Ted frowned.  If he’d overrun an alien-settled planet, he would have been sure to leave at least one picket in the system, just in case.  But the aliens knew that Vera Cruz had never been very important ... at least not as far as the pre-war human sphere had been concerned.  If the system had been richer, it would probably have been snapped up by the stronger interstellar powers.  Mexico wasn't a microstate, but it couldn't compete with any of the major powers ...

“Take us through the tramline,” he ordered, running one final check on his ship’s systems as he spoke.  They were ready for anything.  “Now.”

Space twisted around them as they vanished from the useless system and reappeared in Vera Cruz, where the war had begun.  Ted stared at the display, half-expecting to see a wave of missiles lancing towards them, followed by clouds of alien starfighters, but saw nothing.  A chill ran down his spine as he realised that the entire system was as dark and silent as the grave.  There might be no one left alive on Vera Cruz, he realised, and there had never been any settlements established off-world.  The aliens had seen, destroyed and moved on.

“No contacts detected,” Farley reported.

“Launch two drones,” Ted ordered.  Vera Cruz’s other tramline, the unexplored one, rested at the other side of the star.  They’d take hours to reach it, no matter what else happened.  “If there is any alien presence in the system, anything at all, I want to know about it.”

He waited until they were well away from the tramline, then keyed his console.  “Alpha Shift, get some rest,” he ordered.  As always, it was a nightmare deciding when he and his senior officers could rest.  “Beta Shift will take command.”

Given their location, it would be several hours before they learnt anything from Vera Cruz itself.  Passing command over to Fitzwilliam – with a muttered order for him to take some rest himself in a few hours, Ted stepped back into his office and lay down on the sofa.  Sleep overwhelmed him within seconds and he fell into darkness.

***

Piece by piece, the display built up a picture of the Vera Cruz system.  James knew, from the files, that the system had never been considered particularly interesting, lacking even a large asteroid belt or a gas giant.  Without them, it was unlikely that Vera Cruz would ever develop into a major industrial node.  But the Mexicans hadn't cared, he knew; they’d merely wanted to establish themselves as an interstellar power.  They’d invested billions of pounds in setting up the infrastructure to take thousands of colonists ...