I was starting my day in the bookshop the next morning, enjoying the rose-gold tones of the mock sunrise in the dome and watching the constellations fade into the calm tones of morning, when the helper bots zoomed over to hover beside me. Both of them, which is weird in itself; as far as I’ve observed, they don’t tend to leave their stations unless you ask for something.

Or get knocked flat on your back by their evil-bot cousins.

Out of character though it was, the bots started circling me...