《Ex Machina: Daily Life with my Android Wife》


 1. Ex Machina

    Beep.


    Beep.


    Beep.


    Beeeep.


    As the rhythmic beeping became one with the silence, Damian''s hands dug further in his scalp. Daring not to look up at her, elbows stuck on his knees. The cold sweat on his back and the dirt on his hair; the flickering light on the ceiling and the brazening wind of the tropical night. His brain reached for all these things, but he could not escape.


    He could not escape the reality in front of him.


    The door unlocked behind Damian.


    "Professor..." the doctor addressed him.


    "Will she live?" Damian asked in a rough scratch of this throat.


    The doctor paused, looking at the woman on the bed. Grimacing, despite all he''d seen in his career. He took a deep breath, brows pressed together in compassion charred with disgust.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "The insurance will cover it."


    "That was not my question." Damian cut him off, and the doctor stopped. But the professor understood:


    Only through the machines.


    "Will she ever... walk again? See? Speak?"


    The doctor did not have the heart to answer, even without looking him in the eye.


    Damian remained silent. Holding back tears that scraped him from inside.


    "Leave us alone, doc."


    Without another word, the doctor complied.


    The beeping and the silence were one and the same, once again.


    <hr>


    "Alright, professor. We''ve confirmed the machines are operational. Here is the instructions booklet. And this is our emergency number if there''s a problem."


    One of the young men and women in medical wear addressed Damian before leaving the house. He nodded, silently, and waited until they were gone.


    Damian looked upon his wife with utter despair. Softly placing a hand in the unburnt side of her cheeks. The tenderness in his eyes full of tears, slowly burned up into a new sort of light.


    "My love..." He called, even though she could not hear her.


    And in silence, he marched into the lower floor, grabbing his white coat from a hanger in the hall.


    "All systems starting. Welcome, professor."


    The underground laboratory lit up in countless hues, and the soft hum of machinery filled everything.


    "...I''ll give you the world that was taken from you."

 2. To Grant Light

    When the ceiling collapsed onto her and the building wreathed in flames, her arms took the impact as she covered herself with them.


    "I will give her shoulders that can hold the Earth from the Sky."


    Sizzling, humming. Azure lasers cutting through plaques of alloyed steel.


    The fire had burnt through her skin, seeping into her weakest parts.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    "I will make it so she can breathe in the heat of a star."


    Prayers only could tell if she''d ever wake. And if she did, how long would she last?


    "And I will ensure..."


    Thick metal shutters folded into the walls and ground. Behind layers of quartz and glass, it stood.


    "... That you live to see..."


    His magnum opus.


    The perfected dream of mankind''s fusion plant.


    "Up until the last atom decays, and dies the final star."


    The miniature reactor was assembled, and it softly hummed to life. Cradled against his chest, pulsating, as if beating. Soon to become his beloved wife''s heart.

 3. Sunrise

    Once more, beeping.


    This time, accompanied by the metallic humming of robot arms, and the whistling of blue lasers. It was long past midnight, and for the past thirty hours, Damian had kept his eyes peeled.


    If he found himself being tortured in hell itself, he surely wouldn''t witness nothing more upsetting than what he just had to see. But he couldn''t look away. If he did, and he failed to react to a minimal imprecision of his machinery, he would not be able to forgive himself for as long as he lived.


    By the time he was able to once more look at her factions, soft and fair, and at her sunlight hair, Damian was on his knees, arms on the steel bed-like plate, watchful through the one of his eyes that was still willing to blink.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    He felt like man turned a mouse, in a world blended from the worst nightmare and the bizarrest of dreams. His thoughts were radio static, and his heart had made peace with the suffering that clutched it.


    Soon, like a an whispering breeze, a warm buzzing filled the silence left by the now dormant machinery. The reactor breathed its azure light into its frame, and from it, life spread through the circuits that ran between her flesh and skin.


    A successful beep came from one of the screens behind Damian. Near instantly, he allowed himself to fall asleep. And, just as his eyelids shut and his legs went limp, on that bed-like metal platform that she laid on...


    Linea''s eyes opened wide, glowing like bright fiery suns were inside of them.