They were a real miserable bunch of slobs, those Indigos.
We passed through the wide places between the houses--I wouldn't call
them streets--and saw a lot of Indigos crouched in doorways, watching
us, and Azures being toted around.
The clothing they wore was also pretty universal for sentient bipeds--a
tunic or sarong, kind of. For the Azures, it was smooth and colorful;
and for the Indigos, a loincloth of some rough, dun-colored stuff.
Ellik chinned off his translator switch and leaned down toward my ear.
"They are two distinct races, Johnny. Notice that _all_ the Indigos
are menials. There does not appear to be anything to correspond to a
freedman or even a higher-ranked house servant. The Azures treat the
Indigos only as animals."
"Slobs," I said. "Poor dumb slobs."
The nuclear flash washed over us, peppering us with a few excess
roentgens.
We couldn't look at the spaceship going up, but we knew it was going.
It was making a dawn.
The aliens were all frightened. They fell on the ground and started
praying to the ship, all of them, the Azures and the Indigos.
"What's wrong with that crazy Chinaman?" Ellik yelped.
"Lee knows what he's doing," I said.
Ellik unsnapped his communicator from his belt. "Johnny says you know
what you're doing, Chon. _Do you?_"
"I know." Chon's voice sounded right beside us, perfectly natural. Belt
communicators work just as well as those consoles. People only buy
consoles for prestige.
"Well?" Ellik demanded. "What _are_ you doing, Lee?"