The sanitized look of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital's Defence Medical Unit hadn't changed much since his last visit, thought Edward Windsor.

He knocked lightly on the door of 1104. “Come in,” came the voice of General Curry.

Edward stepped through, taking in the look of his superior. The Chief of Army Staff was propped up on the bed, a hospital gown taking the place of his normally immaculate uniform.

“You’re looking well.”

Curry grimaced. “I thought it was a mild burn, that’s all.”

“How bad a dose did you get?”

“Mild. I’m one of the forty-six thousand minorly irradiated bystanders of Belessar’s bomb.”

“It’s not really his fault.”

“I know, and if it was just the radiation I’d be out of here already. Turns out the NHS found something more.”

“Combat related?”

“The opposite, actually. Stomach cancer.”

“How advanced is it?”

“Early stages, fortunately. I suppose I’m lucky - if they hadn’t pulled me in for a full body scan, we’d have had no clue until my next medical. Which is scheduled for February.”

“Ouch.”

“In any case, they’ve got a course of treatment worked out. Chemo, high-intensity, and controlled foods.”

“You’ll be back before you know it.”

“We’ll see. Now, give me your report, before the doctors come in.”

“Sir. We’ve tallied up the final casualty counts - fourteen thousand British dead, ninety-two thousand wounded but likely to recover. Another forty-seven thousand dead amongst our allies, two hundred thousand wounded but most expected to make a full recovery. Thirteen thousand civilians killed or badly wounded, mostly those who didn’t make it out of the city in time or who were in areas we didn’t expect to need evacuation.”

“Equipment damage?”

“We lost two hundred and forty-three aircraft and nine hundred and eighty six battle tanks. A few hundred other vehicles as well.”

“That’s going to take time to replace. Infrastructure damage?”

“The Battersea Power plant’s gone, as are four other electricity plants near London. Grid’s fairly overstretched but we have power half the day. The Tower will need major repairs and Hampton Court Palace is a shambles. Bushy Park, Richmond Park, Crane Park and most of the area around them are char and ash.”

“Alien casualties? Do we have a confirmed number?”

“Still counting, but officially it crossed two hundred and thirty thousand this morning. They’re finding more and more corpses as they go through the wrecks of the spacecraft. If it hadn’t been for Belessar’s warning…”

The general sighed. “We’d have been overwhelmed. The Defence Secretary and I had a long chat about that today morning. The PM had authorized the use of nukes if London was overrun.”

“.... Nuke London?”

“When they lost contact with the city, the PM asked the King for permission to carry out a nuclear strike on Bushy Park and its ‘environs’, to prevent the aliens from breaking out.”

“That's insane. We had a million troops in the city and eight million civilians in the shelters.”

“Admiral Townsdale and I discussed this possibility before the battle, you know.”

“Beg your pardon, sir. The Chief of Defence Staff and you seriously considered this?”

Curry held up his hand. “As a last resort, in case something completely unexpected happened and the city was overrun. To protect the rest of the United Kingdom.”

Edward swallowed. “As you say, sir.”

“The King advised holding until we had clear information. Thankfully. The messengers you sent from the Tower - the ones who got the message out - Townsdale was able to convince the PM that we had a chance. Fortunately.”

“Thanks to Nanocloud.”

“She really held her own through the battle, didn’t she? That woman is a one-person Signal Corps.”

“That’s why I got her out of the Tower first when we were attacked.”

“And also why you sent her in my direction?”

“Her and Belessar both. You needed someone to give you communications, and a heavy hitter. Pemberley was under orders to link up with you if possible.”

“That one did well, too.”

“I know. I want to recommend her for promotion to brigade command.”

“Brigade command … for a helicopter pilot?”

“She led six thousand men into an assault on multiple Carnotaurs. That’s a brigade-level action, and a successful one.”

“You’ll have to run it by Air Chief Marshal Soames.”

“Soames isn’t the most flexible about these things. I was hoping you could put in a word.”

Curry chuckled. “From my hospital bed, too. Very well, I’ll look into it. Any other recommendations?”

“Several. I’m inclined to push Xavier to reward his man, too.”

“Yes, I heard about the short-lived tenure of Major General Omar Doyle.”

“He probably deserves a longer tenure in that rank someday.”

"Try not to promote people in other armies, Windsor. The Americans didn't appreciate it when we appointed Benedict Arnold."

"Very funny, sir."

"What about Belessar? I heard he gave a pretty speech."

"It was actually quite impressive. A call for unity, an acknowledgement of the fallen, and he handled questions from the journalists well."

"I thought you said he wasn't much of a public speaker?"

"That was my impression earlier, yes."

"I saw his on-air challenge to Agni. That was ham-fisted."

"This wasn't. He's suddenly become a much better public speaker. Maybe an AI that writes speeches on the fly."

"I know politicians who would pay good money for something like that. Speaking of which, I need you to tackle a delicate topic with him."

"Sure, sir."

"The Americans bought some of the plasma rifles - the HEPARs, I think they're called - from Belessar. They work pretty well, and the Secretary authorized us to look into getting some ourselves. Also, he wants to propose to buy suits of nanofibre weave armor."

"How many?"

"As many as he can sell us. In return, we offer Belessar a home base here in the UK."

"The Secretary proposed giving him a base?"

"Not exactly, but the Ministry wants the process of manufacturing nanofibre weave. Not just the suits, the technology behind them."

"That's going to be … tricky. Inventech is known to break down frequently, especially without maintenance." Windsor paused. "The Secretary considered the possibility of this violating the Codices, I suppose."

"Inventech is illegal to use directly only as long as we can't duplicate it. If we can make the weave ourselves, then it becomes normal technology…. which is valid for military application."

"It's very rare to duplicate inventech."

"BAE reverse engineered a sample of nanofibre weave a few weeks ago."

"They cracked it?"

"It's top secret so far, but it costs them several hundred thousand pounds to produce a single milligram. They need samples and a way to mass-produce the stuff to make it viable for our use. If they get to see Belessar's manufacturing process…."

"Please tell me we're not planning to spy on the ultrahuman who has access to microscopic surveillance bots and can rip apart Carnotaurs."

"That's why the Secretary wants to buy the technology. Offer Belessar whatever he wants, but get us mass produced nanofibre weave. You have a budget of one billion pounds."

"... Did you say a billion?"

"That's exactly what I told the Secretary. Yes, a billion. Although you've got to convince him to accept some part in the form of the cost of setting up a factory to make the stuff - a joint venture with BAE and the Ministry. BAE estimated it would cost about six hundred million to do that."

"If they don't know the process, how did they figure that number?"

"The Secretary didn't say, but I believe they use WAG estimation."

"WAG?"

"Wild Arsed Guessing."

"You want me to negotiate a complex investment and technology transfer contract for a highly complex technology with one of the world's most powerful ultrahumans…."

"Number 14 today, according to the leaderboards."

".... the world's fourteenth most powerful ultrahuman, and I'm guessing there's a deadline to this?"

"Before my retirement is announced next week."

"Sir?"

“I’ve already spoken to the Secretary. I'm going to retire and focus on fighting the cancer."

“Are you sure, sir? First stage is treatable, and we can carry the load until you’re back in action.”

“Chief of Army Staff is too important a job to do part-time, Edward. You’ll learn this someday.” Curry grinned wickedly. “Probably soon.”

“... Sir, what did you do?”

“Recommended my successor to the Defence Secretary. That’ll be you.”

".... I don't know what to say, sir. Thank you.”

“You've earned it. You’ve proven yourself in battle, and the Secretary likes you. Also, you’re a royal, so that definitely helps.”

Edward winced.

“You need to stop that, Windsor. There’ll be no shortage of those who doubt you. Don’t add yourself to their number.”

“I’ll do my best, sir.”

“Good, it’s settled. For what it’s worth, you’ll be the first member of the Chiefs of Staff from the royal family since Lord Mountbatten.”

“I hope I can be half as good as him.”

"Mountbatten never led the Tower of London through an assault. You’ll do better."