# ID another short SF story

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-another-short-sf-story/596856
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 19, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-another-short-sf-story/596856 "2011-09-19T19:51:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-another-short-sf-story/596856/1 "2011-09-19T19:51:33Z")

</div>

Why is it only short SF stories we forget?

I think but I’m not too sure that it’s something written by Isaac Asimov or Arthur C Clarke, but as ever my Google-fu is weak.

The plot is about humans landing on a planet where a previous expedition found a force of some sort governed life on the planet. There are no carnivores IIRC, just a balance of plants and herbivores. Animals brought by the first expedition and then female crew members fall pregnant.

The conclusion of the story has the second expedition returning home, with a stowaway creature from the planet intending to infiltrate Earth and convert it. It mimics a section of electrical cabling and is vaporised when the door to the ship opens

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-another-short-sf-story/596856/2 "2011-09-19T20:05:48Z")

</div>

Asimov’s “[Green Patches](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Patches)” (aka “Misbegotten Missionary”).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2011, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-another-short-sf-story/596856/3 "2011-09-19T21:26:54Z")

</div>

> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Asimov’s “[Green Patches](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Patches)” (aka “Misbegotten Missionary”).

Thanks, that’s the one.

The article mentions the story’s similarities with “Who Goes There?”, funnily enough it was a workmate who reminded me of it with a story based on Carpenter’s “The Thing”.