“Anyway,” the robot said, dropping down from the island, its testing seemingly complete, “arc is completely out of the question.”

Roy opened his eyes. “Yeah… and why is that, besides your inability to properly dispose of the sticks?”

“Because arc thoroughly depletes my power reserves, Roy. You wouldn’t want me getting all… ‘Robot Lethargic’ before or during dinner now, would you?”

“'Robot Lethargic,’ ” Roy scoffed with a wry smile of disbelief, “You mean ‘low on power?’ ”

The robot’s head partially sunk and rose back to its original position as if to signify the human equivalent of shrugging what might be considered its shoulders, “You say ‘synthetically grown tomato...

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