Free Ark Royal by Christopher Nuttall Page B

as the recordings will not be released until the PM has addressed the nation.”
     
    “Good idea,” Fitzwilliam muttered.  “There will be panic if this gets out.”
     
    Ted didn't bother to disagree.  Everyone knew that carriers were the most powerful starships in existence.  Losing one alone would be a disaster, losing twelve ... even if only two of them had been British, would seem catastrophic.  And, if the aliens really did have a decisive technological advantage, it might not be long before Earth itself was targeted.
     
    He leaned forward as the main display lit up, showing the New Russia system as a tactical display.  The alien fleet – fifteen carrier-sized starships, forty smaller craft – jumped into the system, well away from any known tramline.  Ted wondered, absently, if the aliens were actually trying to trick the human analysts.  They had enough stealth technology to hide their fleet until the moment they chose to show themselves.  Why not try to intimidate humanity into surrender?
     
    But those plasma weapons weren't illusions , he thought, numbly.  They were real .
     
    Humanity’s fleet assembled, blocking the alien advance.  Messages were sent, offering talks ... only to be ignored.  Humanity’s starfighters had advanced forward, ready to engage the enemy ... until the moment the enemy starfighters had appeared, between the human starfighters and their carriers.  They had to have passed through the swarm of human fighters, completely undetected.  Ignoring the suddenly frantic starfighters, the aliens threw themselves at the human carriers.  Powerful blasts of plasma fire tore into their hulls, burning through flimsy armour and wrecking havoc inside the ships.  One by one, humanity’s ships were rapidly torn apart.
     
    The battle wasn't completely one sided, he noted.  Human weapons could and did kill enemy fighters, but there were just too many of them.  The humans were overwhelmed and destroyed before they could reorganised their formation, allowing the alien starships to advance forward to engage New Russia itself.  And then the recording came to an end.
     
    “We will be rethinking our plans in light of this development,” the First Space Lord said, with admirable understatement.  “I don't think I need to explain just how serious this situation is, do I?”
     
    No one disagreed.
     
    Ted stared down at his hands, wondering briefly why he hadn't taken early retirement.  It wasn't as if the navy wanted to keep him.  And he could have been on the ground, instead of standing on the command deck of a carrier.  But the navy was his life.  And he knew his duty. 
     
    I volunteered to place myself between Britain and war , he reminded himself.  And yet he’d never really faced the prospect of his own death in wartime.  Accidents had accounted for more naval deaths over the past decades than enemy action.  I don’t get to back out because it might have become dangerous .
     
    “Dismissed, gentlemen,” the First Space Lord said.  “Captain Smith, if you and Commander Fitzwilliam will remain behind ...”
     
    “Yes, sir,” Ted said.
     
    He waited until the massive compartment was almost empty, then followed the First Space Lord through a guarded airlock into a tactical planning centre.  A handful of analysts were seated at terminals, working their way through the data from New Russia.  He looked at one of the screens and saw an alien carrier, a fragile-looking craft.  But they hadn't needed heavy armour to rip New Russia’s defences apart.
     
    “Take a seat,” the First Space Lord ordered.  “We have a mission for you.”
     

Chapter Seven

    “A mission,” Ted repeated.  “What do you want us to do?”
     
    “The important detail, I think, is that the modern carriers simply lacked the armour to stand up to alien weapons,” the First Space Lord said.  “That, combined with their stealth systems, gave them a definite advantage over the united