"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 Person…
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 XXXVI…
At her apartment, Amy anxiously awaited news from Calvin Cooperson…
Anxiety for both Coopersons, however…She eyed the small photo of Sheldon Cooperson, framed on her end table…Given to all 20 year employees on her own 20th anniversary, with the customary "I handled it…But you helped." Dedication.
All these years…He may never have noticed me…Except to remember to treat me like an old dog to be put down for one mistake…
And for that, I will help his son fundamentally undermine his despotic rule…Hey, I'm not a total doormat…
But I can still hope that I'll have the chance to forgive him and save his clouded soul…
After all, he didn't ask to bear the burdens for all of us…None of his friends was willing to take the job…
Hmmn…On the other hand I don't want to be a simp Eva Braun here…Evil is evil…And the soul of a revolutionary still burns in me and lept at the chance Calvin offered. To overthrow this elitist regime and avenge my comrades, lost so long ago.
And yet…It's only human to want to hope that he could change…
To still love him, in spite of it all…And believe, somewhere in that icy Administrator, is the Sheldon still who didn't want to harm anyone…
("Damnit Sheldon, I will kick you off the set if you don't stop bawling…" Howard threatened.
"Hey!" Penny glared… "You do and…" she caught Amy's narrow look…Leonard's somewhat bemused one…
What has been going on between you two?
Uh…
"…you'll have my bestie, Amy, to deal with." Solemn nod.
Yeah…Thanks…Amy's slight puckered frown.
What do you take me for, bestie? You just be glad Sheldon is totally clueless on this one.
And Leonard too, I see…
"Bestie, eh?" Bernadette had come over to Amy to help her readjust her make-up… "Very well played, girl…" she grinned at Amy's sheepish look.
Well, after I confirmed Sheldon had no interest in the blonde vixen across the hall from him, my calling her my bestie was totally sincere, Amy thought.)
Hmmn…Cooperson, enroute via electric 1920's style Stutz Bearcat limo to his mammoth Chancellor (Palpatine, Hitler you take your choice)'s office in the New Tower of Babel, frowned at a poster plastered on the vast exterior wall of the Sheldonarium , Sheldonopolis' gigantic aquarium holding most of what remained of the Earth's aquatic species… "Vote Brent Adelsen Kocher for City Council President!", complete with square-jawed portrait of the new darling of the elite allowed to vote for the largely powerless Council.
Doubling on frown at the paraphrased line below the portrait… "Because he'll handle it better…"
"You son of a bitch…" glare at the portrait.
A few nods to the vox populi, a few vague calls for reform, and all my decades of labor in behalf of Humanity are ignored, Cooperson grimly thought as his limo passed by the 24/7 holographic "Life of Cooperson" display and the massive, towering statue of Sheldon Cooperson gazing to the heavens, right hand pointed up to the skies, left frozen in sweeping motion as if sweeping away enemies.
Well, once we get the clones good and stirred up by our false Penny…They'll be pleading for my firm hand on the reigns once more.
That girl…He sat back…
Hard to believe and yet…Even though she's not of the original pure bred Helga line…So much of Hel in her eyes.
But that's a fantasy…And the Master of Sheldonopolis has no time to dwell on romantic fantasies about things lost…And buried…Forever. Megacity to run, Humanity to save…
I mean, look at Howard…Poor fellow, lost in the past, barely able to function in the here and now…
Though, he did seem to perk up at the thought of such a grand field test of his new worker replacement android…
Well, we'll see what it can do.
…
The cavern chamber….
Where a startled Penny confronted her single remaining rather perhaps overly devoted follower, Calvin Cooperson kneeling before her in his borrowed worker's uniform, cap in hand, pleading look.
"You…" she eyed him.
"You…" he eyed her.
"Miss Penny, I'm…"
"I know who you are, Mr. Cooperson…" she waved him off. "I recognized you yesterday at the Club…What are you doing here?" frown on her angelic features.
"Are you spying on us, sir?" she sighed. "We're no threat to your father and his City, you know."
"He might not say so…" Calvin noted…But hastily, urgently… "But I'm not a spy…I came…Well…"
"You came because you heard me tell you that we are all brothers and sisters?" she asked, eagerly. "Have you come to be our Mediator, at last?"
"Oh, yeah…Well that and…"
"What other reason could bring you…?" innocent stare.
"Uh…" he blinked.
"None whatsoever…You called for a Mediator, here I am."
She regarded him…Sigh.
"Mr. Cooperson…"
"Calvin…" he urged.
"I do dance at Yoshiwara's part time to help feed my family…Just in the chorus, but I'm not totally clueless about men and women, particularly wealthy men and poor women." Folding of hands, stern expression.
"I'm sorry…" he sighed now. "I do believe in this cause, the workers' rights and mediating and all that…I really do…It's just…You are so beautiful. It was a great incentive."
Wan smile from Penny…
"I'm beautiful? I'm only a worker's daughter, a daughter of two clones bred for slave labor."
"That wasn't the intent when this started…They were meant to be given full human rights as soon as possible." Calvin, firmly. "I know my dad reneged on his promises but I will see they're kept. There are many people up above who would agree with me if they only heard you speak."
"I want to believe you, Mr. Cooperson. But we've been deceived before." She eyed him. "Sorry if I'm not quite as trusting as you might have thought from my talk, but the lives of millions of what I choose to call, human beings, are at stake here. As is your father's City…"
"I know that." Calvin nodded. "It's not just out of altruism that I'm doing this…And my kinda crush on you…" smile while she returned, hesitantly. "Our future in the upper City is your future…We can't survive if you don't, I really do believe that."
"You're very beautiful when you're earnest…" she smiled fondly. "And I like you better in those clothes than those silken knickers." Grin.
"Thank you…"
Rotwolowitz, watching from his narrow portal high above…Frowning…
"Nice…Yeah…Great, very romantic…Lets move it along, kids…I have a face and personality to steal and a megacity to destroy."
…
Yoshiwara's…
Where a benumbed, dazzled Georgy stumbled through the vast halls, drifting among the crowds of the elite and those few workers who'd managed to save or steal enough to spend a few hours in Paradise. Women, some clones…Hey, there 12819 he barely managed to check himself at the sight of the dancer who lived in the same Workers' City apartment complex…Though of course a much larger, nicer apartment… as he…Some not…Passed by or eyed him coolly from where they stood, ready to pounce or watching the customers for signs that they might be other than happy, clueless members of the elite. Even in Yoshiwara's, famed for its zero tolerance rule towards cheats and sharks of every description, some few occasionally still tried to "beat the house". It was said that none succeeded, but since none lived to tell the tale, who knew? Happily smiling yet soulless men encouraged the crowd to taste and savor the delights of the famed Yoshiwara…In gaming, in music, in food…In other pleasures, less innocent.
"Care to try your luck, sir?" a Helga clone in reasonably tasteful, yet alluring costume beckoned to him.
Uh…Well..
"A drink, sir?" a passing waiter offered…
Oh, uh… "Just let us know whatever else you require." The waiter noted after leaving a large glass of champagne in his hand as he passed.
"Thanks…"
"Just place a chip on the square, sir…" the female attendant urged him. He doing so without thinking.
Another girl, in elegant dress…Bearing the face of Sheldon Cooperson's twin sister, Missy…Her genetic material preserved as a sentimental concession to Cooperson's mother…Strode confidently to him.
"Looks like you won…" she noted, with warm smile…
I did? Georgy stared at the gaming board, the attendant pushing some chips his way with a winning smile. "Congratulations, sir."
"I'm Missy…Hello…" the clone Missy beamed… "Care to buy a working girl a drink?" she smiled. As the attendant at the gaming table looked over the crowd to lock eyes with the famed but inscrutable September, who nodded slightly to her, then eyed Georgy who was focused totally on the girl beside him.
Hmmn…Must tell that girl after this task that she's not to work with customers on a one-to-one basis…Strictly dancing….
Sheldon may accept that the female clones must try to earn a bit more any way they can but this is his twin sister's genetic twin…