Derek Fleming

In a near-future where grief can be outsourced, a bereaved artist considers a new outpatient procedure: an AI implant that can copy her mind, replace her with a digital copy, and spare her loved ones the pain of loss. But one unsettling discovery forces her to ask what, if anything, makes us truly irreplaceable. Set one product launch from today, Afterlife is a quiet sci-fi thriller about art, identity, and the slow erasure of the self in the age of artificial intelligence.

Our hero was just trying to eat noodles and watch a movie, but he'll have to face his long neglect of house-spaceship/self care if he wants to find his uniform and wipe the smudge off his nose. Which he really does want. Emphatically so. Because the escape pods require photo I.D. to activate, and failing to escape our ship (The CSS HOTROD) guarantees a fiery, albeit timely, demise.

A guilt ridden man wakes in an endless white space where he's visited by The Voice in His Head and given a simple choice...