Len becomes a Pirate

Over the next few days, Len got closer acquainted with the ship. Members of his families also started to study humanities technological advances, with the help of the thoroughly brainwashed crew.

Len had no interest in the propagation of his race. Too many mouths were not good for the business. That's why he wanted them to learn it in a different way. It was a good thing that humans hated work.

Ironically, humanity had not been lazy in their never-ending strife to be lazy. Learning things the normal way by studying them? That was an archaic method of learning, modern civilization had long gotten rid of.

With all the knowledge one needed to even understand the current technology, people would be of old age before having the chance to further develop it. Because of this, the researchers and technicians responsible for the maintenance and repair of the engine and other systems onboard featured a brain interface.

This was the most effective and up-to-date method for knowledge transfer. An implanted chip that acted as an extension for the human brain. The chip could store, process, and directly upload information to the brain. These chips were a blessing and a hurdle for the ghoul.

As long as one of his children or servants could get such an implant, it could access vast amounts of information and share it with the rest of the family. This was a great advantage on one hand. But it also meant that modern humans had a great part of their knowledge locked away behind a technological barrier.

Len could no longer be sure to absorb all the information and knowledge of a victim he turned into a servant or child. It would require the second step of them accessing the interface and sharing it with the rest. With how willful these genetically muddled humans had become, it was hard to tell, whether he could force them to do as such.

Not to mention that he might even lose the knowledge stored in the chip if he killed and ate someone. Fortunately, the implant was not common and only was used when absolutely necessary. The medical officer for example did not have such an interface.

After all, the brain interface also had drawbacks. From malfunctions to faulty or damaged hardware, all the way to it being possible to be hacked if the individual was unlucky. Not everyone trusted the technology and only those that depended on it for work opted to get one.

The ghoul had occupied one of the officer's cabins. it was spacious and well designed, like a science-fiction hotel suite. there had not been much to do for Len to relax in the Ankara. As a colony spaceship, it was only equipped with the necessities of the mission.

There were no nice living quarters or entertainment facilities. His life before the Ankara was not very relaxing either as the world back then was on the constant hunt for the likes of him and his master. Nobody could blame the ghoul for trying to catch up on the entertainment he missed for the last 600 years.

As quickly as the development of technology was, the entertainment industry was in hot pursuit. Even then the traditional media were not cast aside. Starting at the bottom, the ghoul had a library of thousands of movies he could watch as a pastime.

You know, when he wasn't eating people and making plans for a galactic empire. Len had to acknowledge that popcorn movies never changed. The setting had become more futuristic, which made it feel fresh for the ancient monster.

Although the issues of the characters had slightly shifted, overall it was always about human drama or action. This reliable calmed thee ghoul's mind. It was great to shut off once in a while.

"Ancestor, the preparations are ready. We can cut off the connection during the next cool-down phase between jumps. " Fawx called Len on his communicator.

"Good, we will proceed as planned."

There were a few ways to proceed once they cut off the communication. The most important short-time goal was to get away from humanity. The Federation of Earth would not just watch one of their ships go off the radar.

Obviously, stealing someone's ship was piracy and illegal in the Galactic Federation. The Galactic Federation had developed over the past 300 years, from the alliance Len knew about. According to Fawx, they were also a lot stricter in their management.

Since humanity joined it they could quickly become wanted criminals if they did not act prudently. It had been a big bummer for Len when he found out that the galaxy was not the kind of lawless wild west as the bean's memories made him believe.

Fortunately, it did not mean that there was no place to hide. The universe was just too big to police literally every place. But even as a criminal, one did not have to live as an outcast on some uninhabitable planet.

Like Port Royale, there were sovereign states and regions, that would offer a safe harbor for all kinds of shady businesses outside and within the federation territory. Although the federation would not touch these places for different reasons, they were notorious and well known.

The Space Station of Zancor in a sovereign solar system was one of these places and the closest to the Ankara. This was their next destination.

A few days later, the Retriever-33 met the Ankara that was already set on a course to Zancor. By their estimation, Fawx's superiors in the Earth Fleet would notice the ship's disappearance around this time.

Th Retriever-33 had been on a mission to retrieve a 300-year-old colony ship, far off any major trade routes. There were no ships from Earth anywhere close to this place.

All the Earth fleet superiors could do was file a report to the Galactic Federation. By the time they moved, the two ships would already be one. Even too far for the federations scanner to catch them.

Using the Ankara's modified alien engine, they sped up their journey. The Retriever took the old colony ship in tow for space jumps using the endo drive and the Ankara would pull the Retriever with its sub-lightspeed engine during the endo drives cool down.

This way they managed to cut down their travel time by a few days.

The Zancor solar system was made up of three small planets orbiting a red dwarf. None of the three had any indigenous life and they were not much more than balls of bare rock at this point.

The Space Station of Zancor was everything but beautiful. Orbiting the biggest of the three planets, roughly the size of mars, it was once meant as a trade hub for the mining operations on the three planets.

After the planets had been stripped of any useful resource, from mineral deposits to water and even atmosphere, the place was completely abandoned several hundred earth years ago.

Instead of beeing scrapped or wasting away as a piece of space scrap, it flourished as a safe haven for crime. Over centuries of expansion where every generation of crime lords added onto it, the space station became the ugly ball of junk it was today.

Two weeks after they cut off all connection to earth, Len finally set foot on this space-age abomination.

The Retriever-33 and the Ankara docked at the ramshackle harbor of the station. The inside was dirty, rusty, and in a state of disrepair with exposed cables hanging from the ceiling and missing wall panels.

A breathtaking stench filled the barely breathable athmosphere. Entering this cesspool of scum and despair, the ghoul could not help but smile.