Plot idea: disguise failure

[bunsen_h]

Plot idea: Elaborate advanced-tech disguises fail to fool low-tech aliens because they have different sensory systems.

Riker: "Greetings, friend.  We have come from the village of Barsoom, three days' travel from here."

Villager: "Uh, greetings to you.  Uh, no offense, but what's wrong with your face?"

Riker: "My face?  What about it?"

Villager: "There's something... wrong.  I don't... Your forehead.  Your nose.  They're...  Healer Radek!  Come here, quickly!  Look at these travelers."

Radek: "Yes?  What... Your nose.  Your forehead.  To my bright-sight, they appear normal.  But to my dark-sight... you have no blood circulation there.  No perspiration.  No family markers.  What has happened?"

Riker: "Family markers?"

Radek: "All of you, in your party.  You all have this.  Is it a plague?  Stay back!"

Riker: "What do you mean, 'family markers'?"

Villager: "You don't know... what are you?"

Comments

[lxe]

I think there was such a scene in Sheckley's "Keep Your Shape" but I can't find the particular edition. (The November 1953 "Galaxy" ends in a slightly different way.)

[armiphlage]

I would buy such a book.

And the aliens soon realize what the humans are up to, and create Potemkin villages where their scientists create awkward and comedic situations to probe the reactions, norms, and mores of the humans.