Toy Soldier / by Keres

The soldier pressed his finger to the glass panel. The blotted blood ran through the compressed glass slide and a biometric holographic display began to appear.

‘Where would you like to go, Sir?’ the Nurse asked Him.

‘What…what do you mean?’ he stammered.

‘While you’re in HoloMetric Processing, and your wife Sally is living her daily life, I have a series of Uploads for you to choose from, based on your genetic coding.’

The screen flashed and changed before him. A jungle. A spaceship. The moon. Another moon. A starsystem.

“I’m not goin’ anywhere without Sal,’ he muttered. He SimSwitched the NurseHolo out and blinked the lights of his room off and on until Sally stirred from her place on the floor next to his bed.

She leaned up on her elbows and looked at her husband.