“Me?” Nine asked innocently, pointing a polymer grey prosthetic thumb into her chest. “Just a sick girl who used to have ambitions.” She shrugged, flicking the blood off her spear and gesturing to the still writhing enemies. “Does it matter? Not like I know what you used to do Ethan, or that you shared how you also have the wasting disease with the group. Now, hurry up and kill these guys, before the taser rounds run out of charge.”

The idea of having to fight the rest of the group should they wake up went a long way towards damping down Ethan’s curiosity. With a mental order to his war dog, Ethan stepped forward and ended the lives of his goblin rider pair with two swift strokes of his axe. The war dog took a little longer, because it was forced to bite them to death, but it managed, and Ethan watched the clouds of kill energy swirling into both their bodies while he waited for the kid to finish his goblins off.

“Uhh, guys… do I really have to do this?” Davis asked, voice sounding very unsure. “I mean, I’m not injured, so the kill energy won’t be that helpful for me. Perhaps you should do it Nine, you need the mana more than I do and…”

“For the sake of Lady Moon,” Nine sighed, walking over and forcing her spear into the kid’s huge, gloved fist. “You’ve done this before, and from what I’ve heard from adventurers in the past, absorbing kill energy actually improves the body beyond its normal limits. I used to be skeptical about that myself. Until I watched Ethan here run up a near vertical wall like it was flat ground, and haul a hundred-pound body around with one hand, like it weighed nothing at all… now, stab the damn goblin.”

Embarrassed shame coursed its way through Ethan’s body like Icey water at those words. Forcing him to fight down the feeling while Nine finished convincing the kid, and the final rider and mount joined the others in death. He was still curious about her past, her real name, hell anything about her really. However, she’d made a good point when she said he hadn’t told them anything about himself, so he decided to let it go for now.

“Al… alright, I did it,” Davis said with a quaver in his voice. “Now what?” He asked, ashen face peering out of his homemade battle suit at his two companions. Ethan’s heart went out to the kid, and he wondered what someone like him was thinking when he joined the Terran forces of Earth.

“Now we get to the tower and see what we can salvage.” Ethan answered when Nine looked at him, indicating the call was his. The fleeting thought of why she was asking him went through his mind, but he dismissed it. There were too many other things on his plate for him to worry about stuff that really didn’t matter currently. Gathering up the goblin’s weapons, they rushed on.

“There it is,” a winded Davis said with an exhausted gasp. They’d sprinted the six hundred yards or so through the forest to the tower, and the opening in the side had just come into view through the trees.

“What are you panting for?” Nine asked, her voice sounding just as tired as the kid’s. “Isn’t that suit doing all the work for you?”

“It’s not that simple,” Davis said sounding hurt. “I have to get used to moving in this thing, where every movement is augmented… besides, I’ve got hundreds of pounds of gear strapped to my back. Do you know how many times I’ve been hit with tree branches during this…”

“Quiet.” Ethan snapped, holding out his hands to halt his two companions.

“What is I…” Davis started to ask, only to be shushed by a now worried looking Nine.

They’d gotten closer to the tower while they were chatting about Davis’s armor, and as the trees thinned out, Ethan noticed something moving around in front of the rend in the hull that led inside the vertical ship.

“Are they…” Nine whispered into Ethan’s ear, making him jump. He hadn’t realized she’d move to his side since his focus had been on the moving shapes.

“I think so,” he muttered back, eyes still fixed ahead. At the five quadrupeds rustling around the goblin and war dog bodies, they’d left where they’d fallen after the battle at the ship’s entrance. They were smaller than the war dogs’, but their bodies were heavily muscled, covered in thick, coarse bristles in mottled browns. While the war dog’s bodies were lithe and covered with thick black coats of long shaggy fur. A pair of tusks jutting up from the mouth pretty much sealed in Ethan’s mind what he was looking at.

“What is it?” Davis, who couldn’t see very well out of his makeshift helmet asked worriedly.

“It looks like a handful of wild boars,” Ethan said quietly. Words muffled even further as the animals tore into the bodies, teeth crunching into bones as they bit small goblin limbs clean off. “Although, I don’t remember reading about boars being flesh eaters in the history books.” He added, now unsure of his prior theory. Growing up on the moon, he’d only ever seen most of Earth’s wild animals in books and holovids.

“You’ve also never read about armor plated dogs in history books either,” Nine said with a low snort. “This is a dungeon, there’s no telling what we’ll find here… now sit still for a bit and let me handle this.” Without waiting for an answer, Nine was up and moving closer to the ship. Ethan and Davis exchanged glances, but they didn’t have to wonder what she was up to for long. Five shots later, and all the boars were on the ground, squealing loud enough to wake the dead.

“Hurry up and kill them,” Nine shouted, waving frantically at Ethan and Davis as she put action to her words and stabbed the two nearest pigs to death with her spear. Ethan darted forward, delivering death with a blow of his axe while simultaneously commanding Cresent to end the life of another boar. That only left Davis.

He stood frozen in place, crouched down where they’d started. He didn’t make any move forward, even after Nine yelled at him again to hurry. After a moment, she cursed and drove her spear into the last boar, who was still screeching for all it was worth, flailing around as the electricity coursed through its body.

“What the hell’s the matter with you?” Nine snapped, strolling right up to Davis and cuffing him in the side of the helmet. The sound of polymer striking polymer sounded out dully in the small clearing as she continued to berate the boy. “Didn’t you hear me Ensign? I told you to attack, what if another pack heard that, huh? What if…”

“That’s enough, Nine.” Ethan said moving over to stand between the five-foot nothing woman and the seven-foot-tall suit of armor that wrapped the kid in its embrace. The size difference would have been comical if the situation had been any less serious. “We’re all out of our depth here. Besides, who cares if a few more riders come? You can just shoot them on sight… hell, You’re such a good shot, we might not have to do any fighting at all from now on…”

“Really?” Nine asked, a look of incredulity on her sunken and drawn face. “Can you not count, Ethan Fairchild?” She continued snidely, shaking the gun in front of his face. “Thirteen rounds gone. Thirteen out of thirty, and there is no replacing them in the field. That damned ship core is the only way we are getting more rounds for this taser rifle. You do understand that right?”

Ethan just stared at her, slack jawed, for a long moment while he digested what she’d just said. He’d known they had limited ammunition for the rifle. Luna had flatly refused to produce many of them as they contained some hard to produce materials or something. He couldn’t remember exactly, through the mana drain haze he’d been in. Reaching down, he gripped the butt of the 1911, still holstered at his side. They had plenty of ammunition for it, and the other antique, gun powder weapons Sven had kept in his collection. Despite having the gun on him since he first woke up, Ethan had yet to fire a single round through it.

They could use those guns against the goblins. Use them to mow down the weak threat they posed, heck, even the hobgoblins and the armored war dogs would prove little challenge to kill. Looking at the mana still pumping through Nine’s disease riddled body reminded him of why they weren’t fighting like that though. There was no kill energy generated from a distance kill… not to mention the noise those old guns made. With the entire forest only being a mile across, they could draw down the entire population of goblinoids if they went around shooting carelessly. Taking a deep breath, Ethan brought his wandering thoughts back to the present and looked Nine in the eye.

“You’re right,” he said, not shying away from the anger in her sunken eyes. “You’re right, we can’t rely on that gun to win all our battles for us. We, all of us, have to step up and fight. I’m sorry I put that extra burden on you, even if it was only in my head… but yelling at the kid isn’t going to help anything. He’s not a soldier, he’s a tech. So, why don’t we get him inside the tower, where he can put his skill set to good use. We’ll figure it out from there, ok?” After speaking, Ethan just waited for her to respond, feeling uncomfortable under her glare, but unwilling to back down in the face of her anger.

“You’re the boss,” Nine said eventually, all the fight going out of her posture. She turned away to gather up the spent taser rounds. “I’m going in with the kid to get set up, why don’t you haul all the bodies away from here to prevent another incident like this? Only, bring one of the boars inside with you when you come… we’ve got quite a few ration packs, but with the way you go through them we’re going to need to find an additional food source sooner rather than later.” Having spoken her peace, the small woman clambered over the tear in the hull to disappear inside the tower.

Ethan just stood there, looking after her for a moment. When Davis stirred, he turned to look at the kid. Their eyes met with equal amounts of confusion. Though in the kid’s case, it was tinted with an equal measure of shame at his freeze up during the short fight.

“I’m sorry, but… Did… did she just call you the boss. Then immediately start telling you what to do?” He asked, voice low to avoid its traveling into the ship. Ethan could only shrug, before motioning the kid inside, while he did as instructed. Removing all the bodies, both new, and those that had been sitting out long enough to start stinking.

It wasn’t difficult work, only a little morbid. The bodies were small and easy to move. Only the wild boar gave him any trouble, weighing far more than he thought they should, based on their size. He guesstimated they were about the same size as earth’s equivalent animal, only they weighed in at around two hundred fifty pounds. A weight that was likely explained by the thick muscle that had rippled below the course wiry bristles of their coats. Ethan suppressed a shudder at the thought of being charged down by one of these monsters.

“… I’m sorry, ok kid?” Ethan paused at the hole into the ship, arms lightly trembling under the weight of the final pig he’d kept back at Nine’s request. To hear her voice drifting in halting sentences from the tower. “I shouldn’t have come at you like that. I just… this situation isn’t ideal. We’re going to have to do some things that… we might end up regretting… if we’re going to get through this. I just want to…”

“Forget about it,” Davis said during one of her pauses. “I choked ok, I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me just how screwed we are here. I know it as much as you do. I just… I’m not like you and Ethan, ok? You’re a crazy good shot, and have held it together despite everything that’s happened. And… Ethan is just superhuman. Like, I don’t know how he does it. Working himself to the bone like he does, charging in to combat like he isn’t afraid of anything. Not to mention the mana sickness he worked through when the Luna drained him over and over again… How does he do it? I’m not that brave, Nine, I’m… just not.”

“Ehm,” Ethan cleared his throat, moving into sight at the opening before he heard anything else. He hoped his face wasn’t red, but he doubted it. Did the kid really think that? Ethan didn’t feel superhuman, all he felt was terror whenever he had to fight. As for the mana drain, well, it wasn’t pleasant, but he was the only one who could provide it to Luna. They needed the gear, so he didn’t really have a choice. “I finished up out here, where do you want this thing?”

“Ethan,” Davis said, sounding almost guilty. “How long were…”

“Oh good, I was wondering how long he was going to take to.” Nine smoothly cut him off, looking up at Ethan with a crooked smile that told Ethan clearer than words she knew he’d been listening. “Just Bring it down, we’ll field dress it together before seeing how the thing tastes.”

“Ok,” Ethan said skeptically, slowly working his way down the steep incline, using the desks and chairs bolted to the ‘floor’ as handholds. “But will it be safe to start a fire in here? I mean, I can gather up some wood, but were will the smoke go? Do you even know how to cook something like this…” he trailed off as Nine’s laughter drifted up to him from below, looking down, Ethan frowned, wondering what was so funny.

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“Light a fire?” Nine asked, still doubled over with laughter. Looking up at him through teary eyes. “We’re on a spaceship… a broken chunk of one I’ll grant you, but it’s still an advanced piece of human technology… why would we light a fire? We’re going to use the oven in the operating room… at least, we will once our resident tech gets it hooked back up to a power source.”

“Oh,” Ethan said, descending the rest of the way in silence. He didn’t know if his face was red before, but he knew full well how red it was right now. “But…” he said, scrambling for any way to preserve his dignity. “Why is there an oven in the operating room?”

“Who knows,” Nine said with a shrug. “It’s a pretty big one, maybe they used it to incinerate the bodies of their, ‘test subjects,’ after they expired. Either way, we’re going to use it for a pig roast.” Remembering Nine was one of said test subjects, neither Ethan nor Davis had anything to say after that, and just did as she instructed while they went about the task of preparing food, and the ship for short term habitation.

Ethan had wanted to ask initially how they planned to get around in the ship. That was until Davis pulled out a crate of inch wide strips of emergency panels and glued them into a ladder, which extended into the operating room above. Then from there, into the med pod room beyond. Nine and Davis did the work, working together so well that Ethan was forced to conclude they had done a lot of planning together while he’d been out.

Either way, before two hours had passed, they had a way to climb about the ship with ease. A wild boar they’d cut into steaks, as well as several strips to be baked into jerky, and an emergency panel door glued in place over the only entrance into the tower. It would take more raw strength than any goblin or hobgoblin had to open that door, or at least considerably more intelligence and drive then they’d seen from any of their enemies so far.

“So, what now?” Davis asked, once everything was set up.

“Now,” Nine said, looking between the two men with a look Ethan didn’t like. “Davis will start taking apart the ship for everything we can use. While Ethan and I take care of the bodies.” Nodding in assent, they started their work without complaint. At least until Nine and Ethan were alone, with Davis up in the now body free med pod room.

“I didn’t realize this is what you meant by, ‘taking care of’ the bodies.” Ethan said, doing his best to hold back his breakfast. They were in the basement room, where the kid had dropped all the bodies, with an operating table and equipment they’d procured from further up. The week-old corpse smelled about as bad as one could imagine, and Ethan wanted to be anywhere else but there at the moment.

“Suck it up,” Nine said frowning at him over the scalpel she held in one hand and the plyers she held in the other. “We’re trapped on the far side of a rift, a rift no one knows the location of in relation to the Sol system. We don’t have a working ship, we’re only breathing because a hostile dungeon core is producing oxygen, and at any moment, a random chunk of destroyed planet or war ship might crash into us, ending our lives before we can so much as scream. We need every advantage we can get, and unlike you, my flesh doesn’t heal up in seconds, and my prosthetics don’t heal at all… now, are you going to help me with this or not?”

Ethan looked from her annoyed, yet earnest eyes, to the growing pile of synthetic body parts Nine was busy harvesting from the cadavers. He still wanted to wretch, but he could see her point. After taking a deep breath, a breath he immediately regretted thanks to the smell. Ethan got back to work, carefully cutting the connection wires that served as the nerves for a prosthetic hand, from the partially rotten wrist it was attached to.

If nothing else, Ethan was just glad Nine had spared the kid from this part. He wasn’t holding up well to the situation they found themselves in. Ethan doubted cutting artificial organs from partially decayed bodies would do much to improve that either. Shaking away the unnecessary thoughts, Ethen focused on the task at hand. There were only nine patients, in addition to Nine herself of course. They needed to finish this quickly and get the parts cleaned up before Davis got the oven going.

A quick trip to a nearby stream later, the logistics of a stream on an asteroid in the middle of space being firmly ignored, Ethan and Nine had tucked all the parts, both intact and damaged, into a crate. Then joined Davis, who’d managed to hook up the oven to one of the medical pod’s power sources.

“The power cells are nearly fully charged,” the young man explained while he fired up the oven. “Unfortunately, they are too big to easily transport. I think I can take one apart into component parts for a more portable version, but the amount of power loss that would incur is probably not worth the effort. I can get a few of them disconnected and ready to transport though. I think I can build a cart sturdy enough to transport them one at a time, assuming I use the suit. Speaking of the suit, I was able to plug into the power source to charge the unit. Sadly, since we can’t move the med pod batteries currently, my range in the suit will be limited to just a few hours of working time before I have to recharge. Oh, and speaking of recharging… here Nine, I was able to rig up a charging station for the thirteen taser rounds you used earlier. So, you are back up to thirty charged rounds. It doesn’t help in the field, but at least we aren’t permanently out of the ammunition, assuming we can hook up to the solar panels on the outside of the hull…”

Ethan and Nine exchanged glances while they loaded some of the unseasoned pork into the oven. The kid was rambling again, but they made no move to stop him this time. He was invaluable in their current situation, and they felt he deserved the outlet talking gave him.

“… So, starting tomorrow, I think the three of us could…” Davis said, shifting from what he’d already done, to what he planned to do in the future.

“Let me stop you there kid,” Nine said with a smile, raising a greasy hand she’d just used to flip over a chunk of meat, not worried about the heat thanks to the limb’s nature. “I don’t want to throw your plans off too much. But Ethan and I will be heading out first thing in the morning. We’ll leave Crescent with you, along with the two largest stoats for protection. While we do a little recon, you’re going to have to strip this tower bare. Everything from the medical pod’s lids to the wiring inside, hell even the mirror in the bathroom and some of the toilets. We need everything you can get, ready to go. We might even have to harvest the hull plating, assuming the Luna is our only ride off this rock, we are going to need it to rebuild her.”

The kid blanched at the idea of being left alone. This being the first Ethan heard about her wanting to leave without the kid, he listened intently as she explained what she wanted from the young man. He wanted to ask what they were going out for but didn’t want to sound like he was as in the dark as Davis was. So, he only nodded his head in what he hoped was a knowing manner. All the while shooting secret glances at Nine, wondering what the woman was planning.

“Um… I, uh… ok. Ok, Nine, I can do that, but… but what will you two be doing? I mean, the work would get done a lot faster if you were here to help me with it… you know?”

“Davis, your job here is very important. Neither Ethan nor I have any idea how to strip the guts out of a medical pod and use its batteries to wire up an oven like you just did. We’d be out there cooking this pig over a fire on sticks… like some sort of barbarians or something, if you weren’t here.” Ethan was having a hard time not taking that last comment personally, especially after she shot him a sideways wink with her natural eye.

“Thanks, Nine,” the kid said with a blush. “But that still doesn't tell me what you will be doing.”

“True enough,” Nine said with a laugh. “We’re going to walk around the crater. Fight and kill goblins, look for more wreckage like this tower, and if we’re lucky, either another ship, or maybe some more survivors… we know we’re going to have to fight our way to the heart of the crater eventually, it’s the only place we know for sure has a mana engine. I’d rather do that once I’m back to full strength. As it is, I’m still getting winded from a light walk. I know It’s selfish of me Davis. But would you be willing to lend Ethan to me, just for a few hours or maybe a day, while he helps me get healthy again?” Her tone had gone from joking, to serious, to pleading over the course of her explanation.

“Of course, Nine.” Davis said, jumping to his feet and looking stricken. “Gosh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think about how you must be feeling… Yes… Yes, you guys go. Oh heck, both of you have the wasting disease don’t you. I’m so sorry. Take all the time you need. I’ll work on the tower and have everything ready to go whenever you get back. You can count on me.” Ethan couldn’t tell if she was being sincere, or if she was playing it up for the kid. Either way, her words clearly had the desired effect.

“Thank you, Leo.” Nine said with a smile, clapping the kid on the shoulder with a still grease covered hand. “I knew I could count on you. Now, let’s finish cooking this food. Then Ethan can try it. If he doesn’t die, we can eat our fill of something that didn’t come out of a ration pack for once.” Ethan, who was nodding along to her words, paused at that last remark.

“Wait, what now?” He asked, looking up with horror. “I thought you had a way to tell if it was edible or not?”

“I do,” Nine said with a sage nod. “It involves feeding it to the one person I know who can cure himself of any ill effects by using his mana pool to instantly heal himself. What,” she said, tilting her head to the side as if confused. “Would you prefer I do it? I’m willing to, though with my body in its current condition, I might not survive long enough to tell you if it’s not edible.” Once again, her words had gone from playful to serious, so smoothly Ethan couldn’t tell if she was being serious.

“Fine,” he muttered, before sitting back and crossing his arms.

“Yay,” Nine said, with clear exaggeration, giving him a tight hug, and purely coincidental Ethan was sure, wiping her hands clean on his armor. “I knew I could count on our fearless leader.” He grumbled, but inside he was smiling. Nine’s personality was slowly shifting. Unlike with Luna, however, this was a shift in a more positive direction. At least, Ethan hoped it was. He could deal with a potential stomachache, if it meant letting her open up like she was now.

That night, the three of them bedded down on a truly flat floor, Davis had constructed from toilet stalls. Cut away and welded together into the wall and floor sections of the ship at the bottom of the office. The kid was ecstatic when he lay down, explaining how he’d had to sleep in the corner or sleep on a thirty degree angle.

He’d long since fallen asleep, after eating an overly gamey, yet somehow flavorless hunk of meat. Ethan, who’d stayed up, talked to Nine about tomorrow’s plans while he waited for her to fall asleep. The little woman was persistent, clearly trying to stay up as late as he did, but eventually, her exhaustion won out, and she fell asleep too. Breathing softly and looking more peaceful than Ethan remembered ever seeing her face while she was awake.

Not wanting to risk waking her up, Ethan waited nearly another hour before he acted. Leaning forward to gently rest his hand against her exposed throat. Then pushing his mana into her with the image of her being fully healed fixed firmly in his mind. Ethan didn’t know why she refused to let him heal her, but he could see the pain she tried to hide. The small mouthful of meat she’d eaten for dinner, and only after chewing it to death first. She was hurting, and he had the power to help her, so he would.

Dizziness washed over him in a wave when his mana pool bottomed out, and he had to catch himself with his other hand lest he fall on Nine’s sleeping body. Sitting back with a soft groan, Ethan grabbed a large chunk of meat he’d set aside for this exact reason, and bit large chunks of the meat away. Swallowing them without bothering to chew.

“What, what are you…” Nine murmured sleepily, not quite waking up, before settling back down again. Ethan smiled down at her, noticing the bags under her eyes had been reduced to light yellow bruising. Between what he’d given her, the two wild boars, and the war dog and goblin she’d killed today, she was slowly regaining what she’d lost. The peach fuzz growing from her scalp had grown to a blonde stubble.

“One more time,” Ethan told himself, wanting those bags gone from her face before he took his own rest. With nothing better to do while he waited, Ethan finished eating, then closed his eyes and focused on the mana slowly flowing back into his pool from the world around him. Reaching out with his… well, he wasn’t sure what to call it, his mana sense maybe, Ethan touched the mana. To his shock, he watched it swirl around the touch. Looking like mist moving around after he ran his hand through it.

“I wonder,” he muttered with his eyes still closed. Reaching out again with his senses, he tried to gather up the mana mist, and pull it into his body to fill his pool up faster. The attempt was a failure, but he was able to interact with the colorless mana. That told him it might be possible to do more with it than just heal people and provide energy to Luna.

Shrugging off his attempts once his pool was filled, he reached out his hand, opening his eyes as he did so. Only to find an angry blue eye staring at him from inches away.

“What are you doing?” Nine asked quietly, looking at his hand, poised inches away from her exposed throat.

“uuhh,” Ethan said, dumbly. “I was just going to…”

“Save it, Fairchild.” Nine said, slapping his hand away from her face. “I told you not to waste your mana on me. I’ll heal myself by fighting. If you have extra strength, use it to make Crescent stronger.”

“I wasn’t…” Ethan tried again, but she was already shaking her head.

“No, Ethan.” She said again, reaching out to grab the hand she’d batted away from herself just a moment ago. Clasping it tightly in her own, she looked him in the eyes. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, I really do.” She said with a sad smile.

“But.” Ethan said when she paused.

“But” Nine said with a sigh. “I have been powerless for a long time, Ethan. In some ways you can understand where I’m coming from. But in others… I didn’t have a say over my life for years. I just… need to feel in control, ok? So, please, just let me heal myself, with my own efforts. I, I need that.” Ethan opened and closed his mouth several times, but finally, he just nodded. Squeezing her hand tightly in return, trying to express his understanding in that grip, but wondering, even as he did, whether she could even tell through the polymers the fingers were made from.

“Thank you,” Nine said, pushing him into his sleeping bag. Then scooting hers closer to him and laying her head on his chest. “Now, get some sleep big guy. Tomorrow is going to be busy.” They lay there, together. Until Nine’s steady breathing returned, and Ethan knew she’d fallen asleep again.

He raised his hand, debating on healing her again despite her words. In the end, he only rested his hand on her shoulder. Physically, they were separated by not only their clothes, but two sleeping bags. Yet, somehow, after her confession of moments ago, Ethan felt closer to her than he had the other night when he held her tightly in his arms and tried desperately to heal her.

Not wanting to waste the mana he’d built back up, Ethan mentally called out to Crescent. The war dog padded over on silent paws and placed his nose right by Ethan’s hand. With a slight move, he touched the cold nose, and let his mana flow into the animal. All the while focusing on growing the dog and giving it armored plates. Not wanting to bottom out his pool again, Ethan stopped at about a quarter tank. Dismissing the dog back to where it was bedded down, surrounded by stoats, and closing his own eyes.

Ethan didn’t remember falling asleep. The loud bang that awoke him some time later though was unmissable. Jolting up in bed, he reached for his axe, seeing Nine already on her feet, goblin spear clutched firmly in her hands. Following her line of sight, Ethan’s eyes snapped to Davis. Blood drained from his face at the sight of the kid, on the ground and writhing in pain.