The Adventures of Professor Proton, Jr.: "The Proton Express..."

"The Adventures of Professor Proton, Jr: The Proton Express..."Part XLI...

"The Adventures of Professor Proton, Jr: The Proton Express..."

Summary: In my first longer Proton Jr tale, can Prof Proton Jr. aka mild-mannered Sheldon Cooper and Dr. Amy aka Amy F. Fowler save the world at Christmas...And can Proton Jr. keep that blond sob of an engineering genius Tom Swift, Jr. away from his girl?

Equally important...Should Cameragirl Penny allow this thing to appear on her acting credits or just accept that all hope of a professional career is gone and just enjoy while peddling her drugs?

Disclaimer: All is Chuck's...

Part XLI...

"Professor...Arthur...Proton..." the floating image, bright in the quite dim light of the ship's interior, intoned. "Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski-Swift...Greetings."

"Say something, Arthur..." Bernadette hissed over radio.

"Uh..." Proton stared through the glass portal of his suit at the smiling figure...

"Greetings..."

"Accept our apologies for a low-level scan of your brains..." the image smiled. "Just what was necessary to establish communication..." Deeper smile. "No...Offense meant."

"Oh, that's fine." Proton shrugged. "My girlfriend and colleague, Dr. Amy, scans my brain all the time." Bernadette eyeing him.

"Sermek?" Bernadette addressed the robot. "Any physical readings...?"

"The image is a holographic projection from the ship...A matrix of energy fields." Sermek noted.

"And hello, alien image...I am Sermek, B-9 environmental control robot."

"Greetings, Sermek." The image smiled. "Your AI device is quite advanced." It noted.

"Thank you." Sermek, raising bubble head.

"You're...A Martian?" Bernadette addressed the figure.

"We are the children of Sol4, Home, though this individual was...Born...On our artificial Home, approximately thirty Home journeys...Martian years?...Ago. Five million years to Earth, Professor Proton?" it addressed Proton.

"Oh...I was just thinking you resembled the Martians as conceived in that film...Movie...Talking picture?" Proton explained. "And its original title was 'Quatermass and the Pit' which was good about identifying the scientist in the movie but not very good describing what was in the Pit."

"Insect form...Yes...Not quite, actually." The image noted. "We are descended from creatures similar to your concept but are now...Warm-blooded and more..." pause. "Human...Humanoid in our form." Smile, cocking head.

"Are we communicating with you directly?" Bernadette asked. "Sermek says you're not physically on the ship."

"Correct. Direct communication with us is only possible at several...Days'...Delay. Therefore this one, Mimmmnll..." a series of clicks following the more comprehensible tones. "Or, 'Mary', as she has chosen for human name...Programmed what you would call the ship's computer to generate an interactive interface based on her...Me." Smile. "Call me Mary..."

"Mary...That's nice. That was..." Bernadette, blinking. "Tom's mother's name."

"Yes, we learned of it via Earth signals...Radio, television...That was how we determined Tom Swift and his father Thomas were good candidates for our current era first contact."

"Mary's my mother's name too..." Proton noted.

"Yes." The image agreed, smiling. "We hope you will accept it as a complement, though she...I...Really do like the name."