The human Beta stepped forward and preached.
The human omega curled her delicate fingers around the ruffles of her sparkling white dress and raised the skirt.
She bowed.
This established the acceptance of her inferior status in the marriage.
Some strands of her black hair had escaped her bun and hung loosely to frame her face. She slowly raised her head to look at the groom.
Tears welled up in her eyes and her lips pushed up into a soft smile.
No one in the hall could put together the complexity of her expressions. Some of the lower grade cyborgs felt their circuits heat up as they tried to interpret these conflicting signals.
An upper grade cyborg tugged at the sleeves of his human teacher and asked, "What is she feeling?"
The cyborg looked exactly like a human 6 year old. Every part of silicon on "his" body was meticulously designed from head to toe by humans themselves.
His human teacher, who taught him Human Intelligence, rubbed his head and chuckled, "This is what mortal complexities are. Humans don't always feel one emotion per moment. Many emotions can't be put into words."
If it wasn't for the test on Human Intelligence being just around the corner, the cyborg would've flung this dumb man out the window for the vague answer.
It's just that his future status as an Alpha depended on that test, so he had to hold it in.
He fixed his cameras back to the stage and saved the bride's pictures to analyse later.
It's just then, the human priest said the words he was all familiar with.
"Now, the bride and the groom shall kiss."
Every cyborg in the hall slowed down their current flow, regulated the oil pump and turned up the amount of pixels in their cameras. They recorded the couple in slow-mo.
On the stage, the bride stole one last glance down the edge of the stage.
Her mother sat on a chair clutching her purse. She now wore a silken emerald green dress. Her cheeks were flushed like a well-fed rich lady. She would've looked pretty if it weren't for her swollen eyes.
Her brother was yet to meet her eyes. He sat beside his mother quietly, fumbling to his silver ring until his fingers bloomed red.
Her father was nowhere to be found in the hall.
The bride sighed internally. She had dearly hoped to hug her Dad one last time, but the latter refused to bid her a decent farewell.
Her father had strongly opposed her plan of marrying an Alpha to raise their status, but she did it anyway.
Now, there was no going back. The bride didn't regret it, anyway. It was all worth the gain.
Just the act on the bed would hurt a bit more, but her social and financial life was set. So was her family's.
The bride sucked in a breath and braced herself to kiss the cold silicon. Rigidly still in her place, with her eyes tightly closed, she waited for the "superior" one to initiate the act.
To be honest, she didn't like her cyborg's eyes one bit.
Red rims gleamed around his pupils which made her feel as if she was under surveillance all the time. She couldn't even scratch her nose without feeling like a specimen. It was really uncomfortable.
Apart from the eyes, her cyborg looked very normal. The first time she had seen him, she couldn't believe that he was a cyborg running on AI.
Therefore, she could assume she was with a human as long as she didn't look him in the eyes.
Soon, a pair of warm lips covered hers. The bride blinked.
Well...
Her cyborg was an upper grade Alpha afterall. He must have a really good heating system in there.
***
The bride's name was 3123. C056. F073. M004.
That's what was registered in the National People's Index (NPI). Because, apparently, AI found numbers more memorable than words.
This eccentric naming structure introduced by NPI used four different sets to identify a citizen; human or AI.
The structure of the name for any citizen would be 'xxxx. Cxxx. Fxxx. Mxxx.'
The first set (xxxx) included only numbers. It gave information on the generic background of a citizen.
Just like in the bride's name, 3123, the '3' in thousands place specified that she was an omega. Similarly, a '1xxx' specified that one was an Alpha and a '2xxx' specified that one was a Beta.
The '1' in hundreds place gave information on whether a citizen is an upper grade or a lower grade. '31xx' specified that she was an upper grade Omega. While, a '32xx' would've meant that she was a lower grade Omega.
The tens and ones digits in the first set give information on the ethnicity if the citizen is a human.
Note that for AIs, the tens and ones digits are always '0' since they're yet to develop the concept of ethnicity among them.
The second set (Cxxx) basically meant the Constituency (C) in which the citizen lived.
The third set (Fxxx) specified the Family (F) no. of the citizen.
And the last set (Mxxx) specified the position of the citizen as the Member (M) of his/her/its family.
M004 meant that the bride was the fourth oldest member of the family.
After the marriage, the bride's name was to be changed from 3123. C056. F073. M004 to 2123. C020. F012. M002.
But again, what AI found easy to remember wasn't exactly easy for humans. So the bride's family and friends still preferred to call her Sery.
***
Sery sat cross legged on the pale yellow balloon sofa facing out the transparent wall.
Her phone in her right hand as she scrolled down the posts on Tenomo, trying to find human influencers. A yellow cup with a skeleton figure imprinted in her left hand.
She'd scroll down for a minute, then look out the wall. Taking in the view as she sipped the warm coffee from her ever favorite cup.
She puffed. A tiny cloud forming ahead of her face.
The AI community was very unlike anything she had imagined.
She expected it to be very much metallic with muted tones everywhere. But the city before her eyes looked more like kid's playground with vibrant colours everywhere.
Seems like the AI community was trying too hard to imitate humans.
After having her fill of the view, she looked down on her phone and began scrolling Tenomo again.
It's not like she could do anything else. Her cyborg husband had disappeared the night of their wedding and hasn't been home since then.
She didn't any complaints though. She'd been spared three days of titanium dik.
Sery sipped her coffee again before standing up and unhurriedly walking to the transparent wall.
With her pinky, she pressed randomly on the surface of the wall for 5 seconds. The transparent wall gradually became foggy and then completely white.
Sery walked back to her balloon sofa and flopped down.
The coffee spilled on her sleeve.
She stared down at her yellow sweater sleeve which was now tainted brown.
Slowly, she stood up and made her way to the bathroom, tossing her skeleton cup into the sink on her way.
After she took off her sweater, it was as if the temperature dropped by 5 degrees.
She was only wearing a thin white shirt underneath.
Quivering, she worked her way through the complex buttons on the washing machine and practically ran back to her room.
She'd yet to learn her house. Apart from controlling the transparent wall and fumbling through the washing machine, she didn't know how to operate other important things. Like for instance, the heater.
So, she could only depend on thick layers of clothes for now.
Just as she was about to pull out a sweater from her wardrobe, an ear piercing sound echoed throughout the house.
Someone was at the door.