Zeta-Epsilon
ShortStory 5,200 words Recommended by 4 award/anthology sources
"Start at the cleave of it, not at Zed’s meat death or Ep’s centuries-long destruction, but at the moment that Zed halves his own mind and walks away. Or as was reported in the internal memorandum, the moment when Pilot-Commander Zeta San Tano killed himself at his infinite post on the M.K.S. Epsilon..."
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.