Pilgrim (Paperback)

The Pilgrim. A new, revolutionary spaceship, captained by Jim Moreland, is on a tentative exploration mission into interstellar space. About a third of the way into the mission, they discover an artificial object in orbit around a large gas giant. They subsequently capture it and after examination discover it to be a sentry pod of some sort. Not long after, the makers of the sentry pod, aliens, appear with a small fleet of ships. Captain Moreland breaks orbit from a promising Earth-like planet, on which hed only just landed a survey team, and moves out to meet them. Unfortunately the meeting doesnt go well because Morelands ship is attacked on sight. Damaged from the attack, Moreland manages to escape and lands his ship on the Earth-like planet to conduct repairs. Over the next few days, a battle of survival is waged both on the planet and in space until, damaged again, the Pilgrim runs and lands on a large asteroid to again make repairs. Its while on this asteroid that they make a shocking discovery. A discovery about their own past and origins, and the real reason why theyve been attacked and hunted ever since they entered this far-flung quadrant of space.