As you venture out into the galaxy, it's not all humanoids you know. Our universe is full of space-born life known as Cosmozoans. These creatures fly around the depths of space living their best lives and occasionally getting into crazy scrapes when a starship flies by. And you know what? A bunch are SO CUTE! We did a poll of our team to find out which ones we want to take home and snuggle with (not accounting for size).
So get out your EV suit, we’re here to pet space’s cutest lifeforms!
Gekli
These snuggly babies might get a bit close to your ship’s fusion reactors but there’s no denying how touchy-feely they can get. One, nicknamed ‘Junior’, was suckling off the Enterprise D until its kindred were found in a nearby asteroid belt. In our books, it can’t be blamed for thinking the Enterprise was mommy.
Farpoint creature
Maybe we’re pushing cuddly by including a jellyfish, but our local Benzite here, Mandiks, insisted. But what is undeniable is how beautiful and glorious these creatures are in their natural forms. When we say natural forms; well they also double as space vessels. So I guess you can cuddle them from the inside?
Gormagander
Sometimes given the misnomer, “space whale”, this majestic creature is endangered due to them being so obsessed with eating that they forget to reproduce. A feeling some of our readers may sympathise with. The bonus is adopting it in an official refuge will help protect them from hunters; so adopt a whale to save the whales!
Crystalline Entity
This handsome snowflake of awesome proportions might consume whole planets or all organic matter on a regular basis, but it has also consumed our affections. Just be sure to get your graviton pulses at the right rate or it may get confused as to where it’s dinner is.
Verugament
These gorgeous bioluminescent organisms migrate through space looking for new breeding grounds (they seem a lot better at that than the Gormagander; take notes, readers. We know you've been without, for seven years about). While easily small enough to get your arms around, they can deliver painful electric shocks and are considered by Bal here to be “icky” given their goopy texture. That's not for everyone, but they're definitely cute.
Gomtuu
Much like the aforementioned Farpoint creature, Gomtuu are sentiment organic space vessels who can communicate telepathically. These creatures share something with cats; the ability and will to defend their boundaries. Get too close without permission and you may find yourself caught up in an energy wave capable of destroying a Warbird. My cat is still more fierce about being petted without warning, however (incidentally, from our last pet poll it seems you lot are all about your cats too! Congratulations, we have readers of culture).
Rytonian
These little squid babies, again on the list thanks to Mandiks’ love of marine-looking life (we are told they have quite an aquarium at home), are formed from the gravity well inside nebulae. Large swarms may be formed during intense energy waves. Don’t you just want to boop their… their… I don’t see a nose but that won’t stop me booping them.
Tardigrade
These little creatures are a bit more of a huggable size. They’re interdimensional creatures who can incorporate other forms of DNA within their own and warp across the galaxy: your chief engineer can eat their heart out! (that's a human expression I'm told, we do not advise they actually do that). They’re friendly but fearsome in self-defence so absolutely do not be late with their dinner!
Disclaimer
We could include a great number of other entities such as the telepathic pitcher plant, Zetarians, Beta Renner cloud, Calamarain, Species 8472, Cosmic cloud, Nucleogenic cloud, space amoeba, and so on but we figure we have to draw the line at petting somewhere and have gone with the most common humanoid feelings on the matter. Do correct us though if you want to hug the space amoeba!