by Inosolan
I scattered as may references to classic robot stories (and potential clues) as i could in this story.
"Gort", of course, is the humanoid alien in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" - i didn't think i could get away with naming a character "Klaatu". Gort's last name "Arbeit" is German for "work" or "worker" - cognate with the Czech "robot", which also means "worker".
"Roberta" is, of course, a play on "robot", and HER last name is the name of the inventor of the robots in the play "R.U.R" ("Rossum's Universal Robots"),and her creator/"thesis advisor", Dr Capek, is named after the author of "RUR"...
(BTW - Cowboy Mouth is a real band, the description of the show is more or less that of a real show i attended just before i wrote the story, and anyone who doesn't go to see them if you get the chance is missing some of the greatest just-plain-rock-and-roll you will ever get a chance to hear.)
Excellent story, and the various references just made it all the more awesome :-)
Her name gave away the ending (along with the category) though. Clever double pun.
"Gort Arbeit" is also a multiple play on words that might indicate a different ending, i thought.