What we should do is: As soon as ships are tanked & repaired, issue a permanent scout to Ross248 and another one on stuve 2998. Second, if we can expedite the matter, we will start researching mines. As soon as our new cruisers are trained, we take them out for a long walk. We deploy mines at the same time (preferably in massive quantity) around the sole known exit of Groombridge 1618. We then move our entire fleet to groombridge 34 and blast everything in the system. As soon as that is done, tuggers bring the alien ship remains to earth for research, Int Ops interviews all possible captives and the fleet will take positions in Ross System. We immediately ship all the necessary elements for a colony to Groombridge 34 and claim the system. The mines should hopefully give any charlies ships who jump a whole lotta things to worry about - we might even park our fleet in Stuve 2998 if possible. In the worst case scenario where the aliens come in force, we then mine the ross 248 jump point too and park our fleet to shoot from behind the mines.