"Dry Lightning is a misnomer," Sheldon instructed Leonard and Howard and Raj. "Lightning is neither wet nor dry. And there is, actually, precipitation being produced, it's just not reaching the ground."
All but Sheldon had their shoulders up around their ears as the dry lightning arced across the wide sky in brilliant jagged illuminations accompanied by synchronized earsplitting thunder. The storm was directly overhead. Between lightning flashes, the nightlights of Pasadena were reflecting off the ceiling of pyrocumulus clouds. Static electricity crackled among the four men as they stood on Sheldon and Leonard's apartment building roof. As a group they were gathered around a whirring machine that appeared to be a gas-powered lawnmower. It was, in fact, a gas-powered lawnmower rebuilt as a time machine to Sheldon's specifications, ready to cut through the time-space continuum as efficiently as swathing through a particularly dense patch of crabgrass.
They were wearing rubber wellingtons and yellow elbow-length kitchen gloves. Sheldon was crouched down on his haunches beside the machine, long fingers moving deftly, even in the unwieldy gloves, over a touch screen that had been made part of the machine. A countdown clock digitally ticked towards midnight in the corner of the computer monitor. He stood, cracking his lower back with a fist against his spine as he stretched. He indicated to Leonard who leaned over, put a booted foot up on the machine and pulled the starter cord. It roared to life. Howard and Raj extended a long aluminum rod and slotted it into a holder welded to the side of the machine.
Sheldon bent forward, tapping a green button on the monitor with his knuckle and stepped back. "All systems go," he said. In retrospect, he should have said -
Foo, bar, baz and qux (alternatively, quux)!
The sky opened, lightning found the rod, the rooftop exploded in white light, and the time machine detonated as though wired for destruction. And exactly two point three Mississippi's later the acoustic radiation produced by the thermal channel process cracked in an ear-splitting shock wave right above their heads.
Then an eerie kind of quiet settled over the San Gabriel Valley, juxtaposing with the ringing in their ears. They were standing amidst twisted metal bits and pieces, wires and motherboards, smoking and still curling. Their nose hairs had been singed, it would be weeks of thorough nose-blowing before any of them truly rid their nasal passages of the sickly sweet odor of ozone. Sheldon would even dedicate one whiteboard to the chemical formula for lightning moving through the air, splitting molecules into 2 O atoms which then react with O2 to form O3.
But at that moment, before any of them could speak, the sound of female crying carried itself within their earshot. Each one of them shook his head like a dog after bath-time.
"Uh, Sheldon?" Leonard asked.
"Yes, I hear it." Sheldon answered in a clipped tone. "I just can't see anything as a result of the over-saturation of our retinal pigment."
"Just say flash blindness," Leonard said with a nervous note in place of his usual long suffering impatience.
"Is it coming from over behind that bulwark?" Howard asked, taking a tentative step towards the far corner of the roof.
"That low wall is not a bulwark. This is not a ship." Sheldon replied. He cocked his head, closed his eyes and listened hard.
"Okay, but still, it is behind that wall. Whatever it is." Even tense, Howard still managed to sound petulant.
"No," the tall scientist replied. "It's actually right over there where the major portions of the time machine landed as it broke apart." He pointed to a shape bundled onto the ground twenty feet from where the group was standing. "I'm quite certain we have not impaired ourselves with keratoconjunctivitis photoelectrica. My pigment is returning to normal. I'll need to make notes regarding the usage of proper eye protection for next time."
Raj began to object to future experimentation but Leonard interrupted him with a hand on his arm. "Should we-" Leonard's voice was shaking. "It could be-" he hesitated, "something bad."
Sheldon stood frozen by the destruction of his time machine, the cracking of the thunder, the brilliant illumination of the sky and now the sound of crying. Suddenly he jerked himself into movement. "Yes, it could be something very bad indeed." Hands fisting slightly at his sides. "But if we brought it here; we need to deal with this. Responsibly." He began striding forward. "Even if it has the power to suck our brains out through our optic canals."
Howard and Leonard looked around frantically, each grabbing a piece of the aluminum lightning rod that now lay scattered across the roof top. Raj fell into step behind them and the three walked single file after Sheldon.
Sheldon slowed as they approached. The sobbing was definitely tinged with fear. He felt a strange frisson of empathy move through his body. "We come in peace," he offered haltingly. The crying stopped at once as though turned off by the sound of his voice.
They were standing shoulder to shoulder now. The shape was clearly that of a human being.
A blonde head peeked up over her shoulder. Two long Heidi braids framed an elfish face. She climbed up into a crouch, and then stood haltingly. A tween-sized girl. Each of the boys excepting Sheldon took a giant step backwards. She was clad in jean short shorts and a colorful t-shirt emblazoned with what appeared to be a cartoon Valkyrie. She swiped a quick hand across her eyes, once, twice, and then taking an audible deep breath asked, "What happened? Did it work? Am I here?"
Howard and Raj's mouths snapped shut with loud synchronized clicks. Sheldon narrowed his eyes.
Leonard cleared his throat. "Uh, I'm not sure what you mean exactly. You're on the roof of an apartment building in Pasadena."
The girl looked at him, and then squinted, a thoughtful expression on her face.
Sheldon spoke. "Are you-" he paused, something about the child seemed familiar. "Do you live in the building?"
With a squeal of sheer relief, she launched herself at him. Acting on instincts he would reason out later, he opened his arms and caught her. She clung to him tightly. "It worked, Dad, it worked!"
And then she drooped in his shocked embrace, unconscious.