"At least it's painless," Howard says quickly. "A friend of mine told me his death hurt."

And maybe it's a good thing that Howard's so afraid of that pain. Sometimes death is tempting, but pain pretty much never is, at least not to him.

"I don't think they're supposed to be, but we don't have a great track record with them. The missions? The missions are always dangerous. And embarrassing. But mostly dangerous." He holds a foot out and waggles it. There are puncture marks in the shoe. "I got bit by a dinosaur on my first one."