When the volunteers have been tended to and the medical bay is cleared of all other persons, Guide will approach Kirk. The human has given too much of himself for this, and... he is loath to think it, but he does feel some gratitude toward him. This arrangement is far from ideal, and it has many flaws to fix, but it would have been impossible to make otherwise. But more impossible still is its sustainability. Each time he draws life from humans and allows them to live on, the chances of getting fresh ones to surrender some life dwindles. It will not be long before he will be forced to starve, and he knows it.

Yet for a few moments, he can pretend that there's no such grim future. That which ails him has been put off for a time, and he can be the guardian of his herd that he was meant to be.