Probe by Edward M. Lerner

What if First Contact doesn't come the way we expect it—or with the sort of aliens we expect? When both sides have secrets within secrets to keep, how is anyone supposed to know the truth—or live long enough to tell it? Will it turn out to be the greatest discovery of all time... or the biggest hoax? Bob Hanson, the chief scientist of a major aerospace corporation, has made an incredible a wrecked alien spacecraft adrift in the Asteroid Belt. The evidence is compelling—video images from the Prospector space probe he himself had created. The military enthusiastically embraces an investigation of the extraterrestrials, remarkably indifferent to the inconsistencies that begin to appear. Undeterred, Hanson keeps digging... and finds much more than he had ever bargained for. Soon on the lam, he, and everyone to whom he turns, is hunted. Before long only one conclusion remains unassailable—that his mysterious opponents play for keeps. Are aliens manipulating events on Earth? Did unscrupulous corporate executives invent the aliens in search of giga-buck government contracts? Has the Pentagon fabricated an alien menace for its own purposes? Or is the truth something really unimaginable? About the Author Author of fifteen SF novels (five of them collaborations with Larry Niven) and dozens of shorter works, Edward M. Lerner won the inaugural Canopus Award for fiction "honoring excellence in interstellar writing." His stories have also been nominated for Locus, Prometheus, and Hugo awards. "Edward M. Lerner is the quintessential Analog writer, combining well-researched scientific and technological speculation with compelling characters and thought-provoking plots." — Analog Science Fiction and Fact "Here's an author you definitely need to check out." — Asimov's Science Fiction "Leave it to Edward M. Lerner to take a notion, run with it, squeeze every ramification out of it, and put it altogether in an irresistible page-turner." — Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Red Planet Blues "Edward M. Lerner ... is one of the best kept secrets in SF." — Tangent Online "When people talk about good hard SF—rigorously extrapolated but still imbued with the classic sense-of-wonder—they mean the work of Edward M. Lerner, the current master of the craft." — Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Red Planet Blues "One of the leading global writers of hard science fiction." — The Innovation Show "Lerner's world-building and extrapolating are top notch." — SFScope "He is science fiction down to the bone, but he very often takes the `serious' stuff not so seriously. Or he does, but he still squeezes a modicum of wit and whimsy into his subjects. He can catch a salient point in a couple of pages or explore a well-trodden road like AI with new insight." — Galaxy's Edge "Regardless of the theme, subject matter, or treatment, a Lerner novel never fails to intrigue, engage the intellect, or offer pure entertainment for its own sake. He can do it all, and well." — Tangent Online PROBE "A fast-paced, hold-on-to-the-edge-of-your-seat thriller." — Illinois Quarterly "A fast-paced thriller sure to please techno-junkies, sci-fi lovers, and anyone who simply enjoys an exciting yarn.