It was something Leela had failed to consider—the possibility that Foss might read her mind, and her true intentions, with the aid of his device. I'm gonna die, she thought. Either Krandok will slice off my head like he did Delta's, or Foss will kill me with his brain right here and now.

Her worries were put to rest by the scientists's next statement: "Your secret's safe with me."

Immediately after he had spoken, the prison dissipated into atoms, and Leela abruptly found herself in the same position as when she had entered the Fossitron matrix. Krandok stood before her, tossing Delta's head up and down as if bored. "Let's get busy fixing your robot," said Foss as he lifted himself out of the machine's seat.

"Oh, right," said Leela, distracted.

"Krandok," said Foss, confronting the gigantic pirate, "please stop doing that with the robot's head."

"But she asked me to," said Krandok innocently.

So astonished was Leela by the realm she had passed through, that she found the real world to be colorless and unwelcoming. He knows, but he's not going to turn me in, she thought. Does he have something to gain by shielding me, or is he just being a gentleman?

Having signed on Alberto Veracruz, Fry and Bender traveled from one point in New New York to another, offering employment to every mutant they visited. Most accepted, desperate for a way to circumvent the provisions of the Mutant Resettlement Act. The majority of their mutations, Fry noticed, was mundane—extra limbs, extra eyes, arms where there should be legs. The most extreme case he had seen was a man with a cat growing out of his forehead.

"Whatever you pay me, I'm sure it's better than what I make at the circus freak show," said the man.

"Have a good day, Mr. Tobler," said Bender as he and Fry departed his house. "I'll see you tomorrow at the factory, 8 a.m. sharp."

"Goodbye," said Mr. Tobler with a friendly wave. "Meow," said the cat attached to his head.

"Who's next on the list?" asked Fry as he and Bender strolled along the tenement-lined street.

"Monica Tao," replied the robot. "She lives two miles from here."

They found the rather pregnant Asian woman in a brownstone apartment whose outer wall had been defaced with the graffiti message, MUTANTS GO HOME. Neither Fry nor Bender noticed any disfigurement in her, although they thought it odd that such a young-looking woman should have no fewer than seven small children.

"Is your husband home?" Bender asked her.

"I'm not married," replied Monica Tao. As if on cue, two of her toddlers began to cry in unison, while another made water on the floor.

"Geez, Louise," said Bender, startled. "You mean to say some irresponsible bastard left you with seven…er, eight kids, then ran off and left you to fend for yourselves?"

"I've never been married," Monica told him.

"Then who's the father, if you don't mind my asking?" said Bender.

"I'm the father," said Monica flatly.

Fry looked down at her swollen belly and the brown band around her wrist, then up at the straight black hair that went to her shoulders. Best-looking father I ever saw, he thought.

"Ooookaaaay," said Bender. "In that case, I have just two questions. First, how is it possible that you're the father? Second, can I buy the rights to your story?"

"Six years ago, I was a normal teenage girl," Monica related. "One day I was taking a nature hike when the ground gave way under my feet, and I landed up to my armpits in a pile of discarded school cafeteria food. The doctors checked me out and determined that some of my internal organs had switched from female to male. As a result, every time I have a period, I get pregnant."

Once he had recovered from the shock of becoming even more confused, Fry asked, "Have you tried, like, birth control?"

"Are you kidding?" said Monica with a chuckle. "I've got a good thing going here. The government can't force me to use contraception, and for every new baby, my welfare check gets fatter."

Bender grinned with delight and put his steely arm around the Asian woman's shoulders. "This may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship," he said.

"Uh, Bender?" said Fry. "You're supposed to offer her a job."

"Forget it, Fry," Bender retorted. "I'm opening a munitions factory, not a day care."

To be continued