Small Pet
"I would very much like to leave. However, this vessel currently has another attached to it. Attempting to travel under those circumstances could be dangerous. However, we cannot just detach the other ship, or we will have a hole left behind. My vessel can self-repair given enough time, but it appears time is not on our side."
I wasn't very knowledgeable about space travel. Gilda never told me much about it, and I hadn't looked it up since I was so focused on learning how to use magic and fight instead.
"Hmm... alright, hold on a 'sec. Hey Cordie, get over here!"
I interrupted the bickering twins, and Cordelia came over. I noticed Millie had a big smile on her face watching Cordelia interacting with me, like a proud older sister.
"My name is Cordelia! Get it right. Actually, wait... that's not even my name. I am the future ruler of the universe, Dungeon Core 00976. You may refer to me as Your Majesty or Your Grace, peon."
Bop! Another whack was delivered to the back of her head.
"WHAT! Stop hitting me!"
"Stop wasting our time with your delusional bullshit!"
I looked over to Gilda to see if she would back me up, but she had a weird look on her face as she stared at Cordelia. When Cordelia followed my gaze and saw the look on Gilda's face, she suddenly got self-conscious.
"Uhh... hey, what's going on? Did I say something weird?"
Gilda seemed to consider something for a second, then she shifted back into her usual professional demeanor.
"No. Right now, the more pressing issue is dealing with the vessel currently attached to mine. Am I correct in assuming you are in control of that vessel?"
"Hehehe. That's correct. I've already made your wimpy ship my property."
I tried another whack, but this time Cordelia deftly ducked and backed away from me, then stuck out her tongue. While I was glaring at her, Gilda seemed to stay perfectly calm.
"If we are to escape from here, that ship will need to be detached, and the hole sealed. You may stay here as guests for now, but we should move as quickly as possible."
It seemed Gilda was fine with ignoring the insane core's weird pronouncements, choosing to only focus on the meaningful content of what she was saying. Cordelia, on the other hand, seemed to panic a bit.
"Hold on! I'm on that ship. If you detach, we'll be separated... I mean, I guess I could follow you, but I'm sure wherever you're going wouldn't be happy to see my ship following yours."
"Can you explain what you mean when you say you are on that ship?"
It took me a second to realize Gilda didn't know all the details of the situation. We took a few minutes to discuss the events that Gilda missed. I also learned a few things I didn't know. It seems that when Cordelia attacked our ship, she used something like a magical computer virus to attack the control systems, which was why everything went down. The plan was to disable our computer systems, then release the mithril slime golem to incapacitate or kill whatever crew was aboard. Supposedly, we were going to then become captives to be interrogated then fed to cores, whether that be Cordelia or some other dungeon core.
I found out that dungeon cores feed off the mana of other living things in their territory, making them something like a parasite. They could then use that power to do a wide variety of summoning magic, creating dungeons around themselves. The whole thing reminded me of the way shellfish grow their own home. Apparently, they could also summon minions for attacking or defense, which was where the mithril golem came from. She said something about it taking a really long time to spawn a new one... whatever that meant.
Anyway, the Demon Lords would routinely trap prisoners inside a core to provide it with the mana it needed to create and maintain the spaceship-dungeons. In return for the mana, Cordelia would provide food and a certain amount of comfort until the prisoners died. Most were already in pretty bad shape by the time they were stuffed inside her core, so they usually didn't last too long.
Millie was a bit different in that she was a dedicated MIL unit. Apparently, she was bonded to Cordelia when she was very young. Her role was to be a dungeon master, which was a constant source of mana regeneration for the core, and also helped form the dungeon's consciousness. However, MIL's were dungeon masters in name only since they were slaves of the Demon Lords too.
Gilda said her people had past contact with the succubus homeworld, but that world was conquered by the Demon Lords some time ago. The only succubi around now were refugees, some of whom were currently working as spies for the Alliance. They specialized in sex magic, which I remembered we had discussed before as being useful for espionage.
All of this led to the problem of dealing with Cordelia's core form. Her avatar could freely roam, but the core itself was currently tied to the dungeon-spaceship. Time was running out before the Demon Lord reinforcements arrived. Surprisingly the solution came from Millie, who up to that point had seemed more interested in rummaging through stuff hidden in the wall panels.
"All of this talking is sooooooo boring. Why don't you just destroy the dungeon, Cordie?"
All three of us looked at her like she was out of her mind, but she just kept on talking.
"Yeah, you know, all you would need to do is let the dungeon fall apart. I mean, it isn't like being exposed to space can kill you, right? So once your core is separated for the remains of the dungeon, we could bring you over here. Then the broken stuff could be left behind, to make those other guys think we were destroyed in a fight."
Gilda seemed to think that over, while Cordelia and I just looked at Millie, mouths agape. Who knew she was such a devious mastermind?
"Millie, you're a genius!"
"Hehe... Aww, thanks."
Gilda seemed to be figuring out the details. Once it looked like she had it all figured out, she laid out the plan.
"Cordelia, can you use your dungeon function skills to seal the hole before you separate your vessel?"
"Uh... Yeah, sure. That would be no problem for somebody as awe-inspiring as myself."
"Good. Willie, does this plan meet with your approval?"
I was a bit surprised by that question. Then I remembered the arrangement we had made just before we were attacked. I needed to sign off on the plan, but there was no problem here. It sounded good to me.
"Sure, that's fine. But let's get a move on."
Things happened quickly after that. Gilda went to look at the core and Cordelia's ship. When she got back, she gave the word, and the hole was sealed in an instant. Then there was a loud bang as Cordelia's ship detached itself. A view of the outside space was holographically projected, so we all able to see as the dungeon ship moved a short distance away and started falling apart by itself. Amid the drifting rubble, I could see the core floating by itself.
Gilda did a scan, then activated some kind of teleporter. A familiar glowing red core, about the size of a tennis ball, appeared in front of the former hole in the wall. Cordelia understandably flipped out about it right away.
"Hey! What did the hell did you do to me!"
"Oh, look at you, Cordie, you're so cuuuute!"
Millie ran over to the now smaller core but was stopped by Gilda.
"Be careful. That core is still cold from being exposed to the vacuum of space. Give it some time to warm back up before touching it."
"How about you just keep your grubby paws off my glorious core altogether!"
It seemed like everybody had just decided to ignore Cordelia. However, I was curious about the reduced size of the core.
"Hey Gilda, why did it turn out so small?"
"The smaller size is a result of the forced removal of empty space at the atomic level. The weight has not been reduced at all. Rather the mass is just more densely packed now. There is already not enough room on this ship for 4 people, so I thought it prudent to reduce the space the core took up."
Cordelia was still fuming. But Millie went right over there as soon as it was safe, crouching down and stroking the core like a pet cat. Oddly, Cordelia seemed to be secretly pleased about the petting and calmed down immediately.
For the sake of a funny gag I decided to let the alien technology bypass the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. I mean they are a super advanced alien race... they already beat FTL travel, so why not.
