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| - The small craft that went to the homeless swamp was far less impressive than the big ship had been. The main engine was nowhere near as bad as what the master had for low ranking workers but Purple ran his tentacles through it and felt he needed to do quite a few safety checks. “Even the Galaxy Shipping Company doesn’t value Centaurians like my new friends.” Purple thought a bit despondently. Purple went back to check the safety of the passenger section, that gave him a chance to find out how Blue Tentacles was getting on with his new friends so Purple listened. “Some of our stuff was stolen during all the trouble with the vagabond, we’re poor and we can’t afford to lose things! Blue Tentacles should have started helping earlier.” Silver Grey complained while Blue shuffled awkwardly. When the driver arrived a bit late Purple noted his tentacles were decidedly unsteady though Purple was thankful that at least on duty the driver was sober. Purple offered to drive the craft and made sure it went through some really muddy areas. Purple saw to it that plenty of mud splashed up onto Blue who was settled miserably and nibbling the tips of his tentacles, that’s like a human biting his fingernails. Blue felt slightly better after that and spread mud over his tentacles but Blue wasn’t comfortable however many times Silver Grey assured him they wouldn’t consider forcing him to overwork or abandoning him. Yellow Tentacles was nicer to Blue after Silver Grey promised she’d try and find a replacement she could afford for the game Yellow had lost. Blue Tentacles wished Yellow would hold his tentacles tenderly and gaze dreamily at his eye stalks just like characters in romantic stories but sadly Yellow couldn’t quite forget the game he'd lost. Blue still kept nibbling his tentacles from time to time. The few tourists on the craft gradually got off and went to their various muddy destinations, then an enormous sea wall, bigger than the dykes of Holland or of the Mississippi Delta became visible on the horizon and even the last of the tourists left. “The mud won’t be as good as this where we’re going,” Silver Grey Tentacles.” warned the boys, “they always keep the best places for those who can pay.” “Yea, they’re always nasty to us poor folk.” Yellow added. "Will there be just a little good mud for me in the homeless places?" Blue Tentacles asked a bit desperately, then Blue went to the edge of the craft and pointed his eye stalks miserably towards the mud outside. Purple drove the craft through a tunnel in the sea wall that could be closed during a storm, while the crew and passengers all knew they'd seen the last of the tourist mudflats. Blue hung his tentacles uneasily while Yellow Tentacles and Silver Grey both hoped what Blue Tentacles saw of the homeless area wouldn’t depress him still further. The earth sea wall was thick as well as large so for a long time the small craft ran or sailed through a dismal tunnel with nothing except the onboard lights to drive away darkness. That tunnel seemed to separate those with resources from those with nothing as surely as the tunnel some Terrans see close to death separates the living from the dead. Yellow wrapped tentacles comfortingly round his friend Blue. "I'm sorry about that game." Blue mumbled. Silver Grey couldn’t help as she was preoccupied holding onto her drunken husband and preventing yet another disturbance in the gloom. Dull light appeared at the end of the tunnel and all pointed eye stalks forward to see their destination.
* Chapter 23 Where the Homeless live
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)