It scared her more than anything she had ever known. She was about to be flung out into the void, to pierce the heart of the greatest evil her world had ever known. This was her birthday, Darkdamn it! She didn’t want to die on her birthday!

You will not die, the racial memory said within her. Had I died, how could I be with you now?

The voice calmed her. She had to believe it. It had done this before, and it was still with her. As a disembodied voice in my head, she thought. What kind of a life is that?

But she had no choice. They were singing her louder, more insistently. She was growing thinner and thinner, being squeezed and focused down into a hair-fine beam. She couldn’t breathe! Then she realized, she didn’t need to breathe.

Goodbye, homeworld, she thought. Goodbye, family. Goodbye, friends. She looked up, into the deep blackness. Hello, you bastard. Whatever you are, at least you won’t get the ones I love.

The song crescendoed, and she leaped into space.