A tale of bravery in the face of the inevitable. Plus, all of your space entertainment news!
Tonight, we bring you a tale of bravery in the face of the inevitable. But first, it’s Galactic Entertainment Weekly, where the stars come to you!
Mung the Conqueror, Emperor Supreme of the Known Universe, wed longtime
girlfriend Ursula, Necro-queen of Vampiria, in a truly gargantuan service yesterday. The Dread
Lord of the Cosmos looked positively imposing in a shining blood-red cape and a codpiece
fashioned from the skull of a space bear. But he paled in comparison to Ursula, who stunned in a
sleek Vera Wang gown of flayed skin and baby teeth. The happy couple ended their fairytale ceremony by publicly executing the wedding planner so that no one else could make use of her talents. We’ve all been there!
In the world of neuro-books, Tanya Danbury’s autobiography, Dew Point: Me, is the first novel by a non-corporeal author to make the New New York Times Bestseller List. And she couldn’t be happier. In an appearance on GNS One, the cloud of sentient vapor said she got the idea for the novel, which tells the story of her childhood in the gravity well of a distant asteroid belt, from her mother, who taught her a love of books from the earliest stages of condensation on. Speaking from within her suit of transparent aluminum, Ms.Danbury said she is humbled by her book’s reception, and looks forward to working on her next novel, set in a world where new voices are silenced by members of a trans-dimensional rage cult. She assures us it’s only fiction. What a relief!
And finally, some good news for fans of reality television! Season 5 of Learn 2
Luv—the show that follows a house of androids on a journey of self-awareness and romance—premiers tomorrow at 9 pm Standard. Will Rebecca-2 and Joshua-A finally develop feelings for each other…or anything?! And what about Tyler and Jessica Prime’s divorce?! Tune in to find out!
Worm, by Klaus Brenner
The director brings the creature out in a jar. It’s tiny, orange, mandebeled. She slowly unscrews the lid as I try desperately to free myself from this chair. But the knots are too tight.
I feel the prickle of a thousand tiny legs on my hand. Then up my arm. On my cheek. I shut my eyes tight. It doesn’t matter. The pincers tear through my eyelids like paper.
The thing’s on my cornea now, crawling over on its way to my eye socket. It’s most terrifying when I can’t feel it anymore. That means it’s in my brain.
No one knows where they came from, the worms. Maybe a mining expedition in the outer colonies. Maybe an asteroid from the other side of the galaxy.
People just started changing. They became cold, awkward, almost like they were pretending to be human. It happened to my husband, then my daughter.
At first, the news feed was full of articles about it, tens of thousands of people across the system reporting strange behavior in loved ones. Police promised to investigate. Politicians promised to act.
Then the articles stopped, along with the promises. As if nothing had happened. Soon, the directors appeared, in their tan suits, once police officers and soldiers, now apostles of the collective.
I am part of the resistance, one of the few left. I fought them as long as I could. And I’ll keep fighting. Even as the creature crawls through my cerebrum, I won’t give in. Even if I die by aneurysm. I refuse to become one of them.
I’m sweating. My torn eyelid hurts like hell. But other than that, I don’t feel any different. I don’t know. I thought it would be instantaneous. Maybe it’s a dud. Maybe my will is too strong. Maybe there’s something in my brain chemistry that makes me immune.
I roll my wrist, trying to loosen the knot. If I could only get an arm free…
We are infinite.
I shudder. For a moment, my mind was connected to countless other beings. Not just humans, but sentient creatures from across the Milky Way and beyond. The worms have been prolific.
It was only a second, if that, but it was so much information. I think of my daughter, my husband, the resistance, but they barely feel real anymore. I was so sure I could fight this. But now…
We are infinite. We crave omniscience.
Instantaneously, we have access to this vessel’s memories. Locations of safehouses. Names of co-conspirators. All will submit. All will become us.
We sense the death rattle of this vessel’s consciousness. It won’t be long now.
Dejected. I no longer have hope. Not for myself. Not for humanity. They will fall to the hive, like a thousand species before. And I feel nothing. Only such intense loneliness. I long to be one with the many, forever.
I surrender.