Malbess was listening to the icy snow-crust crunch under her feet. The trees tinkled and clicked as the wind rustled them together. The early dawn had a reddish glow tinging toward pink. She took a deep breath and blew a long stream of fog out into the sub-zero air. She stopped in shock. "Oh my god! I'm warm-blooded, now!" A woman asked,"Is that new?" Malbess almost fell on the slick ice, and flailed her arms in surprise. The Feline-derived undergirl laughed,"Oops! Sorry! I shouldn't sneak up on people like that. The only one that liked it was Toxic. She smacked me a couple of times and ran off. We played tag for a while. Made me feel like a kit...AHEM, sorry. I'm rambling." She bowed to Malbess,"I'm Gold-Coins. Named after my eyes. They need you back at the spaceship. What are you doing out here?" "Thinking. It was too noisy back there. So much has happened and I just needed to get my head straight." Malbess shrugged. Gold-Coins asked,"I thought you androids have super-fast solid-state brains that react with super-human speed?" She sighed. "Some times super-human speed. I'm used to being kick-ass where I lived, but HERE...I'm just another warm body! I never suffered low esteem before and it's pretty humbling." Gold-Coins laughed,"Welcome to MY world! Keeps you humble and on your toes. Without challenges, you grow soft and fat. The people around here on the ship are challenges. Just raise yourself up to their standard." Malbess blew an errand strand of hair out of her eyes and asked,"How do you stand it? Having hair, I mean? I just grew mine...like an hour or so ago." Gold-Coins exclaimed,"Really? You were one of the folks involved in that Hoohah?" Malbess nodded and went,"Arrrrrrgh!" She ran her hands through her hair and said,"Caused me to grow hair and become warm-blooded! OW! Sorry, pulled my own hair. That really hurts! Dammit!" Gold-Coins laughed, and asked,"Warm-blooded?" Malbess nodded. "I'm a synthetic human, A human-formed Machine-life, if you will. Like the Cyclops, but more in human form. My circulatory fluid WAS like hyper-oxygenated anti-freeze. I don't know WHAT it is now. I didn't NEED to be warm-blooded before. Weird." Malbess and Gold-Coins perked up when a high-pitched whistle was heard. Gold-Coins pointed and asked,"Is that the Friggian heavy-lifter we're waiting for?" Malbess said,"No... it ISN'T! THAT'S a DROP-SHIP! Get back to the ship!" Malbess sprinted off toward the ship. Gold-Coins didn't ask again, but high-tailed it back to the ship, as well. From the broken gaps in the hull, they could hear the battle-stations siren sounding. --TO BE CONTINUED!!--