by Steve LeBel
“This the last night, isn’t it?” Alcandor asked in a quiet voice.
“Yes. The Awards Committee is coming tomorrow morning,” Bernie said softly.
“You’re sure there’s no hope, Bernie?”
“You’ve seen The Museum, Alcandor. I’ve done nothing here that will convince them to give me an award for anything. I’m so sorry. If I was a better god, this might not be happening.” Bernie narrowly succeeded in suppressing a sob.
“I do not blame you, Bernie. No one here blames you. You’ve done your best. It’s time for us to accept our fate.”
Bernie sat in the chair next to Alcandor. They shared a few minutes of silence. Bernie looked at the man next to him. In spite of his youthful appearance, he’d lived thousands of Bernie’s years. Why was he so ready to accept death? Was he weary of living? No, that’s not it, thought Bernie. He was a Lord, one of the original beings formed from the universe putty, evolved over eons into the man who sat there. He was very strong.
Alcandor was not thinking of strength. When he finally spoke, he asked quietly, “Can you tell me what it will be like, this end of days? How will it happen? Will our people suffer?”
“No. It’s not like that,” Bernie said, unable to look directly at the man he had come to love. “Someone will just blink everything out. It will be as if it never was. It’s instant. There is no pain,” Bernie said as his eyes clouded with tears.
“That’s good, then.”
Another period of silence followed.
It was Alcandor who spoke first. “My one doubt, Bernie, is whether I should tell the people the fate that awaits us. Don’t they have the right to know? And yet, if there’s nothing we can do, if our end is certain, then isn’t it better to shield them from this knowledge? On this question, my wisdom deserts me. I’ve found no answers.”
Bernie could only think of one thing, and he began again with more conviction than ever. “Alcandor, please don’t stay here. There is still time to save you and some others. I can’t save everyone, but I can save many. Surely that’s better than certain death.”
“Ah, Bernie. Thank you. But this is my world. These are my people. I cannot desert them, even at the end. But I thank you.”
“Alcandor, you must let me do something. I don’t want this to happen. It’s wrong. There has to be something I can do.”
“I know of nothing, Bernie. Nothing at all. After all, it’s not a perfect world.”
“I know that all too well,” Bernie said as his eyes filled with tears.
“I meant no insult by that, Bernie. I know you did the best you could.” Alcandor placed his hand on Bernie’s shoulder.
Bernie tried to hold back his tears. No god he knew cried over his creations. But this was different. These people were honest, and they cared about each other. They’d worked hard to build a good life. They weren’t much different from the gods. In fact, they were a lot like them. Some of them are even better, I think. They love their families and their children, and they would give anything for them. They’re as worthy of life as anyone on my world. But they were all going to die. They hadn’t done anything to deserve it. Their only mistake had been to live on the world of a builder so incompetent he couldn’t even save his own job, let alone their world. Someone would just snuff them out. And it was all his fault.
“Bernie, I want to tell you something.” Alcandor gently drew Bernie to a standing position. “I’ve never had children; there never seemed to be the right time for a family. That’s my only regret in leaving this life. I will tell you this: if I ever had a son, Bernie, I would want him to be just like you.”
Bernie reached out to Alcandor and hugged him tight. Alcandor held back nothing with his embrace. As Bernie’s tears flowed down his cheeks, they mingled with the tears of the man who held him.
Billy’s Lesson
It was after midnight when Billy stole back into the office. Doors in town didn’t have locks, so getting in was never a problem. The cleaning crew had finished and was long gone. He wanted no interruptions. He walked quickly through the corridors. Numerous nightlights in the corridors and moonlight through the occasional skylight illuminated his path. Even in the moonlit room, he had no trouble seeing, as he strode confidently to the cubicle next to his.
Billy saw Bernie’s fake universe leaning against the corner wall of his cubicle. He glanced inside and saw his handiwork. The planet was still a red and white-hot molten mass, seething in the black void that surrounded it. Billy took a moment to admire his work. Finally, he said, “It was the right lesson, Bernie. We just have to repeat it until you get it.”
Billy stepped up to the viewing window of Bernie’s universe. “This time, I won’t be fooled by some fake world.”
As Billy moved into Bernie’s universe, he found himself filled with resentment. “I wouldn’t have to be here in the middle of the night if it weren’t for Uncle Shemal,” Billy grumbled. “I don’t know why he’s so thickheaded when it comes to Bernie. I got him to fire Wendy and Stacey and the others easily enough. I just tweaked a few things to make them look bad on Uncle’s Quality Assurance Reports. He couldn’t wait to get rid of them. Well, no matter. When the Committee comes tomorrow and leaves in disgust, Uncle will have to take action. If he doesn’t, then somebody higher up is going to start questioning whether he should keep his job,” Billy said scornfully.
“Let’s see now. It looks like Bernie’s world,” he mumbled as he searched for proof this was the real world. “Ah, there’s Bernie’s gaia. The first time I saw her, I was surprised, because they don’t usually come so quickly. If I’d thought to look for her the other night, I wouldn’t have been fooled by Bernie’s fake.”
Billy drifted closer to the planet, determined not to be tricked again. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been working on all this time, Bernie. It’s just a banged-up world with nothing but plants. It may be the most boring planet ever. No seasons. No range of temperatures. No vertical continents to alter the ocean currents and temperatures to make interesting weather conditions. I had to make the hurricanes and bad weather by myself.” Billy laughed, “Maybe you could win an award for the Most Boring Universe.”
As Billy scanned the surface of the planet, he saw the ocean trench Bernie had created to stop his tsunami. The northern pole was still missing. Numerous volcanoes dotted the ocean. There were large swaths of forest across the planet where the hurricanes and tornados had knocked trees flat for miles and miles. There, along the top of Bernie’s central mountain range, he saw evidence of his supervolcanoes. The fires had spread for miles before Bernie had extinguished them. Billy smiled as he considered his handiwork. “This is a masterpiece of proof and more proof of how incompetent Bernie is. What’s wrong with Uncle Shemal that he can’t see the evidence in front of him?”
As Billy turned away from the fire-scorched earth, he caught something out of the corner of his eye. In the middle of one blackened area, there was a section of white. Out of curiosity, he approached for a closer look. He was surprised to see stone buildings in the center of a town. Fire had consumed the nearby vegetation that would have otherwise hidden it.
“Oh, my goodness. You’ve been holding back, Bernie. You have people on your planet.” Billy moved closer.
Billy was shocked to see people that looked just like the gods—except for their green skin. “So you weren’t completely wasting your time. Interesting… Well, no matter.” Billy immediately discounted what he’d seen. He wasn’t there to admire Bernie’s world. He was there to destroy it.
Billy cleared his mind and prepared for his descent to the center of the world. The network of explosive fibers he’d created for Bernie’s fake planet had worked very well. Destruction had been total. Unfortunately, the effort was wasted on Bernie’s fake. “Not wasted, actually. It was more of a dry run for what’s about to come next.”
He took a final glance at the people as they walked along their streets, talked with their friends and neighbors, oblivious to their i
mminent destruction.
“Goodbye, little people,” Billy said casually as he began his descent to the center of the world.
When he reached the inner core of the planet, he cleared his mind. He visualized the network of explosive fibers that would riddle the planet from its inner core to its upper mantle. As soon as those fibers were in place, nothing would stop the planet from following the same path to destruction he had caused for its twin just days earlier.
But something was wrong. Something was interfering with his concentration. There was pain. Pain? From what? He was a god. Nothing could harm him here. But the pain became greater, and his visualization was spoiled.
What was happening? The pain was coming from the side of his head. Had Bernie left another trap? Billy had never experienced this before. The pain was coming from his ear. It was as if his ear was being pinched in a vice, and it was pulling at him. And it hurt. Oh, how it hurt.
Billy felt himself dragged away from the planet’s inner core. He rose above the surface of the planet and continued upward.
Still the pain continued. The planet and the sun dwindled in the distance as he felt himself dragged faster and faster to the edge of the universe. Something powerful was pulling him out of the void. By his ear.
“Uncle Shemal!”
Committee Arrives
Nothing about this day could be good. Bernie and his friends had delayed the inevitable for as long as they could, but the inevitable had finally arrived.
Bernie would have been fired weeks ago if it hadn’t been for Suzie. She bought time for him. Lenny had offered every trick and device in his OWT collection. And they had tried many. But that ended today. Today there was no more time, no more excuses, and no more second chances.
There were days when Bernie desperately wished the Committee would come before Billy could do more damage. At the same time, he knew his broken world was not, and never would be, worthy of an award.
Only minutes remained before his own world would begin collapsing. All the consequences were set up like a row of dominos. The Awards Committee would reject him. Next, Shemal would fire him. And, worst of all, they would then destroy the universe along with Alcandor and his people. Thousands of innocents would die. And it didn’t stop there. He wouldn’t see Suzie or Lenny anymore. His mom would be crushed. Billy would be happy, of course. But he was the only one.
Bernie saw three people drifting like ghosts toward his cubicle. They wore the white ceremonial robes of the builder, with gold braids and bright insignia. Wearing somber expressions, they looked neither right nor left, but instead glided silently toward him. Heads raised above cubicles to watch the procession as the judges made their way to Bernie’s cubicle.
The woman leading the procession was tall, and her shimmer so strong it reached into the cubicles as she passed. Bernie didn’t know the protocol for greeting a Judge. Few people did. With piercing eyes, she looked at Bernie and said, “You are Bernie. I am Judge Jazelda. My companions are Judge Thomas and Judge Michael. We will conduct the initial evaluation. If we find your submission worthy, we will take it with us for further evaluation by the full committee of Judges. Is this clear?”
Bernie, who was still trying to figure out if he should bow, managed to say, “Yes, Ma’am. Er… Yes, Judge.” It was almost impossible to do anything other than obey the powerful voice of an elder god.
“During our evaluation, we will be communicating orally with each other. Do not interrupt us during this process. Is that clear?”
Bernie put on his bravest smile and said, “Yes, Ma’am. Uh… Ma’am, before you start, there’s something I need—”
Judge Jazelda held up her finger to silence him. “No comments allowed, young man. We will draw our conclusions exclusively from what we see in your universe.”
The three judges stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of Bernie’s universe. One by one, their expressions went blank as they moved into the void.
* * *
“It looks like the sun and two planets are just prefabs. Nothing going on there I can see. I suggest we focus on the middle planet,” Judge Thomas said, with some disappointment.
“It’s a student continent with two lab continents. Not very fancy,” Judge Michael muttered.
“This place is a mess! Look at the asteroid strikes all over the planet,” Judge Jazelda said. “I haven’t seen anything this untidy in a long time.”
“What about these volcanoes? See the round holes? He deliberately created them and then plugged them up. It probably caused a nuclear winter and wiped out all life on the planet. Why would he do that?”
“Is this some kind of a joke?” Thomas asked.
“Look at this. It looks like more deliberate destruction. Why would he do that?”
“This is strange. He caused some continental drifting. See the perforations along the ocean floor? It looks like he accelerated it, and then he froze it in place. Why would he do that?”
“More of the same over here.”
“You’re sure this is Simeon’s son?” asked a doubting Thomas.
“I’m sure,” Judge Jazelda said. “He must have had some reason. Look more closely.”
“It’s a wonder he managed to get any life going at all. It looks like the gaia has suffered a lot of near-death experiences. Do you think he was trying to kill her?” Michael asked with some disgust in his voice.
“There’s a fossil record here. It appears he developed plant life, spread it throughout the world, killed it off, and then started it again. What’s weird is I don’t see any difference in the fossils from his first plants compared to the plant life he has now. Why would he do that?” Michael wanted to know.
“There’s a strange ring cut deep into the ocean just north of the main continent. It goes all the way around the planet. What’s that all about?”
“I can explain that. The ice at the northern pole is gone. He melted it rapidly and caused a massive tsunami. He used the ring to control the level of flooding as waves reached the shore.”
“Now will you look at this? For some reason, he overheated the planet’s inner core but then cooled it before the heat reached the surface and destroyed everything. He obviously didn’t intend to kill the life forms, but why would he do it? Only reason I can think of is to create extreme planetary stress for the gaia.”
“Is there any animal life here?”
“I can’t imagine it. Even if something was here once, it isn’t likely to have survived all of this.”
“I found where he shifted the planet’s orbit closer to the sun. There were helium traces left in the closer orbit. It looks like he kept it there long enough for the planet to overheat. Then he moved it back. Why would he do that?” Jazelda wondered.
“None of this is rational. What in the world was he trying to accomplish? Is he crazy?” Michael asked, clearly disgusted by what he was seeing.
Bernie could do nothing but stand helpless as the three judges continued their review. For every criticism, Bernie had condemned himself more than once. How could he let these things happen? He should have stood up to Billy. He should have confronted him in the beginning. Anything would have been better than this. At least he would go out with some dignity. This way, he would be out, but it would be because everyone thought he was incompetent.
“Look at the gaia. Poor thing. She looks half-dead. Do you think he was trying to kill her?”
“Maybe. The planet is covered with vegetation, but you can see where he set dozens of forest fires and burned off thousands of square miles. Then he put them out before the whole continent was consumed. That would have caused the gaia a lot of pain.”
“That isn’t all. Look at what the hurricanes did. See the trees that have been knocked flat?”
“And tornados too. See the smaller twisting paths they took? They’re all over the continent.”
“All of this was deliberate. Simple continents like this can’t produce weather conditions to create hurricanes and tornados. He had to
make these conditions himself.”
“I’ve been looking at a string of volcanoes along the central mountain range. He used fault lines to make them, and at least four were supervolcanoes. Can you imagine the quakes when these babies started popping?”
“But there isn’t much lava. He stopped them before they really got started.”
“I’ve been thinking about the gaia. Given the age of the planet, I’m surprised there’s a gaia here at all.”
“I hate this! It’s just awful. I vote to terminate the evaluation. There’s nothing here except the product of a sick, sadistic mind. We need to move on,” Michael fumed. His disgust had turned to anger.
“I agree,” Thomas said. “Let’s go.”
Bernie had been bravely listening to their words. He tried to pretend they were talking about something else. Someone else. But he knew they were not. He wanted to shout at them. He wanted to tell them he had saved the planet. That he would never do these awful things. But instead, he stood motionless as tears streamed down his cheeks. He hadn’t seen Billy that morning. That was the only thing missing: for Billy to see him crying.
“No,” Jazelda said without enthusiasm. “We need to finish our evaluation. Has anyone seen any animal life?”
“If there is any, I’m sure they’re hiding under a rock somewhere. This is not a safe place to live,” Thomas said grimly.
“Oh, my. Come over here,” Michael said with surprise. “I found a city. It’s quite advanced. A lot of stone structures. It looks to be Bronze Era. A lot of their buildings are being repaired.”
“It surprises me they even try, given how often this kid keeps knocking things down.”
“Yeah, they’re resilient little buggers,” Michael said.
“Hey! Look closer. They look a lot like us,” Thomas said, suddenly very interested.
“What? How can this be? The man in the toga looks just like my Uncle Joshua,” Jazelda said as she moved her presence closer. She examined the man closely, and finally said, “That’s really impressive.”