“Death comes for us all,” the voice of Vocast echoed in her mind. Sadie Fowler knew she wasn’t awake, and the presence of the otherworldly creature remained like a gentle pressure.  She looked around, dimly aware that she was seeing the inside of herself.  The lithe figure of Vocast sat off to the side, grasping tightly onto a simple chair.

“You are dying,”  Sadie stated as she walked closer to her, struggling against the dull restraints of her consciousness.

“I am.  I was always dying.  The loss of my sisters…upset the balance of our connection.  We had sustained each other for so long…I did not know what it would do to lose them.  I do not regret saving them from The Dominion.  I regret I will not live to see the future.”

Sadie asked, “And of me?  What happens to me once you’re gone?”

“I have spent time examining this problem, and your people here with me have also worked on it.  When my sisters died, a part of me was lost.  Each loss took a…you would call it a piece of me.  I have felt a deep sorrow ever since.  Your discovery of me and the arrival of this team…have helped to fill that part of me that was removed.”

The Science Chief felt her nerves contract, “So, I…I’ll go through something similar?”

Vocast cocked her head to the side in thought.  Her eyes searched Fowler from head to toe, reflecting.  “I do not know the effect on a human psyche.  You will require…considerable care.  Our connection and our minds have grown closer in that time.  You would say that our souls have intertwined…at least, that is something I remember in my study of humanity.”

Sadie sighed as reality set in, “Tearing two things apart generally is a painful experience.”

“I wish for any other result.  It was not my intention to cause you pain or your crewmates pain.  I have learned much in my time with you about humanity…you are a curious and fascinating species.”

She found a nearby chair in her mind and sat, “How much time do we have left?” A dulling numbness was creeping into her consciousness.

“Within the next hour, my life force will fade.  My body will expire soon after…and my hold over this planet will end.  Your people here with me are attempting to find a way to preserve my remains beyond the dust it will become. I have told them it is impossible. It is our way.”

Sadie sat back in the chair as her mind worked to prepare.  “I don’t know what to do…I’ve never sat with someone as they died.”

“Tell me of humanity, Sadie Fowler.  Tell me of the glory.  Tell me of the redemption.  Tell me of the goodness of the people of your worlds.  When I go, I wish to think of you and your people…and what they’ve done for me.”

She felt a smile cross her lips in the ether of her mind, “I can do that.  Let’s start with…”

In the ensuing hour, she regaled Vocast with the stories she had asked for – the arc of humanity from Earth to the Moon to Beyond.  As the hour waned, she felt a deepening pain surrounding her.  “This is it, isn’t it?”

“It is the end of my time with you.  What dreams may come… is a mystery that not even I can portend.  I will surrender to it…and walk whatever path it provides.  Goodbye, Sadie Fowler.  May your journey be long and fortuitous.”

Fowler screamed as her mind filled with an unbearable sharp and resounding pain.  It didn’t ebb and flow.  It stabbed.  It pierced.  It dug into her soul as the life of Vocast reached its end, the sense of her presence fading as the pain traveled through her mind at a staggering volume.  It rolled around her as she stumbled from the chair, falling to the floor with tears in her eyes as she crawled towards something, anything.  The pain slowly faded to where it remained a dull ache in her heart.

“We’re getting her back!  Shock again!”

Sadie’s mind went white, then yellow, and then black again.  She muttered as she shook her head.  She couldn’t feel, couldn’t see.  What was going on?

“There we go.  Back to normal rhythm!  Let’s bring her out.  Slowly.”

The world around her faded into a confusing mass of colors and lights as she tried to move but found her arms and legs bound. Who had done this to her?  Everything was out of focus!  She tried to move but couldn’t.  The noises around her were dull, bouncing in and around her ears.  Her focus stubbornly returned, and the faces around her were familiar.  “What…I’m not dead.”

Jordan Reid touched her shoulder reassuringly, “You’re alive, Sadie.  Welcome back.”