As the minion reached for his communication console, a red beam struck the back of his head. He screamed briefly, fell limply over the console, and died. Startled by this occurrence, Balalaika and Krandok whipped out their cutlasses and looked suspiciously in all directions. Krandok, noticing a movement at the entryway, snatched a dagger from his belt and tossed it forcefully. Delta let go of her pistol, stretched out her arm, caught the spinning blade, flipped it around by the handle, and threw it even more forcefully toward Krandok. The point of the dagger hit him squarely in the throat, knocking him backwards in what would be the last fall of his life.
Leela, Delta, and Foss emerged from their hiding place, laser pistols drawn. Balalaika and Zapp, finding themselves outnumbered, dropped their swords and put their hands in the air.
Leela grinned at her fembot comrade. "That was pretty good, Delta. But did you really need to kill Krandok? He was an excellent original character."
Balalaika scowled at his chief scientist. "I knew you'd betray me someday," he said without a trace of pirate accent.
"Oh, really?" said Foss. "You never gave any indication that you suspected me."
While he and Delta bound the pirate captain's wrists with rope, Leela tried to reason with the sullen Zapp. "You've been manipulated," she said earnestly. "Balalaika used the Fossitron device to make you think like he does."
The anger faded from Zapp's countenance. "Yes, you're right," he said, his hands still raised. "Like a fool I kept killing him and killing him. After about the one hundredth time, I realized that I enjoyed killing him. That's when he started fighting back. Since I couldn't kill him anymore, I started to kill with him."
"I understand, Zapp," said Leela, slowly lowering her laser gun. "That's how the Fossitron works. It's like a form of mental rape. It allowed Balalaika to get into your mind and leave a piece of himself there."
"Leela, we've got a problem," Foss interrupted.
The cyclops turned her eye to the pirate ship's view screen, and gasped. Out from the swirl of raiders and DOOP warships exchanging fire came the Nimbus, barreling toward their position, growing ever larger…
"Oh, my God!" cried Leela. "They'll blow us to bits!"
Taking advantage of her distraction, Zapp launched his foot upward, knocking the laser pistol from her hand. The weapon spiraled in the air and landed in his waiting palm. His opponent disarmed, he lunged forward and wrapped his arm around her neck in a vise-like grip, then pressed the business end of the laser gun against her temple.
"Let Balalaika go or I'll kill her!" he barked at Foss and Delta.
The fembot and the scientist stood rooted to the spot by indecision and fear.
"I'll kill her, I swear!" said Captain Brannigan, his eyes glowing with malice.
"Fight it, Zapp!" Leela choked out.
The view screen image showed the Nimbus slowing to a halt. Suddenly, with a crackle, the face of Kif Kroker appeared. "Resistance is futile," he declared. "Power down your weapons and prepare to be boarded."
Kif beheld a strange tableau—Captain Balalaika held prisoner by Delta and Foss on one end of the pirate bridge, Leela held hostage by Zapp on the other end. For what seemed like an entire minute, not one of them knew what to do or say.
Zapp's lower lip began to quiver. Leela could hear him mutter under his breath, "I'm…a monster…"
Then he pulled the laser pistol away from her head…
…and aimed it at his own.
"NO!" cried Leela. She strained to turn around, but Zapp's grip on her neck was too strong.
Just as he squeezed the trigger, a robotic hand flew at him. Delta's stretched-out arm pushed the laser pistol to a safe distance, so that its beam crashed harmlessly into a girder.
After the Nimbus' tractor beam had drawn Balalaika's raider into its docking bay, and Kif's men had taken the pirate captain and his subordinates into custody, Zapp asked to be incarcerated as well. "In my present condition I'm a danger to the crew," he told his second-in-command. "The Nimbus is yours, Kif."
"I'll treat her well, sir," said Captain Kroker.
"I'll lead you to the pirates' hidden base," Foss offered. "You can incapacitate them with one blow."
"That's generous of you," said Kif.
"I have a question," said the young professor. "How did you know Captain Brannigan was aboard our raider?"
Kif grinned. "I have Varuna to thank for that. She's a member of my planet's psychic caste."
He introduced Foss to the green-skinned, white-haired woman. "It's, er, nice to meet you," he greeted her.
"I sense that you don't believe in my powers," said Varuna.
"Oh, really," said Foss. "Can you sense what number I'm thinking of?"
"Silly boy," said Varuna with a slight cackle. "It doesn't work that way."
As the Nimbus and its sister starships sought out the coordinates Foss had provided, Leela and Delta relaxed in the massive vessel's lounge. Leela, stripped down to a bikini, and Delta, completely naked as usual, soaked in the rays from the solar generator mounted in the ceiling.
"I'm sorry I doubted you, Delta," said Leela. "For a Stepford wife-bot, you have a lot of talent."
"Thank you, Captain Leela," said Delta. "Although I have no need of positive reinforcement, I do appreciate it when it's given."
Next: the final chapter!