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

about the biology of its original inhabitants, there was no way of guessing what the internal layouts of the structures would be like. He thought back to the objects they had found on the Bounty. They were utterly alien, and he knew trying to make any kind of predictions would invite disaster.

He considered the situation for a moment, and realised Price was right. There was a point in many situations when technology simply wasn’t a substitute for boots on the ground—the whole reason the Navy and the Marines hadn’t been replaced by robots and drones. The only way they were going to find out what was down there was by seeing it with their own eyes. He turned away from the hole and fired the piton from the reel of line he had brought with him into the ground, then tested its hold. It had buried itself deep into the surface, and extended its barbs. The digital sensor on the piton took a moment to transmit its reading to the indicator on the reel. It flashed up ‘1000kgs’, which was far more than enough to support his weight, including suit and gear. He clipped the reel to the harness on his boarding suit and backed his way toward the hole.

‘I should really be the one to go first, sir.’

‘You should,’ Samson said. ‘But I’m not going to ask anyone to venture in there, let alone order them. If it’s safe, I’ll call you down after me. We can discuss alien city exploration protocols when we get back to the ship. I’m sure the Admiralty will be glad of our thoughts on the matter.’ He looked back into the darkness behind him. ‘Wish me luck.’ With that, he dropped back into the hole and released the brake on the reel.

He sank down into the bowels of the void, the torch on his wrist console still not able to reach a solid surface. He slowed the reel until he was descending at a more comfortable rate, and tried not to think about what might be lurking in the darkness. It wouldn’t be the first time impetuosity had gotten him into trouble. When his feet contacted with something solid, he jumped, and had to stop himself from gasping—Price and the crew on the ship were listening, and he didn’t want to embarrass himself.

‘I’m on solid ground, Sergeant. I’m going to take a quick look around, and all being well you can follow me down.’ He checked the locator application on his wrist console, which showed ‘searching’ as its status.

‘Acknowledged. I’ve marked our position so the Bounty knows where we are.’

Samson flicked on the low-light function on his visor, but the spaces were too large for it to make any difference. The system was designed for use in the confined environment of a ship, and its sensors weren’t able to reach any solid surfaces. Above him, Samson could hear the sound of a second reel running out. He wondered for a moment if anything he’d said could have been misinterpreted. He looked up and saw Price’s silhouette descending against the backdrop of the opening on the surface.

Price released the reel as he neared the ground and landed on his feet with the ease of someone who had far more practise rappelling than Samson did.

‘Your transmission broke up,’ Price said. ‘Thought I’d best come down. Just in case.’

The draw of what might be down there was too great for either of them to behave as they should. Samson nodded. There was nothing to be gained at that moment by making an issue of any perceived erosion of his command authority, and in truth he was glad to have Price with him. His mind was painting every type of horror imaginable in the darkness surrounding him.

‘Let’s not go too far,’ Samson said. He looked at the locator app on his wrist console again, which showed it was still stuck in search mode. ‘The locator seems to be struggling down here. I really don’t fancy the idea of getting lost.’

‘That makes two of us, sir,’ Price said.

Price turned on the torch at the end of his carbine, and brought it to bear. It was far stronger than the one on Samson’s wrist console, and sent out a beam of light like a blade cutting through the darkness. But even its greater reach started to peter out before it landed on anything. Samson could make out the hulking form of something looming in the darkness. He gestured in that direction, and they both moved toward it.

When they reached it—a structural wall—Samson had to resist the urge to touch it. It extended up above them farther than Price’s torchlight could reach, and Samson presumed it was the base of one of the mud- and sand-encrusted protrusions on the surface. He scanned it, revealing an alloy of some sort. The scanner listed off the elements and the proportions, but it was largely meaningless to Samson, beyond the fact that the alien civilisation appeared to have abided by the same periodic table that humans did. He was sure the information he had just acquired would provide fertile ground for materials scientists for years, but it had already expended its interest to him.

‘How old do you reckon this place is?’ Price said.

An interesting question, but not one Samson’s scanner had provided him with. ‘Beats me. Old.’

‘It must have taken a long time to cover the place over so completely.’

‘I reckon so. Assuming it wasn’t done intentionally,’ Samson said, the thought popping into his mind.

‘You think someone tried to hide the place?’

‘Maybe,’ Samson said. ‘Or perhaps most of it was underground to begin with. This planet had a light terraforming when the first colonists arrived. I’m not sure what needed changing—I only gave the planet’s file a quick look—but maybe conditions back when whoever built this place started made an underground city the best option.’

‘Maybe they were a race of mole aliens.’

The deadpan delivery made Samson unsure if it was meant as a