Ted nodded.  The aliens hadn't reacted at all to the shuttles, which was a colossal relief.  It was impossible to forget that their technology was often more advanced than humanity’s ... and equally impossible to gauge the ways it might be more advanced without actually seeing it in operation.  He’d been dreading a sensor field or some other trick that would allow the aliens to track the shuttles, but nothing had shown itself.  Or were the aliens merely holding their fire for their own inscrutable reasons?

He pushed his doubts aside, then looked over at Farley.  “Bring us to full alert,” he ordered, refusing to allow any of his trepidations to show on his face.  “And then launch starfighters.”

The aliens would notice, of course, the moment Ark Royal’s active sensors came online.  There was no way they could hide, which should puzzle the aliens ... perhaps they’d jump back into the previous system, leaving him with a terrible dilemma.  Or maybe they would see it as one last desperate attempt to escape the tightening noose.

“Starfighters away,” Farley reported.  “The aliens are powering up their drives.”

“Lock full active sensors on them,” Ted ordered.  At such a distance, targeting data would be imprecise, to say the least.  But it would keep the aliens firmly aware of their location – and not, he devoutly hoped, looking anywhere else.  “And prepare to engage with the mass driver.”

***

Gladys and Tom were fucking, Kurt had noted, as soon as he’d returned to the pilot ready room.  They were trying to hide it, but his experienced eyes had picked out the signs.  Thankfully, they were in different squadrons or he would have been forced to say something to them at once, which could have turned unpleasant if they’d found out about Rose and himself.  The resulting shouting match, he was sure, would have ended with them all standing in front of the Captain, trying to excuse the inexcusable.

He braced himself as the starfighter rocketed out of the launch tube, followed by the remaining twenty-one pilots under his command.  Barely two squadrons, he noted, composed of survivors from six separate units.  His idea for expanding Starfighter Command, he decided, would have to be implemented as soon as they got home.  The Royal Navy couldn't afford these loss rates – there was a shortage of trained personnel – and nor could any of the other human powers.

We might have to do more than just train more starfighter pilots, he thought.  No one had ever foreseen a joint campaign against an alien enemy ... at least as far as he knew.  Soon, they might have to take Russian or Chinese pilots onboard Ark Royal or assign British pilots to fly off their carriers.  We will have to unify everything.