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 _that_ dumb. I admit that Dr. Ellik and Dr. Chon outrank me, because that's the way it's got to be. A pilot is only an expendable part. But I had been the first one to see the natives on this planet, and I was the first 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 the screen. "A sedan chair," identified Lee Chon. "Think the light-skinned one is a kind 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 a certain 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. I know." "The fourth one doesn't look much better." "His features are slack and his jaw is loose, all right, but they aren't _made_ that way. It's an expression he could change. His head isn't shaped like that." "Um. The man in the chair is a striking specimen. No cerebral damage in him." "I don't think the answer is brain damage. If the 'noble' trusts those four to carry him, their actions and reflexes must be pretty well coordinated. 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 and Chon couldn't see the translucent truth. "They are just four dumb slobs who can't get a better job, so they are hauling His Highness around because they have to make a living the hard way." "That doesn't quite cover it, Johnny," Chon said. "The carriers are a completely different race." "What's different about them?" I asked. "They've got hands to work with, eyes to see with, noses to smell with. If you kick one of them, I bet 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 down further on the scale of local evolution. They must be an inferior race to the lighter, azure species."