Oof. Things got awfully dusty in here thinking about The Great Silence. It's a very short piece with huge emotional impact.
Something that hit me hard about this one is the purported full quote from Alex ends with "See you tomorrow." Given the context of Chiang's story, leaving this off just adds to the gut punch for me.
I it the same story as I keep sending as a taster for Ted Chiang.
The last line always gets me.