doorways to the elevators…
The nervous "Club of the Sons" maitre'd still anxiously trying to excuse the dreadful incident on this day of days…At the beginning of the 35th anniversary celebrations of the great Sheldon Cooperson's beneficient rule, when his son Calvin had won his own minor share of glory by beating out all competitors in the Sheldonopolis City Sprint…
…Under five' seven" category…
No questions needing to be asked as far as some outstanding potential competitors being regrettably detained from competition in various ways…
Nor was the presence of Sheldonopolis' infamous, if relatively anonymous security chief…The mysterious "Thin Man" and his agents at the competition…Of any moment…
…No, it was merely a shame that such a grand day might have been spoilt by the unfortunate intrusion…
"They do have a perfect right to come up here and see the gardens…" Calvin cut into the maitre'd's anxious expressions of distress.
"Uh…Of course, my good sir…But to intrude in such an event, a private function…"
"It's not important…I'm glad they got to see things here. And no one is to be bothered about this, understand?" he eyed the flustered maitre'd.
"Certainly, certainly, sir."
"But you don't know who that girl was? The one who led them here?"
"No idea, sir…None…Just some foolishly uppity worker clone's girl…"
Frown…Turn to one of the small clone waiters who'd hesitated to drive the children and girl out… "You?...Excuse me?...Waiter?"
"Sir." Nervously attentive…
"Did you know that girl? The one leading the kids? You seemed to recognize her."
"Uh…No, sir. She's no one I know."
Hmmn… Calvin frowned…
Sure seemed like he knew her…And respected her…
Hmmn…Cooperson in his office watching on video screen from various concealed cameras… "The boy at least knows when he's being hoodwinked. Have that waiter brought in for questioning…I want to know who that girl was. Amy?"
"Uh, yes, sir…" she hurried to her master computer console…
Calvin now staring about the Gardens…Their divine beauty somehow faded, paling…
The young lady at his side still trying to recapture his attention…Unsuccessfully…
No…Young Cooperson shook his head…Something has changed today…He looked around…
For the first time…I don't see nameless workers…He glanced at the waiters and waitress now attempting to resume their duties and attend their elite masters…
I see people…
And people who can father incredibility beautiful girls…
Though of course, her pure soul is not to be valued lightly…And all my vague sense of guilt over the years at seeing the worker clones toil without reward or thanks comes at me now…
No, I must find out more about the people who labor for us…And that girl…
He made for the great doorway, ignoring the pleas of the girl beside him, his friends, and associated hangers-on who'd been looking to enjoy a free evening of extensive carousing at the young princeling's expense…Hurrying in a tense rush, learned from years of running from tense situations with his domineering father…
What a gyp…Several disappointed hangers-on groused…
"Goddamn, where is the boy going?" Cooperson fumed, signaling for the cameras to be kept on his fleeing son…
But this is what befell Calvin Cooperson when he went to look for the girl…
Far below the heights of the central complex and its fabulous "Club of the Sons"…The Machine District, that vast warren of tunnel-connected caverns holding the great machines, hydroponic food processing stations, and power transmission centers for the global city ranged out across the Earth…An area generally not frequented by any of the elite without special business or duties there.
No need to know how the food, air, water, and power were produced…Just so long as it kept coming…No matter what the cost…
Calvin had found himself, trying to follow the progress of the children and their female leader back to the Workers' City even further below, in the very depths, here in the upper bowels of the megacity, seeking answers to questions he'd never thought to ask.
The heat and humidity were stifling…None of the pleasantness of the climate-controlled living regions of the elite…Noise everywhere…The endless droning of the great machines, the cries of worker clones, the occasional scream of an injured party…A wail of an ambulance recovering the injured, a police vehicle stealthily patrolling, each lifted off the ground by magnetic field force, hovering several feet in the air. He followed the sounds of the loudest machine in the area, revealed to be the great M-machine which transmissed power throughout the central complex, power acquired by solar, tidal, and geothermal sources…But none the less dangerous to the workers dealing with the vast machine…Crews of men monitoring at stations the length of the machine.
All regulated at a central control board, by a single worker…An elderly man, fighting to keep his marginally superior position…But today, having desperately scorned the help of a younger assistant in fear of losing his job and facing the grim prospect of retirement…A pitiful survival at best, the meagerest of pensions only granted to the elderly and disabled at the insistence of the grand Administrator's kindly wife, the famed Helga…Still something of a heroine to the clone workers who remembered her and her kindness…Though under Cooperson's grim and unyielding regime, the memory fading…The supervisor, his strength failing after nine long and grueling hours of the day's shift, was barely able to keep the machine under control. Feverishly trying to make the myriad adjustments necessary to keep the M-machine in balance…
Calvin stepping forward to eye the workers frantically maneuvering to tend the machine…As if they were the mere servants of the massive device…Insect workers serving the queen. He considered trying to address one of the workers passing feverishly…
The elderly supervisor blanching as the various indicators suggested the machine was slipping into an uncontrolled, dangerous state. Fumbling for the emergency controls, collapsing in a heap…The machine running on, a wild, newly uncaged, animal ready to pounce in rage…The monitors indicating a critical stage.
A violent explosion rocked the area…Calvin stunned and thrown back…Watching in horror as dozens of men and women were hurled from their stations, some burned, some actively burning…Their comrades rushing to help but lacking anything in terms of safety or medical equipment. He stared at the broken bodies, the scattered body parts…Losing consciousness briefly, staggering up in semi-consciousness…
"Moloch!" he, in his now semi-conscious state, staring at the damaged M-machine…The bodies scattered on and around it…
Indeed the violent and vicious god, demanding human sacrifice…He thought he could almost make out the priests eagerly summoning new victims, bound slaves who were led up the mass ramp to the gaping jaws of the Moloch god…The priests tossing the struggling victims…
But immediately after the bound victims, a docile, plodding troup of clone workers in traditional cap and uniform, matching up to their doom, patiently allowing themselves to be hurled into the gaping maw, gears of the M-machine now visible, grinding the hapless victims to pulp.
His vision cleared and he saw the damaged machine complex, new workers rushing in to take positons, the injured and dead being carried off as he watched, in numb horror. Trying to reach out but unable…
No, not even the search for that bodacious beauty could come before this…Something must be done…The one man who could act to relieve this nightmare…At least install some new safety equipment and see every position's fully staffed by well-rested personnel…Must be informed. He raced for the nearest exit to the elites' surface zone. Out on the street, he found an electric hovercar cab in the lovely standard design of a 1920's touring car and was immediately recognized by the driver…In full chauffeur's uniform.
Hey, Sheldoncab does all the trimmings…
"Sir?"
"To my father…At the new Tower of Babel!" Calvin cried. "Hurry!"
Oh, my Bank of Sheldonopolis credit card… "Here!" he offered the card with Sheldon's stern face imprinted… And his motto… "Neither a borrower nor a lender be…" in small but holographic letters on top, urging the user citizen to use credit wisely.
Hmmn…Unlimited credit…The driver noted on his monitor.
Nice…
Perhaps we can do the scenic route…
("And cut…" Howard beaming, rising from the "driver's seat" of the "cab"…A closed horse carriage hired for the occasion.
"Nice job everyone!" he noted… "Tomorrow, the Towel of Babel…Administrator Cooperson's office…Or rather the Presidents' Lounge at Cal Tech. Assuming we manage to sneak in and avoid detection on a Saturday."
Oh…My first big scene…Amy, eyes bulging…
"You sure we can get in…?" Bernadette asked Howard…
"Eh, for fifty bucks, Steve the janitor will even play Grotta if you don't…Ummn…" sheepish look.
"Yes. We don't want to go there, do we, honey?" she eyed him, frowning.
Stuart eyeing Leonard…
"Troll, Warcraft, interspecies sex…You really don't wanna know…" Leonard noted.
Actually I was more wondering about the fifty bucks mentioned…Stuart thought.
"Well?" Leonard eyed Penny.
"I know I want you for my mediator…Soon as we get home." she grinned…Rather more like her evil robot twin than the saintly heroine.
"I still say Cooperson seems like the hero here to me…" Sheldon groused to Amy.)