The Star Mouse Read online

  But he got there, finally. He made his way afoot to the north side of town and hid out behind a gas station until he heard a motorist who had pulled in for gasoline inquire the way to Hartford. And Mitkey was a stowaway when the car started up.

  The rest wasn’t hard. The calculations of the Prxlians showed that the starting point of the rocket was five Earth miles north-west of what showed on their telescopomaps as a city, and which from the Professor’s conversation Mitkey knew would be Hartford.

  He got there.

  “Hello, Brofessor.”

  The Herr Professor Oberburger looked up, startled. There was no one in sight. “Vot?” he asked, of the air. “Who iss?”

  “It iss I, Brofessor. Mitkey, der mouse whom you sent to der moon. But I vas not there. Insteadt, I—”

  “Vot?? It iss imbossible. Somebody blays der choke. Budt—budt nobody knows about that rocket. Vhen it vailed, I didn’t told nobody. Nobody budt me knows—”

  “And me, Brofessor.”

  The Herr Professor sighed heavily. “Offervork. I am going vhat they call battly in der bel—”

  “No, Brofessor. This is really me, Mitkey. I can talk now. Chust like you.”

  “You say you can—I do not belief it. Vhy can I not see you, then. Vhere are you? Vhy don’t you—”

  “I am hiding, Brofessor, in der vall chust behind der big hole. I vanted to be sure efferything vas ogay before I showed myself.

  Then you would not get eggcited und throw something at me maybe.”

  “Vot? Vhy, Mitkey, if it iss really you und I am nodt asleep or going—Vhy, Mitkey, you know better than to think I might do something like that!”

  “Ogay, Brofessor.”

  Mitkey stepped out of the hole in the wall, and the Professor looked at him and rubbed his eyes and looked again and rubbed his eyes and—

  “I am grazy,” he said finally. “Red bants he vears yet, und yellow—It gannot be. I am grazy.”

  “No, Brofessor. Listen, I’ll tell you all aboudt.”

  And Mitkey told him.

  Gray dawn, and a small gray mouse still talking earnestly.

  “Yess, Brofessor. I see your boint, that you think an intelligent race of mices und an intelligent race of men couldt nodt get along side by sides. But it vould not be side by sides; as I said, there are only a ferry few beople in the smallest continent of Australia. Und it vould cost little to bring them back und turn offer that continent to us mices. Ve vould call it Moustralia instead Australia, und ve vould instead of Sydney call der capital Dissney, in honor of—”

  “But, Mitkey—”

  “But, Brofessor, look vot we offer for that continent. All mices vould go there. Ve civilize a few und the few help us catch others und bring them in to put them under red ray machine, und the others help catch more und build more machines und it grows like a snowball rolling down hill Und ve sign a nonaggression pact mitt humans und stay on Moustralia und raise our own food und—”

  “But, Mitkey—”

  “Und look vot ve offer you in eggschange, Her Brofessor! Ve vill eggsterminate your vorst enemy—der rats. Ve do not like them either. Und vun battalion of vun thousand mices, armed mitt gas masks und small gas bombs, could go right in effery hole after der rats und could eggsterminate effery rat in a city in vun day or two. In der whole vorld ve could eggsterminate effery last rat in a year, und at the same time catch und civilize effery mouse und ship him to Moustralia, und—”

  “But, Mitkey—”

  “Vot, Brofessor?”

  “It vould vork, but it vould not work. You could eggsterminate der rats, yess. But how long vould it be before conflicts of interests vould lead to der mices trying to eggsterminate de people or der people trying to eggsterminate der—”

  “They vould not dare, Brofessor! Ve could make weapons that vould—”

  “You see, Mitkey?”

  “But it vould not habben. If men vill honor our rights, ve vill honor—”

  The Herr Professor sighed.

  “I—I vill act as your intermediary, Mitkey, und offer your broposition, und—Veil, it iss true that getting rid of rats vould be a greadt boon to der human race. Budt—”

  “Thank you, Brofessor.”

  “By der vay, Mitkey. I haff Minnie. Your vife, I guess it iss, unless there vas other mices around. She iss in der other room; I put her there chust before you ariffed, so she vould be in der dark und could sleep. You vant to see her?”

  “Vife?” said Mitkey. It had been so long that he had really forgotten the family he had perforce abandoned. The memory returned slowly.

  “Veil,” he said “—ummm, yess. Ve vill get her und I shall construct quvick a small X-19 prochector und—Yess, it vill help you in your negotiations mitt der governments if there are sefferal of us already so they can see I am not chust a freak like they might otherwise suspegt.”

  It wasn’t deliberate. It couldn’t have been, because the Professor didn’t know about Klarloth’s warning to Mitkey about carelessness with electricity— “Der new molecular rearranchement of your brain center—it iss unstable, und—”

  And the Professor was still back in the lighted room when Mitkey ran into the room where Minnie was in her barless cage. She was asleep, and the sight of her— Memory of his earlier days came back like a flash and suddenly Mitkey knew how lonesome he had been.

  “Minnie!” he called, forgetting that she could not understand.

  And stepped up on the board where she lay. “Squeak!” The mild electrical current between the two strips of tinfoil got him.

  There was silence for a while.

  Then: “Mitkey,” called the Herr Professor. “Come on back und ve vill discuss this—”

  He stepped through the doorway and saw them, there in the gray light of dawn, two small gray mice cuddled happily together. He couldn’t tell which was which, because Mitkey’s teeth had torn off the red and yellow garments which had suddenly been strange, confining and obnoxious things.

  “Vot on earth?” asked Professor Oberburger. Then he remembered the current, and guessed.

  “Mitkey! Can you no longer talk? Iss der—”

  Silence.

  Then the Professor smiled. “Mitkey,” he said, “my little star-mouse. I think you are more happier now.”

  He watched them a moment, fondly, then reached down and flipped the switch that broke the electrical barrier. Of course they didn’t know they were free, but when the Professor picked them up and placed them carefully on the floor, one ran immediately for the hole in the wall. The other followed, but turned around and looked back—still a trace of puzzlement in the little black eyes, a puzzlement that faded.

  “Gootbye, Mitkey. You vill be happier this vay. Und there vill always be cheese.”

  “Squeak,” said the little gray mouse, and it popped into the hole.

  “Gootbye—” it might, or might not, have meant.

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  Document ID: 934f4a38-3298-4be3-bace-dd51ea912c1c

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  Document creation date: 08.04.2011

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