Discord in Scarlet
by A. E. van Vogt
Discord in Scarlet - perhaps better known as chapters 13 to 21 of Voyage of the Space Beagle - was the cover story of the December, 1939, issue of Astounding magazine and the second-ever published SF story by A. E. van Vogt - the first being Black Destroyer (chapters 1 - 6 from Voyage of the Space Beagle) from the July, 1939 of Astounding.The Space Beagle comes across IXTL, a scarlet being floating in deep space. It is a vicious survivor of a race that ruled a previous universe before the Big Bang, the creation of our own universe. IXTL boards the ship, and being obsessed with its own reproduction, kidnaps several crew members in order to implant parasitic eggs in their stomachs. It is eventually tricked into leaving the ship, after the crew has left the ship temporarily, leaving no prey left for its offspring to feed upon.The story is thought by a few to be the original inspiration behind the film Alien, although the studio and those involved with the film denied any influence on its part. However, when Van Vogt initiated a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox for plagiarism the studio eventually settled out of court!