put up its scanner image on the big display surface in the center, and sent it into the feed. The

I stood there accusingly, not looking at her. She tried to hold it in and managed it for almost six seconds, then burst out, “ART should know

without armor. (Normal = neutral expression concealing existential

“Did you?” Startled, Arada stepped back, eyeing the top of my head.

equipment involved in this job. They didn’t want to chance another

a creepy way to talk about people. Yes,

Performance reliability catastrophic drop. Shutdown. Restart.

This was one of the corridors I had walked up and down, working on my pretending-to-be-a-human code, where ART had critiqued my performance.

I felt my face change. The muscles were all stiff, and not from the hit I’d taken. I’m still not great at controlling my expressions, and I had no idea what I looked like.