This reminds of Cordwainer Smith's [1] most famous story, Scanners Live in Vain [2]. In the story, a scientist named Adam Stone has found a way to conquer The Great Pain of Space that affects humans who travel into space. To do so he builds a ship whose walls are teeming with life that shields the human inside it:<p><i>"I have loaded ships with life."</i><p><i>"Life?"</i><p><i>"Life. I don't know what the Great Pain is, but I did find that in the experiments, when I sent out masses of animals or plants, the life in the center of the mass lived longest. I built ships -small ones, of course- and sent them out with rabbits, with monkeys-"</i><p><i>"Those are Beasts?"</i><p><i>"Yes. With small Beasts. And the Beasts came back unhurt. They came back because the walls of the ships were filled with life. I tried many kinds, and finally found a sort of life which lives in the waters. Oysters. Oysterbeds. The outermost oysters died in the great pain. The inner ones lived. The passengers were unhurt."</i><p><i>"But they were Beasts?"</i><p><i>"Not only Beasts. Myself."</i><p><i>"You!"</i><p><i>"I came through Space alone. Through what you call the Up-and-Out, alone. Awake and sleeping. I am unhurt. If you do not believe me, ask your brother Scanners. Come and see my ship in the morning. I will be glad to see you then, along with your brother Scanners. I am going to demonstrate before the Chiefs of the Instrumentality."</i><p><a href="https://archive.org/stream/ScannersLiveInVain/SmithCordwainer-ScannersLiveInVain.txt" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/stream/ScannersLiveInVain/SmithCordwaine...</a><p>_____________<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwainer_Smith" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordwainer_Smith</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanners_Live_in_Vain" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanners_Live_in_Vain</a>