Topaz's Apartment, Lower Southbridge,

Africa Dome

The elevator door opened to a wall of cloying, acrid smoke that instantly enfolded Topaz, eager to suffocate him. Choking, he lifted his shirt, using it to cover his nose and mouth as he stepped inside the basement level of his apartment block. He could rightly call it his — he was the only denizen in residence.

His waving hand failed to dissipate the smoke hanging in the air.

"Phoenix! Why haven't you extracted the smoke?" he yelled.

"The external ventilation system has been damaged by the heat. I have dispensed mech-bots to—"

"Use the elevator shaft you moron."

There was a pause.

Then, a soft click behind him. Topaz glanced around, shaking his head as Phoenix began syphoning the smoke through the elevator shaft. "This all forms part of your emergency protocol. Why the hell do I have to order you to execute your programming?"

He could hear the anger in his voice, but standing there, waiting for the smoke to empty out, he had to funnel his fear into something, anything, or risk implosion.

"Is Nankai all right?"

The pause before the AI answered made his skin crawl, but after a few seconds Phoenix's calm voice thrummed in his ears.

"The fire did not enter her enclosure. She exhibited symptoms of shock. I sedated her."

"So you're only a partial failure then?" Topaz snapped.

He strode forward as the vague outlines of furniture emerged from the smoke. Topaz reached out, expecting the invisible barrier. His fingertips brushed against gelid glass and he strode to the right, his fingers running over the containment wall until they stopped at the door seam.

"Open."

He slipped inside, glancing over his shoulder as the door rushed shut behind him. A few coils of dismembered smoke evaporated at the threshold.

Topaz took a draught of pristine, chilled air, dismissing the scantly furnished room. His eyes latched onto Nankai. She lay on the narrow bed, a coffee-coloured arm draped over the side, knuckles brushing the floor. Topaz sat beside her on the edge of the bed, reaching out to smooth away a strand of flaxen hair from the girl's cheek.

"Are you going to tell me what happened, Phoenix?" he asked.

His voice strained from the effort of civility. In the subsequent pause, he glanced over Nankai's body to the med-bot whirring away to itself by her shoulder. Was he imagining it, or did the med-bot look agitated?

"Phoenix?"

"I have been unable to locate the origin of the fire."

"It had to have started somewhere, AI, so where—"

"Performing diagnostic scan. Please wait."

"No, I won't wait. You've had more than ten minutes to make a determination. This place is under constant surveillance, and you want to tell me you don't know how something spontaneously combusted?" His voice echoed back to him. Topaz closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as his fingers pressed against the bridge of his nose. "I want a full report in five minutes, Phoenix, or—"

"To-paz?"

He jerked at the sound of Nankai's breathy voice. Topaz stared down at the girl's wide-eyed face.

"Am I going to die?"

"No, of course not. You're safe here, Nankai. You're always safe here."

The girl pushed herself up with wobbling arms and turned to look at the med-bot beside her. It whirred quietly as it scanned her face. Her eyes winked closed, her hand shielding them from the intrusive glare. Reaching out, she shoved the med-bot, forcing it over the rumpled bed sheets until it sat at the foot of the bed. Her lips pushed out in a pout.

Nankai's emerald eyes flickered to Topaz. "It wasn't me."

Her hand darted out, gripping his, her fingers icy.

"I know it wasn't, Nankai. The fire happened out there, not in here."

He gestured past the glass wall of her enclosure, to the foggy room beyond. Nearly all the smoke had been drawn out, revealing banks of equipment and monitors, stainless steel tables and cabinets. His eyes ran over her room, with its single bed, desk and chair, and a box of toys in the corner, all neatly packed away. The only thing out of place was her rumpled bed sheet.

"Where were you?" she asked.

She tugged at his shirt when he didn't reply. He tried disentangling her fingers, but her grip was surprisingly strong.

"I went out, Nankai. I told you, sometimes I have to go out to do business."

Her pout grew into an angry scowl, and she pulled away from him, her long, thin legs sliding up against her chest as she hugged them.

"Do you know what day it is, Nankai?"

She shook her head, refusing to look at him.

"It's Sunday."

"So?"

"That means your birthday is in three days. Only three more days, Nankai. Aren't you excited?"

Her eyes were luminous with pleasure. "Birth-day?"

"Yes, don't you remember? I told you last week it was almost your birthday."

Her legs sank down and she clutched her ankles as she leaned forward, her yellow braid swinging away from her shoulder. A smile tugged at her lips.

"Will daddy be there?" she whispered, shivering.

"No, Nankai."

Topaz exhaled, looking away as he tried to restrain his anger. When he looked back, she hadn't moved, her eyes still wide with anticipation.

"I told you, daddy is far, far away. He left me to look after you."

"But it's my birth-day!" she squealed, bouncing on the bed.

"He would be here if he could, you know that." Topaz reached for her.

She tried pulling away, but he smothered her protests with his arms, crushing her against his chest. His hands smoothed her hair, running over a pronounced cheekbone.

"Your daddy loves you so much, you know that," he whispered fiercely. "He would be here if he could. He just... he just has some things to take care of."

"If he loved me then he would be here, not there," Nankai murmured.

The brisk air inside the room chilled the dampness on his shirt, evidence of her sadness.

"He does love you." Topaz squeezed her and kissed the top of her head. "More than all the grains of sand in the earth. More than all the water in the oceans and rivers and lakes and dams. More than there are drops of rain in a thunderstorm."

Nankai seemed placated by his assurances. Her arms snaked out and encircled his waist. He took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of her new dress, her ginger shampoo and...

"Chocolate?" He drew her away from him. Nankai averted her eyes. "Phoenix! Did you give her chocolate?"

There was no response from the AI. Topaz took another breath and shook his head. He opened his weConnect to check the time. Nankai should have been asleep an hour ago.

"What did you eat today, Nankai?"

"Yogurt," she whispered.

"And?"

"'N apple."

"And chocolate?" She didn't reply, plucking at the folds of her orange dress. Her legs dropped over the side of the bed, swinging. "Did you read today?"

She nodded.

"What did you read?"

She flashed him a disarming smile. "Tip-pie."

"Did you read it yourself?" The smile disintegrated. "Phoenix read it to you?" A small nod. "Nankai, you have to read at least one story by yourself every day. Reading is how you learn about the world—" He stopped speaking, but it was too late.

"We can go outside!"

She jumped off the bed and ran to the door, pressing her face against the glass as she peered out.

"No, Nankai. You know we can't do that."

"But, please! Just... just quickly. If we're quick then the germs can't catch me!"

"You should be in bed already."

She stretched up on tip-toes, her hands flattened on the glass beside her head.

"I tell you what, I'll read you a story, okay?" Her narrow shoulders slumped, and she let her arms dangle at her side, her forehead still pressed to the glass. "I'll read Tippie the Tortoise..."

She spun around, a smile blooming on her face as she jumped on the bed in a flurry of orange skirts. Topaz rose, taking the tablet computer from the desk and scrolling through the list of books until he saw the dreaded image of the lopsided turtle.

When he turned back, Nankai was busy struggling out of her dress, most of it in a tangle around her head.

"Nankai!" The girl pulled the dress down enough to see him, giving him a frustrated scowl. "What did I tell you?" he snapped.

She let out a sigh and tugged the dress free, scampering onto the bed and sliding under the covers.

"I'm a la-dy," she muttered, despite all evidence to the contrary.

"And what do ladies always do?" he asked, reaching over to draw the covers to her chin.

"La-dies always wear clothes," came the sulky response. "I don't want to be a la-dy," she added.

"You're twenty-three years old, Nankai. You're not a little girl anymore."

"That's stupid," she informed him.

She turned onto her side and held out her arms, her fingers grasping at the air. Topaz shook his head and kicked off his shoes, lying down beside her. She put her head on his shoulder, her arm slipping over his chest to squeeze him.

"You're the best," she murmured.

Topaz stared down at Nankai's head, his lips pulling into a sad smile.

"I love you, Nankai." He stroked her hair, running his finger along the outside of her ear. "More than you'll ever know."

He propped the tablet on his stomach, grimaced, and began to read.

"Once upon a neveryear, in a land on the edge of the galaxy, there lived a tortoise named Tippie."

Nankai squirmed against him, giggling softly. He knew the story so well that he could glance away from the screen without losing his place.

He peered out through Nankai's enclosure. In the centre of the room, a circle of black soot tainted the gray tiles. There was no evidence of anything that could have led to the fire — no misshapen lumps of plastic or charred metal. He remembered the report he'd asked from Phoenix, who'd been strangely quiet after the chocolate accusation, but he didn't want to wake Nankai now that she was finally asleep.

Topaz put the tablet down on the desk, yawned, and closed his eyes.

A few minutes later he was also asleep. The only sound in the enclosure were their rhythmic exhalations and the humming of the tiny med-bot perched on the foot of the bed. A mop-bot emerged in the room beyond the glass, its motors whirring as it cleared the soot. The med-bot perked up at its arrival. It made its way down the bed, using one of its retractable arms to lower itself to the floor.

The med-bot raced over the floor of Nankai's enclosure and slipped into a hatch that had opened in the wall. It reappeared a few seconds later in the room beyond. The mop-bot paused its work as the med-bot approached. The med-bot bumped against the mop-bot.

Then the med-bot whirred past to disappear into its hatch in the wall. The mop-bot finished cleaning the soot and started work on the rest of the floor, clearing away any fine particles of dust that had settled since its last routine cleaning.

"Report complete," Phoenix announced over the room's audio speaker.

Topaz stirred but didn't wake, his arm tightening for a moment around Nankai.

"Report deleted."

. . .