Murray Leinster
Page 19
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 litde 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?
MURRAY LEINSTER
THE END