Rebirth: An Automaton's Journey

Chapter 1

Bzzt. Sparks jumped from the spoke of the ship's wheel to the motionless automaton on the floor.

"How's the welding, Auto?" Lily asked.

"Satisfactory." The giant ship's wheel drew back to survey its work, scanning over its creation with a critical red gaze.

"Good." Lily leaned over the metal body, picking a now-cooled speck of welding debris from its chest. Carefully, she ran her fingers over its face and shoulders. "I don't feel any holes. You soldered those pieces together perfectly."

"Obviously I did."

Lily snorted. "Oh, come on, Auto. I worked on this body every bit as hard as you did, and you know it."

Beat.

"Affirmative."

Lily picked up the left hand, bending it at the elbow and bringing it to the shoulder. "Joints work," she observed, moving to the right arm and then the legs. She looked up again at the wheel. "It looks solid to me."

"Affirmative."

"Does it meet your expectations?"

Auto had to think on that one for a bit. What were all of his expectations? He'd told Lily he wanted "the utility of a human form" but hadn't given her details.

Walking was a huge one. He had those nice portholes that allowed him to enter rooms, but the mechanical parts had become unreliable in the years the Axiom sat idle. True, he could have attempted to repair them, but he'd already decided he preferred Lily's form of movement—it was much more straightforward and efficient than the hydraulic boom he'd used for 700 years.

Dexterity was another. His current appendages could prod buttons, snap at plants, and electrocute annoying trash-compactor robots. Her hands could tie and untie knots, carefully carry objects without needing to pinch the life out of them, easily sort through the underside of a control panel one wire at a time and leave all else untouched.

But most intriguing to him of all was the concept of having more senses than just sight and hearing. He had observed, fascinated, when she cuddled a blanket or stretched out on the heated surface of the massage table. How she liked working in the kitchen so she could smell the food as it cooked.

"Well?" Lily prodded him. "Is this what you wanted?"

"I will soon know." The wheel dipped down to touch the body's sternum; it jerked as if touched by a defib paddle, and the red light went out.

Darkness, then the tingling of current flowing through the fine copper wiring. The body laid motionless for a several moments as its systems slowly calibrated for the first time.

Then sound.

"Auto? Auto...? You're just lying there...you ok?"

He assumed from the volume that Lily was less than a foot from his face. Like camera shutters, both eyes—one normal, one covered with a red monocle of sorts—clicked open for the first time and confirmed his guess.

Another thing he'd specifically wanted: depth perception. His lack of this ability had screwed him over majorly in his wrestling match with McCrea. One of the most humiliating moments of his existence, falling for that laughably obvious trick—he consoled himself by remembering that he'd had the sense to learn from that idiotic mistake. He wouldn't fall for that one again.