The Secret Life of Bots
Novelette 8,975 words Recommended by 10 award/anthology sources
The ship hadn’t activated Bot 9 in a long time—it’s an unstable model—but in a desperate situation it needs all its resources. And how much trouble can it get into hunting down a rat?
Content warnings 2
deathviolence
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.