"There isn't any competition," says Inspector Caldwell. She gulps.
"Darling, you tell him," she says to Brooks.
He says, lucid, "She's right, Captain. The other trading post is purely
a Moklin enterprise. They like to do everything that humans do. Since
humans were running a trading post, they opened one too. They bought
goods from us and pretended to sell them at half price, and we cut
our prices, and they bought more goods from us and pretended to sell
at half the new prices.... Some Moklin or other must've thought it
would be nice to be a smart businessman, so his kids would be smart
businessmen. Too smart! We close up this post before Moklins think of
other things...."
He means, of course, that if Moklins get loose from their home planet
and pass as humans, their kids can maybe take over human civilization.
Human nature couldn't take that! But it is something to be passed on to
the high brass, and not told around general.
"Better sound the emergency recall signal," says Inspector Caldwell,
brisk.
We go over to the ship and the _Palmyra_ lets go that wailing siren
that'll carry twenty miles. Any crew member in hearing is going to beat
it back to the ship full-speed. They come running from every which
way, where they been visiting their Moklin friends. And then, all of
a sudden, here comes a fellow wearing Moklin guest garments, yelling,
"Hey! Wait! I ain't got my clothes--"
And then there is what you might call a dead silence. Because lined up
for checkoff is another guy that comes running at the recall signal,
and he is wearing ship's clothes, and you can see that him and the guy
in Moklin guest garments are just exactly alike. Twins. Identical. The
spit and image of each other. And it is for sure that one of them is a
Moklin. But which?
Cap Haney's eyes start to pop out of his head. But then the guy in
_Palmyra_ uniform grins and says, "Okay, I'm a Moklin. But us Moklins
like humans so much, I thought it would be nice to make a trip to Earth
and see more humans. My parents planned it five years ago, made me look
like this wonderful human, and hid me for this moment. But we would not
want to make any difficulties for humans, so I have confessed and I
will leave the ship."
He takes it as a joke on him. He talks English as good as anybody. I
don't know how anybody could tell which was the human guy and which one
the Moklin, but this Moklin grins and steps down, and the other Moklins
admire him enormous for passing even a few minutes as human among
humans.
We get away from there so fast, he is allowed to keep the human uniform.
* * * * *
Moklin is the first planet that humans ever get off of, moving fast,
breathing hard, and sweating copious. It's one of those things that
humans just can't take. Not that there's anything wrong with Moklins.
They're swell folks. They like humans. But humans just can't take the
idea of Moklins passing for human and being all the things humans want
to be themselves. I think it's really a false alarm. I'll find out
pretty soon.
Inspector Caldwell and Brooks get married, and they go off to a post on
Briarius Four--a swell place for a honeymoon if there ever was one--and
I guess they are living happy ever after. Me, I go to the new job the
Company assigns me--telling me stern not to talk about Moklin, which I
don't--and the Space Patrol orders no human ship to land on Moklin for
any reason.
But I've been saving money and worrying. I keep thinking of those three
Moklin kids that Inspector Caldwell knows she ain't the father of. I
worry about those kids. I hope nothing's happened to them. Moklin kids
grow up fast, like I told you. They'll be just about grown now.
I'll tell you. I've bought me a little private spacecruiser, small but
good. I'm shoving off for Moklin next week. If one of those three ain't
married, I'm going to marry her, Moklin-style, and bring her out to a
human colony planet. We'll have some kids. I know just what I want my
kids to be like. They'll have plenty of brains--_top-level brains_--and
the girls will be _real_ good-looking!
But besides that, I've got to bring some other Moklins out and start
them passing for human, too. Because my kids are going to need other
Moklins to marry, ain't they? It's not that I don't like humans. I do!
If the fellow I look like--Joe Brinkley--hadn't got killed accidental
on that hunting trip with Deeth, I never would have thought of taking
his place and being Joe Brinkley. But you can't blame me for wanting to
live among humans.
Wouldn't you, if you was a Moklin?