Black Destroyer

"Black Destroyer"
Cover story painting by Graves Gladney
Author	A. E. van Vogt
Country	Canada
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Published in	Astounding SF
Publisher	Street & Smith
Publication date	July 1939

"Black Destroyer" is a science fiction short story by Canadian-American writer A. E. van Vogt, first published in Astounding SF in July 1939. It has been marked as the story that represents the start of the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

"Black Destroyer" was combined with several other short stories to form the novel Voyage of the Space Beagle. It was claimed as an inspiration for the movie Alien and van Vogt collected an out-of-court settlement of $50,000 from 20th Century Fox.

A Coeurl, a large, intelligent, black cat-like animal, considers its near-future starvation as its food source of id-creatures has been hunted to extinction. Just as all seems lost, a spaceship lands near an abandoned Coeurl city and id-creatures pour out. He quickly surmises they are a scientific expedition from another star, which excites him as he considers scientists to be unlikely to harm him. He approaches them as if simply curious. The human expedition is first concerned about the Coeurl's approach, but he shows himself to be intelligent and attempting to communicate via radio waves. Assuming an intelligent species would be as curious about them as they are about him, they show him their ship. The Coeurl begins to plan to kill all of the men onboard and then fly to wherever they came from so he will have unlimited id.

Tortured by his long starvation, the Coeurl kills a man that went off exploring, and eats his id. Examining the body, the humans discover it has been drained of all its phosphorus (id), and conclude the Coeurl is the killer. To test their theory, they bring the Coeurl a bowl of phosphorus, which he attacks with relish and almost kills the person who delivered it. They lock him up, but the Coeurl's ability to control "vibrations of every description" allows him to easily open the electric lock. He waits until they are sleeping and then kills several crew before returning to the cage. This does not fool the men, and they begin planning ways to kill him.

Using his powers to control energy, the Coeurl causes the rear wall of the cage to dissolve, and escapes. He locks himself in the engine room, sending the craft into space at high acceleration. He uses the ship's power to reinforce the walls of the room so the men cannot blast their way in. The men plan a complex counterattack based on emitting a confusing blast of discordant vibrations. While they plan, the Coeurl builds a tiny spacecraft in the engine room's machine shop. He escapes in his ship just as they put their plan into action. However, the Coeurl is unaware of the ship's ability to instantly maneuver, and after a few moments he notices the ship has reappeared in front of him. He goes mad with fury and destroys himself rather than face death at the hands of the humans.