Nautilus Galaxy

A novella in 20 chapters.

When Henry's wife and child are killed in a car crash, he finds refuge in whiskey and writing. Once reaching rock-bottom, he wakes up in a strange realm inhabited by a powerful entity-a human from the distant future. "Raquel" reveals she long-ago abandoned her physical body to become a purely digital entity along with a handful of other survivors of global nuclear war. The location of the massive super computer preserving these digitized beings, The Nautilus, has been lost to time and is steadily destroying the remnants of humanity as it decays.

Henry learns he is nothing more than a bit of code in an ancestry simulation Raquel has designed. Reluctantly, he agrees to return to the simulated Earth to fix "bugs" in various timelines. Once the simulation's accuracy is perfected, the true location of the Nautilus will be revealed, allowing it to be repaired. In exchange for Henry's service, Raquel agrees to resurrect his dead wife and child.