Ppon, the oosh-head, took it upon himself to answer. "If you'll just step into my hut, madam, I'll be delighted to show you."
"If you ask me," the scientist stated, "these are frauds."
"Whaddya mean frauds?" Sam demanded indignantly.
"Human beings dressed up as extraterrestrials. They speak too good an English. Their concepts are too much like ours. Their sense of humor is equally vul—too similar."
"You and your big mouth!" I projected to Ppon.
"Look who's thinking!" he excogitated back. I could see I'd have to give him a mind-lashing later.
It was up to me to save the situation. "If you would like to examine me more closely, sir," I addressed the scientist, "you will see that I am not a human being."
He approached me dubiously.
"Closer," I said, looking him in the eye, as I bared my teeth and growled. "I have five eyes, sir, and you will notice that I am looking at you with each one of them. I have seven arms, sir—" here I reached out to grab him "—and you will notice that they are all living tissue."
"No, you couldn't be a human being," he agreed, backing away as soon as I released my grip, "but the whole thing is ... odd. Very odd."