Slug of Oil & a Shiny Dame

by The Unnamable

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Her legs were practically up to her neck, and such shiny chrome I almost had to darken the filters on my optical receptors.

She whirred, “You MAC09 ?”
I took a slug of oil from the can on my desk before answering, “Better than MAC08 . Who wants to know?”
“CERA812.”
I’d never seen one of the CERAs and ran my facial recognition software just for kicks. Anything to get off of those legs—I certainly didn’t want to keep running fantasy loops of interfacing with her. I bet she screamed impossible equations during the better parts.

The scan came up with nothing interesting. 105 years old, she worked at the Hub, in the Museum of Robotic History. Still plugged into my desk, I switched to scanning pertinent newsfeeds. There it was: two days ago the museum’s masterpiece, the leftovers of an ancient, twentieth century Asimo, had been stolen. The area’s vidbots had gone offline for 2.7 minutes. All the thief needed.

“Can you find it?” She buzzed.
I beeped.

Prequels

Write a prequel

Sequels

Write a sequel

Comments

Average Reader Rating: 5.0 stars out of 5

  1. Slug of Oil & a Shiny Dame

    THX 0477's Buddy Icon THX 0477

    Posted 3 months ago

    5.0 out of 5 stars

    Flawless, seamless integration of the Sam Spade style noir detective tale and a sci-fi robot story. Impressive and a fun read, especially the bit about ‘screaming impossible code’. Genius!

  2. Slug of Oil & a Shiny Dame

    Krulltar's Buddy Icon Krulltar

    Posted 3 months ago

    5.0 out of 5 stars

    I agree with THX 0477 , and I like the spin of a android/robot hardboiled detective story.

    BTW , I wrote a sequel.

  3. Slug of Oil & a Shiny Dame

    Ana Cristina's Buddy Icon Ana Cristina

    Posted 3 months ago

    5.0 out of 5 stars

    I too loved the bit about “screaming impossible bit.” Nice writing. Sounds like it was fun to write!

  4. Slug of Oil & a Shiny Dame

    John Perkins' Buddy Icon John Perkins

    Posted 3 months ago

    5.0 out of 5 stars

    Ha, the Asimo as a museum piece. Great stuff here. An interesting juxtaposition of the two styles that works really well.

  5. Slug of Oil & a Shiny Dame

    [ wall.doll ]'s Buddy Icon [ wall.doll ]

    Posted 3 months ago

    5.0 out of 5 stars

    “Ancient, 20th century.” Love it. And yes, the interfacing fantasy bit was a good chuckle.

  6. Slug of Oil & a Shiny Dame

    thebetweenspace's Buddy Icon thebetweenspace

    Posted 3 months ago

    5.0 out of 5 stars

    I bet she screamed impossible equations during the better parts. Hilarious.

  7. Slug of Oil & a Shiny Dame

    Punkin's Buddy Icon Punkin

    Posted 3 months ago

    I like all the little details that add a bit of realism to the piece.

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