Looking down at her hands Darcie smoothed them again against her skirt, imagining the rough feel of the fabric under them. Oh, how she wanted to cry, feel tears welling up in her eyes and running softly down her cheeks. With a deep breath, she balled her fists up and forced herself to stop feeling sorry for herself. She wasn’t beat yet. However, her chest tightened and, against her will, a sob escaped her lips. She had nothing, no reason to continue torturing this crew, no reason to stay. The cold hard fact was that even if she did manage to direct the ship to Sihnon they would terminate her anyway. She was a machine beyond repair, a failed experiment, a waste of time and resources. Darcie felt herself slipping. Her feet began to dissolve, no, she had begun to fall through Serenity, not dissolve. Her projection was too strong to just vanish now. Darcie fell up to her knees in Serenity; she was drowning in a sea of metal. Sinking up to her chest, Darcie spun madly downwards, fluidly falling through engine parts, machinery, until she was half out of Serenity’s hull. She was so close to falling out into space forever, the last piece of her lost to the stars.

“Finish your mission. Finish your mission otherwise you will be terminated.” Darcie heard, but not with her ears. Her lower body was sticking out of Serenity, she knew that just a little further and it would all be over. But as Darcie contemplated the emptiness of space, a fear reached up and grabbed her, tightening and squeezing her until she choked.

“Listen to me, Darcie. The pain can get a lot worse, I can prolong it ad infinitum, I can keep this pathetic body of yours alive. I know you can hear me.” She coughed again, choking on nothing. She didn’t want to die, she didn’t want to suffer whilst she spun and fell, lost in the black. With effort, she elevated herself up through the ship again, mentally hooked on the members of the crew. They did not notice, of course, they did not know that Darcie was rapidly approaching.

***

Mal s