Playing in a Sci Fi Sandbox

For a while I've had this idea for a sci fi story or novel. I'm not ready to work on the specific plot, but I thought I'd explore one of the concepts involved.

***

At first she thought it was strange that she could still feel her body. Why wasn't she simply a drifting cloud of consciousness? But the more she pondered this, the more it made sense. Amputees had phantom limbs after all, the odd sensation of having a limb when it wasn't actually there anymore. Your brain stores a map of your body somewhere, and since her brain patterns had been copied exactly, that map was still there.

It was comforting. Her mind could expand in all directions, view feeds from systems all over the city and all over the world, but she still felt centered in her self. There was no fear of losing who she was.

Of course, there was other strangeness to deal with. Mainly, that she was dead but still conscious. Older citizens were counseled with how to deal with their deaths, but she was only 25. Had only been 25.

The sudden grief made her access a CTV camera at her mother's workplace before she knew what she was doing. It hadn't taken her long to rationalize her perceived corporeality, so her mother hadn't been told yet. There she was sitting at her desk, like the day was completely normal, and she couldn't watch, couldn't see the moment when she got the news—

She cut the feed. The sudden lack of visual input made her head spin, so she let the default simulation run.

A field of poppies. She wondered distantly if the programmer had been a fan of The Wizard of Oz. What could be more calming than a flower that lulls people to sleep?

She reached out a finger to touch one of the deep red petals.

"Like it? Made it myself."