“There must be something important on the other end of that tramline,” Farley suggested.  “If they managed to scramble a defensive force so quickly ...”

“Immaterial at the moment,” Ted said.  If – when – they made it home, they could muster a large force to attack the alien system.  “Run me the attack vectors, please.”

He watched, grimly, as the display filled with projected courses and attack vectors.  The alien craft definitely had a faster rate of acceleration than anything human, which meant they would overrun the flotilla halfway to Tramline Two.  Ted briefly considered trying to slip back into silent running, but there were too many alien craft to make it a viable tactic.  At best, they would remain undiscovered for a few hours ... and at worst, the aliens would manage to get close to their hull before being detected themselves.

“Recall all starfighters,” Ted ordered.  It would be several hours before the alien craft entered engagement range.  Until then, there was no point in running his pilots ragged.  “And then concentrate on getting us towards Tramline Two.”

“Aye, sir,” Lightbridge said.

He didn't ask the question Ted saw on his face.  What would they do if Tramline Two proved to have no link to human territory?  The tramlines should lead back in the direction of human space, but what if their projections were wrong?  Ted knew the answer, even if he was reluctant to say it out loud.  They would have to keep going and hope they found a way to escape.  If, of course, they even made it to Tramline Two.

The drones were sending back clear visuals of the alien starships now.  Ted found himself grimacing as he mentally calculated the number of starfighters the alien carriers could launch, then studying the power curves of the alien battlecruiser.  Despite its size, it was faster than any human frigate ... and presumably armed to the teeth.  Humanity hadn’t bothered to build large military starships, apart from carriers, but the alien point defence gave them the ability to make the ships workable.  He wondered, absently, just how badly the aliens had scaled up their plasma cannons before mounting them on the battlecruiser.

He smiled, remembering the handful of alien weapons that had been scooped up by the Marines as they retreated from Alien-One.  Perhaps the engineering crew would be able to deduce their operating principles, which would allow the alien weapons to be duplicated.  Or perhaps they would expose a weakness which made the aliens vulnerable ... if EMP could be used to disrupt ship-mounted weapons, what could it do to handheld pistols and rifles?

Humanity had experimented with EMP weapons – and EMP protections – for over two centuries.  The weapons had been quite successful in tests, but so had the protections worked into military technology.  Ark Royal’s sensor network wouldn't be badly dented if an EMP warhead went off too close to the hull, let alone her weapons and drives.  But the aliens ...