 Zebra,
1978. Cover art by Douglas Beekman. |
 Paperback
Library, 1970. Cover by Bob Lo Grippo. |
J'Ai
Lu, date uncertain. |
This collection was originally published as "Monsters" in 1965, and "Science Fiction Monsters" later. It contains:
|
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Another J'Ai Lu edition. |
Paperback Library, 1967. Cover by Jerome Podwil. |
Zebra, 1976. |
 J'Ai Lu, 1990. Cover art by Paul Lehr. |
 Belfond, 1974. Cover art by Pierre De Maria. |
Paperback Library, 1965 |
 Russian editon, "Chudovishche", aka The Monster. |
Urania, 1990.
More here. |
Kawade, 1986. |
 Corgi, 1970. | ||
HE CREATURE
CREPT... It whimpered from fear and pain.
Shapeless, formless thing, yet changing shape and form
with each jerky movement, it crept along the corridor of
the space freighter, fighting the terrible urges of its
elements to take the shape of its surroundings. A gray
blob of disintegrating stuff, it crept and cascaded, it
rolled, flowed and dissolved, every movement an agony of
struggle against the normal need to become a stable
shape. Any shape! It would be easy to become metal, like
the hard chilled-blue metal of the freighter, for all
eternity. But something prevented. An implanted purpose.
A purpose that drummed from molecule to molecule,
vibrated from cell to cell with an unvarying intensity
that was like a special pain. Suddenly, it was floating
free of the ship, falling slowly, heavily, as if somehow
the gravitation of Earth had no serious effect on it.
Then it vaguely realized it was time to act.