Tucson, Arizona, October 2063

Perhaps the spaghetti was a mistake.

Claw’s pasta was always delicious but maybe this time it wasn’t the best idea.

Teagan Ward, her stomach rumbling with anticipation, couldn’t resist ceremoniously twirling a delicious big bite onto her fork and shoveling it into her mouth as she and her brother, Hunter, watched the hilarious antics of their favorite animated characters. The marinara sauce smeared her mouth and dribbled down her chin as she laughed uncontrollably while slurping the long strands through her lips. Every few minutes, they would burst into fits of giggles or gasps of excitement as the cartoon animals tricked their latest dupe. Their affectionate dog, Chester, lay beside them, hoping a tasty morsel prepared by their multi-limbed robotic chef, Claw, might fall her way.

Teagan was busy wrapping a long strand of spaghetti around her tongue when she snorted with laughter, ejecting the pasta in her mouth across the sofa and hitting her brother in the eye. In mock outrage, Hunter darted across the sofa and acted as if he was strangling her.

“I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry!” spluttered the six-year-old Teagan, as she continued to shake with laughter.

“Apologize, you sniveling grasshopper,” her brother, three years older than her, demanded.

“It won’t happen again, Your Majesty.”

Drawn by the playful mayhem, Teagan’s vigilant AI companion, Betty––who had helped bring her up since she was an infant––dropped by to advise them that it was bedtime.

“Time to head for the land of Nod,” she said in her distinctive computerized vocal timbre.

Hunter had told Teagan that she could adjust the speech pattern, but Teagan rather liked it. Betty was a sleek humanoid with fluid movements and a soft, almost friendly face. Her eyes glowed with a faint blue light, and her skin was a smooth metallic silver, with small panels and wires visible under her transparent joints.

Betty instructed the room to dim the lights and turn down Teagan’s bed. Teagan groaned, not wanting to go to sleep yet, and faked resistance, but knew it was past time. Hunter always got to stay up a little later. She couldn’t wait until she could too.

“But first,” Betty said as she cleared up the dinner plates, “we need a short visit to Gummy in your health pod for a quick clean of your teeth, to keep your smile bright.”

The health pod, a regular feature in most homes, gave her an instant checkup and reported back her vital signs. Teagan liked Gummy, her personalized dental robotic assistant. Not only was Gummy very gentle—using a water jet flossing system and whitener to meticulously clean her teeth—she always did it while telling jokes. Once Gummy had finished her task, Teagan reluctantly made her way to bed, dragging her feet as she went.

Betty gave Teagan a hug. “Mummy says she loves you and Chester gives you a wet nose. Go to sleep now.”

When Betty hugged Teagan, the skin on her outer frame felt a little cool to the touch. It was a strange sensation, but Teagan had grown used to it and found it comforting. She hugged Betty back.

“Don’t let the bed bugs bite,” Betty said, giving her one more kiss.

Teagan’s laundered sheets smelled fresh like the sea breeze. She snuggled under the covers and wiggled around, trying to get comfortable. The bright full moon shone through her window, unhindered by the curtains embroidered with graceful butterflies that her mother had put up last year, making the small nightlight unnecessary. Ever since the night of the great blackout when her mother’s car had gone berserk and driven itself off the road, Teagan insisted on keeping a light on.

She could hear the howling of coyotes in the Arizona desert nearby, accompanied by their occasional yips and barks as they marked out their territory. She pulled her soft pink sheets tightly over her ears, wrapping them around her head to keep out the sounds and the light, and closed her eyes.

But her sleep was disturbed and irregular. She began to toss and turn as she started to dream. She soon found herself in a strange place, in the presence of a huge octopus with eyes like black orbs the size of basketballs. Its slimy, wet, sucker-covered arms stretched around her, enveloping her, making it hard to breathe. Its suction cups wavered and flexed against her skin. Teagan tried to fight back but, despite her kicking, she was too small and dainty to break free of the octopus’s grasp. She screamed her voice raw, but the octopus only tightened its tentacles around her.

Awaking with a start, she found the sheets wrapped around her neck, mimicking the cephalopod’s grasp. She screamed and cried for help, but no one came.

The dream was so real, she felt she was suffocating. Tears streamed down her face. She ran down the dark corridor to her parents’ room. Chester, her russet-brown Labradoodle, looked startled at the sudden intrusion.

Her mother, Clara, hugged her and comforted her. “What happened? Your PJs are all damp with sweat.”

“Don’t worry, darling. It’s just a dream,” her father, Noel, said as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

“It was so horrible,” cried Teagan. “I’m scared.”

“Just sleep here for now.” Her mother patted the sheets beside her. “You’re safe here. You can tell us in the morning.”

Teagan snuggled in beside her parents. Her mother smelled good and comforting.

“Get some sleep now.” Clara put her arm lovingly around her daughter, and soon Teagan was drifting back off.

But it didn’t take long for the dream to return. Teagan was standing in a dark and cavernous space. The air was thick and humid. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw that she was surrounded by a chanting crowd of strange beings. A voice boomed out from the darkness.

“Welcome, Chosen One,” it said. “You have been summoned to serve the all-knowing spirit of the Octopus.”

Teagan tried to scream, but no sound came out. The giant arms of the octopus wrapped around her again, and she was lifted into the air as though on a huge crane. The next thing Teagan knew she was standing on a stone platform, the beings all looking up at her. Her feet were bare, and the stone was rough and irregular. She wasn’t a child any longer, but a full-grown woman, wearing a flowing white robe and a headdress made of seashells and pearls. In her hand was a golden scepter with an octopus-shaped head.

The figures chanted, and the look in their eyes was of awe and worship. She was their priestess now, and she raised her scepter to lead them in a hypnotic dance, singing words in a curious language she didn’t know. The scepter gave off an intense light of pure energy that coursed through her body and filled her with a feeling of immense power, as if the worshippers were at her command. Their chanting was intoxicating, and she began to feel unsteady on her feet. Her body swayed and trembled.

On the floor of the cavern, light from the scepter created shapes that danced across the naked rock. It traced a familiar pattern, but Teagan couldn’t think what it was. She wished her father was with her. He would know for sure. The shapes helped her recall how one clear night her father––a professor of planetary sciences––had pointed out to her the patterns in the stars, and how one bright cluster, the constellation Orion, looked like a rectangle and belt. Her father said he’d once used Orion to navigate a boat at sea, and it had saved his life.

The lights seemed to enrapture the worshippers, who still moved in their hypnotic dance. She was being sucked into an alternate world, somewhere far into the universe. As the throbbing, mesmerizing dance continued, Teagan sensed a deep connection with these strange beings. The dance sapped all her energy, and she drifted off into a deep sleep.

In the morning, her mother asked her if she was okay. “You were such a pest last night, jiggling around, almost like you were dancing.”

“I’m fine, Mom,” she replied.

Teagan knew better than to tell her what really had transpired, but the mysterious spirit of the Octopus seemed to linger, tugging at something deep inside her. Its bewitching power had a strange allure that would remain within her and beckon her on a journey.