2019: NASA astronaut Nigel Walmsley is sent on a mission to intercept a rogue asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Ordered to destroy the comet, he discovers that it is actually the shell of a derelict space probe - a wreck with just enough power to emit a single electronic signal...2034: A reply is heard. Searching for the source of this signal that comes from outside the solar system, Nigel discovers the existence of a sentient ship. When the new vessel begins to communicate directly with him, the astronaut learns of the horrors that await humanity. The ship was created by an alien race that has spent billions and billions of years searching for intelligent life... to annihilate it.
In the Ocean of night (1977) 333 pages by Gregory Benford.
This is sort of a first contact novel, three times over, and in each instance Nigel Walmsley is on the forefront. The first part was too quick to think the book was over, but at the end of the second encounter I thought that's a good place for an ending. Then I see that this was originally published as three or four short stories/novellas. I didn't see any discontinuity, just a good stopping point. The third story picked up and built upon what had gone before.
In part one an asteroid has somehow become cometlike, grown a tail, a tail which has altered it to be on a collision course with Earth. Nigel is one of the astronauts sent to blow it up so that it won't harm the Earth. He finds a crevasse, investigates, finds that it's an ancient spaceship. Goes against orders, which are to immediately blow it up. He takes it upon himself to investigate further.
In the second part, 15 years later, Nigel working as a scientist in a ground based lab, JPL, is part of the discovery of the snark. In between following Nigel around, Benford gives us some of the thought process of the snark. In the third story, they find an alien spacecraft on the moon. This time Nigel is brought in to work on it after the discovery. I don't want to reveal more plot than I already have.
Benford fleshes out his characters really well. We see Nigel in his home life, his relationship with his wife Alexandria, actually part of a triad with Alexandria and Shirley. Besides the triad, this future had people riding public transportation rather than cars, presumably fewer luxuries, one mention of Mr. Ichino enjoy chili with real meat rather than soy product. With this somewhat bleaker society Benford introduces New Sons, a new religion. Nigel doesn't like those new sons. Although in there the stories aren't about fixing moral issues on Earth, rather focused on the alien contact.
