Centaurian slug
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference
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(split 2233)
(split 2233)
The Centaurian slug was an animal that could enter a living being's body through its mouth, then make its way through the body until it wrapped itself around the victim's brain stem and release a toxin that produced a suggestibility that acted somewhat like a truth serum.
In 2258 of the alternate reality, Nero used a Centaurian slug on Captain Christopher Pike in order to extract the subspace frequencies of Starfleet's border protection grids, specifically those surrounding Earth. (Star Trek)
The Centaurian slug resembles neural parasites that attempt to infiltrate Starfleet Command as part of a conspiracy in the 24th century, as depicted in TNG: "Conspiracy", but it seems to lack the sentience of those parasites. It shares the neural parasites' propensity of entering its victim's body through the mouth.
The practical effect of the Centaurian slug more closely resembles that of an immature Ceti eel, from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, though the Centaurian slug was much larger than the immature eel and did not physically resemble the adult eel. Ceti eels are established as also producing their effect by wrapping around the cerebral cortex instead of the brain stem – reminiscent but not identical to the aforementioned neural parasites. Canon evidence seems to indicate that Centaurian slugs are meant to be an entirely different creature from either the neural parasites or the Ceti eels.
In reality, screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman invented the Centaurian slug as an homage to the Ceti eel. They considered having Nero actually use a Ceti eel, but "wanted 'homage' instead of a direct lift." [1]
