“At current rate,” Lopez said, “they will enter engagement range in two hours, forty minutes.”
Ted nodded, very slowly. The aliens were pushing their drives as far as they could, as if they feared the human troops would lay waste to the planet after they left the surface behind. He couldn’t deny that it was a tempting thought, but all the old arguments against mass genocide still held water. Besides, there might come a time when humanity and aliens could share the same worlds. There was no point in destroying a place that might one day include human settlers.
“Unfortunate,” he said. “How long will it take to load everyone on the transports and start running?”
“Roughly two hours,” Lopez said. She paused. “If the logistics computer can be trusted, that is.”
Ted scowled. Nothing went according to plan, not even the most careful plan devised by a hundred careful planners, who tried to account for every variable. Something always went wrong. A shuttle would develop drive problems, a team of soldiers would be caught out of place, the aliens would start firing on the shuttles with previously undetected antiaircraft weapons… there were just too many possibilities. But they had no choice.
He worked his way through the problem, piece by piece. The aliens would catch up with the fleet and force a battle. That much was clear. Or the aliens would head towards Tramline One themselves and block his line of retreat. That would force him to fight a battle on their terms. It wasn’t something that could be allowed. Or could it?
“Watch them carefully,” he ordered. “And see how they react.”
Time ticked by slowly as the first shuttles dropped down to the surface and returned, hauling a number of Marines back to the Marine Transports. Judging from some of the commentary, they were complaining loudly about being the first to leave, even though there was no time for any real complaints. Ted let out a private sigh of relief as the Royal Marines were returned to the transports, then placed in the queue for transfer back to Ark Royal. This time, if the aliens tried to board again, he would have reinforcements on hand to deal with the problem.
“It’s proceeding smoothly, without interference,” Lopez said. “Do you think they’re letting us go?”
Ted shrugged. “I think they’ve reasoned that it would be easier to take us out in space rather than on the ground,” he said. “Or maybe their command and control networks were shattered by the bombardment and they’re still putting them back together.”
He turned his gaze back to the alien fleet as the drones probed the outer edges of its formation, noting that it was definitely Force Two… but with a handful of minor additions. Ted was privately relieved to see that, even though Force Two was far more powerful than he cared to face. At least it suggested the aliens couldn’t produce a whole new fleet in time to be a factor in their escape.
There was a ding from the console. “Sir,” Lopez said, “they’re altering course.”
Ted nodded, unsurprised. The aliens had reasoned, correctly, that they couldn’t prevent Ted from abandoning and destroying Target One, if he felt like it. Instead, they were putting themselves between Target One and Tramline One, as he’d anticipated. But he didn’t feel any relief at watching the aliens keeping their distance. Instead, he knew he would have to force a battle on their terms.
“Tell the fleet to start making preparations to deploy mines,” he ordered. It had taken an hour to work out how to deploy the mines to best advantage… and he knew it could fail easily. But the aliens would have no reason to expect it. “But we will hold position until the last of the troops have returned to their ships.”
He turned his attention to the display monitoring the situation on the ground, carefully not looking at the near-orbit or deep space displays. The Rhino hadn’t sounded too keen on the idea of ordering an evacuation, but there was no choice, not really. And besides, they’d learnt a great deal about the aliens, captured tons of pieces of technology for the boffins to look at and forced the aliens to react to humanity for a change. The mission had been far from a complete waste of time.
“Admiral, Captain Junco sends his compliments and informs you that we now have fifty-two alien prisoners in his hold,” Lopez said, suddenly. “He wishes to know if you want to return them to the lifepods?”
“No,” Ted said. Quite apart from the danger of Force Two believing that the humans had rigged the lifepods to blow — a crime against humanity, according to international agreements the aliens hadn’t signed — they’d taken the aliens captive now. “He is to hold them until we can arrange a transfer.”
He looked down at his console for a long moment, then back up at Lopez. “Have a platoon of Royal Marines dispatched to assist,” he added. “I don’t want any problems with the prisoners.”
“No, sir,” Lopez agreed.
“That’s the last of the Marines off the mudball,” Farley reported. “The planet is deserted now, apart from the aliens.”
“Excellent,” James said. He looked up at the icons representing the alien starships, knowing that the Admiral would have no choice but to order an attack. “And our status?”
“We’re as ready as we will ever be,” the XO confirmed. “They’re just waiting for us there.”
James nodded. The aliens held all the cards — or so they thought. If the human ships charged their position, there would be a battle on alien terms. But if the human ships tried to evade, the aliens could just keep themselves between the human ships and the tramline… or intercept if the humans tried to head for another tramline. For a moment, James contemplated trying to return to Target Two, but he knew it would be far too dangerous, not when they knew so little about alien-held space. Their best bet was to try to beat Force Two before it could tear them apart.
“Back into the fire,” he muttered. “But we’ve been in tight spots before.”
Amelia gave him a sharp look. “Anything as bad as this, sir?”
James smiled. “Last time, it was just us facing a bad-tempered alien battlecruiser,” he said. “This time…”
“We’re facing an entire war fleet,” Amelia pointed out. “I think it’s a little different.”
“No, it isn’t,” James said. “This time, we have a fleet of our own — and we know we can give them a damn good kicking, even if we lose. So…”
He smiled, again. “So we know the aliens will remember us, no matter what happens,” he added. “And we will make it home.”
Amelia nodded, once.
James understood her worries. It was a tight spot, but he had faith in Admiral Smith. A man who could overcome his demons, climb out of the bottle and come up with a tactic for giving the aliens a very nasty surprise was clearly someone to reckon with. And to think that Uncle Winchester had nagged James to marry! Someone ought to be trying to marry Admiral Smith to a suitably aristocratic girl before he was too old to sire children. There was no shortage of girls who might accept a man with such a distinguished war record, even if his pre-war career had been… odd, to say the least.
He frowned as he remembered the Prince and his… affair with the Admiral’s Flag Lieutenant. It would be unpleasant if it became public, no matter what everyone involved happened to think of it — and there would be some very nasty insinuations made by the media and just about everyone else. But James suspected the Prince hadn’t meant anything bad, not really. Like the younger James himself, he had been more of a thoughtless fool than indulging in deliberate malice. And yet that would be no consolation when it exploded in his face.