The Inhabited

"The Inhabited" by Richard Wilson is a science fiction story from the 1950s about an alien from a failing society who's sent to Earth to find a new place for them to live. The story looks at ideas of who we are, being in charge, and what happens when a group of people stops growing. Our alien becomes a spy by living inside different creatures and people, like a cat and then humans, but can't control them. They end up stuck inside a crazy man named Mersey, who shows how bad their home planet really is. Now the alien has to decide if saving their people is worth losing who they are, creating a powerful conflict as they consider what it means to care about others and where they belong while searching for a new home.