He sighed.  Terra Nova had been the first planet humanity had settled, with each and every ethnic, racial or religious group being offered an enclave.  It hadn't worked out very well; none of the interstellar powers felt inclined to invest in it, while the smaller powers didn't have the resources to turn the planet into a success.  Ironically, it turned out that human groups were perfectly capable of getting along provided there was some distance between them.  Several light years seemed about perfect.

And Terra Nova is practically defenceless, he thought, grimly.  None of the bigger powers would risk political unrest by devoting starships to defending a world many civilians regarded as a barbarous backwater.  There were only a handful of starships in the system, none of which were modern and several of which were older than Ark Royal.  It wouldn't take the aliens long to overwhelm them and take the system.  If, of course, they were inclined to bother.

Just how much did the aliens know about humanity?  There was no way to know what they might have recovered from Vera Cruz – an intact navigational database would have told them the location of each and every settled planet in human space – but there could be no doubt about what they could have recovered from New Russia.  It was unlikely in the extreme that the Russians would have managed to destroy all of their files before the aliens landed ... no, they had to assume the worst.  The aliens knew where to find their targets.

But what else did they know?  If they had time to go through everything on New Russia, they probably knew just how vital Earth was to the unified defence force.  And then ...

“Captain,” Lightbridge said, “we are approaching the second tramline.”

Ted pushed his morbid thoughts aside.  “Understood,” he said.  “Power up the Puller Drive, then jump us to our next destination.”

He forced himself to remain calm as the universe darkened once again, before snapping back to normal.  This time, there were no major settlements in the system.  The early survey parties had found nothing of interest, beyond a handful of comets, and nothing had turned up since to make the system more interesting.  But that didn't stop it being useful.  Four different tramlines ran through the system, allowing it to serve as a transfer point for interstellar shipping.  The corporation that had laid claim to the system did a roaring trade in supplies, including some that were technically illegal elsewhere.  None of the major interstellar powers wanted to intervene, not when it might have provoked a major confrontation.

“Transit completed, sir,” Lightbridge said.

“Very good,” Ted agreed.  “Take us to the next tramline.”