He turned back to the display as Tramline Two loomed up in front of them.  The aliens might well have left a stealthed picket somewhere along the tramline, watching the human ships as they fought their desperate battle for survival.  They'd clearly had a ship at Tramline Four, so why not one at Tramline Two.  And they’d have a very good idea of where – precisely – the human ships would jump into the system.  There was no time to do anything to make their jumping coordinates more random.  If the aliens had an ambush waiting for them, it would be impossible to avoid.  They’d just have to hope they could fight their way through it.

“All starfighters are ready to launch,” Fitzwilliam reported.  “The pilots are standing by.”

Ted scowled.  The pilots had waited for hours, then fought savagely ... and all the best studies agreed that starfighter pilots should have hours of rest between bouts of combat.  But the scientists who had carried out the studies weren't on the carrier.  He had no choice, apart from sending his exhausted pilots back into the fight.  Assuming, of course, the aliens were lurking in ambush.

“Jump,” he ordered.

He braced himself as the display went dark, then flickered back to life as they materialised within the new star system.  The aliens could be waiting ... but nothing materialised, apart from a single icon that was drifting five hundred thousand kilometres from their position.  It looked like a monitoring satellite, Ted decided, which was confirmed when the satellite started to send a stream of data into the inner system.  Ted ordered its immediate destruction – a single blast from a railgun would suffice – then turned his attention to the sensor reports.  There was one source of signals within the inner system ... and only one other tramline.

“It isn't jumping back towards human space,” Annie reported.

Ted shrugged, briefly considering their options.  He could launch an ambush himself, when – if – the alien ship came through the tramline, but it would be too risky.  God alone knew what was lurking within the alien system, yet if they’d left Alien-One largely undeveloped to avoid alerting human survey ships, there was no guarantee that they'd done the same for Alien-Two.  At some point, he knew, they would have to fortify their worlds to prevent the humans from accidentally stumbling over their settlements and then escaping to alert the human race.

“Take us towards it anyway, best possible speed,” he ordered.  Turning, he looked over at Farley.  “Launch two of our remaining drones towards the alien world.  I want to know what – if anything – is there, waiting for us.”

There was a chime from his console.  “I'd like to withdraw half of the pilots for a rest in the sleep machine,” Fitzwilliam said.  “They need it, desperately.”