The Alpha Protocol: Alpha Protocol Book 1 by Duncan Hamilton (free ebook reader for iphone .TXT) 📗

to be what he thought they were, life was going to completely change for the people of Holmwood—and far sooner than they’d like.

The Navy were tasked with securing the trade routes through space, but what went on planet-side usually had nothing to do with them. That all changed when there was a naval base. They needed to make sure their personnel weren’t getting into fights, being cheated or murdered, or deserting. That meant law enforcement, and it would be applied to all equally. Big business would follow, to provide all the services a naval base would need, and the Frontier traders who had come here to escape them would get squeezed out. Progress for some, ruin for others. Frontier planets were places where dreams, or nightmares, could become a reality, and that could change overnight.

Places like Holmwood had always held a romantic appeal for Samson—particularly when he had been waiting to find out if he was going to be court martialled for his presence at the Fifth Fleet mutiny. No matter how many wrong turns your life took, there was always somewhere you could start fresh, and that had been a particularly appealing prospect when he’d been confined to his quarters with nothing to do but rail against his bad luck at having been posted to a mutinous ship. It meant sacrificing the luxuries and conveniences of life on the developed Core planets, but he’d reckoned he could live with that. Seeing the place for real dashed all his illusions.

The brightness of being on a planet surface during daylight was difficult to adjust to. It wasn’t necessarily that Holmwood’s star was particularly bright—simply that ship’s lighting never came close, and you grew accustomed to it pretty quickly. The squinting would be a sure giveaway that they had just stepped off a ship, which wasn’t ideal, but he hadn’t thought to fabricate any sunglasses.

The second thing he noticed as they walked toward the spaceport’s buildings was how heavy he felt. He hadn’t checked what Holmwood’s gravity was, but he hoped it was higher than average. He hadn’t set foot on a planet since his assignment to the Frontier, and feared he had allowed himself to get out of shape on the small ship. He also suspected the one g the Bounty claimed to be providing was far less than that. One way or the other, it would take much longer to adjust to that than the light.

‘We’ll call to the spaceport office first,’ Samson said. ‘If we’re lucky they’ll be able to point us in the right direction.’

‘If they can point us in any direction at all,’ Price said.

Samson allowed himself a chuckle. ‘You know what you’re looking for, Harper?’

‘Any higher end comms system built in the last half century should do.’

‘Sounds like our chances are good, then,’ Samson said. ‘Let’s have at it.’

They walked into the building without challenge, and looked around for offices. There was nothing clearly signposted, but they eventually found their way to a room containing several people who were chatting and laughing, and seemingly not paying any attention to what they were supposed to be doing.

One of them looked over at the new arrivals. ‘Arlen’s ship, but no Arlen. Where is he?’

‘No idea,’ Samson said. ‘We bought his ship.’

The man looked incredulous. ‘Why?’

‘It was cheap, we needed one, and there weren’t any others to be had,’ Samson said. ‘She’ll do for now.’

‘Who are you?’

Samson shrugged. ‘That’s not important. We want to do some system upgrades. Is there a ship’s chandler nearby?’

The clerk gave Samson a suspicious look, but then nodded. ‘There’s one on Gunderson Street. Go out of the terminal and turn right. You can’t miss it.’

‘Thanks,’ Samson said, turning to leave. He didn’t want to spend a second longer there than necessary.

Holmwood was busy with the traffic Samson expected of the hub of a hard-working agricultural and mining community. Haulers passed up and down the barely-wide-enough streets, delivering their goods to the warehouses surrounding the spaceport. From there they would be transhipped back to the Core, hopefully for huge profit.

‘Will we be able to carry what we need back to the ship?’ Samson said. He had so much running through his head that he’d never thought to ask Harper how big the parts they were looking for would be. He wondered if it would it be possible to hire a ground car.

‘We should be, sir. Most of the units are pretty small.’

Price followed a few paces behind them, his eyes ever alert for trouble. He was a silent but comforting presence. It seemed Samson’s belief that the only reasons people ended up on the Frontier were incompetence or as punishment was flavoured by his circumstances—but it did raise the question of how Price had been given a posting when his competence would have made him stand out even in a Core regiment.

There was a large building farther along the street with bright flashing signs. It was the only thing he could see that might be described as unmissable, so he presumed that was where they were going.

As they walked, Samson took the opportunity to think over Harper’s situation. He hadn’t known her well before the boarding mission, and from her appearance he’d always taken her to be one of those ‘by the book’ officers. Her uniform was always perfectly pressed, the buttons polished to a mirror finish, her boots without so much of a scuff. It all said she believed in the Navy, lived and breathed it. He struggled to make sense of why she had mutinied. Even if she had been convinced his was the wrong choice, he would have expected someone like her to have followed orders regardless. He wondered what that said about his aura of command, and the damage that had been caused to his reputation on the Sidewinder by his arrival under a dark cloud.

Then he thought of what Price had said, of how her parents had been killed in a cascade. Might she have acted out of