Log24

Zelazny-and-Bester … Psychoshop … Old Urtch

"To continue," I said, "why don't we have a detectable God in our universe? You said they're almost indispensable."
"Oh, they wear out after a time," he replied. "Actually, you met ours. You gave him a bottle of wine."
"Old Urtch?"
"Yep. He was once the Big Guy."
I shuddered. I watched Glory uncoil into a standing position on the wall. I noticed that the pulses seemed to be coming further apart.
"We're slowing," Adam said, moving to the opposite wall where he helped Prandy to her feet. "We're approaching the moment at which I acquired the singularity and the Haven."
"What happens then?"
"He will position us, then accelerate to the final singularity. We will brush by the Big Crunch and depart the universe."
"And?"
"We will die, but the demiurge will change its state and continue on. At least another anthropically-endowed universe will come of this, no matter how warped. That is something to be grateful for. Perhaps analogues of ourselves will exist within it, in some form."
"Is there nothing left to do?" I asked.
"There is always something to do," he said, reaching down and unzipping another area of space. "In this case, we celebrate. I've several cases of champagne in here."
There came another slow pulse as he opened it fully and a cascade of empty bottles rolled out followed by the tatterdemalion figure of Urtch, a bottle still clutched in his hand.
"Eh! Eh! What's going on?" Urtch inquired.
"We're approaching Omega minus one/' Adam answered.
"You might have told me," the ancient demiurge responded.
"I didn't know you were in there drinking my champagne."
Urtch smacked his lips and smiled. "And very good champagne it was," he said. "A nineteenth-century Veuve Cliquot, I believe." He rose to his feet and brushed himself off.
"You didn't even leave us one?"
"I don't know. Didn't realize it was in demand." He gestured back toward the controls. "That the new demiurge?"
"Sort of," Adam replied.
"What do you mean 'sort of? Either he is or he ain't."
"Well, he was. But then another entity took him over within moments of his birth. He wanted to be the demiurge."
"That ain't right," Urtch said, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand and belching lightly. "That ain't how it's done."
"I know. But there's not much I can do about it."
Urtch rolled his eyes, in two different directions.
"Damn!" he said then. "Thought I was done with all this foolishness." He straightened his garments. "Guess I'll have to set things right."
"I don't think you're a match for him," Adam said.
"Experience counts for something," Urtch told him, and he turned and shuffled off toward the control section.