There was a pause when the body was placed into the makeshift grave. “Do you know what to say over her body?” One of the Marines asked. “She would be Catholic, wouldn't she?”
“Perhaps,” Parnell said. He stepped forward, composing himself. “My father was Isolated Catholic, but he never taught me prayers for the dead.”
He hesitated. “We do not know this girl’s name, our lord, and we do not know why or how she died,” he added. “But we ask that you take her in your loving arms and lead her to a better world than the one that killed her. Amen.”
The words sounded vaguely silly, Marcus thought, but there was a sincerity around them that outshone the prayers offered in Westminster Abbey. He made a mental note to ensure that the video of the brief ceremony was accidentally deleted. Someone would be bound to complain that the service hadn't been right, forcing the Royal Navy to waste time on rebuttals — at best. At worst, Major Parnell and his men might be punished, despite meaning well. No, it was better that the recording be destroyed forever.
“We’ll leave another message here,” Major Parnell said, as they headed back towards the shuttle. “But I’m not hopeful.”
Marcus couldn’t disagree. The aliens had systematically captured or killed every human on the planet — and they’d either taken or destroyed the bodies. Either way, he decided, it didn't bode well.
“No survivors,” Ted said, looking down at the images from Vera Cruz. “None at all.”
“There might be a handful hidden in the countryside,” Major Parnell offered. The Marine didn't look tired, but there was a weariness around him that made Ted want to send him straight to bed. “We have no idea just how capable the aliens are on the ground or what sort of surveillance systems they will deploy.”
Ted nodded. Human surveillance was good, but it could be jammed or disrupted by a well-prepared enemy. There was no way to know what the aliens might deploy on the ground, yet it was unlikely anything they had was far inferior to humanity’s systems. They certainly didn't dare assume otherwise.
“Surely the colonists would have seen them coming,” Fitzwilliam said. He looked up at Major Parnell. “Could your men have caught all of the colonists if you dropped from orbit?”
“If we were trying to drop in on their heads, we’d do a paraglide from the shuttles,” Parnell said. “Or we could risk a straight drop through the planet’s atmosphere, although I’d hate to try that against any kind of ground-based defences. Still, Vera Cruz had no defences at all. The colonists might even have assumed the aliens were human visitors until it was too late.”
Ted barely heard him. “The colonists might have been taken as prisoners,” he mused. “Do we know?”
“No, sir,” Parnell said. “We know nothing for sure. The bodies could easily have been carried some distance from the colony and buried — or simply vaporised. We don't know the aliens took prisoners. But if I was waging war on a newly-discovered alien race, I'd sure as hell want prisoners to study.”
“Assuming they think like us,” Fitzwilliam mused.
“They can't be that different,” Parnell said. “Even if they are homicidal monsters who find humans irredeemably ugly, surely they would want to know how to kill us.”
Ted shuddered. Human doctors and scientists without morals had performed chilling experiments on helpless test subjects, after carefully deeming them to be subhuman and thus not worthy of any legal protection. The aliens wouldn't even have to wonder if the humans deserved legal protection; they’d just start experimenting at will. After all, humans had happily carried out experiments on non-human creatures before even starting to reach into interstellar space.
“I think they’ve already mastered the art of killing humans,” Fitzwilliam said, sardonically. “Just ask the crews of Formidable and Invincible.”
“It doesn't matter,” Ted said. The concept of humans being used as alien test subjects — or even being kept in POW camps — was horrifying, but there was nothing they could do about it for the moment. “XO, how do we stand with the loading?”
Fitzwilliam glanced down at his terminal. “A few more hours to take on raw material, then compress it down into suitable projectiles,” he said. “Assuming we don’t get interrupted, we should be ready to make the next jump in a day or two.”
“Which will also give the crew a chance to rest,” Ted said. Not that they dared relax completely. The aliens had to suspect that Ark Royal needed to replenish her stocks of raw materials. If they were watching… he shuddered and put the thought out of his mind. Doing nothing might have been safer, but it was also futile. “We’ll jump through the unexplored tramline tomorrow, then. I feel rather exposed out here.”
“My men can return to inspect the remaining settlements,” Parnell offered. “Or even to try low-power signalling…”
Ted shook his head, firmly. “If there are survivors, we will have to hope they hold out until the end of the war,” he said. “One shuttle flight was dangerously revealing.”
The Marine looked as though he wanted to argue, but didn’t. Instead, he saluted and left the compartment. Ted watched him go, then turned back to the display. One tramline had been explored, the other… God alone knew where it went. No, that wasn't entirely accurate. They knew which star held the other end of the tramline; they just didn't know what might be orbiting that star. An alien homeworld… or merely a staging base?
“One day,” Ted said, out loud. “And then we will know.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“So,” Rose said. “What do you think of our chances?”
Kurt considered it. She'd come to his office, they’d fucked, they’d showered… and every instinct told him to get her out of his office before someone caught them together. Every time he was called to a meeting, he wondered if the senior officers knew. But he knew Rose and he needed to talk… and besides, he didn't want to chase her out. They were supposed to be working together, after all.
“I wish I knew,” he said. Every war the Royal Navy had simulated had involved purely human opponents, with both sides aware of the tramline networks reaching through their territories. Now… tramlines could be predicted, to a certain extent, but there was no way of knowing what might lie ahead of Ark Royal as she made her way through enemy territory. “Too little data to calculate.”
Rose smiled. “You don't think this is a lucky ship?”
Kurt shrugged. They'd won their first engagement through surprise and superior firepower, the second when the enemy had broken off and the third… technically, they’d fled the battlefield, after giving the enemy a bloody nose. Luck had played a large role in their success, he had to agree, but he preferred careful planning. Planning tended to be more reliable, in the long run.
“I think we need to keep ahead of the bastards,” he said. Whatever damage they’d done at New Russia, the aliens would still be in command of the territory — and priming themselves for a drive on Earth. Or maybe head around the edge of human space and attack one of the other settled worlds. There was no way to know what they might have in mind. “And I also think we have to concentrate on our planning.”
Rose gave him a bewitching glance. It was funny how he could no longer think of her as anything other than beautiful. And she was beautiful. But dangerous, so dangerous… Molly was comforting, when Rose burned like a candle alight at both ends. And yet… how long had it been since he and Molly had made love, even before his recall to duty?