Ethan stood there in slack jawed silence for a second or two, staring at Nine’s tired expression after her admonition. Then he sprang into action. Knowing full well the girl couldn’t move quickly in her condition, he scooped her up into a princess carry, and snatched the big, awkward looking toolbox out of Davis’s hands before yelling in the poor kid’s face.

“Run.” With that, he was off. Darting through the trees at a speed he’d never have achieved before his conversion to a dungeon boss, he called back over his shoulder to the kid who hadn’t moved yet. “Follow me, it’s not too far. Don’t think, just run.”

What followed was a terrified sprint uphill, from the densely forested bowl near the ship tower, to the thin scraggle of trees closer to the rim of the crater. Then, finally to the open run between the forest and the back of the Luna. He never slowed down, never looked back, just pumped his legs as fast as he could without falling, spurred on by the howls of the war dogs that seemed to draw ever closer.

Panting, and out of breath, Ethan finally reached the tail end of the spaceship. Setting Nine down on the platform just outside the hatch that had been the entrance to the Captain’s cabin, along with the toolbox, he spun around to check on Davis. The kid was running as fast as he could, but again, he didn’t have Ethan’s physical advantages. Neither had he eaten anything in days. Added to the shoulder wound he’d suffered at the hands of a goblin spear, and it was to be expected that he still hadn’t reached the edge of the forest. However, Ethan could now see the goblin riders getting closer.

The straight-line charge advantages the war dogs had over a two-legged human was more of a hindrance in the deep forest. Ethan noted how hard they struggled to adjust their trajectory whenever a tree or bush got in their way. That didn’t mean a whole lot in this situation though, since soon enough Davis was going to be in the open space between the forest and the ship, and they’d run him down before he made it five feet from the tree line. Unless Ethan could do something to slow them down.

“He’s not gunna make it,” Nine muttered weakly from behind Ethan’s back, sounding as if she’d just ran through the forest instead of being carried through it. “We have to do something… Ahhh.” Ethan, who’d tuned her words out when he realized she wasn’t saying anything useful, snapped his head around at her alarmed cry. Only for a smile to break out over his face, because now crowding around the prone woman on the back of the ship, were perhaps twenty pure white stoats. They were all up on their hind legs and looked like soldiers awaiting orders. Without pausing a beat, Ethan gave them some.

“Good, you lot, split into groups and attack the mounts and their riders. But don’t hurt the human, got it?” Along with the words, Ethan formed an impression of what he wanted them to do in his mind then pushed it at the stoats. He wasn’t sure if it were the words, or the mental image that did it, but either way the stoats reacted. Racing off like white streaks of lightning, off the ship and through the rocky dirt around the ship.

“Yes,” Ethan said with a fist pump as the little rodents flew toward the enemy. He knew very well how lethal the little terrors were, having seen them in action before. Unfortunately, the stoats were, after all, just animals. While he’d ordered them to split up and attack the enemies, he’d sent a mental image of the twenty stoats splitting up into groups of five to attack the four war dogs in equal groups. What actually happened was a little different. Closer to ten stoats raced towards the lead dog, while the remainder split themselves between the two following dogs, leaving none for the fourth and final member of the goblin rider squad.

With a curse, Ethan realized he was going to have to step in, again. With a sigh, he grabbed the stone headed hammer from his belt and tore off towards the unengaged goblin rider… at least this time he’d be charging downhill.

The skirmish ended quickly enough, though they lost about half of the stoats. They’d been far less effective in smaller groups than in a swarm, and the goblins and their mounts had been able to fight back a little. In the end it had been up to Ethan to finish off the dogs and cripple their riders. Being right outside the Luna, Ethan did his best to capture two of the goblins alive. They were battered and broken, but breathing. He figured Luna would appreciate the opportunity to increase her mana pool.

“You’re hurt,” Nine said looking at his arm, when Ethan and Davis finally made it to the hatch. Davis, like before had been useless in combat, curled into a ball on the ground the moment the dogs arrived. It looked like now that he wasn’t alone anymore, his backbone had softened. Not that Ethan could really blame him since he didn’t really want to fight either.

“It’s minor,” Ethan said, struggling to keep the pair of squirming goblins contained in his arms. “One of these little fiends got a spear up under my armor near my armpit.” He said the words lightly, but inside, terror at how close he’d come to dying in every fight he’d had, welled up inside of him like poison. “Come on, let’s go inside. We need to get these goblins to Luna so she can do her thing.”

“Who’s Luna?” Nine asked, using Ethan’s leg as a crutch to climb unsteadily to her feet. “You’ve used the name in relation to both the ship… and a person, so far.” Even that light effort had winded her, and her face was pale. Ethan looked at her with concern, realizing that no matter how brave a face she put on, Nine was still in really bad shape.

“She’s…both?” Ethan said, almost making it sound like a question as he led the way into the narrow hallway lit only by small flashlights Ethan handed out before they’d come inside, and down the corridor towards the bridge. “Luna is the name of the ship, but Luna is also the name of the ship core aboard her.” He tried to explain as he reached the bridge and came to a stop in the doorway. “Oh my…” he muttered looking in at the absolutely packed bridge. There were so many vines, oak trees, and stoats running around that Ethan didn’t know how they all fit.

“You guys wait out here for a bit,” Ethan said at last, realizing there wasn’t room for all three of them. “I’ll go in and talk to her, then come right back.” At his words, Davis, who was looking worse for the wear after the trip over, slumped down into a disgruntled heap on the floor. Nine, on the other hand, only leaned against the wall and nodded. Her whole body was quivering from exhaustion, but her eyes, both natural and artificial, watched him like a hawk. Ethan was captured for a moment by just how blue her left eye was. Strange, he hadn’t noticed the color before. It was a stark contrast to the small red LED glowing inside the iris of the artificial orb that was her right eye.

“I’ll be waiting,” was all she said, and at her words, Ethan was able to break free of her gaze and nod his head. Turning back to the light streaming through the open hatch, he pushed his way into the small space, now completely filled with greenery.

Captain, I see you have returned. Your mana pool has grown again, good job, and, you have brought back two living goblins? Excellent work Captain. As I would expect from my Dungeon boss, I mean my Captain.

“Thanks Luna, and it looks like you’ve been busy too since I’ve been gone.” Busy was a bit of an understatement. He’d only been gone for a few hours, yet the room was so full that he couldn’t so much as find the chair he’d left the core on, let alone sit in it. “Like you said, I’ve got a pair of goblins here, but I’ve also found a pair of survivors from another ship too. They’re in the hallway, and they need medical attention. I was hoping we could have them kill a few stoats to improve their condition a little.” Ethan said, keeping his voice low as to not seem too crazy to his new companions, for talking to an empty room.

Absolutely not.

Luna said with a feeling of finality behind the words she projected into Ethan’s head.

“…wha…” Ethan said dumbly, furrowing his brow in surprise.

I’ve only recently acquired enough passive mana to think clearly again. I’d been half comatose up until now, running on pre-established algorithms to get by. Only this morning did I hit the tipping point in passive mana generation that allowed my entire network to become operational. It seems a little unreasonable to expect me to go backwards in my cognitive abilities to help some damned humans don’t you think, considering what they did to me?

Ethan was stumped by the response. Luna’s personality had been slowly altering since they’d crashed here. Going from a near automaton to something resembling a real personality. This was… a little extreme though. Thinking back over the morning, Ethan had to admit her personality swing was what had driven him out of the ship. so much had happened since then that he’d forgotten about it.

Frowning, Ethan thought about what to say next. His pain and exhaustion fueled instincts screamed at him to tell the ship core it was created to serve humans, and to just do what he damn well told it to do. His rational mind, thankfully, was stronger though, and he was able to think through the problem before he opened his mouth. He had to think about things from the ship’s perspective too. She was a thinking, feeling, intelligence. Not human perhaps but that didn’t mean she didn’t have wants or desires… nor did it relieve the fear he had that she might get angry at him and decide to suck the mana out of him until he died. That thought alone gave him pause.

“Luna…” he said slowly, cautiously, looking around the overly filled bridge. “You filled up your entire domain in just a few hours I see… It looks like you could really use a little more room, if you wanted to increase your mana pool any further anyway.”

That goes without saying, Captain.

The words were clearly annoyed he would say something so obvious.

It is an issue of resource management, however. In addition to you, the only resource I have capable of manual labor is the goblin. Unfortunately, the goblin has proved itself to be even less capable than you are when it comes to ship repair. Not that it matters. There isn’t any space for me to expand into regardless. So, I’ve been utilizing the goblin to set up my shelves, and the war dog as an active mana battery.

“You know Luna, it sounds like what you need is a ship technician. Someone trained in how to work on ships, and a few extra pairs of hands to make the work go faster. I was actually thinking about looking into the cargo hold underneath the bridge tomorrow. Maybe if we patch the hull, and if it’s outside the red dungeon’s domain then, you might be able to expand into it. That’s what I was thinking when I brought the ship tech back with me anyway. But if healing them is too much of a burden to you…”

Is that so? A ship technician you say. That changes the matter. What are the conditions of the humans? I suppose it would be worth a few mana now, to expand my hull later.

Ethan Rolled his eyes inwardly at the conversation. It sounded like something a bad holo drama screen writer would come up with for the MC to trick the evil AI… though, apart from the evil bit, that’s kind of what he was doing.

“Thank you, Luna, that is very forward thinking of you.” Ethan said with a smile.

Don’t patronize me, Captain. I’m fully aware you are trying to trick me into doing what you want. However, since your logic is sound, I am willing to play along, to an extent. Now, tell me what about these humans requires my mana?

“…oh,” Ethan blushed in embarrassment at being seen through so easily. Still, he’d gotten what he wanted, so he’d just be satisfied with the win. “Ensign Leo Davis, the ship technician, is malnourished, and has a spear wound in the shoulder. The other human is called Nine, and she’s suffering from the wasting disease from the moon. It’s an advanced case, she’s already lost an eye, all four limbs, and a number of her internal organs.”

I will save the technician then. The benefit outweighs the cost. The other human though, Nine, is too expensive. We should use her death to gain a burst of kill energy.

“Unacceptable.” Ethan said without thinking, worried eyes flashing over to the hatch, to see Nine’s intense eyes still fastened to his face. Turning away, Ethan lowered his voice and continued, “Luna, she’s tough, a survivor. She just needs to be cured of the disease. She’s already killed a war dog despite her condition, she will be a good source of mana for you going forward.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

It seems like you are harboring a few misconceptions, Captain.

Luna said, words scrolling flat and emotionless across his eyes.

I did not cure you of your wasting disease. What I did was make you my dungeon boss. A contracted creature to me. It modified your body and gave you the ability to produce and manipulate mana. A small portion of that mana goes into passively fixing your body of the effects of the wasting disease constantly. I cannot cure her Captain, and I cannot contract her to myself as I am. I am far too weak. You could kill her, and I could absorb her blueprint, then when I get the mana reserves, I would recreate her. I warn you though, she wouldn’t be the same person if we did that. The best I could do at the moment is feed her an endless stream of my creatures, reducing my mana output to keep her in good health. Without constant infusions, she would eventually waste away again.

Ethan half turned towards the hatch as he read. He wanted to look again at Nine, but he froze, unwilling to show her the look of horror he knew must be in his eyes. She couldn’t be cured. It was a blow to him that he hadn’t expected. He didn’t know her, barely spoken to her at all, but for some reason, he’d tied her life, her health, to what had happened to him inside his mind. Ethan didn’t know how to let her die without giving up on a piece of himself. The piece who knew he should be dead, who believed it was he who should have died protecting his baby brother, the hero, the champion.

“There has to be something,” he whispered. Ethan knew he didn’t owe Nine anything. Hell, she hadn’t even bothered telling him her real name. He didn’t know anything about her, but still. He needed to feel like he could control something in this messed up situation he found himself in. “Come on Luna, give me something here. She killed a war dog, she can keep herself up, she just needs a boost to get there…”

No. If her condition has progressed to the point of being a quad amputee, with severe organ damage, and even visual loss, then there really is no point in wasting my mana. She isn’t like you, captain. You are a part of me, she is not. Even if I fed her my mana until she was completely healed, her lost limbs wouldn’t be regrown. I don’t have her blueprint. It’s impossible and I will not waste my efforts on her.

“If you ever want to get off this asteroid, you will.” Ethan snarled, voice rising in his anger. “I’m not asking Luna; you will help me with this, or I’ll walk away and not come back.” The words spilled out of his mouth, driven by instincts every bit as much as when he’d scaled the tower like a monkey. He might even have been bluffing, Ethan himself didn’t know. Would he really walk away from his lifeline to save a woman who he’d just met, whose name he didn’t know? On another day, in a different situation, if the ship core hadn’t insulted him and driven him out of the ship to fight for his life three times over in the span of as many hours? Definitely not. Right now, though, he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t even about Nine at this point, it was about not letting Luna walk on him forever, and if he didn’t make a stand now, he knew she would.

Captain.

Ethan read the hesitation, and then the resolve in that word, and braced himself for whatever would happen next.

I will not sink all my mana into a bottomless well. At this point in my redevelopment, I simply cannot afford the expense… however, I can show you how to feed her your own mana instead.

“…wait, I can do that? You never told me that before.” Ethan, who’d drawn himself up to push his demands when she refused him, deflated a little at her follow up sentence. Feed Nine his own mana, was that even possible. “How would that help her though, she needs kill energy to feel better right, even if I learn how to ‘feed’ her my mana, how will that help?” Even as he asked, and her answering text began to scroll, Ethan knew he’d asked another dumb question.

Captain, Kill energy is simply a burst of mana absorbed from the dungeon creature at the time of its death. We’ve spoken of this before, all dungeon created creatures run off mana. They generate it passively and that excess mana is absorbed by the core to fuel its growth. More mana can be actively taken from a dungeon creature by drawing down its vitality. At the time of a creature’s death, however, all the latent mana in its system burst out at once and can be absorbed by the closest living creatures. We call the mana created at death kill energy, but it is the same thing.

“Ok, but that still doesn’t explain why you didn’t tell me, or what good…”

You are my dungeon boss, a creature created, or in your case changed, by mana. Where normal dungeon creatures have no control over there mana, simply functioning as batteries for a dungeon, dungeon bosses do have some control over their mana pools. They are creatures created for the exact purpose of protecting their cores after all. So, it makes sense. How it works, is very similar to kill energy, you make physical contact, and you push your mana into her. It will behave exactly like a rush of kill energy… since it is the same thing… and she will be restored a little. I warn you, however, there will be a great deal of lost mana during the exchange. The conversion rate is around four mana units lost, by your own scale, to every one that goes through. And as for why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t know until you brought it up. My memory is hazy. I can’t recall things normal dungeon cores take for granted, because I’m not a dungeon core anymore, I’m a ship core, remember?

Ethan pondered over what she’d said for a long time, having almost completely forgotten about the pair of squirming goblins in his arms. He was promptly reminded of their presence when one managed to get its teeth into the web between his thumb and forefinger.

“Ouch,” he said, brought back to the present at last. “Ok Luna, thank you for your time. Let’s get these goblins turned into new dungeon creatures for you, and you can fix up the kid. I’ll settle them into the rooms in the hall and we’ll spend the whole day tomorrow fixing up the cargo hold for you, do we have a deal?” It wasn’t much of a deal, not for him anyway, seeing how he hadn’t got what he wanted. Luna had made some concessions though and worked to compromise a little. At this point, he’d take it.

She didn’t answer directly, instead, the goblin under her control, a goblin who was wearing a space black skinsuit with the arms and legs rolled up several times over, walked out of the forest of vines and stabbed a knife into one of the goblin’s throats. The goblin in question disappeared, along with a large chunk of the potted oak trees dying off and turning to ashes. Followed by the second, with another large patch of the trees dying. A short time later, two new goblins wearing rolled up skinsuits stood in the space the oaks had once occupied. Only this time, Ethan could feel a mental connection to them, and he knew he could control these creatures… to an extent anyway.

“Come on in guys,” he called out to the pair still waiting out in the hall. “I don’t know where she is exactly right now, but guys, this is Luna,” he said waving his arm around to indicate the entire bridge. “Luna, the kid is Leo Davis, and the young lady is Nine.” The pair looked around in some confusion, starting in fright when they saw the skin-suited goblins, until a line of text appeared in midair in front of their faces to capture their attention.

Hello, my name is Luna. Nice to meet you. Let’s get you something to eat before Captain Ethan takes you to your cabins. He’ll provide you with healing at that time as well. Don’t worry about the goblins, they are my creatures and will not hurt you. The same holds true for the stoats and the Captain. If you require anything, be sure to ask Captain Ethan for it. Then, after a good night’s sleep, you can help the Captain work on the cargo hold.

Ethan blinked as he read the message himself. The words were blunt, and went directly to the point, but at least she was nice about it.

An hour later, he’d stripped the guns from Sven’s room, moving them to the bridge for safe keeping before turning it over to the ensign. He was of a similar size to the dead man, so it made sense to let him use that room. Nine, for similar reasons, was placed into Lesa’s old room. It was still early, but everyone was tired, so Ethan took a moment to heal himself, and the kid back to normal by taking turns stabbing stoats until they’d recovered. When he was satisfied, and Leo had said he was calling it a night, Ethan excused himself and walked next door to Nine’s room. Knocking softly, he waited a moment before entering.

“Gosh, I’m sorry.” He said upon entering the ten-by-twelve room. Nine had been in here for almost an hour while he helped get the kid settled in. So, he figured she’d have settled in by now too. “I’ll come back later when you're decent.”

“No.” Nine said, her refection staring right into his eyes from where she stood with her back to him. “Come in here, I want you to tell me what you see.” She continued, waving a grey, polymer prosthetic hand at her completely nude body.

Ethan’s knee jerk reaction was to flee the room, let her calm down and then come back in a bit. Looking into her eyes through the reflection in the mirror though, made it clear that would be the wrong move. So instead of leaving, he stepped inside and closed the hatch. With steady steps, he walked into the room, until he was standing right behind Nine, and slightly to the side. He could see her entire body, both front and back from his vantage, thanks to the mirror.

“Well?” Nine asked, an angry edge to her words that failed to hide the fragility buried beneath. “What do you see when you look at me, Ethan Fairchild?”

One response after another jumped to his mind, words of comfort, encouragement, humor. He swallowed them all down without letting them past his lips. Instead of a quick response, he did as she asked of him, and really looked at her.

The mechanical parts jumped out at him first. The artificial eye, larger than her natural one, had replaced her original on the right side of her face. There was no eyelid, only a large orb with an iris that connected to a zoom function on the camera lens that allowed her to see, after her nerves had withered away. It was constructed of steels and polymers and was far from the top of the line.

Next, he took in her arms and legs. They’d been replaced, all the way to, and including, her hip and shoulder joints, as well as her collar bones, and shoulder blades. He noted again how the limbs looked too big for her, like they were made for a bigger woman, but then grafted onto a child’s frame instead. They were basic in design, rough plates covering the inner workings, not even attempting to hide their artificial nature. Ethan had seen high end, well-crafted prosthetics before. Hell, his brother had tried to buy them for him. It would have taken a skilled eye to notice those limbs weren’t real. Like the eye, that wasn’t the case here. As utilitarian as the limbs were, he found it surprising that the toes separated from the foot as a whole, and functioned like they were supposed to. He knew this because she’d wiggled them when he’d first seen her waking up.

That only left her fleshly body. A body that consisted of a skeletal torso and head, with a layer of tightly stretched skin over top. There wasn’t an extra ounce of fat anywhere on her body, though there were plenty of scars. Both on her back, and front. Surgery scars, where they’d gone in to replace organs, and who knew what else. Even her bald head had scars. The input jacks on her temples were the most extreme, but he could see evidence of surgeries there as well.

After a long look, where he assessed her body, he looked her in the eyes. He took in the crinkled brow, the set line to her mouth, how her shoulders straightened up as he looked at her. There was a lot he could say, but only one word seemed to encompass it all without sounding demeaning.

“I see a survivor,” he said at last, never taking his eyes away from hers while he spoke. “Someone who’s been through hell, but never gave up.” As he spoke, he took a step forward and picked up the outfit she selected for herself. It was a simple black skinsuit, and he knew she’d picked it out because it hadn't been on the desk when he’d shown her into the room. As he spoke, he helped her into it, covering up scars that went far deeper than the flesh. “Now I’ve told you what I see, how about we start the healing process, hm?”

“Healing?... ha.” Nine barked out a laugh at his words, glaring up at him with an angry, tear-filled eye. “Do you think I’m stupid? I was listening back on the bridge. I might have only been able to hear your side of the conversation, but I know the ship refused to help me. I could see it in your eyes as you tried not to look at me earlier.”

“That’s…” Ethan was going to say, not true, but he didn’t want to lie to her, not now. “… true. But it doesn't matter, she told me how to treat you. It might take some trial and error, but I’ll figure it out. You’ll be able to… live as you did before.” He smiled, not wanting to say too much, lest she pick up on…

“There’s something else,” she said, seeing clearly to the heart of him. “What is it, tell me.” She demanded, her hands gripping his arms weakly. With a sigh of resignation, Ethan looked down at her for a long moment before answering.

“What I can do, is return your body, as is, to prime health… but it’s only a treatment. You’ll be like your old self again. You won’t have to worry about the pain of eating too much, or wondering if your legs will support you, next time you try to sit up… only, I can’t restore what you’ve lost, and…if you go too long without my treatment, or an infusion of kill energy… that’s what happened when you stabbed the war dog… you’ll start to waste away again.” After speaking, he looked into her eyes, waiting for an angry tirade, tears, depression, defeat, something to show that it wasn’t what she’d expected, that it wasn’t enough. Instead, she just looked back at him with steely determination.

“Is that it?” She asked at last, eyes narrowing as if he was trying to fool her. “That’s the bad news? I get to be as healthy as I used to be, get to eat solid food, get to walk more than two feet without getting winded?” Her voice was incredulous now, like he’d said something funny. “I’ve been a prisoner in my own skin for half my adult life. Who cares if what you’re offering isn’t permanent? Just from what little, kill energy? I’ve gotten today, I feel better than I have in months.” She gripped his arms tighter, a smile causing the splits in her lips to bleed slightly. “It’s more than I had this morning. So, stop feeling sorry your magic powers aren’t magic enough and treat me already.”

With a half grin of his own, Ethan nodded his head. Moving over to the bed, he indicated for her to lay down. He didn’t think that was required, but the girl looked like she was about to fall over, and he didn’t know how long this was going to take.

“Ok then,” he said once she’d lain down. “I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing here, so bear with me.” Taking a deep breath, Ethan placed his hands on the side of her neck and rested his palms on her collar bones. Luna had said contact was required, but not how much. Closing his eyes, he thought about the feeling he got when the mana from a killed foe rushed into him. How it burned its way through his body, targeting any damage he’d suffered, before disbursing throughout the remainder of his being.

He thought about the niggling in the back of his mind when he felt the presence of the dungeon creatures nearby, and how he could order them around if he chose. He focused on the trembling flesh beneath his fingers, and how he wanted to infuse it with his mana. About his body as it was now, and how it felt when Luna drained his mana away.

He accumulated all those thoughts and feelings into a single, small point, concentrated in his hands, and willed it into Nine’s frail body… and absolutely nothing happened.