An arm, a thigh, and part of a torso were waiting for Len in the frozen void. he was lucky that they were still some distance away from Ankara's next thrust point. What would he have done, if the ship had accelerated?
The field of debris he had seen the first time had already dispersed quite a bit. Following the instruction from his bracelet, it was easy to find the floating body parts. The only thing he worried about was the length of the tether.
Arm and thigh were close to his exit point, but the torso had drifted far away. Len secured the limbs first. To get the torso he floated out to the max-length of his rope but found it was not enough. he deliberated for a while, before making the decision to take off the tether and travel the rest without a safety line.
Despite being an age-old undead, his tension rose. Freely drifting through space made even him nervous. The moment it got in his reach, he snatched the torso part and hurried back to his safety line using the suit's thrusters.
The doctor within him, Z. Killian, told him that he would find answers when he researched this tissue of his former master. He quickly returned with his freeze-dried treats.
After returning to Ankara, the ghoul brought the parts to the medical laboratories. He knew his way around here since he used the facility to grow food ever since the departure from earth.
Len brought out the vampire parts and put them on trays. The sight made him salivate but he had to hold back and take samples for tests. He also took samples from himself for comparison.
It took a few hours to run all the tests, but there were no big problems, as long as he followed what he knew. the vampiric tissue was only slightly affected by the days it had spent in space, which allowed for various tests.
The result was what he had expected. Ghouls were also a mutation of vampires. Whatever transformed a human into a Vampire, it was something very similar that turned humans into ghouls.
However, during tests where he mixed the two cells under the microscope, he found that the almost stagnant vampire cells started rejuvenating by sucking out the "life" from the ghoul cells. it was like an inherent hierarchy.
The tests had taken days before he finally came to a conclusion. he had not gained these powers, but he was released from the parasitic relationship with his master. He always had these powers, but much of the perks as a ghoul had been sucked away by the vampire tick.
This had to be at least one of the reasons that he felt stronger and more healthy. but the ghoul was sure it wasn't all. now that he was able to compare what happened after eating the captain, with the welder girl and the scientist, he was sure the captain had a higher efficacy.
Human Enhancement.
All humans on a spacecraft were genetically improved to survive the cryogenic sleep. However, there were humans like the captain who reached superhuman levels in combat. they had been Len's worst nightmare on earth and what he feared the most on the ship.
Now, he knew quite a bit about human enhancement and he was sure it had something to do, with his own improvement. Still, he was clueless about how exactly the scientific process worked together with being like him that surpassed natural science.
A crooked smirk grew on his cadaverous face. The ghoul would have to do a "study" on the effects of enhanced meat on the ghoulish body and he already knew who would take part.
Len arrived at a door, opposite the room of the crew in cryogenics. This was the room for the roughly 50 security staff on the ship. They were not the only security, but they were the elite, all of them highly enhanced soldiers.
Just one of them could beat up 10 to 20 civilians, unarmed. if given a weapon, they were like a one-man-army. These were the kind of people Len had to fear in the past when his stupid Master messed up and they had to flee.
Now, however, they were all at his mercy. With his new medical knowledge, Len had a much better way to unsubscribe them from life. All cryo pods had a medicinal access panel so that patients could be treated during cryo sleep.
What was meant to save a person's life in an emergency, became a way for Len to euthanize the people meant to protect the crew. Using a cocktail of different anesthetics he offered all 50 of the eternal slumber.
They would stay fresh in the cryo chamber, while Len could take them out one by one. For his study, he did not immediately at their brain, instead, he collected them in jars and only feasted on their bodies.
The effects after several weeks like this were that Len looked almost human now. His skin had gotten a healthy tone, his haggard flesh had filled up. He almost looked like back then, before he became a ghoul. Except for his fingers, which ended in sharp claws and his fangs meant to rip apart raw meat.
Over the whole time, he kept testing his own tissue and found that his own body assimilated the change caused by the enhancement of his prey's body. It was in stark contrast, to when he tried to use the enhancement directly on himself.
The ghoul didn't mind. He had yet to eat even half his power food and had already become noticeably stronger compared to his days as a vampire's service. Len didn't try to confine himself to the conventional way humans improved themself.
He had the power to gain the ability of what he ate and he had the meat of a vampire in store. The undead was working tirelessly on cultivating the vampiric tissue and finding a way to consume it safely.
The cells could be revitalized with his own blood, but the latter part was what gave him headaches. Len had watched the cells of the vampire parasitize those of a ghoul's, like a virus.
If he really ate the vampire meat as it was, he was unsure what would happen. Would he become a vampire? Or would the vampire cells use this chance to resurrect that dumb master while eradicating him in the process?
These were his worries. But he could not get it out of his head. The temptation was too great. Since the meat of enhanced humans could enhance him, what would happen if he found a way to absorb the vampire meat?
Len had spent centuries watching the powers of vampires. Turning into bats, rats, or even fog, hypnosis, and mind control, there were many powers he had witnessed throughout his time of servitude.
The ghoul also realized that he might have overthought the "not being a researcher"-thing when he ate the second-best researcher on the ship. He felt that he was actually quite good at this!
He was sure. As long as he was given enough time, he was able to find a way to absorb a vampire's power. If there was something he had more than enough of, then it was time.
Over the excitement, he put the alien fungus to the side. He was able to put it into a kind of hibernation anyways, so it could wait. Maybe he could even eat the fungus, too. What would happen if he ate an alien slime fungus?
Would he become a funghoul? A ghouslime? That would be interesting...
No, no, no! He had to research the thing first. No need to take risks. he had all the time in the world literally. Thinking of the alien, he realized that he didn't really know anything about aliens in general.
Maybe he should eat a Xenobiologist? In any case, why would he stop there? it sparked an idea in him. It tied in with making those 325 people's sacrifice worth it. The ghoul went ahead and spent some time creating a strict time schedule for the next 10 years.
Technically it could be broken down into three things:
When and what to eat. the ghoul planned to have a diverse diet of physicists, physicians, biologists, and technically experts of any field.
To research ways to further strengthen himself and find out more about the alien.
And to train to truly acquire the expertise and skills he absorbed. This mostly concerned the skills of the elite troops of the security. As a ghoul, he never had any chance to learn a lot of techniques for melee combat.
Only after eating the brain of one of the securities, Captain Baker, did he realize how much time was wasted by being the loyal lackey of a vampire. he had never learned any special skill for combat.
Also, because he seldomly needed one. Either his opponents died in one strike, or they were too strong and he had run on the orders of his master. Len never had the chance to collect experience against an equal opponent.
This changed with the knowledge of these soldiers. That was why training also became part of his schedule. he planned to do it in the downtime when he waited for test results.
Maybe it was the effect of gaining so much human knowledge, but the undead started using his unlimited time effectively.