The Alpha Protocol: Alpha Protocol Book 1 by Duncan Hamilton (read more books .txt) 📕

Samson ran a quick sensor sweep of the planet, but could detect nothing in orbit. He took satisfaction in the fact that he had initiated the sweep without hitting any wrong buttons—a sign that all the training over the past two days was bedding in. The realisation that everything on the Bounty worked as well as it did was taking some getting used to.

‘It looks clear. Take us into orbit,’ Samson said. The Bounty’s old logs were neither complete nor intact. Whatever scrambling software Arlen had used to encrypt them before the boarding party arrived had caused irreparable damage, which meant they had to estimate exactly where he’d been. That wasn’t much of a problem when trying to work out which systems or planets he’d visited, but Samson knew that even a small planet like Dobson was a very large haystack, and whatever they were looking for was going to be a very small needle. Still, Dobson was the last place Arlen stopped, so that was where Samson decided to start.

Then there was the danger of the hostile vessel showing up again. Just because it wasn’t in orbit didn’t mean it wasn’t on the surface. Every step they took had to be with extreme caution.

Harper looked through the sensor data as it came in. ‘No sign of threats on the surface, sir.’

Commodore Iyabo hadn’t given him orders more specific than securing any artefacts and gathering intel. He had not given any indication of how Samson was to go about that, and Samson’s curiosity was getting the better of him. There was nothing in his mandate to prevent him from visiting the surface himself and taking a look around. He conjured up images of a crashed alien ship, or the remains of an alien civilisation somewhere down on the surface.

It wasn’t just the hostile vessel that posed a threat to the site—the planet’s settlers might be helping themselves to whatever was down there. Samson very much doubted Arlen had happened upon the objects by chance. It was far more likely that colonists had found the artefacts and were selling them to Arlen.

If the locals were potentially interfering with an alien site on the planet, Samson reckoned Frontier Command’s orders more than covered an expedition down to the surface. He couldn’t do that job properly from orbit. With the new and improved Bounty, there was no danger in attempting another atmospheric entry. He tapped his finger on his armrest and smiled.

He brought up the data they’d extrapolated from the Bounty’s old nav computer, and looked at the possible landing sites that Arlen might have used. There was one that stood out to Samson. It was near a small farming complex, right out on the edge of the colony’s territory. Far enough out to be the first people to explore the area and, more importantly, to keep any discoveries quiet from the rest of the population. Samson wondered what had brought Arlen out there the first time, but he supposed that didn’t matter.

‘Lieutenant Harper, take us to these coordinates.’

20

The drop into Dobson’s atmosphere was far more comfortable than their landing on Holmwood. He kept his eyes glued to the sensor readings as they went, looking for anything that might indicate the presence of another ship. They hovered a thousand metres above the surface for long enough to conduct a scan, which indicated a large void beneath the ground less than a kilometre from the farm. There was a site on the surface that looked like an earthworks of some sort. An excavation? Samson’s heart raced when he saw how extensive it was—this had to be what they were looking for.

He landed the Bounty on the edge of the farm compound. Samson did his best to maintain a professional demeanour, but he felt giddy at the prospect of discovering what was down there. Perhaps he was building it up too much. There might only be a small, ancient crash site with a few barely identifiable fragments. The void though? Too many coincidences. Finding a trace of aliens had to be among the top ten dreams of young children planning on a career in space, although he supposed technically it had already been discovered if the locals were looting it. Still, he was the first naval officer to bring it in, which counted for something.

He thought through how best to proceed. They had no idea what they would find down there, or if the Sidewinder’s destroyer would show up again. The Bounty had to remain crewed and ready to go at all times in case they had to make a fast exit—that was the most important thing.

In the end he decided to pair with Price—now back to regular Sergeant Price; Samson’s tongue-in-cheek field commission for the Marine had been cancelled by the Admiralty, albeit with a new commendation added to his Marine record. Samson decided he would leave everyone else on board, at least for the time being. There was no point in risking more people than necessary, and there was no way he was missing out on this. With Sergeant Price having supported him during the mutiny, Samson reckoned he owed the Marine a favour, and so they might be the first humans to officially encounter an alien civilisation. The other Marines could keep an eye on the crew. Although Samson was a little more relaxed about them now, he still wasn’t willing to let them have free run of the ship in his absence.

Samson was so excited by the adventure that lay ahead, he had to take a deep breath to slow himself and carefully go through all his boarding-suit checks. The risk of disease or other hazardous materials in an unknown environment was ever-present, so even though Dobson had a breathable atmosphere, he wasn’t planning on taking any chances. Who knew what they might expose themselves to if they did indeed find an alien site? He fitted a new filter to