Ethan didn’t know how much time they spent in the shower, then on the bathroom floor. Eventually, however, they were forced to stop and face their situation.

“I hate to ruin the mood,” Ethan said from where he lay on his back, still nude, on top of the green shower curtain they’d pulled from the stall at some point.

“If you don’t want to ruin the mood, then don’t.” Nine said, half her body draped over his chest, fingers trailing down his sternum.

“Nine… I really need to know what happened.” Ethan said, with clear regret in his tone as he captured her trailing fingers in his own, much larger hand. “How did you get healed; how did I get so injured. I remember you fighting a swarm of goblins at one point, but not much else. Are we safe in here, is there an army waiting outside the door for us, how long has it been…”

“Ok, ok, damn.” Nine said sitting up with an exasperated grunt. “I’ll tell you, just… give me a minute.” Getting to her feet, she paced the length of the bathroom with a look of concentration on her face. Ethan, for his part, did his best to look her in the eye. A difficult task, considering the fact that she was just as nude as he was.

“It’s been three days.” She said at last, the worry she’d clearly been trying to suppress now clear on her face. “When I got injured, you healed me… completely. I don’t know how you did it, but it hurt. It felt like you were pouring boiling oil into my veins. I just remember screaming, and then, I was healed, and you were unconscious.” Ethan could tell she didn’t want to tell him any of that, and he did his best to keep the horror at what he’d done to her off his face.

“Ok,” he said, nodding slowly. “…then what happened?”

“Then, ha.” Nine barked a laugh and ran her fingers through her mostly dry hair. “Then the goblins came… they must have heard us. Not surprising really, between the pigs’ squeals, the gunshots, and our screaming. At first it was only four riders. I was back to full health, so I dealt with them easily enough, but then another four riders came, then they started showing up on foot. It wasn’t so bad, until the hobgoblins arrived.” By this point, she’d settled down onto the lid of a toilet, and stared off into space as she relived the events.

“There was a javelin thrower, and an archer. They pinned me down, while the others surrounded us. I had the javelin you pulled from my guts, and I managed to kill the archer. But the other hob just grabbed the bow once his javelins were all gone. By that time though, I’d managed to get you onto the ship. I didn’t know where else to go, and I hoped there would be a hatch somewhere. Well, there was but it was locked… anyway, I found the hole and dropped you in… then I went back outside and finished them off.”

“You… how many were there?” Ethan asked when she quit talking for a moment. “And, what happened next?”

“There were… I don’t know, I collected the bodies when I was done, brought them in here, you can count them if you really want too.”

“You brought them in here. Through the roof?” Ethan asked, with confusion. There hadn’t been any sign of blood in the room he’d woken up in, not unless you counted his own.

“No,” Nine shook her head. “I managed to open a hatch from inside. They are in a room down the corridor… after I realized you weren’t…waking up… I was afraid they would draw in predators, or more riders. So, I dragged them in and stripped them of their gear while I waited. I… didn’t know what to do. While I was carrying you up the side of the ship, that damn hob started shooting at me, hit you because you were on my back. Then the rest of the goblins started throwing their weapons, rocks, and other random shit at us… it wasn’t pretty. I pulled one of the arrows out right away. But it bled so bad I thought I was going to lose you. The med kit got hit, the healing foam was destroyed. I couldn’t go back to the tower to get more without you, and you wouldn’t wake up. I waited. Tried to stop the bleeding. I was too scared to pull the other arrows out so…”

“It’s ok,” Ethan said, moving in front of Nine and wrapping her in a hug. She’d started losing her composure when his injuries were brought up and tears were tracking down her cheeks. “I’m ok now, you did great. I’m ok now, it’s ok now. Shhh, shhh.” He rocked her gently as she cried, gently shushing her and patting her back. After what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a few minutes, she settled down and continued, wiping tears from her eyes.

“Since then, I’ve been waiting.” She whispered; eyes locked on the floor. “I checked out the whole ship, found out it was safe. Made a few rounds to check for enemies outside… and waited for you to wake up. I was afraid to move you, so…”

“Thank you, Nine.” Ethan said, hugging her again. “That sounds terrible. I’m sorry I left you alone in that situation.” He kept his voice as steady as he could, but inside his mind was racing a thousand miles an hour. He’d almost died. They’d overshot their meeting time with Davis, and if Nine was to be believed, she had done a number on the goblins after he passed out. “Let’s find some clean clothes, ok. let’s get dressed, and you can show me around the ship. Can you do that for me?”

“I’m not a freaking child, Ethan.” She snapped, pushing him away. “You don’t have to treat me with kid gloves. It’s… it’s just been a little stressful, waiting in that little room for your lazy ass to wake up… No,” she said, raising a hand before he could say anything. “Just, no. Here, I found some clean clothes for us. Well, I found clothes, had to clean them myself.” Moving to the third toilet stall, the furthest one from the door, she pulled out two skinsuits and a pair of white lab coats. The outfits were identical to those worn by the doctors in the tower.

Ethan didn’t ask why she was still wearing the broken and bloody armor, or why she hadn’t used the shower before now. Nine had clearly taken his injuries hard. Whether that was to do with him personally, or because he was the one who’d woken her up from the medical pod, and helped her heal, he wasn’t sure. Not that it mattered either way. In a situation like theirs, they all needed some comfort. Pity for the kid flashed through his mind, thinking about how he was all alone in that chunk of ship. The same place he’d been stuck all alone for days before Ethan found him.

“I don’t know about you,” Ethan said, trying to lighten the mood. “But I think we look pretty damn professional in these outfits.” He took a slow turn in front of the bathroom mirror. Looking at the crisp white lab coat.

“Save it, Fairchild.” Nine said, her tone hostile, but the slight smile on her lips telling a different story. “Come on already, if we’re done in here then I’ll show you around.”

“Ok, sure.” Ethan said, nodding. “But I wouldn’t say we’re done, just pausing for a bit.” He added with a wink.

“Ha ha, look whose getting cocky, who approached whom big guy?” Nine said with a laugh and light punch to his shoulder as she led the way from the bathroom. “Like I said before,” she said, as the hatches opened automatically at her approach. “The best I can figure, these sections must be modular, like ship… cars. Because this section of ship wasn’t damaged at all. Each end outside is factory, with several places were connections to other sections could attach. Like train cars or something.” As she spoke Ethan followed her to the left. Through another set of blast doors, into another ten-by-ten room, then through into another section. This one again had three doors, the one they came through, one across from them, and another door to the left.

“This car is one hundred sixty-five feet long. There are fifteen interior blast doors, running along the middle of the car in a ten-foot-wide corridor. There are rooms to either side of the main corridor, each fifteen feet wide but vary in length. For the slower ones in the corridor, that means the car is forty feet wide, inside dimensions.”

“… I see,” Ethan said dead pan, as he followed her into a very familiar looking room. “Hold up, another operating room?” He asked, looking around to the stainless-steel room, filled with steel tables bolted to the floor. Along with the toolboxes filled with operating equipment and the large oven over in the corner. It looked exactly like the one from the tower, only this one was in the right orientation, instead of being planted end first in the ground.

“Apart from being bigger, this car is about the same as that one, yea.” She said, moving back into the central corridor and continuing on through another pair of blast doors, they passed a door on the right, but she ignored it. “This room should look familiar as well.” Nine said, moving into another door on the left. “We’re pretty much at the end of the car here, we’ll work our way back around after this.” Looking inside, Ethan saw a scene straight out of a horror flick.

“What the hell Nine, you did that all by yourself?” He asked, aghast at the sight of the office space beyond the door. Not at the bolted down desks, or the terminals strewn about. No, at the literal wall of bodies stacked against the far wall. There had to be, gosh… a quick count showed him; twelve war dogs, twenty something goblins, six or seven hobgoblins… it was hard to tell since it looked like she had hacked the hobs apart with an axe. As well as some armored variants, and a dozen or so humans. Oh, and each and every one of them was naked. With the arms and armor spread out across the desks, along with neatly folded lab coats and skinsuits.

“What?” Nine asked defensively. “I was bored, ok. Besides, our gear is trashed, and it’s not like those sorry sacks of… I mean it’s not like those poor doctors, who did nothing worse than experiment on me and those like me… I mean…”

“I hear you,” Ethan said with a soft sigh. “It’s not like they need the clothes, and we certainly do… But I was talking about all those goblins and their mounts. There must be forty or fifty foes here. How did you manage to kill them all by yourself, then carry them all in here? That’s… well, it’s damned impressive is what it is.” He said, finishing his question with some honest praise.

“I know my way around a spear,” Nine said with a shrug. “Not to mention my body. I don’t think you really appreciate what you did to me the other day. I wasn’t just healed, I was improved. Not to the extent that you seem to be, mister walks on walls, but still.” Ethan looked sideways at her. Looking her up and down again, despite having had several hours view of her body earlier that day. She looked great, fit and toned. As for the prosthetics, he wasn’t sure if they would be a hindrance or a help in combat. Tougher than her flesh and bones. As long as they didn’t break, who knew how much damage she could do with them.

“Your body is definitely impressive,” he said, smiling at her warmly. “But I was hoping for a little more than ‘I know my way around a spear,’ you know?”

“A girl needs her secrets,” Nine said with another shrug. Though the expression on her face clearly showed she wasn’t going to answer any more questions. So, Ethan dropped the subject. “Come on,” she said after a moment. “There are ten rooms on this ship car, but there are only four different types. The rest are repeats. The room across the hall rounds us out, and I think you’ll recognize this one too.” Leading the way back through the blast door hatches, Nine entered the door they’d passed by a minute ago. Ethan followed behind, though his mind was still on that massive stack of bodies. Just who was Nine anyway. Ethan’s thoughts jumped back to the present when they entered the room. She was right, he recognized it.

“Another medical pod room?” Ethan asked, both shocked and disgusted. “Where did the Terran navy get so many Lunarians? We’re the only ones who have ever got the wasting disease after all.” There were ten pods in this room. Nine of them glowed green, with only one failure. Nine more people like Nine. People he could help, if his damaged mana pool allowed it anyway.

“Who's to say they all have the wasting disease.” Nine said looking at the pods, a sad look on her face. “There are tons of illnesses out there, cancer, radiation poisoning, organ failure. Who knows… there are three more rooms like this one in the car though. Along with another bathroom, and another operating room, and office. Two of the other pod rooms have five survivors, the last room only has two. There were three when we arrived, but one of the lights turned red yesterday.”

“They’re dying?” Ethan asked feeling sick. “We should help them then,” he made a motion then, whether it was to instantly open a pod or just look he wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter either way, however, as he was stopped by a small, but strong hand on his shoulder.

“No.” Nine said, without an ounce of give in her voice. “You damaged your mana pool, or your ‘core’ or whatever other ridiculous thing you’re calling it now.” She said, eyes boring into his. “You just woke up after being feverish and riddled with arrows and infection for three days. You are going to rest before you do anything. Then, you’re going to do a few light experiments to see if you are even capable of healing anymore.”

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“But… Nine, these people need help.” He said, not really sure why he cared so much for people he’d never met. Only, he’d done it for Nine and she was just as much a stranger to him at the time as any of these people were.

“Yes, they do.” Nine said with a nod. “And, if you don’t help them, they might die… but have you thought about what will happen if you wake them up and your mana pool doesn’t work right? Can you watch them die screaming in pain, you being powerless to help?... How about how much of a strain it puts on your body to use your mana? You put down thousands of calories with every meal to keep your strength up. As it is, you’ve barely eaten anything since you woke up. Not to mention, we only had a few days’ worth of food on us when we left the tower. Food I’ve been eating for the last few days. How will you recover your strength if you go burning through your energy without a plan?” Ethan listened to her, as she continued to give him one, well thought out, and perfectly valid, reason after another to not rush into anything.

“Ok, Nine.” He said at last, throwing his hands up in defeat. “Ok, you win… how long did it take you to come up with all that anyway?” He asked, hoping she couldn’t think of all those well-reasoned arguments on the spot. He was already getting an inferiority complex about her combat abilities.

“About three days,” Nine said, grinning up at him. “But don’t worry, I didn’t just think of ways to put you down, while you were bleeding to death… I’ve also got a plan.”

* * *

Ethan swung his axe; it mirrored the baseball strike he’d tried on the hobgoblin in his last fight. Just like then, it was wildly ineffective. Nine dodging to the side and deflecting the blow with the shaft of her spear, delivering a stinging slap to his shin with the butt of the weapon.

“Haven’t you learned anything yet?” She asked, dancing right up to him and placing a peck on his cheek while he struggled to bring the axe back around. “You need to use the axe’s momentum, use it, not fight it.” She continued as she danced back out of the way of his next swing. Her spear came in to give him another harmless, but painful smack.

“I’m trying,” Ethan grumbled, shaking the sting from his limbs. They’d been at this for a few hours now, Nine informing him that despite his strength, he was woefully bad at fighting. As soon as they’d eaten, she’d insisted on some combat training.

At first, Ethan had been timid and slow with his strikes, afraid he was going to hurt the much smaller woman. She only had to hit him a few dozen times to disabuse him of that idea though, and now he was swinging his axe like a madman. Doing everything in his power to connect.

“You’re not trying,” Nine said smacking him again with the wooden spear shaft. “It looks like you’re trying to cut down a tree right now. Which is fine if you could actually hit me. Take the situation into account, big guy.” She said, smacking him on the shoulder when he took another swing and missed. “If I was a big, slow moving and armored target, what you’re doing would work. But I’m small, agile, and unarmored. You don’t need to swing with enough force to cut me in half. You just need to connect with the blade to injure me. So, control the momentum a little bit. Make a figure eight motion when you miss to help propel the blade back around, and don’t use so much force when it’s not needed. It’s just making you work harder. Try…”

Ethan listened to her advice, trying his best to focus. The constant strikes to his extremities were a painful distraction, and he wished she would show him the motions without the sparring session. Unfortunately, Nine apparently believed that without a little pain, he wouldn’t learn quickly enough. Not that he really minded. It wasn’t like she was breaking his bones or anything, he was just worried about Davis, and wanted to be done with it.

“How do you know all this?” Ethan asked when they stopped to take a break. They sat in the corridor, the ten-by-ten steel cube more than large enough for them to practice in. “I mean, who trains this hard in axe and spear? My brother was a master at this stuff, but he was a professional gladiator.” After saying that, it almost made it obvious to him that Nine had to be a gladiator, or at least gladiator trained. There really was no other explanation for her skill level with primitive weapons.

“You’ve mentioned your brother more than once,” Nine said, standing up and kicking him to get to his feet as well. “I have a pretty good idea of who he is, based on some context clues you’ve dropped. But you haven’t told me, so I’m not asking… I’d appreciate it if you could do me the same courtesy, yea?”

“Sorry,” Ethan said, lifting the axe into the ready stance she’d shown him. “I’m just curious. I’ve felt completely lost and out of my depth since I woke up on this asteroid. But it seems like you’ve had it together this whole time. Not to mention all the skills you keep pulling out of thin air. It’s impressive, and a little intimidating. Can you really blame a guy for wanting to know?”

“Not really,” Nine said with the customary shrug she used when she didn’t want to tell him something. “Believe it or not, I feel just as out of my depth as you do. While you’re the one who seems to have it together. I mean, I know you heard the kid talking the other day. He thinks you’re superhuman. Filled with confidence and bravery. I can’t say that he doesn’t have a point… despite the fact that you can’t fight for shit. You’re strong enough that if you learned a bit, you could be a force on the battlefield. Now, stop asking me questions I don’t want to answer and show me what you’ve learned, or not learned, so far.” Ethan groaned but complied.

Initially, he’d been torn between waking up the sedated patients, or prisoners, and running back to tell the kid they were ok. Nine had flatly refused both options. Instead, she’d insisted on getting him some training before they went outside, and that he’d work on his mana pool before they woke anyone up.

“Ok, now. Pump some mana into the stoat, make it bigger, but don’t drain yourself completely. You know that is when you feel the worst.” Nine said, after their training session had ended.

“Alright, sure.” Ethan said, commanding one of the stoats, that he’d managed to forget about completely since waking up, into his hand. It was easier to let the thing run up his leg and out into his palm then bend down to grab it. At least it was after the beating Nine had given him. Since bending over was the last thing he wanted to do.

Rodent safely in hand, Ethan focused on pushing mana from himself into the stoat. The twisted and distorted metaphysical organ that was his mana pool reacted, but it was slow and actually a little painful. It moved through his body towards the stoat, but it felt to Ethan’s mana sense, like some of the mana was being lost. It was leaking away, and evaporating into nothingness before it reached his target. Looking closer, Ethan saw what might be described as a hose, or a channel inside himself the mana was flowing through. A channel that was damaged, allowing the mana to leak out.

“It’s… I mean, it’s working. But I think I damaged my mana system somehow. It feels like I’ve got a leak in the channels that carry the mana or something, and my mana pool hurts when I try to use it. I’m… hold on a second.” Ethan forced himself into a seated position, so he could close his eyes and focus inward. To really get an understanding of what was going on inside of himself.

He looked for a long time, trying to understand what the mana was doing while he wasn’t directing it actively. It seemed a bit like his circulatory system. The mana pool, or core, was like his heart, pumping mana through his body in small channels, similar to how the heart pumped blood. At least, that was probably how it was supposed to work. Now, thanks to the damage he’d done to himself. It looked like his mana pool was damaged and barely able to move the mana. Even the amount that did get out was moving sluggishly and was leaking from those channels to disburse back… wherever it came from.

“Well?” Nine asked when he opened his eyes again. Her tone was neutral, but her face betrayed her nervousness.

“I damaged my mana system,” Ethan said with a frown. “I’m not sure if I can fix it or not. It’s going to take some time for me to figure that out.”

“Ok,” Nine said with a deep breath and a nod. “Ok, then you sit right here and do that. I’ll be back in a bit.” Without another word, Nine had left the office they’d been sitting in. Ethan called after her, but she didn’t respond.

“Well ok then,” he said with a sigh. “I really need to work on this anyway.” With that, he closed his eyes and focused. He was trying to ignore the panic inside him, but he knew it was only his mana that was keeping him from wasting away again thanks to the disease that only people who lived on the moon seemed to get. He had to figure this out.

A day later, he was still sitting there. Nine had returned barely an hour after she’d left. A two hundred fifty-pound boar carcass draped casually over one shoulder. It looked unnatural. The beast had to weigh more than double what Nine did, but that didn’t seem to matter in the slightest. Ethan had been upset and angry when he found out she’d gone hunting alone, but she hadn’t backed down an inch. Saying that he needed to fix his stuff, and he was going to need food for that.

“Any luck?” Nine asked, walking into the room with a large operating dish filled with boar stew. Ethan accepted it gratefully, even knowing it was made with weeds that had a fifty-fifty chance of poisoning him. “Eat something, then you’re taking a break to do some more sparing with me.”

“Not really,” Ethan admitted, looking down at the stoat in his lap. “I’ve figured out how to push what mana I have through channels that weren’t damaged too badly. But I can’t figure out how to fix the leaks or reshape my mana heart.”

“Your mana heart?” Nine asked incredulously. “First, it’s a pool, then a core, and now it’s a heart?... Well, what the hell is it, Ethan. Can you just pick a name already?”

“Hey, I’m sorry.” Ethan said, throwing his hands up in mock surrender. He knew she was only getting angry because she was worried for him, so he didn’t take it personally. “I’m still new to the very idea of magic, ok? I have no idea how it works, every time I learn something new about what I can do, the name I gave it before doesn’t seem to fit anymore. If we had an expert on mana then, maybe… where are you going?” As he’d talked, Nine suddenly jumped to her feet and rushed from the room.

Ethan, not sure what was going on, set the bowl on the desk he’d been sitting at and rushed after her. It was a good thing he moved quickly, otherwise the automatic hatches might have closed. Then he’d be forced to search the entire ship car for her, one compartment at a time. As it was, he barely caught sight of her, disappearing into the nearest med pod room. The one with only two living people left inside.

“What’s the matter?” Ethan asked when he entered the room. The words almost caught when he saw one of the two green lights had turned red since the last time he’d been in here. “Oh no, there must have been more damage to the ship than we thought. The hole in the ceiling is right outside this door after all. Maybe it affected the power supply…”

“Shut up a second,” Nine snapped, busily scrolling through the unintelligible gibberish on the screen. “I just need to… Yes. Here it is, come look.” She motioned frantically for him to come over.

“What is it?” He asked again, moving to look over her shoulder. “Can you read that? I have no idea what it says.”

“Yes, you big lug, I can read it.” Nine said, excitedly slapping him on the arm. “It’s English, the primary language of earth’s main governmental powers. Martians and Lunarians quit using it after the… oh forget the history lesson, point is, I can read it.”

“Ok… So, what’s it say?” Ethan asked, starting to get a little annoyed.

“Damn it, Ethan.” Nine said, slapping his arm again. “You’re taking all the fun out of this for me.” He was starting to wonder what was so important, since her mood had done a complete flip from just minutes ago. “It says, among other things, who this is and what they did for a living, before they got the wasting disease. Her name is Eve, and she’s listed as a ship core mana tech. You wanted an expert, well we’ve got one right here.” She gave a little jump of excitement as she spoke that looked entirely too cute on a woman as serious as Nine normally was.

“Oh shit, really?” Ethan asked, getting excited now too. Then his face fell. “But, Nine, I’ll need mana to help heal her when we open the pod. Plus, my mana isn’t working that well… maybe we should wait and…”

“No,” Nine snapped instantly. “We can’t wait. This room, and only this freaking room, has had power failures and at least two pod failures since we’ve been here. The other rooms seem stable, so I think those people must have died in the crash. That’s not the case here. If we wait, we run the risk of losing her, and I won’t let that happen. We’ll feed her two of the stoats, and as much mana as you can spare without hitting empty. After that we’ll head out hunting, bring back some fodder to fuel her healing.” Ethan only nodded, a little worried about his mana channels, but not enough to not help someone who could die at any time due to equipment failure.

“Ok, then let’s do this.” Ethan said, reaching for the panel.

“No no no,” Nine said, slapping his hand away. “Part of the reason I almost died last time is the way you turned off my pod. You not being able to read English is a pretty good excuse, but I can. So let me open the pod the right way, you just be ready with the stoats and the healing… remember, Stoats first, and don’t drain yourself.” Ethan, shocked at that revelation, took a step back. He felt sick at the thought that he had almost killed Nine because of his own incompetence. He looked at the small woman as she worked. She really had a nak for putting him down without even intending to. At least, he hoped she wasn’t throwing out those casual jabs to hurt him. A few minutes later, the lid popped open.

“Nope,” Nine said, holding out an arm to block his advance. “Hand me the stoats, I’ll do it.” She said, clearly not trusting him to do as she instructed. Not wanting to argue, especially when he saw the sorry state the slowly waking Eve was in, Ethan handed over two of the largest rodents they’d brought. He felt their terror, and the panic they went through as they died, and not for the first time, he wondered if Luna had to feel it every time one of her creations was killed. If so, than he could understand her reluctance to send her creations out with him to be sacrificed as cannon fodder.

After the stoats were killed, by a knife Nine had wrapped in Eve’s fingers before striking the rodents, Nine motioned Ethan forward. Moving swiftly, Ethan rested his hand on the woman’s neck. Forcing the sluggish mana to respond to his commands, Ethan watched as it moved into her body and joined the small swirls of kill energy already pumping through her body.

“That’s enough,” Nine said, shoving him away as his face paled.

“I’ve got a little left to give.” Ethan said, reaching back out, only to be stopped dead in his tracks.

“No, Ethan.” Nine said again, glaring into his eyes angrily. “You have to take it easy. You can try again later.”

“But…” The excuse Ethan was trying to come up with died on his lips. When, very reminiscent of Nine a few days before, Eve opened her mouth. Dried lips splitting with large drops of blood, and screamed.