AN: Well, that's all for this story. Hope you enjoy the final chapter.

She was only vaguely aware of the chattery voice just outside of her periphery. Frankly, it didn't much matter. She was happy as a clam, out here, with her stars. She wanted to tell him, that other eyeball with the chattery voice, that she'd always wanted to be astronaut. That she'd never have had a chance to be up here, except for now. Instead, what came out was some variant of the word "space".

"Space, spacespacespace, gotta see it all, space!" She tried to make him understand how happy it made her.

Funny enough, she couldn't quite remember why they were out here. Didn't much matter to her. She could hardly remember her own name, let alone why they were out amongst the stars in the great vacuum of space. Speaking of, what was her name again?

Didn't really matter anyways. There was space to look at, so much of it. If only…well, if only she didn't feel this strange sort of…black hole inside her. As if, maybe, once upon a time, she had things other than space to make her happy. But that seemed silly, since she'd always loved space and only space…

"Space!" She said again, trying to shoo away her vague feelings of discontent.

"Yeah! Space! We get it mate! It's been what, four years now? There's a great big bloody bit of space out here, alright!"

She felt a little hurt, but after a moment, she forgot why she was hurt. After all, she had a friend to enjoy space with. Why would anyone not want that?

But there was something coming. Something huge. Perhaps it was a meteor? Or maybe it was a comet! All that mattered was that it was more space. Space coming her way. Coming her way fast, so fast that—

"Kevin, no!"

Everything was light. It was so, so bright, just like the stars, no, wait, that wasn't quite right. Stars were nice, but this was too bright for her liking. It hurt her eyes.

Then the brightness dimmed, gently. She glanced up and saw a figure, dimly shadowed in the light. The figure approached, growing closer.

"Stella?" The figure asked. The name sounded…familiar. "Stella!"

The figure ran, sprinting without the slightest hesitation, and suddenly she was scooped up in a pair of arms.

"…Dad?"

"Stella, my sweet Stella-Star." The figure wept.

Far below the earth, in the depths of a lab so deep it might as well have been Hell itself, a faint beep, long and unabating, sounded. It echoed against the steel walls, bouncing and repeating.

If a bystander had been nearby, they might have seen a long row of stasis tanks, not unlike long fishbowls against the walls. Though many of the occupants were older men and women with greying temples and wrinkled brows, one occupant in particular was younger than most.

Her hair was a mousy brown, wispy and uninteresting, her face soft with the calm of sleep. It was her tank that beeped, harrying anyone within earshot with a long, unending, blaring noise. The panel noted a flatline, but the beep faded, as no technician or engineer came to check the panel.

She was smiling.