The Universe Builders: Bernie and the Putty

by Steve LeBel

  “That sounds like superstitious thinking to me. I never heard you could stop the forces of Chaos or Order from influencing you.”

  “Of course you have. Think about it, Bernie. You told me about the personal dampeners Shemal installed in everyone’s cubicle at work, right? You’ve been using it to dampen your chaotic side so it doesn’t interfere with your creations, right?”

  “Yes. It works really well. And it has a side benefit, too. My cloud usually unravels my clothes, but with the dampener on, I haven’t lost anything for weeks.”

  “Exactly. My charms do the same thing. Some of them have extra benefits, too, so I always carry at least a couple with me all the time. Cool, huh?”

  “Hmm… I guess I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

  “Let me show you what I’m working on now. These are the charms I use to get girls.”

  “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”

  “Well… I’m still working on that part,” Lenny admitted.

  Lenny sat at his desk and offered Bernie the extra chair. “I’ve broken it down into its component parts. The first thing you have to do is to get noticed, right? Then you have to make a good first impression. Then you have to make sure the relationship gets stronger. I’m making great progress but there’re lots of variables.”

  “Like what?”

  “First of all, not everything works on everybody. Remember the other day when I showed you the tweaker stick? That one works really well on girls, but not so well on guys. I can get 82% of the girls to start looking around. That’s the best thing I’ve found so far. I have two others with 75% reliability. Finding effective talismans isn’t actually that hard. Lots of them are well documented in the literature.

  “I worked my way through the best candidates until I found the charms that work best for me.” Lenny pointed to the long shelf above his desk, where fifteen curious objects were laid out.

  “The hardest part is researching the first impression phase—”

  Bernie started laughing. “Is that why you keep asking Suzie if she thinks you look any different today?”

  “Yes, of course. The problem with this phase of the research is finding girls who will give you accurate feedback on what they’re experiencing.”

  “But, Lenny,” Bernie said with a teasing grin, “I’ve never heard her say she saw anything different about you except for what you’re wearing.”

  “That’s your fault, Bernie. She’s so hung up on you that some of my best charms just bounce off her. She doesn’t see anything else when you’re around.”

  Bernie’s heart skipped a beat. “I don’t think so.”

  “Are you kidding? What planet are you living on? Back in school we used to joke about the big crush she had on you.”

  Bernie thought back to school. Suzie had been a great friend, for sure. But she was smart and pretty and could have any boy she wanted. She certainly wouldn’t be interested in him. An irrational bit of hope flickered in Bernie, which manifested as an extra ripple of pink on the outer edge of Bernie’s shimmer.

  “Did you ever hear her say she liked me?”

  “No. But everybody knows she likes you.”

  “Did anybody ever hear her say she liked me?”

  “No.” Bernie’s nascent hope died a sudden death.

  A heavy sigh was heard. Lenny did a double take, staring at his friend. “Did you do that?”

  “No. It was my cloud.”

  “Wow. I didn’t know it could make sounds. What else does it do?”

  “It’s pretty versatile. I live in fear of the day it figures out how to talk,” said Bernie, only half joking. “I’ve heard it make quite a few different sounds. It even whistled at Suzie once. I don’t know what was worse, the fact that he did it or the fact that I had to pretend it was me.”

  Lenny laughed. “I suspect you’ve had to take a lot of bum raps in your day.”

  “Yeah, more than I deserved.”

  “Hey, let me show you my universe collection,” Lenny said, jumping up to lead the way into the next room. “You’re going to love it.”

  If Bernie was impressed with his friend’s OWT collection, he was even more impressed with Lenny’s universe collection. The L-shaped room had dark walls with viewing windows mounted every few feet. Most windows were the large industrial size, designed for easy viewing. Small plaques gave information about each universe.

  “Oh, Great Mysteries,” said Bernie. “Did you make all these?”

  “Yes,” said Lenny, “but it isn’t as impressive as it sounds. When both your parents are builders, they start you really young. Plus, they saved everything I ever did. I moved the old stuff to the far end of the room when I had the last extension put on. All the good stuff is here.” He swept his arm along the left wall.

  On the opposite wall, built-in shelves were full of books. He noticed familiar schoolbooks, but there was so much more. The small library had everything: geology, astronomy, calculus, geometry, microbiology, physics, time analysis, vector analysis, dimension warping, and on and on.

  “Have you read all these?”

  “Most of them. Some are from my parents’ collection. They moved them into my nursery the day I was born. They used to read them to me instead of fairy tales.” Lenny grimaced and shook his head.

  A row of supply cabinets stood near the bookshelves with one door ajar. Inside, he saw a collection of building components that rivaled anything The School had. He was surprised to see six jars of universe putty sitting on the shelf. Just one cost a month’s pay even for a builder.

  Lenny followed Bernie’s gaze and said, “Mom and Dad weren’t taking any chances about whether I’d become a builder. You can see I always had the best stuff to work with. I had two hours of building-play every day with Mom or Dad. As I got older, they hired a tutor to teach me techniques outside their fields. Did you have anything like that?”

  “Oh, no. Mom got me a tutor once because I had trouble with one of my classes, but it was only for a month. We couldn’t afford things like that. Mom did everything she could. She wouldn’t let me sell my books after I finished a class in case I ever needed them again. By the time I finished elementary school, she couldn’t help me with my homework anymore, so having the old books came in handy.”

  “Do you have a lot of universes at home?”

  “Nothing like this. I have four.”

  “Four! Why so few?”

  “Well, it’s not so bad. If I want to do something, I make a new solar system in a corner of one of my universes. As long as I put the new system far enough away, there isn’t much chance of cross-contamination.” Then Bernie laughed. “One of my universes has so many solar systems, it’s starting to look like a galaxy.”

  “Oh, wait here. I want to show you something.” Lenny rushed out of the room, returning a moment later with a small gray round object.

  “Watch this.” As he moved the object closer to Bernie, the little pebble started twitching and bouncing in Lenny’s hand.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s the reason we’re friends,” Lenny said, waiting for Bernie’s next question.

  “Why?”

  “It is a fun detector. Any time I get close to someone who will be fun for me to be around, it starts twitching. I had it with me that first day when you came into the cafeteria for lunch. It was going crazy. That’s when I decided we needed to hang out,” Lenny said with a smile. “And so far, Bernie, you haven’t been boring at all.”

  Bernie took the little bouncing pebble from Lenny and put it in his own hand. As he moved his hand closer to Lenny, the pebble started jumping around, as merrily as it had just a moment ago. “It looks like it’s mutual,” Bernie said as they laughed together.

  “Actually, Lenny, I really do appreciate all your help. Some days I just want to give up. It’s been hard with all the nasty things Billy’s been doing. If it wasn’t for you and Suzie, I probably would have quit by now.”

  “He’s a jerk. He’s a
lways been a jerk. He used to give me a hard time in school too. There’s a long list of people who would love to see him get what’s coming to him. We’d probably be given the key to The Town or something.”

  “It looks like you have some things I could use to stop him or at least slow him down.”

  “Oh, yeah,” exclaimed Lenny. “There are lots of choices here. For example, we could booby trap your cubicle in lots of ways. I have a trap that can throw him into an unmarked dimension somewhere. Or we could hit him with a flash of light so intense it would blind him for a week. Or we could—”

  “I don’t want to hurt him, Lenny,” Bernie interrupted. “I just want to make him stop.”

  “Sometimes you have to hurt them enough to make them stop. You need to be direct with people like Billy.”

  Lenny picked up a small device from a shelf and handed it to Bernie. “This is the time lever jammer we talked about. I haven’t tested it, but the guy I got it from said it packs quite a punch. All the installation instructions are on the card.”

  “Thanks, Lenny. This’ll be perfect. I’m going to install it first chance I get.”

  “Now that we got our business out of the way, are you ready to see some really cool universes?”

  “Yes. But I’m not up for anything too violent tonight. Do you have something fairly tame?”

  “You’re going to miss my best stuff,” Lenny lamented as he scanned his wall. “Ah, this will interest you. I’m creating a tech farm in this one.”

  “What’s a tech farm?”

  “I built this world as a source of OWT. I made a race of really bright little buggers and evolved them to a high-tech level so they understand sub-atomic particle energy. That lets them make self-contained energy sources for my devices, so I can use them anywhere.”

  “How do you find what you need?”

  “That’s the beauty of it. I tell them what I want, and they invent it for me. I used to pay them in gold, but now they want rare earth metals. It doesn’t make any difference to me, of course. I pay reasonable expenses with a big bonus when they finish.”

  “Seems like a slow process.”

  Lenny laughed. “Maybe for them, but not for me. I just fast forward into their future when they finished the invention, pay them for it, and then roll back time to the beginning again.”

  “But, if you keep rolling time backwards, they never get to spend their bonus money.”

  “Yes, they do, Bernie. Even though I am rolling back time, the people in that time line have their bonus money, and they’re very happy with the transaction. Besides, I found out I have to do it that way. They took over a hundred and fifty years to complete the first couple of inventions. During that time, they decided they didn’t want gold anymore since they figured out how to make it themselves. The problem with a tech farm is keeping them in the optimal tech zone. They need to have the skills to invent what you want, but you need to be able to motivate them. If they get too advanced, they figure out how to make everything themselves, and it’s harder to get them to do what you want.”

  “Lenny, you have answers for everything,” said Bernie, not sure if he meant it as a compliment.

  “I know,” said Lenny, who accepted it as nothing less than the truth.

  * * *

  As Bernie walked home that night, he felt happier than he had in days. He and Lenny were going to be great friends. There was no doubt of that.

  And maybe, just maybe, he could slow Billy down.

  The Second Expedition

  Not so long ago…

  Years later, a group of volunteers came forward and asked the Senate for resources for another expedition. They would make another ocean vessel, bigger and stronger than the last, and it would be provisioned for a long journey. And this time, they would sail west. They promised to return with answers about their beloved Sun. After much debate, the Senate reluctantly granted permission, and the expedition was soon underway.

  Their return after a year and a half was met with great rejoicing.

  Their report, however, was most puzzling. For two months the voyagers were at sea, no land in sight except three small volcanic islands. Finally, the explorers came to a new continent. It was green and full of life. They saw no mountains of any kind. A landing party found the land rich with fruits and vegetables. Its green bounty extended as far as they could see. The plant life looked identical in every way to that of their homeland. They found no sign of people. After gathering fresh supplies, they sailed north around the coast, making occasional stops for supplies and exploration. The plants were always the same, and there was never any sign of people.

  The edge of the continent led them to the north as it curved gradually to the west. Before long, they rounded the top of the continent and headed west and gradually southwest. The rounded top of the new land made them think the continent was round—at least the top half seemed to be.

  When they came to the westernmost side, they stopped again for supplies. They had two choices. They could continue south around the continent and return home. Or they could turn west, over the open sea again, in search of the Sun’s resting place. Their mission was clear, and there was no dissent from the crew. They were all there for the same purpose: to solve the great mystery of the Sun.

  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 someho
w 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.