“Their drive gives them an advantage,” James nodded, looking up at the display.  It was easy to tell where the aliens had gone, but impossible to stop them.  There was a tramline that ran from the alien destination to New Russia, which meant that the aliens in New Russia would have at least a day’s warning that Ark Royal was on her way.  “Tell the boffins we need a comparable system ourselves.”

The Captain snorted.  “I don’t think it's that easy to duplicate an alien system,” he said, over the intercom.  “We still don't even have a theory for how they do it.”

James nodded ruefully, running his hand through his hair.  By any reasonable standard, they'd won another victory ... but it could lead to their defeat.  The aliens had lost more starfighters, yet they’d managed to damage a handful of frigates and alert their superiors that a human formation was approaching New Russia.  He found himself seriously considering advising the Captain to abort the mission.  No one would object if the Captain chose to safeguard his ship – the one victorious ship in the Royal Navy –rather than launching a direct assault on a world that would be ready for them, by the time they finally arrived.

“We need to build those battleships,” the Captain added.  “If we had more mobile firepower, we might be able to give the aliens a nasty surprise.”

“True,” James agreed.  “A battleship would be very useful.”

He smiled.  To give the Royal Navy’s designers their due credit, they had started updating Ark Royal’s schematics ... and then outlining a battleship concept that would be crammed with mass drivers, rail guns and armoured so heavily that the alien weapons wouldn't have a hope of breaking through into the vulnerable innards.  But it would take at least a year, once the designs were finalised, to put them into production ... assuming that nothing went wrong.

And the war doesn't come to a screeching halt before we complete them, he added, in the privacy of his own thoughts.  The aliens aren't going to stop innovating either.

“Captain,” he said slowly, “should we consider withdrawing?”

The Captain hesitated.  “I think we should do what repairs we can, then I will make the final decision,” he said.  “Two of the frigates may have to be sent back to Earth.”

Which would be very unlucky for them, James knew, if the aliens had started trying to block their escape route.  Given their FTL drives, they could put a small squadron of lighter starships within all of the potential human systems ... and then intercept the human ships before they even realised they were under attack.  But the alternative was abandoning them in the penal system or simply scuttling them now, before the aliens could recover the ships.

“I’ll see to it,” James said.  “Should we spare any other ships to act as escorts?”