James nodded. Earth held roughly sixty percent of humanity’s industrial base. Losing it would shorten the war significantly. Worse, perhaps, it would also make it harder for the various human colonies to coordinate their actions with one another. The aliens would be able to deal with them, one by one, after they recovered from taking Earth.
The First Space Lord looked around the room. “The Earth Defence Command has been considering the problem,” he said. “It believes that the only way to deal with the threat is to go on the offensive and strike into alien space directly. We can force them to react to us for a change.”
James met Admiral Smith’s eyes. They’d been in alien-controlled space, but they knew next to nothing about its internal layout, let alone the location of the alien industrial nodes and their homeworld. And it was impossible to escape the feeling that the aliens knew everything about humanity’s star systems. Their assault on humanity had neatly isolated a number of smaller colonies and taken New Russia out of the game.
“Lieutenant Phipps will brief you,” the First Space Lord concluded.
Lieutenant Harold Phipps stood up and took control of the display system. He was a surprisingly young man, but there was a definite hint of intelligence in his eyes. James guessed that Phipps had shown a talent for intelligence work in the Academy and had been fast-tracked into either Naval Intelligence or MI6. James disliked intelligence officers on principle, but he resolved to give Phipps a chance to prove himself. Besides, it wasn’t as if they had much else to go on.
“My department has been taking the lead on analysing the computers on the alien starship you captured,” Phipps said, bluntly. “It has been an incredibly frustrating experience. Parts of the system are badly damaged, probably through an attempted core purge, while other parts are completely incompatible with our technology. Recovering data has been a long slow process.”
James snorted. “We managed to get their drive to work,” he pointed out.
“Their starship drive technology is advanced, but it isn’t that different from our own,” Phipps explained. “The basic principles are the same as ours, merely… expanded a little. Their computers, on the other hand, are very different. Most of our attempts to read their computer cores have resulted in failure or output we are unable to understand. We believe that they actually use a holographic matrix rather than…”
The First Space Lord cleared his throat, loudly.
Phipps looked embarrassed. “Sorry,” he apologised. “I get too enthusiastic at times.”
He paused, then went on. “Two weeks ago, we had a breakthrough,” he said. “We managed to pull some navigational data out of the computer, then compare it to our own database of stellar locations and projected tramlines. What we ended up with, I believe, is a chart of tramlines linking alien space together.”
Admiral Smith coughed. “You believe?”
“It matches up with our projections,” Phipps explained. “And some of the navigational data is definitely linked to human space. We don’t know if they obtained the data from the Heinlein Colony or they ran projections comparable to ours, but we believe we now have an idea of the layout of their territory.”
He keyed a switch. A holographic starchart appeared in front of them. “This is Alien-1,” Phipps said, “where the first set of POWs were captured. As you can see, the tramlines follow Ark Royal’s course as she retreated from the system, then captured the alien battlecruiser here. But other tramlines lead further into alien space. In particular, this system caught our attention.”
James blinked in surprise. The star, if the projections were accurate, held nine tramlines leading to other stars. Unless the alien economy was significantly different from humanity’s — and nothing they’d seen suggested that was true — the system would be vitally important to the aliens. After all, Britannia held five tramlines and collecting transit fees made up a healthy percentage of the British Government’s revenue.
“It is our belief that this system represents a major alien settlement, at the very least,” Phipps continued. “Even if it didn’t, it would still be vitally important to them. Blocking the system and destroying whatever settlements are there would be a major strike against them.”
“I understand,” Admiral Smith said. “You want us to attack the system.”
He sounded irked. It took James a moment to realise that his commanding officer hadn’t been in the loop until now. The staff at Nelson Base had done the preliminary planning without bothering to alert the officer who would be commanding the mission. It was, at the very least, thoughtless and stupid. He made a mental note to raise the issue with his uncle as soon as possible, then looked up at the display. If the aliens truly ruled all that territory, he decided, they controlled territory over nine times the size of humanity’s territory. The implications were downright alarming.
The Prime Minister smiled. “It will be a joint operation,” he said. “But you will be in command.”
“Yes,” the First Space Lord said. “We have opened high-level discussions with various interstellar powers. The Americans” — he nodded to the Vice President — “have already agreed to make a major commitment. We expect both the French and the Chinese to make commitments of their own. The Russians… are tapped out by the war. It is unlikely they will produce more than a token contribution.”
“They lost half of their industry when New Russia fell,” Admiral Smith commented. “It is unlikely they will agree to risk their remaining forces.”
“Indeed,” the First Space Lord said. He nodded towards the display. “The objective is simple; take the enemy system, if possible. You will have a major ground-pounding element attached to the fleet. If not, rip the industries apart and then fall back as quickly as you can, before the aliens manage to mousetrap you. We imagine they will be very unhappy to see you in their rear.”
Admiral Smith frowned. “I have a question,” he said. “How do you intend us to get there without fighting our way through successive alien-held systems?”
James held his breath. The question had occurred to him too.
“We have been able to reconfigure the FTL drives on modern starships to make use of alien tramlines,” the First Space Lord said. “Ark Royal herself will have a… system attached to her that will allow the same capability. Instead of proceeding through known tramlines, you will proceed in a roundabout course that shouldn’t take you anywhere near an economically viable system.”
Admiral Smith and James exchanged glances. It was true enough that some systems were just useless for anything other than transit points, but the aliens would almost certainly picket them anyway, just to make sure no one tried to sneak in through the backdoor. Humanity might have been caught by surprise by the alien FTL technology, yet the aliens wouldn’t make the same mistake themselves. Come to think of it, he knew, quite a few such systems were settled by outcast groups that wanted nothing to do with the rest of humanity. The aliens might have similar groups in their territory.
“It does have its risks,” the First Space Lord conceded. “But this might be our best chance to hit the enemy right where it hurts.”
He paused, then nodded to the Prime Minister. “The fleet will be assembled over the next fortnight,” he said. “Once the fleet is ready, we can launch the operation at once.”
“We will need to train and exercise together,” Admiral Smith said. “Even now, there are differences in our operational protocols. We can’t afford a communications breakdown in the heat of battle.”