Officer. If I don't work here, where do I go?

The other judge wants to send you to a plant that makes Chlorine Trifluoride.

Chlorine Trifluoride?

Used for cleaning vapor deposition chambers.

One chlorine atom bound to three fluorine atoms.

Four atoms? Bah. Compared to this place, how difficult can four atoms be?

Do you know what to do if there is a spill of the cleaner chlorine trifluoride?

Pour water on it.

It makes water catch on fire.

It makes sand catch on fire.

It makes asbestos catch on fire.

Sand?

Asbestos?

What if that stuff gets on me?

You will be very clean.

And on fire.

You do not need to fear the cleaning agent chlorine trifluoride.

As long as you do an exemplary job, understand and follow all safety procedures, never take shortcuts and always work with and have the trust of your fellow employees, you will be fine. Do you wish to transfer?

Is it too late to request another opportunity to clean the bathrooms?

Welcome to the team.

Room, silence alarm.

This would be a nice opportunity to sleep in and then spend the day with Winston.

However, I have a job to do and it's easier to stop Sam before he builds up too much momentum.

I have about an hour. Breakfast coming up. Time to pull my weight and let Winston know I'm not here just for show.

Well, maybe a little show.

Winston is up. Now I'm having second thoughts. I've never done anything like this before.

The Germans have a word. “Schadenfreude”. Taking pleasure in the misfortune of others.

I wonder if they have a word for “Not sure if you've made a mistake until it's too late to correct it”?

Wow! That's a nice view to wake up to.

It's not too much?

Not from where I'm standing. Though I was planning to wake up before you.

And you kind of stole my idea.

So I was supposed to see you making breakfast wearing just an apron?

Well, that and underwear. I don't have a tail for modesty control.

Chuf.

Heh. Heh, heh, heh.

Chuf, Chuf, Chuf.

Our first attempt at a romantic breakfast and we wind up having giggle fits.

And that's really not a bad thing.

What are you making?

Something all of us can eat. Peanut butter and cricket flour biscuits.

When I find out what foods are locally available, I'll get more creative. My human mom has recipes that go all the way back to Italy on Earth. She made sure I learned every one of them as part of our family heritage.

Now I get to practice on you because over half of those recipes would poison me.

I know what you mean, but you're not phrasing that in a way that builds confidence.

I have to ask. Why do you have this apron?

The robot who comes over and cleans wears it.

It's a new robot each week. There's a lottery and the winners get a human to interact with. The apron lets me know that's the robot of the week who's in my house.

So I'm not the first A.I. you've seen wearing nothing but this apron.

True, but they're metal and plastic. You are much more topologically interesting.