Ted grimaced, remembering watching as his starfighters were blown out of space, their missiles picked off before they could reach their targets.  Casualties had been high, even though the human starfighter pilots had been ready for the aliens this time.  The only consolation was that there was no shortage of replacements.  Ark Royal had moved from a dumping ground to a prime opportunity for glory and promotion.  Assuming, of course, that the newcomers survived the war.

“That’s one theory,” Steenblik agreed.  “However, we don't know for sure.  Another possibility is that it’s related to their FTL drive; so far, we don’t even have a theory for how they’re able to use tramlines we cannot even begin to access.”

He shrugged.  “A full report has been uploaded to the secure datanet ...”

“And shared with our allies,” the First Space Lord said.  “It was decided at the very highest levels” – he nodded towards a picture of the Prime Minister – “that our intelligence was best shared with the remainder of humanity.”

Ted lifted his eyebrows, surprised.  He didn't disagree with the logic – like it or not, the whole human race had to remain united – but he was impressed that the decision had been taken so quickly.  But then, there wasn't anything in their findings that would allow the Americans or the Chinese to reverse-engineer any alien tech ahead of Britain.  The hell of it was that the human race needed someone to do just that.

The First Space Lord pressed his fingertips together as he sat back in his chair.  Ted sucked in a breath, knowing that this was it.  His superior was about to explain precisely why they’d been called to Nelson Base.

“So far, the aliens have made no further attempt at outflanking the defences,” the First Space Lord said.  “They certainly have not attempted to attack Earth.  However, we fear that this is just a matter of time.  Ark Royal might be tricky to duplicate within a year, but we can improve our defences, start producing vast numbers of mass drivers and take other steps to make Earth less vulnerable.  And we got very lucky when Ark Royal was in place to intercept the aliens.”

Ted couldn't disagree.  The First Space Lord had gambled and won, but the aliens would be more careful next time.  And they would probably start working on their own countermeasures against Ark Royal and her non-existent sisters.  Even if they couldn't build nukes for themselves, which he strongly doubted, they could certainly recover them from New Russia.  Unless the Russians had managed to fire off all their weapons before the aliens landed ...