"Say 'yes,'" I conceptualized. "That's steel. Old and worthless to her, but not to us."
"I know, I know," Hsoj ideated impatiently. "What makes you think you're the only one who knows anything?"
Never had we got such a big haul before, because everybody seemed to have all sorts of metal stuff on him that he valued less than coins.
Now came the sad part of the spiel. "Remember, folks, these simple, honest individuals you see before you are but the scanty remnants of a once-proud race who spanned the skies. For their ancestors must have been godlike indeed to have erected such edifices as that commanding structure over there." Sam pointed to the portable atmosphere machine which was set up several yebil away to give our playground proper air. "Once glorious, now fallen into ruin and decay."
"You're going to catch muh from the old ones," Ppon ideated, "when they find out you haven't been keeping the machine clean."
"Don't be a silly oosh," I thought back with a mental grin. "I'm using the atmosphere machine to create atmosphere."
"You're getting to be as stupid as a human," he thought in disgust.
"May we go inside?" the scientific passenger asked Sam.
"No, indeed," I said hastily. "It is our temple, sacred to the gods. No unbeliever may set foot in it."
"What are the basic tenets of your religion?" the scientist wanted to know.