That's not death. It's completion

[fandaal]

Yatima shut off the flow of gestalt from the log book and looked around the star-filled scape. "What
now?"
Paolo said, "The other versions of me would have done everything I'm capable of doing. And lived
better lives than any I could make for myself, here."
"We could keep traveling. Search for local civilizations."
"That could he a long, lonely voyage."
"If you want more company, we can always mike Some."
Paolo laughed. "You do have a beautiful icon, Yatima, but I can't see us making psychoblasts together,
"No"' After a while Yatima said, "I'm not ready to stop. Not yet. Are you afraid to die alone?"
"It won't be death." Paolo seemed calm now, perfectly resolved. "The Transmuters didn't die; they
played out every possibility within themselves. And I believe I've done the same, hack in U-doublestar
... or maybe I'm still doing it, somewhere. But I've found what I came to find, here. There's nothing
more for me. That's not death. It's completion."

Diaspora, Greg Egan