Robots Are Only Human. Robots Are Only Human, #1

Some worlds only hold as long as no one asks. In Helix, robots are the rule and humans are legend. MARA-7 is a mother, LUMI-2 her child, their housing module fully compliant with city regulations. A normal family in a city that has turned the word normality into a duty. Until the Museum of the Biological Era puts a child on display that breathes. What looks like an oversight is architecture. Helix has a programme: Houseline.
Human children are built into synthetic families, rehearsed, inserted - gently enough that no one uses the word abduction. LUMI was intended. MARA was measured. And the girl behind the glass is not the last. While an old unit knows too much, an investigator changes sides and a daughter stops being simply a child, a night begins in which an entire city stops relying on its own order. Book 1 of the series Robots Are Only Human - science fiction as social storytelling.
For readers of Martha Wells, Kazuo Ishiguro and Becky Chambers. Content note: themes of child manipulation, exchanged identities, institutional violence and quiet grief. Recommended for ages 16 and up.