That got their attention, as he’d expected.  The aliens might just take a few hours to rethink their plans, then go back on the offensive.  They would need a special weapon to take out Ark Royal, but that wouldn't be too hard for them.  A mass driver would be quite effective, or a simple set of nuclear torpedoes.  There was no way they didn’t have nukes, not if they had plasma cannons and an improved FTL system.  Hell, they might even have something more effective, once they realised the potentials of their own system.

“And well done, all of you,” he concluded.

He turned and walked out of the bay, remembering the days when he’d been a simple pilot and could participate in after-action parties.  But, as CAG, he wasn't supposed to be condoning any of it.  It wasn't fair ... he shook his head, annoyed at himself.  The world was not fair.  Just ask the crews of Formidable and Invincible.

“Kurt,” a voice called.  He turned to see Rose following him.  “Do you have a moment?”

Kurt lifted an eyebrow, but nodded, allowing her to follow him into his office.  The analysts hadn't wasted any time, he noted; there was a complete copy of all of the sensor records on his terminal, just waiting for his input.  The battle would be dissected over the coming days and weeks until every last micron of data was wrung from the records and used to plan humanity’s next move.  But, for the moment, all Kurt wanted to do was sleep.

“You should be at the party I’m not meant to know about,” he said.  “Why did you come here?”

“I killed five of them,” Rose said.  “Do you think I killed enough?”

It took Kurt a moment to understand what she meant.  “I think we’ve only just begun,” he said.  “Three enemy carriers were destroyed, one more was badly damaged ...”

“But she managed to escape,” Rose pointed out.  “We could have taken her intact otherwise ...”

Kurt nodded.  Humanity was known for solving technical problems – now they knew what the aliens could do, human researchers would be trying to duplicate it – but he had to admit that recovering samples of alien technology would speed the whole process up considerably.  But somehow he doubted the aliens would allow their technology to be captured so easily, not by a potentially deadly enemy.  Human systems were rigged to prevent them falling into enemy hands.

“Maybe we could have,” Kurt agreed, finally.  He gave her a long look.  “Are you going to stop now?”

Rose blinked owlishly at him.  “What do you mean?”

“Do you feel that five aliens are enough,” Kurt asked, “or do you mean to keep killing them until the war comes to an end?”

“Keep killing them,” Rose snapped.  She sounded more than a little annoyed by his comment.  “I don’t think that any number of the bastards can make up for him.”