Vortex Worm

Once intelligent life advances on a world to the point where electronic technology integrates into daily life, the species needs to take protective measures to insure their civilization. Intelligent life needs a sun and this is where the serious issues begin. Stars have a natural desire to spit out massive amounts of radiation from time to time. If the coronal mass ejection happens to point at a world with an advanced civilization real problems could result.

Sontag VII had the most advanced defenses in the Community of Worlds. Anything their local star could throw out was easily handled… until today. Scientists never saw it coming. A massive vortex, the largest ever recorded approached from the opposite side of the sun. The vortex slammed into the sun from the far side of Sontag VII. The star manipulated, and eventually dissipated, the vortex. But before the star ended the vortex, strange things happened.

The vortex made a direct hit, passing through the star. The force of the impact stretched and twisted the vortex into an elongated tube swirling in space. Like a finger from the star it reached out on a direct course toward Sontag VII. Scientists had no time to prepare or warn it happened so fast. The vortex worm, as it was later called in media outlets, reached well past the orbit of Sontag VII.

A fraction of a second before the vortex engulfed Sontag VII the people saw a gray-green sky of clouds swirling as far as the eye could see. There was nowhere to run. One of the few patriarchal worlds of the Community of Worlds was transformed into an entire female species within seconds. The transformation was fast and painless; every male on the planet was transformed.

As fast as the vortex worm shot out from the star it retracted back. It wobbled back and forth several times before the star crushed it out of existence. None of the wobbles reached Sontag VII, not that it would have mattered.

Of the millions of images captured by security cameras of the exact moment the vortex worm hit, this one is the most famous. We see James, a scientist in a lab with the duty to detect such events, screaming moments after the vortex worm hit. Now as Miranda, James gives lectures around the Community of Worlds warning of the unexpected risks posed by vortexes.

Do you know what is lurking behind the sun of your homeworld as you sleep tonight?