An interesting conceit, but at less than six pages, far too little space to do the idea justice.
Born in a state of catatonia due to a rare virus, ‘Baby’ Martinez, like many of her ilk, have a role to play in (once fully grown physically) acting as short-term rented ‘hosts’ for uploaded/backedup brain patterns of the recently deceased. ‘Baby’ Martinez is wiped clean between each host, and such be a complete tabula rasa for the next hosted brain. Except that in the course of the few pages of the story, she begins to remember the people she has previously hosted, and develops a sense of self that should not be possible, to the extent that she is able to take control of ‘her’ life, a life that she should not have, drawing on her lived experiences whilst hosting her recent brain patterns.
The story whizzes along, covering ground that could have taken up a novel, or an entire TV mini-series!
More from this issue here.