She willed herself not to shut her eyes, not to show weakness. “This won’t hurt a bit.” A million needles sunk into the flesh of her forearm. It began to tingle immediately, and she could feel the hair stand up along its length. The air filled with a buzzing hum. Elena’s entire arm seemed to tremble, and then she could feel the fire blaze within it, bone deep. She bit down on a scream, and then went mercifully numb. “Finished.” Dr. Rivkah Golus flipped a switch on the control panel, and the electric hum ceased. She reached over and began to unwrap the cuff that enveloped Elena’s right arm. The feeling returned slowly, and with it the pain. Elena rubbed the top of her aching forearm through her spacesuit—had she removed it, there would have been an angry red patch where the needles had touched her. The wounds left by their tips, each a micrometer across, were too small to bleed.
