>>213686379
It's a sequel to a book that explained why Ripley's escape shuttle took 57 years to be found, and has her showing up at another planet between Alien and Aliens. There's aliens in a mine there, she has an adventure, everyone dies and she's the only survivor but her memory is partially wiped. It's explained that Ash uploaded part of his consciousness onto the escape ship and that's why she was drifting, and he guided her ship to the planet purposefully. The sequel to the book, the one you're thinking of, establishes that Alien Resurrection is canon and has her descendant (Decker) visiting that same planet against his will as part of a mercenary team to find xenomorphs.
I'll agree the premise sounds dumb at first, and I avoided the books, but I ended up listening to the audio dramas and they were good enough that they sold me on the stories. Plus after Resurrection, AvP, Prometheus and Covenant, lore continuity for the Alien series doesn't really seem important anymore.