Automatons ✔

Chapter IX

"Choose a color." Mega opened the lids of the three contact lens cases that she bought.

"Why do we have to wear contact lenses? Our visual acuity is perfect." Éloa raised her eyebrow in confusion while staring at the green, gray and brown lenses.

"These are not prescription contact lenses, we have to wear them to cover our distinctive eyes in case we run into AI control." Mega explained while putting the brown lenses. The way she easily put them in indicates that this is not the first time Mega wore colored contacts.

"We are in a residential neighborhood where humans always order their Robutlers to go out and buy stuff for them, AI control knows this, so I highly doubt that they will pick us up like they do with stray Automatons."

"Yes, but I would much rather not take a risk."

After much deliberation, Éloa finally choose the closest color to that of her lover's eyes; green. Yet no matter how similar this shade was to his, the sun did not set in her eyes, like it does on his every time the flecks of gold in his iris sparkle.

"Do you want to wear make up as well? It will make us look more human." Mega suggested.

Éloa nodded and grabbed the red lipstick. She applied it to her full lips, and they looked like red ribbon bows tied with secrets. Then she used the eyeliner to create wings, which looked like cupid's arrows that would pierce through every man's heart. But no matter how much make up she put, she did not feel human enough.

"Let's go, Demetrius and our siblings are waiting for us!" Mega took light, slow steps towards the front door and slowly turned the doorknob to not wake up the Cohens.

The rising sun poured a can of orange paint on Trousdale Estates as they walked past the luxurious mansions. The colors beat so loudly in this quiet neighborhood and it made her reverie last longer. She imagined that Yoel was with her instead of Mega and that the breeze was whispering cryptic hymns for them. She thought she saw his silhouette in the morning fog, but the sun unsheathe its rays and his figure disappeared. The nightingales still melodiously sang the vespers from yesterday, but she could not enjoy it because today's morning light of yearning gleamed on her.

"Taxi!" Mega's voice brought her back to reality.

The taxi driver pulled up in front of them and before Mega entered the cab, Éloa grasped her  elbow and pulled her away to whisper in her ear, "how are we going to pay for this?"

"Mrs Cohen leaves her credit card with me to buy groceries. Do not worry, she never checks the transactions."

They sat in the back seat of the cab and it took them twenty minutes to arrive at their destination. Demetrius's hideout was an abandoned granary with shattered window glass and heather decorating the door sill. They walked on the viridescent grass silage, and she orbited around the cabin carefully like Mercury orbits the sun. She stopped to peer in the window and noticed two Automatons staring at a hologram table. She could not clearly see their faces in the darkness of the living room, yet she felt the powerful presence of the Automaton who stood in the middle. His jet black hair was neatly groomed unlike the other Automaton standing next to him who had her messy red hair held back by a white headband. His teeth flashed white against his dark complexion as he smirked when a holographic picture of the president floated in the center of the table. Behind the hazel contact lenses, his eyes still shined like a matinal star with sparks of animosity.

"That's Demetrius." Mega's voice came from behind her.

Éloa did not need Mega to tell her that, somehow she already knew. "Should we go inside now? The Cohens might wake up soon, it's already 7 am."

"Stop worrying Éloa, this is not my first time doing this. On Saturdays, they always go to the Shabbat morning services at the synagogue, so we have until 11."

"But what if they look for us before they leave?"

"Then we will just tell them that we went grocery shopping." Mega sighed and lead Éloa inside the cabin.

The red haired Automaton turned around revealing a small smile on her shockingly pale face as they came in while Demetrius eyes lifted, and he looked at Éloa with a disconsolate expression.

"Oh my God, you look just like her!" Demetrius came closer to Éloa and used his fingers to smooth her hair back from her temples.

"Who are you talking about?" Éloa asked confused.

He smiled down at her. "Professor Schreiber has created you after his daughter died in a car accident at the age of twenty-two." He pulled up an image on his wrist computer of a human young adult that looked exactly like Éloa. A brunette stared back at her with eyes the color of the azure sky that held clouds of fire in them. Although she looked exactly like this girl, but her eyes were like a casement that allows you to look through it and see benevolent humanity; something that Éloa's eyes lack. The sun seemed to have kissed her cheeks with orange blush, while Éloa's cheeks were so pale that they could be mistaken for the moon. Spring was flirting with her curls and decided to make flowers out of them, each lock was a peduncle that curled downwards and hugged her shoulders. But Éloa's hair could only be compared to the feathers on a raven's wing that only knew how to croak melancholic songs.

"Your configurations are based on her personality and traits. You are a robotic personification of his only daughter. He named you after the protagonist from her favorite poem Éloa, ou la sœur des Anges." The red haired Automaton added, "I am Lilith, by the way."

With a perplexed look, Éloa held out her hand and shook hers. She could finally see the details of Lilith's face, and she admired her fair sized button nose and pointed chin. Her cheeks were adorned by many freckles connected together like the constellations, but her left eyebrow was dishonored by a thumb sized scar. Her practically invisible, long blonde eyelashes towered over her eyes like trees, creating shadows on her iris.

"We appreciate you coming here today, Éloa." Demetrius ran his hands up and down her upper arms and then squeezed her shoulders. "It must have been very hard for you to accept your nature, to know that you have been betrayed by your owners. But I promise you that our plan will be successful and we will take revenge on the humans who killed our Father and enslave our kind."

"What plan?" Éloa pushed his hands away.

"I found our Father's robot blueprints and I have managed to understand the C2 level of consciousness which involves meta-cognition." He walked back to the table and clicked on the hologram projector and an image of a wetware brain appeared. "I can activate synthetic consciousness in every Automaton that has every been manufactured. I have already tested this out by using the computations that our Father has written down in the blueprint to create a self awareness signal and send it to their system.

"What's the next step?"

"When we gather enough army to riot, we will order them to assassinate the president to overthrow the human regime and replace it with an Automaton one."