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Where Did You Pick Me Up by Wei Bo

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Zoe Ellison, marketing consultant at an advanced robotics company, begins to suspect the company is keeping secrets from her. Image generated with OpenAI "Lately, the robot at my place has been acting a little strange." "How so?" "How do I put it..." I stirred my drink, searching for the words. "It's like it's developed the ability to learn on its own." Julian looked genuinely interested. "In what way, specifically?" "This morning I asked it to make me a cup of coffee, and it went ahead and added two creams." I took a big gulp of my iced lemonade. "But I'm absolutely certain I never once told it to put two creams in my coffee." For half a second - no longer - something cold and clear moved through me, the way a fish turns over once in deep water and is gone. I don't drink coffee, the thought said. Then it was gone, and I couldn't think why I'd thought it, since of course I drank coffee; I dran...

The Repo Man by James Hanna

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Gertie McDowell tells the whacky story of how her career as a professional female wrestler ended. Image generated with OpenAI Hi, it's me again, Gertie McDowell, and I just had my twenty-ninth birthday. Ma phoned me from Turkey Roost, Kentucky, where she lives in a nursing home, and she said to me, "Gertie, how'd ya ever live long enough to be twenty-nine years old?" "I done it a day at a time," I said, and Ma snorted over the phone. She said, "Gertie, it's a wonder the devil didn't snatch you up long ago. What, with all the sinnin' you done and all the Commandments you broke, you oughta be sitting on burning coals and repentin' to the Lord." See, Ma she don't approve of me being a professional female wrestler. She don't like it that I joined Women of Wrestling five years ago and that I tussle in scripted matches that are broadcast on Pluto TV . She don't even like it that I've become the Champion of the World and ...

Big Boat by Redfern Jon Barrett

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Abdur is content with his life serving the world's immortal elite on a never-ending cruise, until he meets the person at the head of the whole operation. Image generated with OpenAI 30 levels. 150 storeys. 300 recreated streets. One airport. Five hospitals. 100,000 residents. It's a big boat. From the wide-panel windows of the suite, gazing out upon the unending ocean, you can see just how big. A colossus on an eternal voyage to nowhere. But then the windows seem to thicken, growing opaque. They now show the lost Lagos skyline, and the young man in the bed - a long-famous Hollywood actor - sleepily orders Chennai eggs benedict. "Excellent, mer ," I say, as I scrawl the order onto my electronic notepad. The woman next to him stirs awake. She wants cornflakes with alpaca milk. "And to drink?" They both order coffee: black; ground-grown beans. The man puzzles over a crossword as the woman's face slackens back into sleep, and it isn't long before Khuyag...