More Giant Worms

Pop! The ship reenters the time stream. Haticat scans the surrounding area. They are near a planet completely covered in trees. It doesn’t even have an ocean or ice caps. “Where are we?” Nathaniel asks.

It takes a minute for the computer to find the local constellations in its database. “The computer recognizes this system as one settled by the Zleesnits and Nops. Its designation is Deros,” Haticat reports.

“Well, let’s visit. Descend,” Nathaniel orders.

They soon discover the colony is in chaos. Giant black worms as long as three school busses began arriving three weeks ago, eating up all the soft, juicy trees and pooping out ash. The Zleesnits and Nops reacted by shooting them to bits, but this only created more worms.

“So the worms were here, too,” Nathaniel says.

“They’re smaller than the ones on planet Halpile. Do they get bigger with every planet they visit or is this a new species?” Haticat asks.

“It doesn’t matter so long as they react the same way to salt,” Fred says.

The explorers convince the Zleesnits and Nops to collect saltwater to drop on the worms and on their food sources to kill the worm’s spores. Unfortunately, Derosan trees have very large stomata on their trunks as much as a centimeter across. They inhale spores inside of them where they develop into worms that eat the trees from the inside out where they are protected from the salt. From inside the trees, the worms produce more spores that are exhaled and travel through the air to other trees. A fence of force field generators is set up to protect uninfected groves.

Meanwhile, the giant worms are dying from the salt. Nathaniel surveys the area in his ship. When seventy percent of them have died, ten percent of them start to stand on end. “What are they doing?” Nathaniel asks as he looks through his binoculars. Suddenly, one worm blasts off like a rocket! It is followed by two more and then two more. “Follow those worms!” The explorers follow them into space where they gradually accelerate above light speed. They travel in a perfectly straight line for three hours and fifty-five light years until they suddenly disappear.

“What just happened?” Haticat asks.

Another worm vanishes into the void in the same spot – then another and another. Nathaniel zooms in on the spot. The background stars seem distorted around it. “I think we’re looking at a worm hole.”

Haticat looks at Nathaniel quizzically. “Is that a joke?”

“No, it’s a theory. Physicists have long wondered whether it is possible to curve space so much that a tunnel is created connecting two distant spots. The debate was never settled,” Nathaniel explains.

“Well now it is,” Doctor Bill says.

“Are we going to follow them?” Fred asks.

“Yes,” Nathaniel says. “Prepare for entry.”

The bumpy trip through the wormhole lasts for about a minute. They pop out in another part of the galaxy that the digital constellation catalogue eventually reveals is 33,000 light years away from where they just were. “This wormhole saves so much fuel!” Fred says.

“We need to remember this location so we can use it whenever we want!” Haticat says.

“Agreed, but first I want to know where the worms are going. We can’t let them invade another planet,” Nathaniel says.

The worms are scattering. Every worm exiting the wormhole turns and travels in one of five directions. They can only follow one group. “Follow that one,” Haticat finally suggests.

One hour later and eleven light years away, they encounter another wormhole. This one takes them ten thousand light years away. Here, the exiting worms split into two groups. “They must have the whole network memorized,” Doctor Bill says.

“Or they can sense the spacetime distortion at great distances,” Nathaniel says.

“What an unusual example of migration,” Haticat says.

Once again, they follow a group of worms for an hour until they enter yet another wormhole. One minute later, they pop out. “Where are we now?” Nathaniel asks.

“The computer is still working on it. All these jumps are confusing the navigation program,” Haticat reports.

The worms soon slow down and turn towards a star with several planets, one of them with heavy tree cover. “The worms are heading straight for that planet,” Haticat says.

“Not today they aren’t! Fire laser cannons!” Nathaniel orders.

“Yes, Captain,” Fred answers. Fred fires volley after volley of hyperlaser bursts. He blows the worms to chunks, then blows the chunks into chunks. Their insides boil and freeze in the vacuum at the same time, surely killing any spores. The crew all breathe a sigh of relief.

Haticat takes another look at the computer screen. “The glitch has cleared. This is Fkoojy.”

“Fkoojy? Fkoojy doesn’t have any trees. I know. I’ve been there,” Fred says.

“No, but it did at one time. I remember reading the history.” Nathaniel pulls a keypad towards him. The results show up on the viewscreen. “Right, Fkoojy lost its forests during an invasion by worm-like creatures in 4393.”

“According to the time tracker, this is 4393,” Doctor Bill says.

“Did we just…change history?” Fred asks.

Nathaniel speaks softly. “I didn’t know we could do that.”

“So we made two great physics discoveries today – the existence of wormholes and the ability to alter what has been,” Doctor Bill comments.

Nathaniel sits back in his chair. “So we did. Come on, we’ve got a forest to explore and a wormhole network to map. Let’s make some more discoveries!”

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