THE DEVIL CRYSTALS OF ARRET(1931)
SOURCES:
"The Devil
Crystals of Arret" by Hal K. Wells (Astounding Stories, September 1931
)
DESCRIPTION: “The things were giant living crystals—great silvery semi-transparent shapes nearly ten feet in height, their faceted sides pulsing in sinister and incredible life as they gleamed in unearthly beauty beneath the blazing rays of the red moon! Near the center of each of the giant crystals there was visible through the semi-transparent wall a large inner nucleus of sullen opalescence that ceaselessly swirled and eddied.Their powers of movement were apparently limited to a slow, ponderous, half-rocking, half-rolling progress on their heavy rounded bases. They were now grouped in a rough semicircle just under the edge of the rocky projection that extended out over the pit. The opalescent nucleus in every silvery faceted form seemed to be “watching” with frightening intensity the figures on the pit’s edge above them.” ("The Devil Crystals of Arret" by Hal K. Wells) NOTES: The Devil Crystals are a living creature (perhaps a silicone-based lifeform) from the contra-reality of Arret. They are slow-moving with a turtle-slow shuffling gait. They consume other creatures by attacking them with a crystalline tentacle that snaps out for yards, webs the victim, then pierces it with crystal points. The victim is them drawn to the side of the crystal, further enveloped, digested. The remains are discarded inside a crystal egg-shaped sac. During this entire process their is a tinkling sound. The attack tentacle makes a sound like shattered glass. The Rat-men of Arret keep six Devil Crystals in a pit for sacricifing victims in religious ceremonies. HISTORY: Wells may have created the first living crystals in SF? Stanley G. Weinbaum has silicone-based life in his classic "A Martian Odyssesy" (Wonder Stories, July 1934) and Frank R. Paul painted "The World of Singing Crystals" (Wonder Stories, April 1936). Tom Corbett encounters living crystals on his Radio show in 1952. Captain Kirk meets "The Devil in the Dark", the Horta, on Star Trek, March 9, 1967.
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