The Universe Builders: Bernie and the Putty (13 page)

“Well, I have to get back to work now, but I’ll meet you at The Museum right after work,” she said with a pleasant smile. She didn’t bother waiting for him to find words.

Yes, he’s a nerd. But he’s my nerd
, she thought as she headed back to Personnel.

Museum for Ideas

Suzie waited just outside the main entrance of The Museum. Although it was wasted on Bernie, a more careful observer would have noticed she’d touched up her makeup and let her hair down. Her shimmer showed an inner pleasure not visible earlier in the day.

Bernie, on the other hand, spent most of the afternoon trying to get over his nervousness. He also critically evaluated the day to make sure it wasn’t a dream. It passed the not-a-dream test, which only heightened his anxiety. It was one thing to see Suzie in the cafeteria, but something else to see her outside work. Even back in school, their after school contacts had been infrequent. Bernie prepared for their meeting, but it consisted of practicing things to say and checking to make sure he was wearing clothes.

“Hello, Suzie. Thanks again for helping me,” he said, ticking the first line off his list.

“I’m always glad to help, Bernie. Have you thought about what you want to build?”

“I really like graceful life forms, like flying and swimming things. I haven’t been too successful with them so far, but I think I want to do something along those lines.”

“Well, maybe you’ll see something to inspire you here.” She picked up two museum brochures and handed one to Bernie. “Where do you want to start?”

Bernie looked at the brochure. All the award-winning worlds were on display here. No matter what your major in school, the teachers found something for you to study in The Museum. For builder students like Bernie, a common assignment was to deconstruct a universe and explain how the builder had made it. The teachers never tired of Museum-related assignments. Mercifully, Bernie had never been asked to critique his dad’s work, although his fellow students had received the assignment more than once. He was glad; it would have been hard. Yes, his dad’s work was good, maybe even great. But did great work make a great god? Bernie wasn’t so sure.

“Let’s start with the water worlds,” said Bernie.

Suzie led the way. As they walked along, they paused to look at the universes mounted on the walls. Neatly printed plaques proclaimed the award, the builder’s name, and highlighted its unique elements. Suzie said, “I know they put them in The Museum as soon as they make an award decision. I heard they did it fast so the builder can’t do any more tinkering with it. Is that right?”

“Yes. It’s hard for builders to resist the temptation to tweak a little more here and there. So they don’t let anyone change the universe after it wins an award.”

“How do they keep people from changing it?”

“They remount the viewing window. Normally, when we’re building a universe, we position viewing windows just inside the edge of the void that makes up that universe. When it’s located there, it’s easy for us to move back and forth through the window. The instant we move into the void, even by the smallest amount, our powers become active.

“But The Museum doesn’t want anyone entering the universes here, so they remount the viewing window on this side of the void. That keeps anyone from going in, but we can still see everything just fine. We just can’t touch or change anything.”

“Why are some windows bigger than others?”

“Basically, the viewing window is used to keep the opening to the void in place. The window size doesn’t matter much, but it’s convenient to have them about the size of a picture frame. If you want to take things out of the universe, you may need a bigger window, but big windows don’t stay in place very well. In The Museum, I would guess the larger windows are more to accommodate the number of people viewing them. See how the winners from last year have large windows?”

“Interesting.”

Suzie’s shimmer suddenly radiated a rainbow of colors. “Oh, Bernie! Have you ever seen Josephine’s Universe? She is one of my idols. She changed everything!” Suzie pointed to the second exhibit in the Water World Section.

Bernie noticed the way Suzie deliberately jangled the seahorse earrings she always wore, but, like so many thoughts about Suzie, this was destined to be another thought that never went anywhere.

“Everything? I know she was the first god to make her females before she made the males, which caused quite a stir. What else did she do?”

“You have to understand why this was so important. They called it the
Male-First Controversy
. It changed the way we view the world. I studied it in my history of building classes.”

“I know about the
Male-First Controversy
,” said Bernie. “They used to teach everyone to make the male of each species first, and the female was created afterwards as a variation of the male. Josephine decided to do everything backwards and make the females first.”

“This is her world, Bernie. She created a race of giant intelligent seahorses. The female produces the eggs, but then deposits them in a specially designed incubation pouch on the male. He has to carry the eggs until they hatch and even goes through contractions to expel them when their time has come. Josephine’s world shocked everyone, but it really upset the elder gods.

“She was nominated for a Universe Award, but the Committee rejected her submission. The female builders protested for weeks. Finally, the Committee relented and not only reviewed her submission, but created a new award just for her, the
Unique Sexuality Award
. Her seahorses are a symbol of independence for females. Wherever you find seahorses, you can be pretty sure that world was made by a female builder,” said Suzie, almost out of breath.

“Is that why you wear those earrings?” asked Bernie, with an uncharacteristic flash of insight.

“You get an A+ for the day, Bernie.” She smiled.

They walked around the exhibits, pausing to look through the windows of the award-winning worlds. Bernie quickly oriented himself and easily guided Suzie to the special sights. Someone watching the couple might have commented on how knowledgeable he was about the building process and how quickly he found and pointed out the most distinctive features. The exquisite sights on the winning worlds captivated Suzie, and Bernie was surprised by her discoveries. She saw things he missed every time. He saw the moving parts, but failed to appreciate the total. Together, they made many new discoveries.

In the Symbiotic Section they found strange beings living together in unimaginable ways. The winners had been selected for the unique interdependencies between different species to their mutual benefit.

“This is Miriam’s Universe. I studied her in one of my history classes,” said Suzie.

“We studied her in my creative engineering classes. She broke new ground with the way she forced her symbiots to come together.”

“What did she do?”

“Miriam created a double pair bond, which had never been done before. She used environmental and emotional forces to bring two species together and get them to bond. She created a planet with bitter cold temperatures at night. She made both species warm-blooded with thick fur coats to resist the cold. She gave the first species intelligence and building skills so they could create shelter against the weather. She gave the second species cunning and hunting skills. She gave both species a cooperative nature, so it wasn’t long before they were living under the same roof,” said Bernie.

“It was clever to give them inter-dependent skills.”

“Yes, but Miriam wanted more togetherness, so she removed the fur from the first species. A perfect move. They had to share body warmth at night to survive, which brought the bonding to a new level. They actually formed double pairs of bonded partners.”

“Double pairs? How does that work?”

“At the age of maturity, which Miriam engineered to be the same for both species, they complete their own male-female bonding within their own species. When this is done, each pair seeks out a new pair from the other species for bonding. Once this double pair is formed, they generally stay together for life.”

“Look how they’re all snuggling together as they sleep. I like how they take care of each other.” Suzie smiled.

As they continued their tour, the universe categories shifted toward parasitic relationships. Bernie was jarred when he looked into one and saw a race of intelligent slugs. They made their homes inside a race of big dumb animals. As soon as they entered their host, they inserted a feeding tube into the host’s blood stream. Then they spliced into the nerve center near the base of the host’s brain so they had complete control over its body.

“Oh, yuck,” said Bernie.

“I wouldn’t want to be one of the animals. I wouldn’t want to be one of the slugs either.” Suzie wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Bernie looked up from reading the sign and said, “The animal is still conscious when the slugs take over, but apparently after a few months they give up any attempt at independent thought and just do whatever they’re told. The slugs go through three or four of these guys in a lifetime. Oh, double yuck,” Bernie said again, in case the cosmos hadn’t heard him the first time.

They left the parasite section rather than continue in the direction of even more parasitic relationships. Bernie explained the awards committee looked at many things when making awards. Even a cruel and vicious world could win an award as long as it was done really well.

“Oh, look! There’s one of your dad’s universes.”

“That’s the one I like best. He captured the grace and smoothness of motion I want to build into my universes someday. And he did it from bottom to top.”

Bernie’s father, Simeon, had created a gas planet with a dense atmosphere at the bottom that became thinner in the higher levels near the exosphere.

“Look here at the bottom, just above the hard ground. This is where Dad made the gas so thick it’s almost liquid. Down here, the intelligent life has fins and a tail, which is perfect for pushing their way through thick fluids. It’s dark because the light can’t pass through the thick atmosphere, so he gave them full-range radar which lets them stay in perfect formation, even though they can’t see each other.

“Now look here. About half-way up from the bottom, the gas is thinner. See how their fins are extending out into wings and the bodies are flattening?

“Now look up here. See how in the thin atmosphere, their fins have fully extended into giant wings? Even their bodies have flattened and are almost completely horizontal. They automatically change their form so they retain maximum efficiency of movement for whatever level they’re on,” said Bernie.

Watching them move through the atmosphere was like watching a slow motion ballet. Only a god could see through the thick clouds at the lowest levels, but even there, they swam in small schools where every member matched the twists and turns of their fellows.

“This is beautiful,” said Suzie, as she grasped Bernie’s hand. “No wonder he won an award.”

Bernie felt an electrical shock as Suzie’s hand touched his. He didn’t know how to respond. Even his cloud was shocked into silence. Her hand felt really soft, and he was suddenly aware of an apricot smell coming from her hair. He felt the warmth of her arm as it brushed against his. And he saw a pinkish color where their shimmers overlapped, creating a soft tickling sensation. He didn’t know what to do, so he perspired.

Suzie had planned to take Bernie’s hand ever since they’d decided to visit The Museum. But now, she judged, it was time for a merciful retreat before she scared the poor boy to death.

In one smooth motion, she released his hand and turned to face him. With her nicest smile, she asked, “Are you getting any ideas for your universe?”

“Well, ah…” stammered Bernie, who was still thinking about apricots and sweaty hands.

Finally, he caught up to current time and said, “I like the idea of something that can move around in lots of environments. That’s where I’m going to focus, I think.”

“I know you’re going to do a great job, Bernie.”

An Idea is Born

Journal Entry

I had a great day today.

I finally saw Suzie. I thought she might be mad at me, but she says she isn’t. I don’t understand girls. I think she was a little miffed when I looked away on my first day. I guess I did, but it wasn’t because of her. My stupid cloud grabbed my shirt and started pulling me in her direction. Someday I’ll have to explain it to her. It’s so embarrassing.

Suzie suggested going to The Museum to get some ideas for my universe. We saw some outstanding life forms. I’m full of ideas, and it shouldn’t be hard to pick something. It isn’t like I have to win an award or anything. I just need to do a good job and pass my probationary period.

One thing bothers me though. I can’t explain what happened to my planet. I know I did everything right. The core slipped out of place and wrecked everything. I have no idea why. Maybe they really are making defective parts here. After all, they had to create the Quality Assurance Division, and Shemal even set up his own quality assurance program so he wouldn’t get bad stuff from the other divisions. Maybe I’ll try another planet tomorrow.

Confession: I’m getting nervous about Shemal. He wasn’t impressed with my universe. There was no reason for him to be. I’m going to do better. Suzie said Shemal is tough, so I need to buckle down.

Well, time for bed.

* * *

I got it figured out!

Suzie’s idea of going to The Museum was just what I needed. She’s so smart I don’t know why she changed majors. Last night when I was sleeping it all came together for me. I’m going to write it down before I forget. It’s going to be so cool.

I’m going to build the ultimate life form. It will live in water when it’s young, on land when it’s an adult, and it will fly when it’s old. I can hardly sit still to write this. I can’t wait to get started.