He wondered, absently, just how many of the reporters knew that they were trapped.  Yang probably understood the implications of only one tramline leaving the system – and the alien battlecruiser blocking their retreat – but how many of the others had guessed the truth?  Perhaps, by now, they were so used to coming to the brink of disaster that they didn't really have the capacity to feel alarm any longer.

“Sir,” he said, “whatever happens, we know the aliens have been hurt.”

The Captain smiled.  Ark Royal had inflicted colossal damage on the aliens, even though no one knew just how badly they’d weakened the alien navy.  And the aliens had had to devote a vast amount of firepower to hunting the carrier down, buying time for Earth to organise her defences.  Ark Royal might be lost, but she might have ensured that humanity won the war.

If we have time to build more armoured carriers and a few new battleships, he thought.  But will the Admiralty have enough time?

“Yes,” the Captain said.  The smile he gave James was the smile of a true predator.  “We know we hurt the bastards.”

***

There had been no discussion when Rose came to his office, Kurt recalled, through a post-orgasmic haze.  She’d pushed him to the deck and straddled him, her hands hastily unsnapping his uniform trousers and pushing them down to his knees.  Moments later, she’d impaled herself on Kurt and ridden him savagely, panting out loud as she moved up and down on his cock.  He came so quickly that, for a long moment, he thought he’d left her unsatisfied.  But it was clear from the mewling noises she made that she’d come too.

“I’m sorry,” she said, afterwards.  She lay on top of him, still clutching his penis within her.  “I just wanted to ...”

She shook her head.  “I think Gladys and Tom went to find a private place of their own too,” she added.  “How naughty of them.”

“Hypocrite,” Kurt said, without heat.  Just what sort of reputation was Ark Royal going to have when she returned home?  The media, if they ever caught wind of it, would turn her into a regular pleasure cruise.  “What are you and I doing?”

Rose coloured, then straightened up.  His limp cock fell out of her as she rolled off him and onto the deck.  Kurt sighed, pushed his trousers all the way off and then stood up to go to the washroom.  Whatever happened, he knew they had no time to just relax and enjoy the aftermath.  The aliens might attack at any moment.