A review by elusivity
Cosmic Powers: The Saga Anthology of Far-Away Galaxies by John Joseph Adams

4.0

"I" is a maintenance form robot who used to be human, who agreed more than one hundred years ago to give up its free will in order to perform contracts in exchange for a chance to see the galaxy on various contracted positions.

Spoiler

After a war, the CEO of a starship, a flesh form who does not believe in the sentience/ autonomy /personhood of creatures such as "I" and AI, invokes robotic protocol where "I" must protect it from harm, either actively or passively. "I" procures medical supplies, and in return for a full share of a starship, gets the CEO to be ejected onto a near-by planet for escape. Except "I" also managed to bribe the starship to make a wave, slightly disrupting the ejection pod, so that it will take the CEO hundreds of years to reach the planet, by which point the war it was conducting, its racist beliefs, will be only a fragment of history.

Explores how the laws of robotics could be obeyed to the letter yet still have room for intelligent creatures to live their lives, exchange favors, and still have their modicum of freedom.