If You Was a Moklin

On the remote planet Moklin, trader Joe Brinkley has spent forty years among a people who seem increasingly human in body, habit, and ambition—without anyone fully grasping what that imitation means. When Inspector Caldwell arrives to investigate a rumored rival post, she finds not only a cutthroat trade dispute, but a world where the Moklins' trees compete, cooperate, and even change places, and where human behavior may be shaping an entire species in ways no one intended. As Brooks's urgent reports mount, suspicion turns to alarm: the Moklins may be producing human doubles, blurring the line between trader and native, imitation and replacement. Caldwell's hard-edged authority collides with Moklin customs, especially their strange "compliment" of presenting children, while the rival post drives prices absurdly low and commerce descends into farce. Yet the deeper revelation is not fraud, but evolution—Moklins can mirror human traits so perfectly that they may pass among Earthmen unseen. In the end, the mystery resolves into an unsettling act of admiration, as human and Moklin identities become almost impossible to separate. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.