The Universe Builders: Bernie and the Putty (22 page)

They pointed their ship once again to the west. Some of the crew complained no matter how far they went, the Sun never got any closer. And so it continued, week after week. For two months, nothing changed the monotony of that endless sea except more volcanic islands. Finally, they came to another continent.

This continent was different. It had no lush forests of green with fruits and vegetables at every turn. They found no people. They discovered instead a desert that extended as far as they could see.

The ship’s master sent an exploring party inland. After two weeks of traveling across an empty desert, they reached an inner sea. It was immense, and no one could see the other side. The inner sea was full of green plants and water fruit, of the kind common on the coasts of their own land. Because they could go no further, they re-provisioned themselves from the bounty they found and returned to their ship.

As before, they sailed north around the new continent. Here too, they came to believe the second continent might be perfectly round. And every time they sent out an exploring party, they found desert until they came to the inland sea. The entire continent seemed to be a giant ring of empty desert with an ocean in the center. On their voyage around the northern edge of the new continent, they never found an opening to the inner sea, nor did they find signs of any life.

When they came to the westernmost point of the sandy continent, the curve of the coast beckoned them south, just as it had on the first continent. Once again, they chose the west where they hoped to discover the resting place of the Sun.

Two more months at sea followed. They saw more volcanic islands, but nothing else. Only the empty sea. And in all this time, they were unable to get closer to the setting Sun. Always, it seemed as distant as it had on the first day of their journey.

Finally, they came again to another continent. It looked much like the first continent they discovered with its green forests. On this one, however, they saw mountains in the distance. Another exploring party was sent ashore to gather information and supplies. Imagine their surprise when the exploring party returned to tell the ship’s crew they were home. On that very shore, they found their own people.

The explorers had begun their voyage from the western edge of their land. They had never turned back. At every opportunity, they maintained a westerly course. And yet, they returned to the eastern edge of their land. How was it possible, they wondered, to travel west and end up in the east? It made no sense. And the answer to the disappearing Sun still eluded them.

The Senate convened a special committee to study the report. The committee debated for weeks, but they were unable to draw any conclusions. One group argued the explorers must have followed the same path as the Sun, traveling west, and somehow quickly reversing course so they could reappear in the east. But the explorers insisted their ship never strayed from its westerly course.

In the end, the prevailing theory was the Sun simply did not want to be found. And when the explorers got too close, the Sun decided to send them home.

What’s Changed?

The watcher with the tiny eyes alerted the others. From her post above the skylight that let her see into the young god’s home, she saw the boy as he prepared to leave for the day.

Everyone was concerned about the young god. They talked about it for days before deciding what to do. Something had changed. For weeks now, he had been leaving home earlier and staying away longer than ever before. Even his clothes looked different, and he seldom seemed happy. Worse yet, he never went to the woods anymore. They missed their walks together. And they were worried.

Bowin volunteered to lead a party that would follow the boy when he went into town today. His bravery in such matters was beyond question. Bowin was the one who had led them when they made their escape to the woods. Brave Bowin was the one who returned to town again and again, each time gathering as many as he could find, and leading them to the safety of the woods. Finally, he could find no more.

They were never sure what the danger had been. They only knew more and more of their friends were disappearing. Where they went or what happened to them was a mystery. If it was a good thing, why hadn’t someone returned to tell others where they had gone? No, they concluded something bad had happened, for they never saw their friends again.

Some said the gods sent them away. They said the gods brought them here from another world, but had grown tired of them. And now the gods were sending them back to their home world. But none of them knew anything about a home world. This was their home. They had all been born here. They did not want to go away. If the only way to stay here was to live in the woods as refugees, then so be it.

But living in the woods had its own dangers. Fierce creatures also lived there. And sometimes these creatures would catch and kill them. So they had to be vigilant. Anything else meant death.

Finally, it was time. The young god closed the door to his home. Bowin took the lead. He glanced behind him. There were four others. He knew he could trust them. Catila, who moved without sound, and Renot, fast and smart. Also Gower, whose courage rivaled Bowin’s, and Sibot, who had distinguished himself when he saved two children from a hungry Groddix that would surely have eaten them. Bowin smiled; he was pleased with his team. They trusted him and would obey without question.

The first part of the journey was easy. In the outer section of town, the woods were everywhere, and they had plenty of places to hide. Bowin hoped the boy wouldn’t go all the way to the center of town, although he knew it was a real possibility. He had prepared his team for any kind of terrain. He even ordered them to sharpen their claws. The sharp claws where not for fighting, of course, but they were invaluable for climbing walls and rough surfaces, especially the wooden bridges they would have to cross. Bowin knew he must lead his party inside the bridge, where they could be seen, so he trained them to scamper along the wooden beams above the walkway of the bridge. Hidden high above, they could follow the boy unobserved until he exited the bridge.

The plan was going well. Bowin signaled for everyone to stay close as they scurried up into the rafters close behind the boy as he entered the bridge. There were other people using the bridge, and although the boy sometimes talked with them, none of them looked up. Finally, the boy exited at the far end of the bridge. It was the same path he had taken when he went to school. It led to the open area in the center of the town.

Now was a dangerous time for the watchers. They must leave the bridge and make it to an area with vegetation or some other cover where they could hide. The Town’s Central Plaza was filled with gods and goddesses going about their business.

Bowin signaled for Catila, the stealthiest of the lot, to move to a small grove of red and blue flowers on the corner of the building closest to the bridge. The flowers had wide petals, and Bowin knew they could easily hide behind them. Catila signaled she was in place. Bowin ordered the rest to join Catila and then took up the rear as the four of them rushed to the flowers. In his haste to secure cover, Gower bumped into one of the flowers, which reacted with a shrill sound. Immediately, all the red and blue flowers withdrew inside their stalks as they too joined in the screeching sound. The thick lush flowers that were to have provided cover for Bowin and his troop had disappeared. Anyone who looked in their direction would see all five as they crouched behind thin stalks that did nothing to hide their presence.

Bowin ordered the troop to move quickly along the wall to a nearby shrub full of long undulating tentacles. He had no choice. To remain there guaranteed discovery. As they scurried to find cover among the branches of the tentacle tree, they watched in fear as the tentacles reached toward them. Bowin whispered to be calm. He said the trees were just curious and would not harm anyone. It was a credit to the loyalty of the group that they obeyed Bowin. Had they not, there was no place else to run. Several gods already stood by the empty stalks trying to figure out what had alarmed them. They would have been seen.

Bowin ignored the tentacle touching his arm and the other one sliding along his back. He turned his attention to the young god they had come to follow. It was well he looked when he did, because the boy walked into a large building on the other side of the plaza. Bowin did not know the name of the building, but he knew it was important because many people were entering it.

So this was where the boy was going now. As Bowin scanned the area, he saw the other building where the boy had always gone before. Most of the gods and goddesses going into that building were smaller and younger than the boy. For some reason, the boy stopped going to that building, and now must go to the new building. Perhaps, Bowin thought, it’s something that happens when they got too big for the first building.

Bowin looked around the plaza. It was a beautiful sunny day. He saw other places they could hide if he wanted to move closer to the building, but that would be reckless. He could not enter the building without putting everyone at risk. He must content himself with staying where they were. Bowin prepared his team to wait until the boy emerged from the building. Renot was convinced the boy would not leave until the end of the day, and it turned out he was right.

During their long wait, a pair of air angels discovered them. They measured eight feet tall from the top fin to the bottom fin. Their bodies were very thin as they moved silently through the air, as a fish might move through water. Large eyes on each side of their head looked in every direction for anything of interest. One of the air angels saw Sibot’s tail and came closer to examine it. The angel tilted downward, looking closer, as Sibot held his tail between his legs and tried to melt into Gower. The angel extended two long antennas as it carefully touched Sibot. Sibot trembled, but did not move or cry out.

Then the angel seemed to lose interest. With a quick jerk of its fins, it joined its mate as they swam through the air on their way to some place of greater interest. Bowin was proud of his people for their courage and for not betraying their position.

Many hours later, when the sun hung lower in the sky, people began leaving the boy’s building. The plaza filled with people as friends met friends, and they strolled through the still-warm sun on their way to tables in the cafés lining the open square. Bowin began to wonder if the boy had used another exit when at last they saw him leave.

The young god walked listlessly toward the bridge that would take him home. Bowin didn’t understand shimmers, but he knew when a shimmer was weak and tired. Something in the building was making the boy weary and sad.

They followed the boy back to his home, where he walked inside and closed the door. When Bowin and the others made their report that night, there was much concern. They didn’t like what was happening to their boy, but what could they do?

It was beyond them.

The Headache

Billy waited until Bernie left for the day. Things were going extremely well. It was just a matter of time. There was no way Bernie’s incompetence could be ignored much longer.

The best part was knowing Bernie felt the pain. It was fun to see Bernie’s reaction when he discovered Billy’s latest prank. Bernie’s shimmer normally extended a foot or two above the walls of his cubicle, so it was easy to see when Bernie discovered one of Billy’s little jokes. The first few times, Bernie had responded with confusion and doubt. Last week, Bernie was so depressed, his shimmer could barely be seen above the top of his cubicle.

And to make it even more delicious, when Uncle Shemal stopped by to check on Bernie’s universe, he commented on how bad it looked and how disappointed he was with Bernie’s work.

Bernie will be fired soon now
, thought Billy. Just a few more tweaks, and it will be over. The moron doesn’t even know what’s happening. He must think his universe is out of control and spontaneously generating random anomalies. Or, even better, he must think it’s his own fault. Billy had heard him lie to Shemal, claiming the volcanoes were part of his plan.
Yeah, right. That’s part of my plan, Bernie, not yours.

Billy decided he was going to hit him hard today. Bernie won’t see it coming. He was going to heat up the planetary core, and then move time forward until the heat reached the surface. It would do nasty stuff. The plants would dry up and start burning. The oceans would boil away. By the time Bernie got in tomorrow morning, his planet would look like a burned out cinder, drifting through space.
Revenge is sweet
, he thought.

Billy was careful not to touch anything as he sat in Bernie’s chair. He cleared his mind and slipped into Bernie’s universe. He smiled at what he saw. He had ripped and torn Bernie’s world in so many ways. Bernie may have stopped the continental drift, but the continental plates looked like a stack of dirty dishes. Billy chuckled as he moved deep into the center of the planet. It was easy work for a god to increase the temperature. He stopped short of anything that might change the physical makeup of the core. He didn’t want his tampering to be obvious. Bernie may be a moron, but he wasn’t stupid.

Billy returned to the surface, where he would have a better view of his handiwork. His excitement mounted as he thought of the heat moving slowly to the surface, eventually melting the outer crust, and leaving a world of molten rock. All that remained was to push his time lever forward so he could watch it happen.

He reached for his lever and the future—

Suddenly, his vision went white. Blinding pain, more intense than anything he’d ever experienced, crashed into his skull. Black emptiness was the last thing he saw as consciousness left him. The shimmering figure that had hovered above the doomed planet abruptly blinked out.