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Back Ark Royal Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. Cover Blurb
  2. Contents
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Chapter Twenty-One
  24. Chapter Twenty-Two
  25. Chapter Twenty-Three
  26. Chapter Twenty-Four
  27. Chapter Twenty-Five
  28. Chapter Twenty-Six
  29. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  30. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  31. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  32. Chapter Thirty
  33. Chapter Thirty-One
  34. Chapter Thirty-Two
  35. Chapter Thirty-Three
  36. Chapter Thirty-Four
  37. Chapter Thirty-Five
  38. Chapter Thirty-Six
  39. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  40. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  42. Chapter Forty

James smiled as she left the compartment, remembering what he’d been told when he’d first realised that Ark Royal might be reactivated.  There was a pressure group dedicated to keeping the Old Lady in service, even if she was just in the reserves.  Why not?  She was hardly the only starship to merit being kept alive.  And besides, with the sudden desperate need for hulls, the Royal Navy might have good cause to be relieved they’d kept her.

Shaking his head, he picked up the terminal and went back to work.

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Ted had to smile when he walked into Briefing Room A, followed closely by Commander Fitzwilliam.  The boxes of spare parts had been removed from the compartment and stowed away in disused cabins, allowing his senior officers to take their seats without having to worry about being careful where they sat.  Midshipwomen Lopez had even managed to scrounge up some replacement chairs, although they weren't marked with Ark Royal’s crest.

“Be seated,” he ordered, shortly.  “We seem to have met our deadline.”

His senior crew exchanged nods.  They’d worked frantically for over a month to get Ark Royal ready for service, a month during which there had been no further alien contact.  Ted had heard that the unified defence command was talking about sending scoutships back to the attacked systems, just to see what was happening there, but as far as he knew nothing had actually come of the proposals.  All he could really do was wait to see what happened, just like the civilians on Earth.  Thankfully, the panic had slowly faded away as further attacks failed to materialise.

“We could still do with additional training,” Wing Commander Schneider said.  The CAG leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table.  “The fighter wings have a very inconsistent level of practice, I’m afraid.”

“Keep working on it,” Ted ordered, dryly.  He understood Schneider’s problem, but they needed to start thinking about deployment.  “We may be asked to leave at any moment.”

“Which leads to an important question,” Farley said.  “Where are they?”

Ted scowled.  The aliens had hit their first target over six weeks ago.  By now, they should have been reaching Earth ... or at least feeling their way into the heart of human space.  But instead they seemed to be doing nothing, nothing at all.  It made no sense.  What sort of mindset would start a war, a war that had come as a complete surprise to its target, and then hold off long enough for the target to get over its shock and mobilise?  Even the endless political debate over command and control was drawing to an end.