BLUEBLOOD
By JIM HARMON
Illustrated by WOOD
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Galaxy Magazine December 1960.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
There were two varieties of aliens—blue
and bluer—but not as blue as the Earthmen!
Even if I'm only a space pilot, I'm not dumb. I mean I'm not thatdumb. I admit that Dr. Ellik and Dr. Chon outrank me, because that'sthe way it's got to be. A pilot is only an expendable part. But I hadbeen the first one to see the natives on this planet, and I was thefirst one to point out that they came in two attractive shades of blue,light blue and dark blue.
Four Indigos were carrying an Azure. I called the others over to thescreen.
"A sedan chair," identified Lee Chon. "Think the light-skinned one is akind of a priest?"
Mike Ellik shook his head. "I doubt it. The chair isn't ornate enough.I think that's probably the standard method of travel—at least for acertain social elite."
"Do you notice anything unusual about those bully boys?"
"You tell me what you see," Ellik evaded.
"Three of them are mongoloid idiots," said Chon.
"I thought so," Ellik said, "but I wasn't quite sure—aliens and all."
"They're humanoids," Chon said, "and humanoids are my specialty. Iknow."
"The fourth one doesn't look much better."
"His features are slack and his jaw is loose, all right, but theyaren't made that way. It's an expression he could change. His headisn't shaped like that."
"Um. The man in the chair is a striking specimen. No cerebral damage inhim."
"I don't think the answer is brain damage. If the 'noble' trusts thosefour to carry him, their actions and reflexes must be pretty wellcoordinated. They can't have anything like palsy or epilepsy."
"They must breed a special type of slave for the job," Ellik suggested.
"They aren't slaves, Mike," I told him.
"No?" Ellik said, like talking to a kid. "And what are they, Mike?"
I breathed out hard, a little disgusted that big brains like Ellik andChon couldn't see the translucent truth. "They are just four dumb slobswho can't get a better job, so they are hauling His Highness aroundbecause they have to make a living the hard way."
"That doesn't quite cover it, Johnny," Chon said. "The carriers are acompletely different race."
"What's different about them?" I asked. "They've got hands to workwith, eyes to see with, noses to smell with. If you kick one of them, Ibet he'll hurt. It's just their bad luck to be dumb slobs."
Ellik grunted. "Unfortunately, Johnny, there are subtler differences.The darker aliens, the indigo-colored ones, seem to be definitely downfurther on the scale of local evolution. They must be an inferior raceto the lighter, azure species."
Chon had been looking at us and listening to everything. Finally hesaid, "You can't be sure of that, Mike. You haven't seen all of theIndigos. Some of them may not be as far down as the common carriers."
Ellik sighed. "Explorers have to make snap decisions on insufficientdata. We don't have time to see the whole damned planet before we writeup a report."
"Yes, explorers have to make snap decisions," Chon repeated to himself."