SPACE WORM
-by Lina Piskernik
For nearly one thousand years, man believed that space was a vacuum where nothing could survive the cold, airless environment. Only in the year 3287 AEM (after our Lord Elon Musk’s death) did the scientists of the oldest space colony, Neptune, find evidence that this entire time, space was, in fact, a thriving and writhing environment.
Indeed, space was filled with worms! The Universe was in actuality an ever-expanding soil bed for a, to humanity’s luck, peaceful species of space worm that simply burrowed its way through the nothingness, subsisting on…nothing. Only recently did scientists find one of the gargantuan, wriggling creatures in our solar system, undulating towards Neptune. Within hours, the ecstatic scientists had chosen their most promising intern, Toddrick, to be launched into space to acquire a few skin samples from the interstellar visitor. The gifted intern also had his age as an advantage in the selection process, as his scientist superiors were far too old to rendezvous in space with a worm, much less acquire any kinds of samples.
Toddrick only recently had his heart broken by a native Neptunian being and his skin took on a particularly plain blue to a point where even the indigenous of the planet began to stare. The scientists didn’t know that Toddrick almost entirely stopped doing his lab work and instead sat for hours thinking about the last thing his ex said to him.
When the scientists rushed into his small, windowless laboratory to announce the excitement of the day, Toddrick felt nothing but a short pain in his chest as he realized that he had no one to tell this impressive new proposition to, nobody who really cared about whether he would take samples from a space worm or not.
© Lina Piskernik
His parents were on the Mars colony, too far away to even communicate with, besides the handwritten letters he would occasionally receive in the care packages from them. He never wrote back. They were geologists and clearly disappointed that Toddrick decided to dedicate his life to space worms. So here he was, in a tiny lab on Neptune, with miniscule infant space worms to observe under the microscope day in and day out. His life resembled that of a monk of the previous millennium, he sometimes thought. Although he really had no idea how people in those times lived.
There weren’t many artifacts left from the pre-Muskian times as by mid-2050, humans started sending their waste into a black hole they created in some grimey underground lab located somewhere in central Europe. Supposedly, the Earthians are still disposing of their waste this way, but the black hole cannot consume the waste as quickly as it’s being created, so now the entire Alpine mountain range is filled with trash. Earthians stopped caring about this centuries ago since they mostly live in solar-powered cruise ships that imitate Earth’s differing climates perfectly, all while still dumping their waste over a country that was formerly known as Switzerland and is now only called the GDP (Garbage Dumping Place).
Back on Neptune, Toddrick sullenly began to put his space suit on as the scientists ecstatically spoke around him about the girth and length of the space worm.
What texture would the space worm have?
Was its skin slimy or dry and rough?
Did the creature really subsist on nothing?
From their observation stations, equipped with the best telescopes in the solar system, the scientists could take measurements of its size, somewhere between 40 and 50 meters. Perhaps it is still a juvenile, they surmised. The scientific journals mentioned that they could grow up to 100 meters long but it’s been a while since a space worm has been observed so closely.
Toddrick wasn’t struck by the beauty of the sparks he saw flying off his spacecraft or the sudden parting of the blue Neptunian clouds to expose the cold glimmer of the stars. The craft floated between Neptune’s belt of asteroids and the planet. His eyes began to search for the interstellar interloper and only after a few seconds did he see the worm gyrating along the asteroid belt. It almost seemed like the creature was dancing in space, rolling around the belt as if it was playing and enjoying itself. Toddrick had never seen worm behavior like this before. This space worm reminded him of a joyful porpoise playing in Earth’s ocean, before they were completely acidified. The scientists had shown him a GIF of it once, a form of ancient communication that nobody used anymore.
Toddrick watched the worm frolic and romp into and out of Neptune’s atmosphere while he unraveled the airlocks and floated out into the cold nothingness of space. He had no idea how he would get his samples from this being. It was moving so fast that he could barely keep up with his jetpack. One scrape of the worm’s skin would have to be enough for the scientists on Neptune, he thought to himself.
At first, the worm seemed to take no notice of him, but as Toddrick propelled closer, it seemed to slow down its wild movements, eventually simply floating and seemingly awaiting his arrival. Everything he was seeing was being transmitted to the scientists on Neptune and they were excitedly shouting directions to him over his communication brain chip. Toddrick stopped listening as the space worm began to slowly move directly towards him.
It was so slow that one would think it was intentionally trying to not frighten him. Toddrick suddenly became aware of his minuteness compared to the worm. This thing from space could really swallow him right then and there. Nobody would ever see him again as he’d probably be dissolved by the worm’s stomach acids within seconds. Surely a painful death, Toddrick thought to himself. Yet he couldn’t help but feel awe as the giant creature came closer and closer to him. Finally, its head was mere centimeters away from his face, barely separated by the thick pseudo-plastic of the space suit.
Toddrick reached out to touch the worm’s snout, nearly forgetting that he had everything in his hands to take a sample from the worm’s outer epidermis. He began to gently scrape off small pieces of flesh, letting the samples float into the ready-held petri dishes.
The worm’s skin was a light pinkish tone and looked soft, like the belly of a newborn puppy that you couldn’t help but touch. As Toddrick scraped, the large being stayed still with occasional waves pulsating down the lengths of its thick body. Within a few minutes, he was finished taking the samples. Toddrick tried to gently pat the worm on the snout, like he had seen in those ancient movies where Earthians used to ride horses.
Pit-pat, he went on the worm’s nose, and the being’s body rippled once more with what he interpreted to be waves of pleasure. The worm began to vibrate, something Toddrick never observed before, and then it began to move around him as if it was hugging him. It essentially captured him in a gentle embrace, something that he had needed for such a long time.
As Toddrick was being held in this soft captivity, the worm began to spin faster and faster. He remembered how much he enjoyed the wild carnival rides as a child with his parents on Mars. He felt the same tickle of joy in his stomach as he repeatedly saw Neptune, the asteroid belt and then empty space flash before his eyes, until everything was just one big blue-hued blur of nothingness. Toddrick held on tight to the worm and remembered what his Neptunian ex asked before they broke up with him:
“Would you still love me if I was a worm?”
“Yes,” he cried out, though only the scientists could hear him.
Lina Piskernik is a Viennese-Floridian artist who works as an environmental marketing copywriter by day and storyteller/collagist by night. Beneath the cover of darkness, she creates art that helps her cope with the vast themes that occupy her mind, ranging from mental health to potential erotic scenarios occurring in space. Follow her on instagram (@lina.aglaja) to observe her artistic journey.