I would like to know the title of the short story that I believe takes place on the moon. The setting is a mall or some other very public location and the main character is a police officer. She needs to talk a sentient bomb out of exploding. I know there was the John Carpenter film "Dark Star" with a similar plot line but I'm trying to identify the short story and the author.
Answer
John Varley's short story Bagatelle has this plot.
Original publication appears to have been 1976. My copy is in the 1980 anthology The Barbie Murders (named after a short story in the volume, for anyone who's starting to get confused).
It opens
There was a bomb on the Leystrasse, level forty-five, right outside the Bagatelle Flower and Gift Shoppe, about a hundred meters down the promenade from the Prosperity Plaza.
"I am a bomb," the bomb said to passersby. ...
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