Len uses a Welder

"Ankara tell me, how many do I have to eat- I mean how many cryo pods would we have to turn off, to save the remaining 3.2%?"

-To save 3.2% of the current energy consumption, 327 cryogenic units would have to go offline-

Len mused over the number. 327 people over the span of 10 years.

The ghoul didn't know whether it was because of the knowledge he had gained, or if he had always been this calculating, but he didn't wish to waste his resources.

From the case of the captain, he understood that it was easier to absorb a human, with enough time to properly digest the information and nutrients. Eating a lot, like with the emergency staff, was squandering.

He also saw importance in choosing who to eat. Which skills did he desire? What knowledge was important. Not all 10 000 and more people on this ship were worth the same. Who would he start with and where would he stop?

Why did he even care? Simple. Although 10000 meals sounded like a lot, he was on a 2000 year-long journey to a foreign world. And that wasn't the end. What would he eat on that planet? What would he eat two or three centuries late, after he ate so many people, that it crippled their gene pool.

No matter how much of a bloodthirsty monster he was, he had to economize his resources. but this was all future talk. First things first. He had to repair the leaks. At the same time, he could also check what exactly was left of the Storage Facilities.

Len really had nothing else to do and quickly started. His first checkpoint was cryogenics. he needed a welder. Not the tool, but quite literally a space mechanic. Although the emergency staff gave him all kinds of technical knowledge, when it came to welding shut a hull breach, it was not enough.

Thanks to the captain, he knew which rooms belonged to the maintenance crew.

"Ankara, we need to fix the breach. Which of them is the most qualified for the job?"

-That would be A. Meckart, Captain-

"Good. Thank you, Ankara."

The ghoul came before the pod and realized with a slight surprise, that it was a woman inside. He shrugged and initiated the waking process for her. Before she could realize what was going on, he had already proceeded with her, the way he did with the captain.

Unlike the Captain, who was a squeaky clean model citizen, A. Meckart had quite the spicy life history. Len took his time digesting the knowledge and experiencing her memories like a soap.

He didn't proceed to eat her body, he was still quite full from the captain. So he left cryogenics and walked down to where the storage facilities used to be. A path he knew like the back of his hand since his master used to sleep there.

On the way, he stopped at a supply closet and grabbed a bunch of welding equipment.

"Ankara, can you lead me to the breaches?"

-Of course, Captain. I will show it on your map.-

"Map? Oh yeah." the ghoul thought when a holography screen popped up from his bracelet. He remembered after the computer reminded him. His original bracelet didn't have this.

The map had a 3-dimensional wire model of the ship where he could zoom in and out. it showed 4 circles in different areas that led to the Storage Facilities. The map still showed the intact ship. It was only when he got closer to one of the breaches, that he got an idea of the destruction.

He came to the airtight doors that usually sealed off whole sections of the ship to prevent leaks from affecting the whole vessel. the reason the whole corridor he was standing in was not sealed by the next door, was that this door had closed correctly.

it was just that the complete corridor was so bent out of shape, that it did not seal properly. Using Meckart's skills as a welder, he used the welding tool to fill up all the gabs he could make out. Then he used one of his own tricks to test it.

As a centuries-old ghoul, he has lived in a time when smoking was common. Even now, he made sure to have such precious relics of the past on him. As a ghoul, he did not become lonely. he didn't mind being alone and watching time go by, like a simple observer.

Only two things made him truly concerned. Hunger and the fact that he only had 5 cigarettes left. Len lit one of them and took a long, well-practiced, drag. He didn't need to breathe, so smoking was the only exercise his redundant lungs got in centuries.

Ignoring the no-smoking rules of the spacecraft, he contentedly blew the smoke at the fresh welds. Attentively, he watched the smoke, to see if a draft would pull it out into space. He was quite proud that this was his own idea.

How could he be so sure of it? Smoking had been fully banned some 150 years ago. None of the people he ate, ever even saw a ciggy in their whole life. This way he managed to spot leaks in hsi weld and shut the faulty airlocks one by one.

"How is it, Ankara?"

-No more loss of atmospheric pressure registered. Proceed with shut down of life support systems? -

"Proceed."

-Life support systems have been shut down-

The ghoul didn't really detect any changed and could only believe what the system told him.

What next? Len had a lot of time to look forward to and there was no need to decide on his next 326 meals immediately. The work on the airlocks had made him curious about the extent of the damage.

It was unlikely for the whole storage facility to be simply gone. Back, when he was still a human he was fascinated by science fiction. This interest woke again. Why had he been so disinterested in the great advances of humanity while he was a ghoul...?

Len realized, that it was probably the effect of the mental shackle! of course, as the slave he was, there would have been no way he would have noticed this change in personality. He had disliked his master, but he had never questioned him or his orders. he never thought about killing him to gain freedom...

Now, he was free. Free to do whatever he wanted. And he wanted to take a walk in space and look at the damage!

With the captain's bracelet, he did not even need to wear a spacesuit. It came with a force field shield that would save the captain's life in case of rapid decompression. Len still wore one for the magnetic boots and the tether.

No matter how immortal he was, he didn't want to be stuck in space, without food and only 4 cigs left. It would be truly sad since he wouldn't even be able to light them!

Clad in a spacesuit and equipped with a tether and magnetic boots, he stood in front of one of the functioning airlock doors.

"Ankara, seal off this section and open the door in front of me. I want to take a walk."

-Affirmative-

A door at the far end of the hallways closed off and the one in front of him slid open. Len face a corridor that led directly into space. After just a few meters behind the door, it was cut off and revealed the darkness of space.

And some debris that was still floating around in the wreckage of the ship's rear.

It was a huge hole gauged out of the side of the ship. To the right, Len could see a cross-section of all floors and hangars that had made up the storage facilities. It was a great fortune that the propulsion engines were not damaged

Broken parts of machinery like excavators, boxes, anything that was ripped loose or was not properly fixed had slowly started to drift out of those damaged sections and gained distance from the ship.

His eyes fell on a Bumblebee. Not the insect. it was a landing craft the crew jokingly called bumblebee because of its shape. Triggered by the sight, Len took a closer look at the debris.

The knowledge he gained helped him recognize some of the parts and infer what happened. the parts currently missing from the ships were the hangars! Many parts floating around belonged to bumblebees, gliders, and transport vessels.

"Ankara, can you scan the debris? Is that bumblebee still intact?"

-Affirmative. landing-craft is still intact.-

"Are there any other vessels still intact and able to fly?"

-Negative-

Hurriedly, the ghoul attached the tether and jumped into the vacuum of space. This bumblebee in front of him was the last intact landing craft on the whole ship. Why was this important? His captain sense told him that the Ankara was not fit to land on a planet.

Without landing crafts, it was impossible to leave the ship and visit a planet, not to mention colonizing a new one. Using the thrusters of the spacesuit, he maneuvered through scrap and miscellaneous stuff to reach the bumblebee.

He had to secure the landing craft before the ship's next thrust jump. Anything that was not firmly attached to the Ankara would be left behind at that point. if he ever wanted to see something other than this spaceship, he could not lose the bumblebee.