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

arrived unless there was an emergency. He could not discount the possibility that the alien vessel would follow them, although at least the depot had more potent weapons than the Bounty. They were, however, a stationary target. All in all, he reckoned it was best not to think about it unless he had to.

Tired as he was, Samson couldn’t help sitting down in front of the viewscreen in the commander’s quarters to review all the footage they had taken of the alien vessel. The ship was ominous looking. Like a giant, cylindrical horseshoe. The surface was entirely smooth, and it struck him that it was not dissimilar to the buildings in the ruined city. Harper’s scans had indicated the power signatures and construction materials were distinct from what they knew about the ruined aliens, so that brought up some interesting questions. Were they the ancient aliens’ descendants? Were they using similar—perhaps scavenged—technology?

He played through the video file several times, up to the point where the ship had come to a halt by the item Samson had jettisoned. There wasn’t much to learn. It seemed to behave very much like a human ship, needing time to accelerate and decelerate in accordance with the known principles of physics. It would have been truly terrifying if it was capable of defying them. An enemy that had to play by the same rules would be a lot easier to deal with.

Were it not for the unusual design and the readings the sensors had provided, there wouldn’t be any reason to think that the ship might not be human. Samson entertained the possibility that someone had been able to extract enough alien technology and knowledge to construct an entirely new type of ship, but it didn’t seem likely.

The question remained whether the aliens on board the attacking ship bore any relation to those who had lived in the city. That led him to the thought that Dobson might not be the only world with remnants of this civilisation. The entire sector could be littered with remains. What he had seen so far certainly hinted at technology advanced enough for long distance space travel. He hadn’t been able to identify the function of any of the alien items he had seen, a fact which did suggest that they had been more advanced than humanity. A lot more.

He played through the recording one last time, watching carefully for anything he might have missed. He couldn’t see the ship doing anything unusual or unexpected. That it had weapons powerful enough to destroy Sidewinder so quickly was frightening, but there were hundreds of ships in naval service that could do the same. It was a dangerous assumption to presume that meant a naval frigate would be a match for the alien ship, however.

There was so much he could not tell. For instance, he knew it had weapons systems, but there was nothing visible in the recording. There was nothing identifiable on the hull. The ship’s appearance spoke to soulless aggression. As he studied the shapes, he tried to decide if there was enough similarity in the style to what he had seen in the city for them to be connected. It occurred to him that if they were of the same race, then perhaps humankind had committed an affront by venturing into the city and looting it.

That was an alarming thought. Humanity might have established a casus belli with an alien race before even knowing of their existence. How do you apologise to something that shoots at you on sight? This was why the Alpha Protocol was so draconian. First contact had to be managed in such a careful way. Now Samson worried that perhaps the horse had already bolted, and it was too late to close the stable door.

He considered watching one more time, but knew there was nothing more his tired eyes would detect. The owners of the horseshoe ship could just as easily be a race with a similar interest in this mysterious ancient civilisation, but far more jealous about it. The ship didn’t display anything mind-bogglingly advanced. If a civilisation had the capability, that long ago, of building a city like the one he had seen, Samson reckoned their technology would have come a very long way since—far more advanced than anything displayed by the alien ship.

At that moment it seemed that everything could be simplified a great deal more. Whatever they were, whoever they were, they were a threat. It was the Navy’s job to deal with that.

Samson sat on the depot’s command deck watching the Peterson manoeuvre alongside the depot’s second airlock a day after their return from Dobson and the Oculus system. There had been no sign of the alien vessel continuing their pursuit. Samson could not stop himself from speculating as to why that might be, where it was now, or what it might be up to.

The mysteries and possibilities presented by this alien aggressor had all but obscured the equally momentous discovery on Dobson. Scientists and archaeologists would be kept busy for generations with what lay beneath that sand and mud crust. As interesting as a long-extinct, sentient race was, a living one was so much more so. Who were they, where did they come from, and how many of them were there?

‘Peterson’s shore party is aboard,’ Harper said.

When they’d returned to the depot, Samson had been exhausted and distracted, and had completely forgotten to have Harper placed back in the brig. It was careless, but it wasn’t in her interests to turn on him again. She knew Price and the Marines would stand against her, and that her best chance lay with doing her duty and hoping the court martial let her off with a discharge.

‘Thanks. I’ll head down to meet them and bring them to the briefing room.’

He stood and stretched his stiff joints. Price and the other Marines were using the depot’s small gym every chance they got, and, inspired by how out of shape