A hero falls, part 1

Nothing is as dramatic as a dramatic death. Especially when the one dying is a beloved character. So when Rome, Rei and Ursay came upon the containment vessel holding the ultra-deadly Darwin virus strain 5, I couldn't give up the opportunity to "kill" off MINIMCOM. Obviously, he couldn't stay dead forever. That'd be plain stupid. But for the latter portion of The Ark Lords, you were led to believe that MINIMCOM sacrificed his cybernetic "life" for the good of mankind:

     The livetar bowed his head and froze. He stood there silently for a minute then a minute longer. Finally, the livetar lifted his head. “It is done,” he said. “I am now 200 kilometers up, well past the edge of space. I will transport the vessel to my cargo hold, fly it to the Sun and then come back. I assume you will wait for me?” The mouth slits of the livetar curled up slightly.
     “Ha, ha,” Rei said. “Get going. Please?”
     With a whoosh and a pop, the livetar disappeared. The humans turned and saw MINIMCOM reappear within the sealed bunker. The tall all-black entity reached over its shoulders, grabbed its cape with both hands then flipped the cape over the vessel, gathering it to its body. In the blink of an eye, the livetar was gone and so was the light. The flashlight was nearly useless. It was so dark, Rei considered using his sonar vision but it would not penetrate the storage bunker.
     “You got it?” Rei asked using his EM link.
     “In a manner of speaking,” replied MINIMCOM within his head.
     “What happened?” Rome interrupted.
     “As I feared, the vessel ruptured. There is now Virus 5 all over my cargo bay.”
     “Oh no,” Rome cried out it shock. Then, within her head, she asked, “Can you clean yourself out?”
     “I do not know,” MINIMCOM replied. “Whatever I do must be 100 per cent effective and nothing comes to mind.”
     “MINIMCOM, what are you going to do?” Rei asked frantically.
     “I may have to fly into the Sun and immolate myself, just to be sure.”
     “NO!” Rome shouted mentally, “You cannot.”
     “What if you evacuated your cargo bay? Wouldn’t that flush the virus into space?” Rei thought desperately.
     “Unfortunately, the vessel was pressurized and the spores are all over my cargo bay. They have infiltrated my ductwork and my infrastructure. Simply evacuating the chamber would not clean it sufficiently.”
     “What about heating up the cargo bay?” Rei offered. “Like an autoclave?”
     “I would not know how to do that without heating up all of me. The temperatures required would most likely destroy my circuitry. I must make sure all traces of the virus are gone before I lose my faculties. It may be more effective to just plunge into the Sun.”

MINIMCOM is completely the selfless hero here. And there doesn't appear to be any way out. The worst part is he is going to die and he knows it and Rome and Rei know it and they are helpless to prevent it. Tomorrow, they say goodbye to their beloved friend and protector.