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Lily saw a bright flash outside her tiny window.
The stars had largely faded, but she still looked out. The view was comfortable and she was happy to think she was facing them.
They still had so much to tell her, she thought. It brought her peace.
The flash . . . had it been one of them?
She didn’t know, but she liked to think so. Soon she’d be another star among them. That had been a story she’d heard once.
Or maybe she’d imagined it . . .
Memories, dreams, fantasies, all of them seemed equally real and plausible to her. Thoughts from childhood were coming back to her, sparks of a pure joy that almost brought tears of happiness to her eyes.
How had she ever forgotten these things? They were the parts that made life so beautiful. Almost as beautiful as those stars out there, glowing for ages upon ages, longer than humanity had existed or likely would ever exist.
At this moment, she felt like she was one with them.
One of those lights might be the Craton, she thought. She felt a pang of sadness, thinking of how hard they were all working to save her.
She could imagine the distance, for the first time she felt she truly could feel just how vast they were in space. She could feel that distance. It took light seconds to cross the gap. She was an insignificant nothing in this endlessness.
But it would end when she was dead. She knew she was dying, that the gas was leaking in here and killing her. That she would not be rescued. She’d accepted that.
It did not upset her. She just hoped they wouldn’t take it too hard.
Maybe it was the gas itself that was making her so accepting of her fate. Probably.
But that didn’t make her acceptance any less real. It didn’t make her memories or fantasies or dreams any less real to her.
It was funny. She’d been afraid of death.
But it was everything leading up to it that was hard.
Dying was easy.
Captain’s Log:
Escape Pod 57 was recovered six hours after initial launch from the Maria’s Cog.
The second drone was successful in attaching to the pod and penetrating the hull to begin scrubbing the air of toxic gases. Concentrations, however, were by that time above lethal limits. Medical drones deployed within the pod found that both Lily Brogan and Davyyd Pedraza were dead.
Their bodies have been recovered, and will be returned to their families.
All other personnel from the Maria’s Cog that have been recovered are in stable condition. We are en route to Medical Base 17 for their further treatment.
Further investigations have confirmed our earlier theory that the Cog had been hit by a piece of space debris moving at an unusually high velocity. Notations of this particular danger in this region have been sent out to all Union vessels and independent ships.
The known flaw in the escape pods that allowed the release of engine coolant gas under certain circumstances has been elevated in importance; all current models of that pod in service will undergo revision to help prevent such future incidents.
Finally, Commander Kai Yong Fan has requested a leave of absence of three days. I have granted her request.
FINIS
Other Terrestrial 
Life. You can do everything right and still lose.
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