Wurm Noir (short story)

 was the fifth story in the anthology In Time.

Plot
At the White Rabbit, Jack plugs a WonderBox 3000 hologram cube that he bought from GalBay into Legion City's power grid and makes it look like it is raining. A typewriter appears on the desk and Benny sees that it has written the word "bang". The door explodes and she is knocked unconscious, dreaming of being at a temple on a rainy alien world towered over by a creature with a thousand eyes.

Jack wakes up, remembering seeing three faceless men walking in and capturing Irving before he lost consciousness. He helps Benny to her feet and they see Irving being forced into a limousine and driven away. Avoiding a hail of bullets, Benny notices the similarities of their situation and the well-groomed kidnappers to old gangster films and sees one of the kidnappers fighting Olk, a muscular man in the sandals and the last of the Nith. The kidnapper crumbles away and Olk agrees to help them save Irving.

Olk explains that his people trapped the Great Shifting Wurm inside the cube that they are currently in, but the mathematical ritual keeping it trapped was stopped when Jack plugged the cube into Legion City's power grid. The world now resembles the city because of Benny's memories and the gangster aspects are thanks to her having watched such a film recently.

Irving is taken to the Wurm at the White Rabbit and sees that it has three forms: a slug with many eyes and mouths, a shapeless man in a golden suit and a variety of floating shapes. The Wurm invades his mind and demands the equations necessary to escape, creating a mindscape in which Irving fights the Wurm in a giant robot. Benny, Jack and Olk sneak into the pub and Olk fights the Wurm, causing the world to start disintegrating around them and allowing Benny and Jack to save Irving. Irving has them all think about the door to the White Rabbit, which suddenly appears.

Benny, Irving and Jack go through the door and have Ruth unplug the hologram box, dissolving the door into nothingness. With Benny promised Olk that she would throw the cube into a sun, Irving takes it and says that he will do just that. However, he gives it to another version of himself beneath a burning sky, aware that Benny would kill them both if she knew about their association.

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Irving Braxiatel
 * Jack
 * Ruth
 * Olk
 * The Great Shifting Wurm

Worldbuilding

 * Jack wears a fedora.
 * Jack buys the WonderBox 3000 on GalBay for 10,000 credits using Irving's credit chip.
 * The White Rabbit has a five star rating on GalaxyAdvisor.
 * Peter is a regular at Legion City's gym.
 * Olk is the last of the Nith, a race of mathematicians who found the Great Shifting Wurm.
 * Peter enjoys holo-vids about guns and robots.

Continuity

 * Brax meets up with his other self, having previously told Bernice he has no idea where he is. (AUDIO: The Curse of Fenman)
 * Brax refers to having intergalactic creatures in his head. (AUDIO: Pandora)