Taz was silent as the drop pod descended toward the
planet below. Tootsie was nattering on to Krayonder about
something or other, but she wasn’t listening. She stood with
her back to the wall, one foot up, and her zapper semi-
raised in the direction of the dead goddamn robot that
idiota Junior had sent down with them. Is this what
humanity was reduced to? Now that they’d conquered the
robots, they’d decided re-enslaving them would be the next
logical step? Inhibitor chip or no, robots couldn’t be trusted,
she didn’t care what Space-Claw or his son said – she’d
always known that son of a bitch Admiral was loco.
And Up – Up stood beside her, his eyes downcast. He
seemed calmer now, even if it had taken a whole dead
goddamn song-and-dance routine for her to get him to that
point. She stole a look at him. His first encounter with the
crew hadn’t exactly gone well. She hadn’t realized how
changed he really was, what Rosie must have tried to warn
her about at the hospital. Who was he, this man going on
about hurt feelings and apples in your candy basket, pulling
out a mirror for a sappy pep talk, crying on her shoulder in
front of everyone? The commander who’d tried to slink out
of going down to the planet at all?
At least he wasn’t cowering behind her anymore, as he’d
done when the robot first appeared. It had been all she
could do to ignore the fact that Up’s hands were on her
hips, and that she was starting to feel very warm again just
thinking about it. What are you doing to me, Up, you big
idiota?
She was over him. She had to be. The man next to her –
he just wasn’t her Up anymore. She'd thought that maybe
she might have found him again – but she’d lost that Up a
long time ago.
The drop pod landed with a light jolt. Up looked down at