Sol System (Fractal)
17:45 Shipboard time
12 July Standard Sol Date
Year 2107
Low Jupiter Orbit
The twisted metal slowly moved passed the cockpit window of the little salvage pod, the external mechanical arms tucked in barely visible from the single occupant sitting in the control seat. All around Mira lights blinked letting her know the status of her small little salvage craft as it skittered and moved around the debris like a fly hovering around something sweet. She listened to the heart of her small craft hearing the muffled sounds of the reaction jets constantly going off as he made minute adjustments to her course to make sure she didn't plow into the twisted mass of metal that was slowly sinking down the gravity well into the maelstrom that was Jupiter's atmosphere.
She looked to the monitor to her left it showed read outs of the wreckage, it showed a computer rendered image of the wreckage with small white dots moving around it. She wasn't the only scuttling around the wreckage picking it over and inspecting it for clues to where ever it came from.
In another monitor was an image of the ship they had arrived on, The Abecromby was an water hauler originally big and blocky it had been bought by Syngen Industrial and converted into a salvage vessel. Its massive holds that once housed huge hunks of ice to be broken down into water for the massive water tanks that would ensure life on the outer rim worlds had been converted into separate disassemblers that would break down salvage into useable components with resell value and then pass on anything else to be melted down into base metals. Its original water tanks had been removed in the refit replaced by larger engines and radiators making it far larger towards the stern of the ship that it originally had been. It sat 100 thousand clicks out in a synchronous orbit at full zoom from the salvage pods camera it looked like the whale of a ship could fit nicely in the palm of her hand.
The Abecromby had been diverted from its course to Ganymede's orbital docks by Jupiter's Orbital Warden Control to inspect some wreckage that had pinged their orbital sensors a few day ago. They had been the closest vessel with the next being roughly a week at a hard burn. No one was quite sure where the wreckage had come from which had rumours swirling almost instantly around the Abrecromby. People guessing as to what had pinged Jupiters sensors. Miras favourite rumour had been that the wreckage was from a secret Chinese Union Spy vessel that the Euro Pact navy had slagged and both sides were keeping tight lipped to avoid another conflict over the Jovian worlds.
All the rumours ceased when the Abecromby got within visual range of the object, it was a twisted mass of metal and over materials unrecognisable from anything that had been seen in Sol Space. As they had gotten closer they started detecting the faint signals, echoes of something within the wreckage. Which was why Mira and her team of scavvers were crawling over the twisted lump of metal searching and inspecting before the wreck fell into the gravity well to be crushed by Jupiters tremendous gravity.
A crackle filtered through her comset before clearing, her communication systems compensating for the radiation emitted by the super jovian.
“Hey Mira take a look at sector three I'm getting some weird readings from there seems like there is something underneath the metal.”
“Roger, but if your sending me on another goose chase you owe me a drink, and not the swill they serve in the rec room.” Mira replied switching her gaze from the twisted mass of metal to a monitor above her flicking several switches on it pulling up the feed from the Abecromby she wasn't too far away, with a twist of her control stick she adjusted her course slowly moving across the wreckage, to her left 100 meters away another salvage pod, by the markings on it, it was Dallian’s was digging through some of the wreckage.
She brought herself to a stop over the point Rick had indicated to her from his Sensor console aboard the Abecromby. Frowning she flicked her instruments she isn't picking anything up. She was about to claim her drink when something caught her eye, underneath the twisted mesh there was a faint glow, if she hadn't been so close to the surface she may have missed it.
“Rick… I think you may have actually found something maybe you don't owe me that drink after all.”
“Really?.. I er mean I did say there was something there, what do you see?” Rick replied sounding both surprised and impressed with himself at the same time.
“I'm not sure yet switching on my live feed i'm going to have to do a bit of digging to get to it there is something a few meters below the surface.” Mira spoke as he flipped another switch and pressed a few buttons on her coms console, instantly flood lights lit up from the front her craft and the comms console blinked green as Rick accepted the open stream from her vessels cameras.
Setting the craft into a holding pattern she began pushing the four mechanical servo arms of the salvage shuttle forward pushing into the wreckage cutting and pulling wreckage out of the way to get at what ever was emitting the faint purplish glow. It took her a few minutes to get through the exterior, the twisted metals were so tangled that it was a slow slog to get through, using her cutting arm in some places was the only option.
She heard Rick gasp in her ear as she pulled back the last of the wreckage to reveal the 4 objects. Then another voice came over the coms, sterner and more practiced than Ricks.
“Engineer Ripley are you seeing what we are seeing?” Captain Gates asked taking over from Rick. Mira almost jumped not expecting the captain or the bridge crew to be looking in on her coms.
“Er… well if your seeing four purple objects then yes sir” Mira Replied getting a little closer, “Although my shuttles sensors aren't really registering them. They seem to be giving off something but my shuttles sensors can't make heads or tails of them.”
“Get as much footage as you can, i’ll pass this back to head off see what they say prep to bring them aboard Hangar bay 12 understood?” Gates replied back.
“Yes Sir” Mira said instinctively.
She spent another 30 minutes getting as much footage from the angles possible, by the word had come back from Ganymede who had relayed the message back to earth that the Abecromby was to bring the objects abroad and return to Ganymede where the objects could be studied further. Mira gently picked two of the four objects with her shuttles grasping arms, she pulled one close to her cockpits window staring at it for a moment trying to study it herself. She had never seen anything like it before in her life, there was something a little mesmerising about it. She saw the shadow of Dallians salvage pod before he arrived, she backed her shuttle away from the hole she had made and turned her craft around plotting a course back to the Abecromby. Leaning back still looking at the objects in both of her ships grasping arms it would take her roughly 15 minutes to get back to the ship there was nothing to do but sit and look at whatever these things were.
