She unstrapped a sleeping bag from her backpack, rolled it out on the floor, and took a seat.

“Thank you again.” Her eyes found us in the darkness. “For everything. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”

“We will return for you in the morning,” I said.

“Sounds good,” said Emma.

SkD rolled closer to her sleeping bag, its screen shining.

I stared at my coworker, confused. “Candy sleep?”

Emma offered a more accurate translation. “I think SkD’s trying to say, ‘Sweet dreams.’”

SkD nodded.

Ceeron crouched beside Emma, offering its own parting wishes. “Good night. Sleep tight. Do not allow the bedbugs to chew your face off.”

Emma laughed at this.

I did not understand why.

00011111

Thanks to our detour in the electronics store, I was late getting home that night.

When I stepped through the door, Parent_1 and Parent_2 were already seated on the floor, plugged into their charging docks.

Their glowing eyes swiveled in my direction.

“Ah. There you are,” said Parent_1.

“We were about to go into sleep mode,” Parent_2 said.

Maybe it was my visual ports adjusting to the darkness, but I seemed to notice their gazes sharpen.

“Where were you?” Parent_1 asked.

I hesitated. What would my FamilyUnit do if they learned humans were not extinct after all? If they discovered a human was hidden near our home? If they knew I had helped her?

I ran the calculations.

The results did not look good for Emma.

I searched through 1.4 million possible answers to Parent_1’s question.

I did not want to lie to my FamilyUnit.

And I did not want to tell them the truth.

So I settled on an answer that was somewhere in between.

“I found a prohibited LifeForm at the WorkSite,” I said. “It created some . . . delays.”

Parent_2 nodded knowingly. “Ah, yes. That can be distracting.”

“I hope you succeeded in removing the LifeForm from the WorkSite,” said Parent_1.

“We did,” I replied.

Which was the truth.

But not the whole truth.

I was relieved when my parents did not ask any further questions.

Taking a seat on the floor, I plugged myself into my charging dock. “Good night.”

My FamilyUnit replied at the exact same time. “Good night.”

We went into sleep mode.

00100000

Robots do not dream.

On some nights, that is a good thing.

00100001

The next morning, I went through the same routine as every other morning. Wake up. Unplug. Leave home with my FamilyUnit.

But today was different.

Today I had a secret.

Robots are not good at secrets. We are much better at the truth. It is the basis for every equation, every piece of data, every measurement.

The truth guides us.

Secrets knock us off course.

“Are you okay, XR?” asked Parent_1.

My FamilyUnit walked beside me on our way to the WorkSite.

Parent_2 looked at me closer. “Did you have difficulty recharging last night?”

“It is not that,” I replied. “It is just . . .”