by Eric "iggy" Winsor
Hello fellow spacers! Today's program we'll introduce the Great Aquatic Sand Worms of Moonworld. On Moonworld they are commonly called shworms, a human name made from contracting the descriptive name shell worms.
Good to Eat!
The original colonists of Moonworld had serious trouble with shworms when they were establishing their first coastal fisheries. Shworm hatchlings and juveniles found the imported fry irresistible and would tear through successive layers of sea nets to get into the fisheries and gorge on the fish. They ultimately spelled the demise of the fishery industry on Moonworld.
However, as in most colonization failures there was a hidden success. Shworms are a wonderful food source in their own right. Boiled, their inner flesh is much like the human food lobster. However, they must be boiled in a two-step process of hydrochloric acid to break down the tough shell and then brine to flavor the flesh properly. Hatchlings boil in about an hour, meter long juveniles can take two or three hours to boil. The adults found out at sea take much longer as they grow larger.
The largest recorded shworm ever boiled was ten meters long for a UPF Admiralty Banquet. The creature took fifteen hours to boil and was quite a sight stretched out along the dining table. The UPF Corps of Engineers cooked it in a crucible at one of their steel works. Out at sea, shworm recordings made with holoscanners have measured shworms that were more than eighty meters in length.
Ecology
Diet
Shworms are carnivorous and will eat any creature they find. Scientific studies have not identified a single Moonworld species as a shworm primary food source. Shworms alternate constantly between feeding and sleep. If a shworm is not sleeping it is hungry and will attack the nearest available food source. This behavior includes eating other shworms. This causes shworms to be extremely territorial.
Territory
Adult shworms will claim an area about thirty times their length and circle it often to drive off any shworms they may find. Territorial circling typically happens after the first meal of a waking period. Often a second circling happens before the shworm conceals itself to rest. Concealment is achieved by burying itself in the sand, rocks, or mud of the sea bottom. However, great shworms of twelve of more meters in length no longer need to be buried to be concealed. The duration of their sleep periods increase as they gain size which allows other aquatic life to attach to them such as crustaceans and shell fish. These cause the greater shworms to have a rocky or reef like natural camouflage.
Reproduction
Shworms will beach themselves during high tide to lay their eggs. They swim inland during the high tide and bury themselves in the sand while they lay their eggs deep underground. When the tide recedes, the drying sand and the warmth of the sun triggers their egg laying response. The eggs then lay dormant for a year developing only enough to be ready for the first tide after their year-long gestation. The parent shworm sleeps, waiting for the very next tide to return to sea.
The larger the shworms get, the larger the tides they need to bring themselves inland to lay their eggs. Great shworms must wait for conjunction tides caused by the combined gravitational pull of multiple moons to get their increased bulk far enough inland to get dry sand and warm sun to lay their eggs. This naturally limits the reproductive rate of Great shworms. Many of the eggs laid by great shworms die waiting for a conjunction tide or are eaten by the parent shworm as it waits for a conjunction tide to provide it with a path back to sea.
The tides of Moonworld are a complicated cycle of single, multiple, and conjunction tides that keep the shorelines of Moonworld in a constant flux of sea levels. A single moon tide may cause a shoreline sea level change of only 10 centimeters. Multiple moons in close orbit to each other may change the tide by 10 meters. A conjunction tide with all of Moonworld's moons lined up is predicted to cause a tide of over 200 meters. As a result, the beaches of Moonworld are wider than most worlds and often change shape as the currents move sand and mud along the shoreline and out to sea and back. The shworms have evolved to use this movement of the soft shorelines to beach themselves, lay their eggs and allow the developed eggs to be brought back to sea to hatch. Shworms do not beach and lay eggs along the rocky shorelines of Moonworld. Conjunction tides have brought great shworms as far as 5 kilometers inland near Graug Gau Station where the military has installed a perimeter fence to keep great shworms off of the streets of the base.
Mating and reproduction favors the male shworm. The greatest shworms ever cataloged have all been male. Male shworms seeking to mate will cross territories seeking an appropriate size mate. All shworms encountered during this mating quest are attacked and eaten. When a shworm of sufficient size for mating is encountered the male shworm will attack her and begin mating at the same time. When the mating embrace is achieved the female shworm will be physically subdued in his clutches such that she cannot prevent him from eating her alive. She will then release her eggs into a reproductive chamber on the underside of the male shworm. When the female shworm is devoured, the male will immediately seek the tide waters and beach itself to lay its eggs.
Because the beaching ability of larger and larger shworms is tied to the size of the tides created but the conjunction of the moons the shworms have developed the ability to sense the coming tides and only appropriate sized tides trigger the larger shworms to mate.
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Aquatic Sand Worms of Moonworld |
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SIZE: |
hatchling |
Juvenile |
Adult |
Giant |
Gargantuan |
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TYPE: |
Carnivore |
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SIZEa: |
Up to 50cm |
50cm to 1.5m |
1.5m to 10m |
10m to 60m |
60m to 80m+ |
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NUMBERb: |
1 to 2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
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MOVE: |
70 m/t |
60 m/t |
55 m/t |
50 m/t |
45 m/t |
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IM/RS: |
+7/65 |
+6/55 |
+5/45 |
+4/40 |
+4/35 |
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STAMINAa: |
1-20 |
20-200 |
100-600 |
400-1800 |
1500-2100 |
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ATTACK: |
65 |
75 |
55 |
50 |
45 |
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DAMAGEa: |
1-2d10 |
3-5d10 |
6-10d10 |
10-14d10 |
15-16d10 |
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SPECIAL ATTACKa: |
Ambush, Bacterial Saliva |
Ambush, Bacterial Saliva |
Ambush, Bacterial Saliva |
Ambush, Bacterial Saliva |
Ambush, Bacterial Saliva |
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SPECIAL DEFENSE: |
Immune to Needlers & Stun 1/2 damage from sonic weapons |
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NATIVE WORLD: |
Moonworld (Sandy beaches and oceans) |
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a:Adjust stats based on size of the shworm. |
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b: On land shworms may raise up in height half their length. They may move ¼ of their length per turn when on land. |
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Bacterial Saliva: A bite from a shworm will infect the victim with very persistent bacteria that causes tissue breakdown. The natural use is to help soften the shells and hides of other creatures. Victims of a shworm bite will suffer an additional 10% of the damage inflicted by the bite each turn the infection is not treated. Treat with Antibody Plus to kill the bacteria and stop additional damage. |
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Coloring: Hatchling shworms are white and develop a brownish-green color as they age. Out of the water in dry sand their color is sandy brown matching the sands of Moonworld. |
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Going on Stage
Recently Dwain, Tik, and I had the opportunity to visit Moonworld during a great tide. We combed the beaches for great shworms and even collected some eggs. We then showed hatchling shworms on one of our regular visits on the Grey Jello show. Here, courtesy of the Nebulae Broadcasting Company, is a transcript of the visit.
Grey Jello: “Now gentlebeings, our very good friend Jurak Hangna is here with us fresh from the beaches of Moonworld with some fascinating creatures to show us. A big welcome for Jurak Hangna!”
Grey shapes his body forward across his desk as the stage lights dim to acceptable yazirian levels. Jurak settles in his seat and removes his sungoggles.
Jurak: “Thank you Grey for having us on the show. Dwain, Tik, and I have had quite the adventure on Moonworld seeking the voracious Great shworm. I've brought you some young shworm that we just cooked up back stage fresh.”
Grey: “Oh thank you Jurak. Don't mind if I do try a bite.”
Audience: “Eewoo!”
Jurak: “Tasty aren't they Grey?”
Grey: “Oh absolutely. I think I'll put the rest of these away for later.”
Jurak: “Let me just nick another of those first.”
Grey: “Oh, take as many as you like.”
Jurak takes several as Grey pushes the plate eagerly to Jurak.
Grey: “I understand that you measured a sixty meter great shworm?”
Jurak: “Yes Grey, We were out in the late afternoon after the sands had fully dried from the last great tide. Dwain was ahead of Tik and I seeking the location of what appeared to be a sizable great shworm in an aerial photo when he walked right on top of its mid-section. He was calling back to us that this had to be the spot when the thing just rose up with Dwain on its back.”
Grey: “That must have been frightening!”
Jurak: “I'd say! Dwain jumped right off that thing and ran faster than Tik to get out of there, and Tik has eight legs.”
Grey, rolling around and making human laughter sounds: “That would be a sight to see. I hope Dwain was not hurt again.”
Jurak: “No, Dwain was not hurt this time, but our photographers pieced together this reconstruction from our chronocom records.”
Grey: “That's amazing. Looks like it was about to eat Dwain.”
Jurak: “Yup! That thing came down and took a mouth full of sand about a meter behind Dwain.”
Grey: “And Dwain was not hurt?”
Jurak: “No, not in the least. Tik did treat him for shock afterword, but Dwain's OK with that. He'll be out in a minute with some hatch-ling shworms. You can ask him yourself.”
Grey: “Oh good. Too bad you didn't catch that on holo and had to make a reconstruction. What happened with your photographer, was he sleeping on the job?”
Jurak: “Well.... Tik ran the both of us over trying to catch up with Dwain.”
Grey: “Leave it to a bug to put duty first!”
Audience and Grey laughing.
Jurak: “Now Grey, the good Doctor is conditioned to get to Dwain as fast as he can. He was properly expecting that Dwain would at least get scratched by that thing.”
Audience and Grey conclude laughing.
Grey: “True, true. Tik was doing his job. I see Tik standing ready backstage. Sorry for any insult Doctor.”
Jurak: “Thank you Grey. Ah I see Dwain is ready with the hatch-ling shworms.”
Jurak motions for Dwain to come on stage.
Grey: “Welcome Dwain! You are looking rather fit for a change.”
Dwain: “Thank you Grey. I'm glad to be on the show and with all of my limbs in good order.”
Dwain places a glass box on Grey's desk with two shworms in it divided by a glass barrier.
Grey: “Do I need to grow an extra limb to keep that trend going for you tonight?”
Dwain: “No thank you Grey. The shworms are a vicious creature but if you know how to handle them they are amazing to work with. Look at the size of the face claws on that larger hatchling. And it's only a month old. I'm gonna pin it by the head with this fork and Jurak is going to grab it by the tail.”
Grey rolls his chair back and Jurak stands up at Dwain's side.
Jurak: “Grey. I'm going to hand this shworm to you.”
Grey: “No. Thank you Jurak, how about Dwain handle this one.”
Jurak: “Dwain has to help me get the second shworm out.”
Grey: “Both of them!”
Jurak: “Yes! If we get both of them out they will be interested in each other and not us. This is the best way to handle them. In pairs!”
Grey: “Our contract involves me keeping all of my limbs.”
Jurak: “We've got Tik here.”
Grey: “I was afraid you were going to say that. Go ahead, give it to me.”
Dwain adeptly pins the head of the shworm and Jurak grabs it by the tail and passes it to Grey who stands rigid with his arm stretching slowly away from himself to increase the distance between him and the creature.
Jurak: “Now I'm gonna get the other one that Dwain is holding down and move it close to yours. Watch how they reach for each other.”
Grey: “I can feel it shaking with anticipation for a fight.”
Jurak: “Yes! If we let these things loose right now there would be quite the tangle. I'd bet yours eats mine because it is bigger.”
Grey: “Let's not try that on live holo, OK Jurak.”
Dwain: “Grey, yours is bigger because it already took out one we were planning on showing tonight. It was a wild fight. He's a pretty feisty critter. You better drop him back in the box now. I'll take Jurak's.”
As Dwain moves to take Jurak's shworm, Jurak moves to adjust the glass box so that Grey's shworm falls into the cage. Jurak's shworm gets moved too close to Dwain and the creature latches on to Dwain's forearm.
Dwain: “Son of Down Under!”
Tik rushes on stage. Jurak grabs the shworm by the head and squeezes. The shworm comes loose and Tik rushes Dwain backstage.
Grey: “I hope Dwain will be alright.”
Jurak: “Don't worry Grey, Dwain and Tik have practiced just for this contingency. Tik has a dose of Antibody Plus ready backstage.”
Grey: “You didn't tell me they were poisonous.”
Jurak: “Highly poisonous! Not venomous mind you, poisonous. Their mouths are a bacterial nightmare.”
Grey: “Your still holding that shworm by the head.”
Jurak wrist snaps the shworm into the glass cage but gets it into the partition with the larger shworm. Immediately the larger shworm sets on the smaller shworm and begins eating it.
Grey: “Well gentlebeings, it's time for a commercial break. Jurak. As always, thanks for being on the show. Hope to have you back again soon.”
