I stared at the crimson pinprick on my arm, then surveyed the other passengers. They were suspended in stasis, their blood replaced with a nutrient-rich nanofluid that was supposed to sustain them—and me—during the trip to Jupiter.

The whole trip.

As blood began streaming from my every pore, I remembered the warning: the slight possibility that we might wake early, that our bodies might begin producing hemoglobin too soon, that we might hemorrhage to death before we arrived. It was in the paperwork, buried in a paragraph that now read like a death sentence: SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE.

---

Looking for more? Check out all the free stories, drabbles, and podcasts. And be sure to follow @warrenbenedetto on Twitter.

---