Eva heard a hiss behind her. The door that led to her secret place opened into the darkness beyond.

“Eva Nine,” Rovender’s voice echoed through the main hub. Eva hopped back out of the supply room and found him rolling Muthr’s rigid body on her wheel through the debris, leaving a watery trail behind them. “The light has started blinking again,” he said. Eva saw a tiny red light on Muthr’s braincase pulse in a steady rhythm.

Eva addressed the house. “Sanctuary, Muthr has been found but is not responding. Please advise us as to what we should do next.”

“Bring Multi-Utility Task Help Robot zero-six into the generator room,” the Sanctuary answered. “Access is through the control room.”

Eva and Rovender wheeled the robot into the control room, where an unseen door slid open next to the stairwell. Eva nodded to her companion, and they pushed Muthr into yet another room that Eva had never been in.

Overhead, lights flicked on in the solid white room, revealing a wall of glass cabinets that held a variety of petri dishes and test tubes. A squat cylindrical freezer breathed icy fog in the corner, while a series of immaculately clean glass tubs and tanks dominated the opposite wall. Eva shivered as a tingle ran up her spine.

“Clearly Besteel did not find this room,” Rovender said, viewing a row of widemouthed jars filled with a reddish liquid.

“This is the generator room? It looks more like a lab,” said Eva.

“Accessing data banks of Multi-Utility Task Help Robot zero-six. Please stand by,” the Sanctuary announced.

Eva looked over at Muthr. The light on the robot’s ash-covered head blinked in a rapid pattern. Eva’s eyes traveled down Muthr’s scorched body, and rested on a cluster of worn Beeboo stickers just above the wheel casing. Eva remembered sticking these onto Muthr when she was a toddler. Some of the stickers still worked, dancing and smiling in an animated fashion.

The Sanctuary instructed Eva, “Carefully remove Muthr zero-six’s head in a counterclockwise direction. When you have done so, place it here.” At this, a large robotic crab-shaped form rose from the seams in the white tiled floor. The form had an empty socket at its center. Eva and Rovender eased Muthr down, laying her face up.

“You remove it, okay?” Rovender whispered.

“Okay.” Eva knew that Muthr could come apart; she’d seen her do it once before for a routine cleaning. But Eva hadn’t liked watching—for it had only reminded her that it was just a machine raising her.

The red light on Muthr’s forehead stopped blinking and she let out a tiny electronic chirp. Eva watched as the clamps that held the head and neck assembly in place unlocked.

Counterclockwise, counterclockwise, Eva said to herself. She rubbed the sweat off her palms onto her tunic and grabbed the head and turned it—but it did not come off.