Len meets Earthlings

"Captain, we have visuals."

"Is- Is that the Ankara?" the man mumbled lost for words.

It had been 300 years since the first wave of colonial ships. How backward they had been back then. the captain could only shake his head at the thought they held back then. Sending thousands of people on suicide missions. Wasting resources on a stupid dream.

Most corporations of that time already went bankrupt when humanity invented the endo drive. A new means of travel that allowed humans to do space jumps like in old science fiction. Thanks to the superior technology they had made contact with all kinds of alien races and the Galactic federation.

Now one of their main interests besides galactic trade and colonialization was finding those ancestors that had been shot into space. After three decades the Ankara was the last ship they had no idea what happened to it.

Because of an unplanned course change, it was far away from the place they had expected it. Finally, they had found it, but the sight made the captain unsure what he was seeing.

The ships of that era were supposed to have a very clean white surface and a streamlined exterior. The Ankara before them was completely different from the image they had in their database. Almost organic-looking pipes covered its surface, all leading to a massive remodeled engine.

It resembled half-organic ships humanity rarely encountered up to now. it was obvious that someone or something had taken over the Ankara. This was unusual in so far, that typically these early colonial ships were found either untouched or destroyed.

Not remodeled to this degree.

"We have opened a communication channel, Captain."

"Ankara, this is Captain Fawx of the Earth Federation Ship Retriever-33. Please answer."

He kept repeating this in several languages of earth and the galaxy. The common language of the galactic federation among others.

"Ankara asks to establish a call."

This was an ancient technology but the ships of the retriever class were equipped to accommodate the backward technology of these colonial ships.

The video call went through and the bridge of the Ankara appeared on their screen. The scene showed a handsome, muscular man sitting on the captain's chair. He did not match the data of the captain they had.

He was pale, handsome, with peculiar eyes that made him look almost inhuman.

"Greetings. I am Captain Fawx. Who am I talking to?"

"You may call me... Captain Len. Yes, that will suffice." the excentric figure answered.

"Captain...Len. According to our records, there is someone else supposed to be the Captain of the Ankara. What happened? Are the colonists okay?" Fawx started with the most important question.

"Hmm, most of them, yes. We suffered some casualties, among others the captain and the Vice-Captain. My turn, how can you be from earth? It took us 300 years to come this far. Was there another jump in technology? How did you manage to overcome the speed of light?"

Fawx was a little stumped, by several details of the answer.

"We-We developed the endo drive 200 years ago which allows us to jump past space. What happened to the ship? It looks different compared to our data."

"Great, right? We managed to capture a bunch of space crooks and started adapting their technology. No need to be jealous now, your ship looks also very intriguing. You wouldn't mind letting us take a look, right?" Captain Len kept talking nonchalantly.

Fawx reminded himself of his mission. This captain Len seemed weird, but he was still a human. they had to secure the colonist and make sure they were okay. It was of great importance to earth.

"Actually, we would like to send a team over, to check on the colonists, is that okay?"

"of course! Please send some people over."

The talks with Captain Len were awkward, but went very well. Soon a medical team was sent over with a landingcraft. However, 10 minutes after sending them over, they lost contact with the medical team.

...

Len almost puked and spit out the piece of meat he had just chomped out of the nape of the leading medical officer. He was glad that he spent so long on his evolution. At this point, his abilities were almost indistinguishable from a vampire's.

A bite was enough to turn someone into a servant. And he was glad about it since he would not have managed to swallow something with such a disgusting taste.

"So this is what is going on," Len said with a bloody smile.

He had hypnotized the offering- No, visitors from Retriever-33 the moment they stepped foot on his ship. Their suits alone already bore witness to a fantastic level of technology. The moment they had stepped into the freezing cold and deoxygenated atmosphere on the Ankara, suits materialized out of nowhere.

It looked like nanites had formed them in an instant. Nano-technology had also made such a significant jump. "Truly marvelous," Len thought to himself.

Although they were hypnotized without a problem, it was easier to gain knowledge by turning them into servants. These servants were Len's equivalent to a vampire's ghoul, but the progenitor ghoul saw himself as a much more magnanimous ruler than a vampire was.

After connecting with the crew member of the Retriever, Len got an overview and deeper understanding of their guest's mission and the situation on earth. humanity was looking own the barrel of a gun their ancestors had cogged and loaded for them.

Genetic Manipulation. It was already a common thing when the Ankara set off, but as the technology improved, it became cheaper and more widespread. It also explained why they tasted so disgusting. In a magnificent play, they had eradicated the vampires through a vaccine, not unlike what Len had created.

The problem was that humanity had played too much with their gene material. After 300 years and dozens of generations, more and more deformities and gene diseases developed. Humanity was plagued by the degradation of their race.

After finally making the true jump into the space age, they faced extinction because of their own flawed bodies. This was where the colonists came into play. Each colonial ship had roughly 10 000 people on board to guarantee sufficient genetic diversity to populate a planet.

With these colonists from centuries ago, earth hoped to find a way to repair their crumbling DNA. How unfortunate that most ships like the Ankara were quite unlucky and many had been destroyed or harvested in the way the beans had planned.

Ironic how he, a ghoul, was holding part of humanity's last hope. The problem was that he was quite opposed to handing his sheep to this hungry wolf. How could he accept these tasteless mongrels watering down the bloodlines of his food?

The ghoul didn't give a damn about the earth. A race of people that tasted like feces could go extinct for all he cared. It just strengthened his resolve to carefully grow his stock and secure his provisions for the next several millennia or even eternity?

He had no intention to help, but Len would gladly accept the presents earth sent him. The Retriever-33 looked quite posh and he liked its look. The elegant newcomer from earth was comparable to the Ankara in size and was meant to take custody of the original colonists for the travel back.

It could be a pain if he let the Retriever somehow return to earth. It was a much better option to change vehicles and keep traveling on a new, sparkly ship. He already had a plan.

...

"Retriever, here's Medical Team 3. We are done here. The colonists are healthy and ready for the transfer." suddenly the team reported back.

"Team 3, what happened over there? You were gone for half an hour!" Fawx inquired worriedly.

"We lost signal when we entered cryogenics and had to recalibrate the communicators. No big deal Captain."

Fawx still wasn't convinced, but he let it go.

"Captain Len, do you give permission for forceful docking to transfer the colonists to our cryogenics division?"

"Affirmative. We are ready to transfer over."

After getting permission, the Retriever got very close to the Ankara. A long tube-like landing bridge extended and similar to the alien ship, it adhered to the hull and cut a clean hole. Teams from the Retriever went over to relocate the cryo pods over to the new ship.

"Captain Len, I am Captain Fawx." he once again introduced himself when he met Captain Len in person. Fawx was not short, but Len was a head taller than him. The handsome man smiled amicably and shook hands.

As the colonists were transferred, they talked about what had happened to the Ankara. Len told him that the ship had been hit by an asteroid after which the captain was woken up. The damage had forced them to periodically wake up to correct the course.

In the end, the previous Captain died in the fight with the bean-shaped aliens and a few of them decided to say away and research the new technology in an attempt to fully repair the ship and maybe improve it even.

He didn't know what was going on, but the longer he talked with this bewitching man, Fawx's mind became dazed and cloudy. The Captain's consciousness slowly drifted away.