"Totally Recalled…"

Summary: Another acting exercise for new and somewhat baby-blued mom, Mrs. Penelope Hofstadter and her entourage. For the prequel of sorts, read "Sheldon Swifties LXXV: 'The Creation Fluctuation'…"

In the late 22nd century a young and supposedly happy housewife finds herself drawn to another existence on the Mars colony, currently under the crushing heel of a brutal dictator… ("And his vicious secret police chief girlfriend!" Bernadette hisses.

"supposedly happy"…Leonard sighs. Maybe this wasn't such a good…

"Guys." Howard sighs to group. "I don't know if I can do the Dictator. Mom came to me in a dream last night and started complaining, "Now, ya wanna be Hitler?"

"Fine. I'll be the Dictator." Bernadette notes. "You be the sidekick."

"Actually, that does somehow seem to fit…" Howard nods.

"Hey, we have a former secret police chief right here, you know?" Raj fumes.)

Disclaimer: They're all Chuck's. Except Penny Hauser.

Part XXV…

"It is kinda pretty out here, floating over the Moon…" Penny noted as she floated in her suit, peering down at the Moon. "By the Light…Of the Silvery Moon…" she hummed softly.

"It's too soon for you to be space happy. Are you insane as well as block-headed?" Hauser's voice in her earbuds.

"Hey, this was your bright idea, lady. I'm just tryin' to make the best of…" Whoa! As a suit thruster fired…

"Watch it!" she cried as her suit was flung forward…

"Sorry to be keep you from falling into the Moon or drifting off to burn up in the Sun, after you starve to death or get hit by a meteor or a high-energy solar flare. Or some space jockey training for Earth's invasion force uses you for target practice." Hauser noted.

"Yeah, fine. Just warn me…Or better yet let me control the thrusters."

"Why sure…I'm sure your implanted memories of how to run a Cheesecakery hologram and serve drinks'd make you first rate at flying a powered suit."

"Are you gonna be like this all the way to Mars? Or the sun? Or wherever?"

"Sorry. I missed the sweetness and idiocy programming at Recall. Ok…" Sensing Penny's fuming.

"I'm sorry. Busy saving Humanity and friends here."

"I get that but…" sigh.

"There are things bigger than us at stake, pal." Hauser noted, a bit sententiously.

"Nice to hear you think so…Look…Why can't you at least restore my radio? Let me call UN Security, explain things."

"It's martial law, pal. And you are likely implicated in a terrorist attack, thanks to your dear fake hubbie. They'll shoot first, then probe your brain later."

"What…No? How? How could they think…?"

"They got cameras, pal." Hauser, patiently. "I'd be pretty sure your pretty mug is on some, including when you boarded the shuttle and got off."

"God, no! They can't think I'm a crazy terrorist! You gotta let me explain!" Penny cried.

"Yeah, that could really impact your credit score and Adam would be upset." Dryly.

Uh…

Ok…But that thought was only instinctive…Penny thought, repressing sigh.

"Oh, don't worry. They won't think that for long. They're sure to id us as Penelope Hauser, chief security agent and top advisor to Administrator Corversant, living without clearance on Earth under at least one assumed id, namely Penny Bowden, for months and now involved in this attack, perhaps as part of an espionage mission." Amused tone. "Really won't help either if they locate the real Ms. Bowden in her clinic."

"Jesus…What have you done to me?" Penny gasped. "But…I can tell them…"

"What, exactly?" Hauser's head protected just outside the suit, in space.

"That you're a construct from my buried memories and dreams and so, totally innocent until you started following my lead? Well, maybe they'll take us alive based on that and Targaryen's desire to have what's in our skull. But first thing they'll do is erase you, dear."

"What?"

"You're quite right, dunderhead. You've got nothing of interest going on in there for them, it'll be me they want." Hauser grinned at her. "So, to better get at me and my memories, they'll start by erasing you."

"What? No! But, I'm a person! They can't just 'erase' me?!"

"Well, no way they're 'erasing' me. I'm the real deal. Sorry, pal."

Penny, quiet for a long moment…

"Look, kid, we're part of the same person." Hauser noted. "If it makes you feel better, you can consider yourself my better half…At least my 'nobler' qualities. And…"

"You're just a hologram…A construct on a computer, based on me." Penny frowned at the image of Hauser's head.

"Bit more complex than that, but partly true if it makes you feel better. What I am is currently buried in you." Hauser noted.

"I don't know who I am…" Penny whispered. "But I don't know if I like what you are."

"Part of what I am is you, pal." Hauser sighed. "Sorry if I'm not all sweetness and light. But, would I be doing all this if what you are weren't pushin' me? It's thanks to you I…We're…Here. You made me care."

"For Leonard?" Penny stared. "I try to picture him and sometimes, for a second… Tell me about him."

"I don't have much…Honest. It was safer to leave those memories buried, not copy them to…Here." Hauser nodded at the computer/holophone magnetically attached to Penny's chest.

"But I can tell you he's a good man…Worth this. And that he didn't want us in danger, we chose it."

"For love of him?" Penny stared.

"And because, it was the right thing to do. But, yeah some selfishness there, I guess." Hauser smiled. "Ok, brace yourself…We need another burst."

Suit thruster firing…

"Whoa…Wait…" Penny realized. "You're taking me to that ship. The one you wanted to steal."

"Natch. It might be pretty out here but we can't sit around all day." Hauser noted.

"But isn't it top secret and crawling with Security?"

"Girl, please…" Hauser's floating head offering a good imitation of a shrug. "This is my job."

…

Mars…A lab in the Adminstrative complex of the Colony capital…

"Now…Look." Corversant leaned to the man strapped in a Recall chair, squirming desperately. Slim watching beside her as two technician adjusted the controls.

"We both know you're a member of the Resistance. And I would much rather have you as a voluntary recruit to my side, than how you'll be in a few moments." Sigh. "Really you'd be much more valuable to me…How's about it? Really, we both want the same thing…Freedom for Mars."

"Go to Hell!" the man fumed, helplessly twisting.

"Now that's not nice…" she frowned. "But I'll give you one last chance. Tell me what you know about the Resistance and the Martian complex. I'll see your friends don't find out and you can have a very nice life, here, or anywhere in the System. It doesn't have to be a lot, I know you people keep things decentralized. And after all, you'll tell me everything in a few moments. You just won't be quite so useful to me."

"You mean able to betray my friends?" he noted.

"I won't insist on that." She put up a hand, leaning close. "It's just that thinking independently you're more likely to come up with something useful to me. Come on, whatdaya say?" she beamed.

"Never. You're a monster…" the man writhed. "The Resistance will defeat you!"

"Ok. Gave you a choice, friend." Bernadette shrugged, backing away. "Your loss…Of mind. Do it." She turned to one of the techs.

"Argghhh…" the man groaned as the huge machine powered.

"He'll feel much better soon, come on, Slim." She waved to Slim. "Let have that report on the fusion bombs while we get lunch." She paused by a large videoscreen displaying election results as the man screamed in the background.

"Looks like I'm taking a commanding lead…" she beamed to Slim, eyeing the screen where a rather gushing female newscaster was eagerly praising the great support Our Leader Bernadette Corversant was receiving at the polls.

"A triumph for democracy." Slim, sardonically. "As for the bombs, we squeezed out twelve from what I brought in from Jupiter and your stockpiles here allowed six more without compromising energy supplies."

"ARRRRRHHHHHHHHHHH!" wail behind them, suddenly cut silent.

"Excuse me, Administrator…" a wiry fiftiesish man in glasses and suit hurried out of an office, past them.

"Something wrong, Doctor?" Bernadette turned.

"Afraid this fellow's a bit more troublesome than we expected. A mutation apparently…" the man noted, hurrying on, one of the technician anxiously coming to him.

"Dr. Rekal…" she addressed him, shaking head. He went over to the man strapped down in the machine, limp now.

"Ah…Afraid we've lost this one." Rekal turned to Slim and Corversant, while examining the corpse. "But perhaps useful…A new mutation, it seems."

"Mutants…Nothing but trouble." Bernadette frowned. "I don't mean to be prejudiced or lacking in compassion for them, poor things, but they are a bother."

"A mutation that resisted the Recall Process?" Slim eyed Rekal.

"No, he didn't resist. But he was able to focus somehow and shut down his heart. Interesting." Rekal nodded.

"I'd heard of mystics…And some trained agents back on Earth who could do that." Slim noted.

"Yes, but it requires years of training." Rekal noted. "I don't think our friend had that benefit. But study of his brain and whatever that mutation did, besides giving him sixth fingers…" Lifting a six fingered hand… "Should be quite interesting. Sorry, Administrator, but we should be able to avoid repeats in the future if any more such show."

"Well, a pity. But he probably didn't know much anyhow, none of them do, drat it." Bernadette sighed.

"Send the body to his family…The usual report of heart failure, true enough I guess, this time." She noted to another tech. "And maintain surveillance on them in case any 'friends' we'd like to meet, show. Slim? Lets have lunch, I have a solidarity rally at 2 pm with Lela Sanchez and whoever it was we put in as another opponent? Harcus Wells, right?" she turned to an aide waiting who nodded.

"Nice to know even my political opponents are with me." She beamed. "Send me a report on our friend here, Doctor."

"Administrator." Rekal nodded. "By the way, how is Project Hauser shaping up?"

"So far, so good, though I can't tell you more, classified." She smiled. "But we'll see how it all pans out."

"Pity if the girl dies. She was a fascinating subject to work on." Rekal noted. "And of course, important to you personally, Administrator." He stepped away from the corpse and machine as several of the techs came with gurney, unstrapping the body and placing it on the gurney.

"I know you did your best with her, Doctor." Bernadette smiled at Rekal. "And as far as I've heard, it was an admirable job. But, as Caspar Gutman said in 'The Maltese Falcon'… 'If you lose one son (or daughter)…" smile. "It is possible to…Get…Another…And there's only one Maltese Falcon.'"

"With all due respect, ma'am. My money is on her." Rekal smiled thinly.

"As is mine, Dr. Rekal. As is mine." Bernadette, warmly.

("Please don't tell me why you're smiling, Howard." Leonard sighed as he and Alex wheeled the 'corpse' Howard away.

"I never discuss Bernadette's and my sex fantasies with friends unless she really wants to." Howard grins. "But if she did, I could say that last scene is pretty much lifted from..."

"Howard?!" Leonard frowned.

"Dr. Cooper did say Dr. Koothrappali always does feature large in such." Alex, rather coyly.

"Why is Leonard laughing at something Alex said?" Penny hissed to Amy.)

…