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

them really fit the bill. Then one of my lads, Ali, said “What if it lets you agitate the Current from wherever you want, boss?” “That would be pretty handy,” said I, so we had a look at its insides with that in mind. Bit by bit we worked out what it did, then we fabricated a few test units and gave it a try. Don’t get me wrong, there’s bits in there that we’ve no idea about—what they do, or how they do it—but you don’t need to understand something to copy it, so long as you’re careful.’

Samson was trying to digest everything he was being told. The use of Nexus portals as the only point at which a ship could open an entry into the Current was such a fundamental to space travel. This was like being told suns orbited their planets.

‘First thing we learned is that it’s a really, really bad idea to try and use it when you’re in a gravity well. At least we had the sense to try it out on a barren planet.’

He slurped up some soup with a nonchalance that belied the ominous way he had delivered his previous sentence. Samson wanted to know what had happened to the planet. Or the ship they’d tried it with. And its crew. Surely they’d have tried unmanned tests first?

‘Once you’re out of the well, though,’ Smith said, ‘it works a treat. Only took another couple of goes to get that together. We tested a bit more, then stuck one in the Maggie. The lads thought I was bonkers, but I’d seen it work enough times to take the chance. And here we are, dozens of jumps later safe and sound, and able to enter the Current within two hours of leaving the surface of a planet. The Maggie’s computer can drop us out within the same distance, so it makes getting about the place pretty quick. So quick it’s almost a waste of all this luxury!’

‘I… uh,’ Samson said. ‘This all takes a lot of processing.’

‘It’s not all gravy,’ Smith said. ‘The agitator needs a lot of power. Lots more power, actually, so charging it up’s still an issue. We’ve tried ships bigger than the Maggie, and we weren’t able to get enough power through it to work for them. Maybe the aliens have bigger ones, but perhaps there’s a limit.’

Unless you’ve an appropriate power source, Samson thought. He was nodding slowly as the implications of a device like this sunk in. Something like this could make a pirate all but untouchable. With a temptation like that, he wondered how long Smith was likely to remain a law-abiding citizen.

‘Why are you telling me this? Why are you revealing it?’ Samson said. Smith could have stripped the ship of this device before turning it over to the Navy, and kept it to himself.

‘I’m a human, aren’t I? Whatever you may have heard of me, whatever you might think, if it comes to war, it’s the Navy who’ll be fighting our corner. I’m not stupid enough to stand in the way of that. Anyhow, this is my great rehabilitating gesture. We all know how Arthur Kingsley’s going down in the history books, truth or not, but Kingston Smith? I reckon he’s going to be remembered a bit differently.’

Samson raised an eyebrow. It was an interesting way to look at things, and certainly not one he’d expected from Smith. ‘What else did you find?’

‘Only looked in the engine room, mate,’ Smith said, with a satisfied smile. ‘Everyone spotted it as being unusual, so we started with it. Before this trouble came along, I thought I had plenty of time to pick the ship over, work out what’s what, and decide what to sell and what to keep. Not anymore. Everything else that was on that ship is still down there. Including a few of the lanky purple fellas who flew it. What’s left of them, anyhow.’

Samson’s reaction was interrupted by Sanders removing his soup bowl and replacing it with a plate of roast beef and trimmings. The smell was overpowering, and even the tantalising prospect of capturing an alien ship faded into the background by comparison.

The journey to Talhoffer 18 was completed in far less time than Samson had expected it to take them to reach the Nexus portal in Holmwood’s system. That this technology would revolutionise space travel was beyond doubt—its impact would be as great as that of discovering the Nexus in the first place.

As revolutionary and exciting an idea as that was, it also added to Samson’s worry. The aliens already had this technology, and even if it was possible to reverse-engineer the systems without too much difficulty, it would take a long time before humanity was able to scale it up enough to make a difference. If they couldn’t work out how to apply it to larger ships of the line, it would be largely useless. They were coming into what was surely an impending war with a huge technological disadvantage. That was ground they needed to make up, and fast. It made him feel the pressure of this mission all the more. Having the other Marines with him would have made him feel more at ease. He cast a glance over at Smith, who was every bit the master of his domain.

Why couldn’t I have held my ground on bringing them? Samson wondered.

He hadn’t even considered how valuable this device was. If it got into the wrong hands—and it was arguably already in hands that were as wrong as could be—the alien Nexus agitator could entirely shift the delicate political balance across the Union. Infighting to possess this tech could prove to be more of a threat to humanity than the aliens.

Price had seemed to relax a little over the course of the journey. Despite his early attitude, he seemed to have a rapport with Smith, who—free from the fear of incriminating himself—regaled them with tales of his youth working