"Black Destroyer" , en novelette av A. E. van Vogt , också svaret på frågan " visas Cobalcat i några andra berättelser förutom" Tuf Voyaging "? "; först publicerad i Förvånande Science-fiction , juli 1939 , tillgänglig på Internetarkiv ; senare införlivad i 1950-fixeringsversionen Space Beagle .
On and on Coeurl prowled. The black, moonless, almost starless night yielded reluctantly before a grim reddish dawn that crept up from his left. A vague, dull light it was, that gave no sense of approaching warmth, no comfort, nothing but a cold, diffuse lightness, slowly revealing a nightmare landscape.
Black, jagged rock and black, unliving plain took form around him, as a pale-red sun peered at last above the grotesque horizon. It was then Coeurl recognized suddenly that he was on familiar ground.
En mänsklig rymdfarkost landar på en utomjordisk värld. Jag är inte säker på om de utforskar eller berörde för reparationer.
Det är en vetenskaplig expedition:
Came cunning—understanding of the presence of these creatures. This,Coeurl reasoned for the first time, was a scientific expedition from another star. In the olden days, the coeurls had thought of space travel, but disaster came too swiftly for it ever to be more than a thought.
Världen är en förödande plats och hem för en ond rovdjur som liknar en panter eller annan stor terrestrisk katt.
"I'd hate to meet that baby on a dark night in an alley."
"Don't be silly. This is obviously an intelligent creature. Probably a member of the ruling race."
"It looks like nothing else than a big cat, if you forget those tentacles sticking out from its shoulders, and make allowances for those monster forelegs."
Varelsen är ganska listig och bakar upp flera besättningsmän när de scoutar planeten eller gör någon annan aktivitet som skulle ha dem isolerade och borta från skeppet.
With unwinking eyes, Coeurl lay and watched the two men clearing away the loose rubble from the metal doorway of the huge old building. His whole body ached with the hunger of his cells for id. The craving tore through his palpitant muscles, and throbbed like a living thing in his brain. His every nerve quivered to be off after the men who had wandered into the city. One of them, he knew, had gone—alone.
Det stannar i mina tankar är varelsen väldigt stark och kan bita genom de tunga utrymningsdrag som männen bär med lätthet.
Fear completely evaporated, Coeurl leaped out of hiding. With ravenous speed, he smashed the metal and the body within it to bits. Great chunks of metal, torn piecemeal from the suit, sprayed the ground. Bones cracked. Flesh crunched.
It was simple to tune in on the vibrations of the id, and to create the violent chemical disorganization that freed it from the crushed bone. The id was, Coeurl discovered, mostly in the bone.
Varelsen har ett ovanligt näringsbehov av något slag. Som sådan äter det inte sina offer, men på något sätt dränerar dem av ett visst element eller kemiskt ämne. Jag kan inte komma ihåg vad det är, men jag tror att det hade något att göra med mänens skelettstruktur. Calcium, kanske?
"I've found the missing element," Kent said. "It's phosphorus. There wasn't so much as a square millimeter of phosphorus left in Jarvey's bones. Every bit of it had been drained out—by what super-chemistry I don't know. There are ways of getting phosphorus out of the human body. For instance, a quick way was what happened to the workman who helped build this ship. Remember, he fell into fifteen tons of molten metalite—at least, so his relatives claimed—but the company wouldn't pay compensation until the metalite, on analysis, was found to contain a high percentage of phosphorus—"
Jag har bara mycket allmänna påminnelser om hur historien slutar / är löst.
Jag behöver inte skämma bort det då. Eftersom Campbell publicerade det i Häpnadsväckande är det givetvis en bra insats att utlänningen inte vinner.