They mount their plasma weapons on their hulls, he thought.  They cannot protect them without rendering the weapons completely useless.

Shaking his head, he settled back to watch as the alien ships drew closer.

“I’m picking up a stream of signals from the planet,” Annie reported.  The communications officer looked surprised.  “They’re beamed towards the alien ships, but our drones are picking them up.”

“Probably reporting in,” Fitzwilliam said.  “And telling them that we took prisoners.”

Ted tended to agree ... which raised the question of precisely what the alien ships would do, now they knew that Ark Royal carried nine aliens as well as the liberated POWs.  Would they give chase anyway ... or would they pull back, refusing to kill their own kind?  Ted had studied such moral dilemmas at the Academy and had been left with the feeling that they depended on circumstances.  Would it be wise to fire on a starship carrying prisoners if that starship was also carrying information that could not be allowed to reach enemy territory?

He leaned forward.  “Can you decipher it?”

“No, sir, not with the technology we have,” Annie said.  “My computers are still analysing the signal, but we don't have an understanding of the alien language, let alone whatever encryption programs they might be using.”

Ted sighed.  Once, years ago, he'd taken part in an exercise where one side had been forced to send messages in the clear.  Most such exercises had the leaders devising codes to pass messages without being understood by anyone who might want to listen in, but this particular leader had taken advantage of having a handful of Gaelic speakers in his company by using them as code-talkers.  His opponents had claimed he was cheating, afterwards, yet the umpires had ruled in his favour.  If someone wasn't making the best use of his personnel, they’d pointed out, he was failing.

But it was unlikely that combat decryption would ever be a viable tactic in its own right, he knew, even without adding the complexities of an alien language and alien encryption programs.  It just took too long to decrypt even a short message, by which time the window of opportunity for using the message might have already closed ...

“The alien ships sent a short reply,” Annie said.  “Nothing else.”

Somehow, Ted wasn't surprised when the aliens just kept coming.

***

“Enemy carriers are launching starfighters,” Farley reported, four hours later.  “Alien frigates are spreading out, but otherwise keeping their distance.”

At least we taught them respect, Ted thought.  It was still another hour to Tramline Two, he calculated, by which time the aliens might well have overwhelmed them completely.  If nothing else, he privately resolved, the aliens were going to know they’d been kissed.  Hell, trading two of their modern carriers for Ark Royal would cost them dearly.

“Launch starfighters,” he ordered.  “And then prepare to engage with mass drivers and unpowered missiles.”