SOURCE: Have Space Suit--Will Travel (1958) by Robert A. Heinlein

DESCRIPTION: "He was no more than five feet tall but that didn't help either; he dominated us the way a man dominates a horse. The torso part was as long as mine; his shortness came from very squat legs, with feet (I guess you would call them feet) which bulged out, almost disc-like. They made squashy, sucking sounds when he moved. When he stood still a tail, or third leg, extruded and turned him into a tripod-- he didn't need to sit and I doubt if he could. Short legs did not make him slow. His movements were blurringly fast, like a striking snake...His arm looked like snakes--they had more joints than ours. He had two sets, one pair where his waist should have been and another set under his head. No shoulders. I couldn't count his fingers, or digit tendrils; they never held still. He wasn't dressed except for a belt below and above the middle arms which carried whatever such a thing carries in place of money and keys. His skin was purplish brown and looked oily...at first all I could see was his face. A 'face' is all I can call it...No nose. The mouth was the second worst part of him; in place of jawbone and chin he had mandibles that opened sideways as well as down, gaping in three irregular sides. There were rows of tiny teeth but no tongue that I could see; instead the mouth was rimmed with cilia as long as angleworms. They never stopped squirming. I said the mouth was 'second worst'; he had eyes. They were big and bulging and protected by horny ridges, two on the front of his head, set wide apart...When he turned around, I saw a third eye in back..." (Have Space Suit--Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein)

NOTES: The Wormfaces are an alien race from a planetary system outside the Three Galaxies, a collective of law enforcement. The Wormfaces planned to use the Moon and Pluto as a bases for overtaking the Earth. They possess a form of faster-than-light travel that requires sedation. These fierce creatures exude fear and can bully humans with it. They see humans as little more than animals. They ate two humans who were originally working for them, bad men who thought to do well once the Wormfaces took over.  There are pits at the Pluto base for keeping prisoners. The Wormfaces see all other living things this way, thus they call themselves "The Only People". The personal weapons of the Wormfaces looks like a small blue camera. It is actually a death ray that can stun or kill. The Wormfaces were sentenced to "rotation" by the Three Galaxies, which means their planet was phased out of our universe into another. This process does not take the sun, only the planets.

HISTORY: Heinlein made his baddies bad. Their squidiness is classic bug-eyed monster stuff but he pulls it off so well. The scene where Kip is kidnapped from Earth must surely be the inspiration for the opening scenes of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which means the Wormfaces are the godfathers to the Vogons.

The Vogons tie up the humans to read poetry to them. In Heinlein's novel the humans are strapped in for hyperjump.