"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…
Senator Hofstadter, opposition leader…
Councilor Firme, 2031 Councilor Dr. Leonard Hofstadter
Rotwolowitz, the inventor…
Tom Rossikivich, aide to Warren Rick Howard, the engineer
Hel… Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski
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…
September, mysterious owner of Yoshiwara's….
Councilor Layton, 2031 Councilor
Bruce Stuart Wayne, 2056 Councilor Stuart Bloom (you want me to do this for a free lunch, I'm Bruce Wayne)
Ted, former US Senator and leader of Droog marauder band in 2030…
Warren Rick, former governor of Texas, City Councilor…
Minister Flemm…
Councilor Romney, 2031 Councilor
Brent Adelsen Kocher, 2056 Opposition Leader/Councilor Toby Loobenfeld
Part XXXIV…
The pause engendered by the walk back to Rotwolowitz's study had given Howard time to compose himself after his frantic rage during the session with Cooperson and Futura/Hel II. And it was essential, he knew, to compose himself…
…if Cooperson were to be persuaded to be a willing participant in his own destruction.
Sheldon took the chair he'd been offered…Naturally already placed in a spot perfect for crossventilation while allowing for easy conversation or confrontation as needed with a good view of the window from the study to the outside yet not placed so as to allow that view to be distracting during conversation…And seemed uncertain himself how to proceed.
(Penny eyed Leonard… "Sheldon asked. He thought it would make his character seem more sure of himself and confident." Shrug… "As opposed to anal and retentive…?" Penny grinned. Uh…She looked where Amy was approaching them… "I never said that, get it?" "Got it." )
"So…" Howard said at last, both now served with beverages by his clone worker aides and now again alone in the study… "What brings you here to me, Sheldon Cooperson?" relaxed air, faint smile…
Sheldon paused, considering a long moment…"As always, when my experts fail me…"
(Sheldon, sighing… "Cut…"
"What now, Sheldon?" Howard frowned.
"I can't say this…No…" Sheldon shook his head…"I can't…"
Bernadette frowned…Penny rolled eyes…
"Sheldon, you're one character talking about another…" Leonard began…
Bernadette now glaring his way…Leonard, blinking..
What I say?
"Fine…" Howard, quietly as Bernadette fumes… "Stuart?" he turned to a watching, startled Stuart… " Can you take over? We can reshoot close ups of you as Cooperson later…"
"What?" Sheldon…Amy…
"I've had enough of this, Sheldon." Howard noted. "You're doing good work here but that doesn't justify the misery you've put the rest of us through. If you can't do your job…Goodbye. Stuart will be fine."
"Excuse me…" Sheldon frowning… "There's no way Stuart is going to get the fine nuances of this character…Besides, it's my City…Sheldonopolis…It's not Stuartopolis."
"It is now." Howard, coolly. "That is unless…"
"Leonard!"
"Sheldon, we agreed Howard would have full control as director." Leonard noted.
"Guys…?" Penny groaned… "A little help here…I'm literally roasting to death in here…" she tapped her robot suit with suit hand.
"Ok, Penny's got to take a break…Lets take five everyone…" Howard called.
"Amy…?" Sheldon had hurried to seek unquestioning support…
"You wouldn't believe how cheap I got this on eBay…" Leonard noted to Penny as he began unstrapping the heavy suit. "Oh, I think I'd believe it…" Penny, wearily. "In fact now I can see why Ms. Helm never wanted to relive her time trapped in this thing."
"Howard's just fired me from the lead over my refusing to speak one stupid line…" Sheldon fussed. "I've told him you'll be resigning as well in protest."
"I will?" Amy stared.
"What? You're only doing this to work with me, right?" he eyed her.
Uh…Well, that did add to the appeal…
"Sheldon, if it's only one simple line…I mean you did manage to endure my brutal firing scene…" she eyed him. "Surely suggesting Howard's character, a supergenius, is a supergenius, is hardly that difficult."
"For a man like me, dedicated to Truth…" Sheldon sighed.
"Suspension of disbelief, Sheldon…It's the key to all good acting and that subtle creation of a bond between the actor and audience…" Amy insisted.
"Jesus…Does everyone in our gang know more about acting than me?!" Penny groaned to Leonard, a bit weepy now…Not to mention…
Uh… "Penny, could ya not put your head just there? This is a rented suit for the scene and you're awfully sweaty right now." Leonard noted.
"So you're saying I should simply consider this part of being an actor, suspending my disbelief in Howard's abilities…" Sheldon eyed Amy who nodded, rather eagerly.
Yes, anything to keep my new side career from being blighted at first blush.
"I don't know if I can suspend that much disbelief…"
"Sheldon…I've seen you performing…" Amy, solemnly. "You can do this…You know it and I know it…You were born to play the part of Administrator Cooperson, the cold and calculating ruler of Sheldonopolis who plans to brutally crush all democratic opposition to his despotic rule via stirring up a revolt among his cloned workers and destroying the liberal opposition through his evil robotic agent but is saved from himself…By love." Satisfied smile.
"And a rather inadequate police force…I really would hold Raj accountable." Sheldon noted.
"Hey! I won't be allowed to implement my security plan…" Raj fumed. "Give me my head and I could hand you those clones' heads in an hour."
"I suppose I can do it. You really think I should go on…?" Sheldon eyed Amy. Who closed eyes, nodding solemnly…
"It's in the best traditions of the theater, Sheldon…The show must go on."
"Well…Still…To have say that about Howard…"
"Stuart does look good in that Administrator's suit…" Amy, innocently…)
"As always when my experts fail me, I turn to you, Howard." Sheldon, intently. Rotwolowitz waiting, expectantly as Cooperson pulled the folded sheets of workers' plans from his pocket.
("Nicely done…" Penny grinned at Amy who shrugged. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't…")
"For months we have been finding these plans distributed among our workers…What do they mean?"
Howard rose from his seat and took a sheet, unfolding carefully on his study table, turning on a high-powered, flexible lamp…Carefully scanning the plans…
…
End of shift…The scream of the shift change whistle brought with it a flood of quietly downtrodden, grimly intent workers to replace the desperately exhausted workers of Calvin's shift…
He stumbled away from the machine as another worker took his place without a word…And began blankly trudging along in the stream of workers off shift, staggering to the great bank of elevators to take them back to the Workers' City in the Depths below for a few hours urgently needed rest in their grim hovels. But was diverted on seeing the same William Dafoeish worker who'd spoken to him earlier. A very slight nod from the man convinced him to follow him, stumbling as he tried to keep up with him and the other workers steadily joining them. The slowly swelling group marched out of the Machine Hall and onto a walkway where more and more workers joined them, not so quickly as to attract immediate attention but clearly with a purpose, despite their clear and visible exhaustion.
…..
Howard rose from the study table, eyeing Sheldon with a mutedly triumphant look.
"These are the plans of the old sewer system of old Los Angeles, far beneath the Central Complex of your Sheldonopolis."
Sheldon eyed him…Really?
God, I've got some deadwood "experts" to dump when I get back…
"What can interest them in these old sewers?"
"Oh, I dunno…God knows what neat junk could be down there…And a great place to make out…" Rotwolowitz smiled. "They've been abandoned for forty years, so probably not quite so gross as once…"
"I would like to know what my workers are doing in the tunnels…" Sheldon pondered, eyeing the plans on the study table…Visualizing thousands of weary, tramping workers striding along through them…
With what goal in mind?
"Really? Would you?" Rotwolowitz, slight note of mockery… "Well, it just so happens…" he rose and went to a bookcase, pulling out two large electric lanterns, which he turned on, handing one to Sheldon who eyed him quizzically.
"…I maintain the old connection to the sewer, for my researches …Shall we, Sheldon Cooperson?" he waved him on…