"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 X…
2030…
The rapidly growing central complex of what had just been christened "Sheldonopolis" by world leaders desperate to curry favor and a ticket on the survival bus from Project Director Sheldon Cooperson…Who had, with his colleagues Rotwolowitz, the famed inventor, and Dr. Helga Rostenkowski, leading biologist and social planner, demanded an absolute and free hand in building this last hope of a doomed Humanity…Where millions of desperate souls seeking survival labored frantically on the various caverns, factories, hydroponic farm units, and other critical infrastructure of the steadily blooming megalopolis. The Central Complex alone already spanning most of devastated California and parts of what had been Arizona and New Mexico before the bloody neo-Nazi Minutemen's Revolt of 2018. A series of vast holographic billboards, hovering blimps, and gaseous laser-powered displays overhead and throughout the complex appealed to the worker populace in the form of Sheldon Cooperson, urging them to evermore strenuous efforts…Promises for survival intermixed with dire threats, both the passive of expulsion and starvation and the active of harsh physical punishment.
But even the fear of expulsion and the brutality of Cooperson's panicky-government-supplied security forces hadn't quenched the growing discord and thirst for revenge…Every day, the rebellious mood growing… Finding some support among the upper ranks of former societal leaders and expert technicians and scientific colleagues who were finding Cooperson's increasingly dictatorial rule intolerable. More and more, now that the initial fear of death and extinction were fading as the great complex took shape, only fear of reprisals holding all back…While rumor and panic-mongering were taking hold, some claiming that most workers would be related to the barren wastelands after the City was complete…Others that the new clones of the creators being raised as the billion-plus workforce needed to carry out the global vision would not allow the surviving humans to live in secure comfort but replace all but the actual creators.
And Sheldon, being Sheldon, was hardly doing much to disperse the clouds of rumor… Arrogantly insisting there was no need to explain his vision to the masses or even fellow scientists, pressuring what remained of the world's governments to allow him full control over the remaining media outlets…Though few had shed tears over the banishment of the Fox News and Heritage Foundation boards to the wastelands…, blocking or ignoring attempts by the populace now numbering in the millions to negotiate some say in the developing megacity and its future. Even his closest collaborators finding it increasingly difficult to open his mind to other points of view…
Not that it had ever been easy…But the increasing vindication of his theories as the global ecosystem collapsed and the success of his efforts in the great work now underway had only increased his sense of superiority and mission…While somewhat stifling his critics.
Somewhat…
"Look, Hel…" Sheldon waved a hand as the hovercraft bearing himself, she, Rotwolowitz, and various leading figures descended into a secure courtyard next to the rising central structure of the City, the New Tower of Babel. "Every day, exponential growth…We've started the continental tunnels and the first factory caverns are already on line. This City of ("Sheldon, we can keep doing this all day or I can CGI 'ours' in." Howard, patiently. "Fine. But 'Sheldonopolis' the city is my concept and design…I should get creative credit on the end credits." "Whatever you like…Just say the line as written.") …ours is a reality!"
"Yeah…" she sighed, looking out from the craft at the haunted faces… "Sheldon, why must we treat the workers so badly? You threaten and bully the life out of them, even though their work is creating our dream. Even our more advanced technicians and some of our fellow scientists are feeling like slaves. They get no information about the future, no chance to discuss the direction the City is taking, and they're starting to worry…Even get angry."
"Hel…" hand pat… "This isn't the time for polite debates with our inferiors. These are the lucky ones…Billions out there…" he indicated the open spaces of the devastated landscape beyond the horizon… "Are doomed. We couldn't save them if we wanted to…"
"I want to…" Helga stared at him. "Sheldon? How can you say that?!"
"It's only the truth, Hel…" Rotwolowitz cut in. "We can't save most of the people on Earth…I wish we could but it's too late for most of them, and we, let alone the workers and staff here, are lucky to survive."
"Howard?!" a shocked Helga shook her head.
"Hel, you're a social engineer as well as a biologist. You know better than Sheldon and I do what limited resources are still available and what the needs are…"
"It doesn't mean we shouldn't try…"
"We are trying, Helga…All this…" Howard waved a hand… "And my letting Sheldon run the show for the sake of having a single, unified vision…"
"Let?" Cooperson stared, glaring…
"…is us trying. But we can't work miracles."
"They dug their own graves decades ago with their greed and their ignorance." Cooperson, coldly. "They were warned, they ignored the warnings and turned on scientists who didn't have the money or power to defend themselves. Think of all the colleagues we've lost to the mobs of fanatic, dimwitted dittoheads and teabaggers let loose by their greedy, incompetent leaders. How many of the workers here we're allowing to survive, let alone those out there…" he waved a hand… "…were destroying Cal Tech and other universities and scientific institutions a couple of years ago? How many of those out there knew the truth but for fear of losing money or power said nothing or actively tried to block all efforts until they realized even they couldn't escape…? Then they turned on their own leaders…Let them be buried with all the other countless examples of human vice and folly."
(Umm…Sheldon eyed Amy as they took seats for a temporary break in Pasadena's business center, fairly deserted on Sunday, Howard calling a cut to review lines… "That did seem a little harsh, much as I like Leonard's stealing from 'Forbidden Planet' to show Cooperson's decisive nature." "I did not steal, Sheldon…I creatively borrowed." Leonard fumed.
"Pressures of leadership…And it's just a film, Sheldon." Amy noted.
"Yes…I don't think like Meemaw would like me to act that way." Nervous look.
"Sheldon. If you ever become Master and Administrator of the world, I'll remind you Meemaw would want you to be nice…Occasionally."
"Thank you, Amy Farrah Fowler. Amy…? While Howard is going over Bernadette's lines…"
"Right…Going over her lines…" frown at the "director's tent", currently off-limits.
No reason we couldn't "go over lines", maybe out in the park across the street?…Leonard, in worker's outfit, hissed to Penny.
"We have our second big romantic scene coming…I want to keep the tension." She hissed back.
"Oh, I think I'd be better off relaxed…More focused…"
"Not now." Penny, firmly.
"Fine." Leonard sighed. Tension, yeah, I'm tense all right.
"…perhaps we should explore our characters' relationship?" Sheldon continued to Amy.
"In what way? Do you want to order me around coldly? I could do that." Eager tone.
"No, I was thinking…The hidden side of our relationship…I mean, you are supposed to be in love with me in this version, right?"
"Yyyyeah…" she blinked. "Hhhow…How do you want to 'explore' that?"
"Are you all right? You're trembling…? Oh, maybe I should stop playing Cooperson, I think my dark side frightens you. Forgive me my animalistically brutal side…It's my evil Cooper. Like Kirk's, my animal side must be forever repressed." Anxious look.
"Annnnimal side? Really? How animal…I mean, how interesting…"
"I shouldn't even discuss it. I know how you view me as a purely spiritual creature of the most rarified moral virtue, Amy Farrah Fowler. I can't wish to damage that view you have of me."
"Ohhh no…No…Please, continue…I can deal…Somehow." she put a hand under her chin to eye him. "I'm…Intrigued. Just how do we explore the hidden relationship…The hidden, romantic relationship…Between our animals…I mean our characters?"
"Leonard…" Penny sighed. "Honey, I'm not rejecting you here, my character is supposed to be virginally pure and innocent…Til the robot takes her place, then…Whoa, doggies…" grin.
"You did make a real angel in the first scene…" he beamed. "Ok, sorry…You're right. I don't want to spoil your effort here. I'm so proud of you, Penny, you're doing a terrific job." Warm smile, nod.
"Oh…Now you're spoilin' it…" she sighed. "Come on, I'll pretend I'm the robot faking pure me…I can tell myself it's good practice…" she offered a hand.
"So Cooperson, the lonely widower, frequently finds reasons to sum…Summon Amy to his rather Spartan, for the World City's Master, apartments at night…Hoo..How interesting…Yes, go on…Please…" Amy noted, urgently as she and Sheldon walked off.
Oh, please go on…
"Why are they all going off set?" Lucy hissed to Raj…
"Some actors just lack a professional manner…" he shook head. "Well, Lunch!" he called.
"Raj? You and I and that guy Stuart are the only ones here now…" Lucy noted, looking round.
"I'm up for lunch…Where are we going?" Stuart, rather contentedly.)
"Sheldon…" Helga glared. "I didn't start this project with you guys because I hated Humanity…We have a duty to save everyone we can, who's not violent or criminal or Glenn Bock…And the workers and staff here could be treated better. At least we could explain our vision for the future to them more fully…The Hands that build must speak to the Head that creates, Sheldon. Otherwise, in time…"
"Honey…" Rotwolowitz sighed. "While I agree, we do have to get this phase completed soon or no one, except us on the expanded ISS with a few world leaders, will survive."
"We start coddling these people, nothing gets done." Cooperson, firmly. "We'll have clones to do the real work soon enough, then productivity will reach a point at which those humans deemed fit to live in the City can reap its benefits. But the vision remains with…Ummn…Us… We can't let small minds start to interfere…"
"Fit to live?..." Hel stared. "You promised the workers they would be guaranteed places here for their work. Howard?" she turned to him.
Uh…
"We've done the calculations and until productivity and resources rise, after the initial construction is completed next year and the first million clone workers become available, the human population here must be halved." Cooperson, calmly.
"Halved?!"
"We'll allow them to colonize areas near us, whatever leftover resources they can scrounge or we can spare, we'll let them have…But they must go, it must be done, Hel." Sheldon, grimly.
"Hel, it's unavoidable…" Howard sighed. "Facts are facts…The Earth is dying even more rapidly than we projected and we can't support that many people here when the clones will use half the resources and do three times the labor. No one will be harmed…They'll just…"
"We'll just abandon them after promises were made…" she noted, bitterly. "My word as well as yours…"
"We'll do what we can…" Howard shrugged. "Maybe if the clones do better than expected…I'm doing all I can to tweak the templates."
"I'd rather see you put your efforts back into that android project, Howard…" Sheldon noted. "There would be a real gain in productivity and they could make much more efficient use of resources."
"But nowhere near as cheap and easy to produce as clones, Sheldon…" Howard shook head. "As a one-time investment maybe in the future when the clones have the City up to speed and we have surplus resources, but not now. Besides, I'm still years away from my version of the positronic artificial human brain."
"You said that back in college…I begin to think you can't deliver on this one, old chum." Mocking tone.
"We'll see…" Howard, light smile. "But for now, cost-benefit wise, it's the clones…"
"Agreed…For now…" Sheldon nodded…
"And I'm concerned about the clones as well, Sheldon." Helga frowned. "You and Howard promised that they would eventually be integrated into our society as fully human. But your plans for a rigid class separation…Physical, legal, and cultural, suggest otherwise."
"Hel, that's only temporary…" Rotwolowitz… "Right, Sheldon?"
Hmmn?...Eyeing Howard's glance at Helga…
Oh… "Yeah…Right…"
"So was the Nazis' Enabling Act to take over the Weimar Republic." Hel eyed Howard sternly. "I'm a sociologist as well as a biologist, Howard. I helped design this closed society to minimize the frictions during the healing of Earth…But I can't agree to the pattern Sheldon wants to set. I'd hoped you'd agree with me…"
"And I do…Of course I do, Hel…Sheldon plan, yuck, tooey…" he made a barking gesture.
"Hey…I worked out that plan over years…It's a good plan, survival oriented." Sheldon frowned. "And you said it was good many times…You once compared it to Issac Asimov's Hari Seldon's psychohistorical Seldon plan for the Foundation in the Asimov Foundation universe."
"In parts…" shake of head… "Remember? I had reservations too."
"Stupid ones…And I already showed you how stupid they were…"
"Sheldon…"
"You're both softies…" Sheldon frowned. "I love you both but you're softies…If Humanity is to survive there must be less 'softie' and more 'hardie'…"
"Some would say hardness and lack of compassion got us into this mess in the first place, Sheldon." Helga noted quietly.
"She got you there, old buddy…" Rotwolowitz beamed.
"Ummn…Maybe…"
("Do I have to concede to her here?" Sheldon asked. "I think Cooperson is brutal but right…"
"Cut. Sheldon, the idea is to establish that Hel is the one person you would bend a little for…That you love her as Rotwolowitz does…The seed of the weed that will grow up to destroy their old friendship and drive Roty, nutsy. In short, no flexible Cooperson, no insanely bitter Rotwolowitz, no Rotwolowitz robot, no howling masses led astray by robot girl…"
"Oh. Well, fine. But do I have to concede to her here?"
Howard, hand to his head, sighing…
"Amy? Penny? What's the joke?" Bernadette eyed Amy now chortling softly to Penny.
"Oh, I was just low-voiced chuckling to my bestie at the ridiculous notion of Sheldon loving you, that's all." Amy noted contentedly.
"But he is not for you…" Penny…Giggling slightly. "…Not…For you.."
"Are you making fun of me, Penny?" Amy, suddenly catching on to the joke, to Penny's startled surprise.
Uh…
"Are you making fun of Sheldon? I happen to treasure the memory of his making Leonard cry like a little girl in his display of raw animal jealousy worthy of a Marlon Brando."
"For the last time, I did not cry like a little girl…And Sheldon took me by surprise." Leonard, overhearing, fuming.
"Amy, if I wanted Sheldon Cooper…" Bernadette began…
"Yeah?" Howard, benevolently innocent look. "You were saying…?"
"Just…If I wanted him…"
"Howard, lets get moving!" Amy, grimly.
I want the bitch killed off as soon as possible…Right after it's made clear she never loved Cooperson…
"Guys, lets not fight over fictional characters…Like our boyfriends do." Penny urged. "I'm sorry, Amy…Bad joke…It's great that Sheldon stood up for you. Bernadette, Amy only meant to say Sheldon, like Howard, is a faithful type."
Ok, I'm a whore for my craft…She sighed to Leonard's stare. But we got a schedule to keep.
"Faithful like Howard?" Amy stared. "Hey!" Bernadette…
"What?" Penny eyed Leonard's look…
"So long as your placating the cast, you could tell me you know I didn't cry like a girl that time." He noted.
"Can I get assistant director credit?" she eyed him.
"For that you'd have to consult with the producer…" he smiled archly.
"Leonard…" she stared. "Lets not carry this too far ok, I'm getting creeped out. I don't sell myself, even for my career. You're hurting me, a little. It sounds like you really think…" wistful look.
"Oh, no…" crestfallen look… Pleading wave… "Penny…I was just…"
"God, I am good." She grinned. "But don't go on that way, ok?" warm smile…
"Ok. I was just kidding."
"Well, I much prefer to believe the producer would give me credit based on my ability. And that any romance between us would be strictly outside the professional arena…Eh, Mr. Producer?"
"Strictly outside…"
"So are we all better now?" Howard to Amy and Bernadette…
"Of course…We're professional colleagues and personal friends." Bernadette nodded.
And my husband is the director, so watch it, supporting cast member…She eyed Amy.
"Absolutely…" Amy agreed.
I'll be damned if I'm going to quit and leave her with Sheldon…Besides, Hel dies tragically soon and it's girl worker clones and Grotta for one Rostenkowski and Sheldon to me for the rest of the picture…)