As the data from the second moon was not available yet Joe settled for the gas giant's polar-region and the debris field there. Bringing the data up on her console she started a first analysis to see if there was anything to see. First analysis indicated artificial debris. The material was similar to the small ship they where currently securing in the cargo bay. The overall mass was significantly smaller. About right for a relay-satellite.
Satisfied Joe signed off from her station and pondered what to do next. The ship was in a stable orbit, the salvage operation down on the moon was well underway but did not need any lifting at the moment. The data from the probe would need some analyzing before anything could be done either way. So she was faced with something that has been rare so far – free time. The problem was that she was still on duty and could be called for some flying at any time, so anything that would take a while would be out. Checking out the ship would be the best fit but it would still take a while before it was secure enough to start working on it.
Joe decided to see what Sarah was doing. She should be in her lab analyzing whatever she brought up from the moon. It was also an excuse to visit the science-module which Joe had so far not managed to do.
As she entered the science module she immediately noticed how different it felt from the rest of the ship. It was brightly lit and quite busy, although quite a lot of the science-crew where down on the moon. There was the typical smell of disinfectant in the air. The floor was different, normally there was metal plating it was some kind of plastic here, presumably easier to clean.
Asking around for Sarah led Joe to a small lab in the back that was equipped to deal with potentially dangerous biological material. To enter she had to put on an suit with its own oxygen supply. Very thin and light when compared to a spacesuit though.
When Joe joined Sarah she was in the middle of examining her specimen. From what I could tell it still looked like a very round spider. Taking a closer look it looked very different. The body was almost perfectly round. The legs where very thin and laid out flat with no visible joints. It didn't look dangerous at all, Joe was still glad that it was in an examination chamber. It was constantly being bathed in lights of different colors. Sarah was obviously scanning it.
"Hi there. Found something?"
She jumped slightly.
"Gosh, don't scare me like that!"
"Sorry! That must be one fascinating spider."
"It's not! A spider, I mean."
"Sure looks like one to me." Joe teased her a bit.
"Not even you could mistake that for a spider. The body and the legs are completely wrong. I can't make heads or tails out of it."
"What does your Scans tell you?"
"Honestly, I have no idea!"
That took me by surprise.
"Is it really that alien?"
"I don't know. I might have to cut it open to find out. Wanna stay and watch?"
Yuk.
"No, thanks. You know, this could be their version of beef."
"It is possible, sure. We might never know."
"Then I'll let you play butcher and find something else to do."
After Joe left the airlock and changed out from the suit she checked her pad for messages. They had changed the lift schedule. Apparently the work was progressing faster than anticipated and they where bringing up the first container within the hour.
So she decided to check on the cargo bay and head to the bridge to monitor the flight.
Entering the bay Joe found the ship at the far side of it, stored out of the way. Some deckhands where still in the process of securing it while two of the science-crew where busying themselves with assembling a scanner. It looked like a more sophisticated version than the one used on the surface of the moon down below. Looking around she found Sunblast next to the Mule in discussion with Dr. Schmitz
Joe had crossed most of the distance when they noticed her.
"Ah, Ensign. Perfect timing. I need a favor."
"Sure, shoot."
"For now we want to store all the material from the outpost in this bay so we have easy access to it." Dr. Schmitz stated.
"So we need to move this Mule to the other berth."
"So I need to climb into a suit again?"
"Yes, until we reinstall the live-support systems there is no way around that."
"When do you need it moved?"
"Within the next 30 Minutes. We have already transferred the equipment that we removed earlier. We'll reinstall that and tomorrow at the latest it can be used normally again."
Joe grinned. "Good, so I shall just move it over now?"
"Yes. Get to it."
"Yes, sir."
Joe turned and walked back to the launch bay for the suit she had basically just discarded. Donning and discarding the suit, together with the walk to and back from the Mule actually took more time than the flying itself. That was simple thing of undocking, maneuvering a short distance and redocking at the other berth. Once she debarked the waiting crewmen could start reinstalling the equipment they had removed earlier that day.
After Joe had discarded the suit again she was just in time on the bridge to monitor the flight of the other Mule back up. Everything was going smoothly so she keyed up the plan for shuttling the salvaged material back up. For now this flight was the second scheduled after shuttling up the ship. It was planned to shuttle up one container of material every 4 hours. Allowing for some downtime and some checking on the Mule as it was planned to use only one of them while the other one was being worked on. As they where already proven workhorses it should be fine with this.
The second Mule should be restored to normal working conditions in only a couple of hours so the rest of the salvage and equipment could be brought back up.
Joe checked the data from the probe to see what it had discovered. It was still being analyzed as there was a lot more than originally anticipated. Apparently there also was a base on the other moon. According to the scans it was also a lot more expansive that the one below the ship. But also highly radiated. Exploring it would be very difficult and pose a major threat to the personal involved. Joe was glad that she would not have to decide upon this one!
As there was not much else Joe could or had to do before she was scheduled to fly again she took my leave of the bridge and headed for the galley.
Joe ended up enjoying some quality time with a good book and some coffee that was starting to become decent. It was still a bit on the watery side but it was getting there.
Joe was approaching the landing site in the Mule as scheduled. The next container was already filled up and ready to be shuttled back to the ship. It was filled with material from the base to be analyzed later. As there was way too much stuff here to bring it all with them only a selection was taken. Joe had no idea how they decided that, maybe just a bit of everything. There was still plenty of stuff left down there as she was told.
Joe maneuvered the Mule into position over the container. Opening it up and deploying the cables she was able to spot the usual ground crew approaching. They secured the cables and signaled back. As it was pulled in she glanced around. There where obvious signs that this expedition was coming to an end. Equipment was being taken down and stored away. That would all need shuttling back up. A second working Mule would come in handy.
Once the container was secured inside the Mule and it was sealed up Joe started the lift off procedure. Feeding power to the engines the acceleration was not as smooth as it should be. Checking the readings the engines where looking good. Better safe than sorry.
"Mule 1 to Hermes."
"Go ahead Mule 1.
"I'm experiencing slight turbulences. The engines should be fine so far."
"Copy. Do you want to abort the accent?"
"Negative. Vibrations are within tolerances."
"Copy. We have you on scanners. We'll monitor your flight."
"Over and out."
Slowly gaining speed and altitude the flight smoothed out eventually. The rest of the trip went without a glitch. Docking was smooth and uneventful.
After passing the airlock Joe powered down the Mule and exited the cockpit. Sunblast and several of his engineers where already fussing over the Mule, removing access panels and connecting equipment to check it over.
"Heard your ride wasn't as smooth as it should have been?"
"Just some slight vibrations. Nothing to worry about. My money would be on the cargo not being properly secured."
"That would be the likely culprit. Still we'll check the Mule over. Doesn't pay to loose something or someone if it can be avoided."
"True. The other Mule is back in business?"
"Yes. It just finished a trial run and can take over for now. Once we're done with this one, things should speed up."
"Nice. I'll be in the galley if someone needs me."
"Not so fast, the captain wants to see you. She's in the meeting room."
"Ok, thanks."
Joe found the Captain in the meeting room, for once without the presence of Dr. Schmitz.
"You wanted to see me?"
"Yes, Ensign. Have a seat."
She displayed the schedule for shuttling up the salvage and supplies from the surface.
"Things are moving along nicely, in about a day we should be ready to leave the system."
"Are we investigating the other base the probe discovered?"
"No, as much as Dr. Schmitz would love to. It is much bigger or at least better preserved than the one below us. It would tie us up for quite some time. The radiation would complicate things additionally. My report will recommend to send a dedicated exploration crew to this system. They might even set up a permanent base here, who knows?"
"Understood. What can I do for you?"
"Dr. Schmitz and I have reached a compromise. We leave a lot earlier then he would want to. But we take samples of everything we reasonable can with us for further analysis."
"That's why we're shuttling up all this stuff, I figured as much."
"Right. We also want to look at the remains of the satellite the probe found. Dr. Schmitz and his people agree with your assumption that it is most likely a relay-satellite. Therefor we should be able to learn a lot about their technology. The remains are also in a degrading orbit. We currently don't know how long it will take to send another expedition here. That could take months easily. It might be too late then."
"I see. That is going to be tricky as there are a lot of pieces. I might have an idea how to get them though. Am I dismissed?"
She nodded and Joe got up and headed for the bridge. She loaded the probe scans on one of the free workstations next to Ops where Smyke was still working on the incoming data as well as monitoring the operation on the moon below.
Joe quickly generated a simulation of the debris that had once been a satellite. It was spread out over several meters. Whatever destroyed it did not do so with very much force or the pieces would be spread out a lot further and more in a globular pattern. But that would actually work to her advantage. Checking the dimensions this should work.
Joe shut down the workstation and headed back to the cargo bay. There was a Mule she needed to borrow.
Secured in the Mule Joe was slowly syncing Orbit with the small debris field. Her original idea had been shut down by Sunblast. Not necessarily because it was a bad idea he kept insisting, he simply had a better on that Joe could not have been aware of. Actually he was right. This would work better.
After the Orbit was synced Joe rotated the Mule so the upper doors faced the debris field.
"Mule to Hermes. In Position."
"Copy, proceed."
This time the Mule was not carrying a Container but some rather specialized equipment. Checking the controls to make sure the Mule would stay in position before she activated the four small drones stored in the compartment. Slowly they inched out of the Mule spreading out a rather low-tech solution to my problem.
"Drones deployed."
The probes where slowly extending a large net which was attached to the Mule on the other end. The net was something that was once widely used in earth orbit when they started clearing out orbital debris almost a century ago. When they had reached the positions that indicated that all of the debris would be inside the net Joe started the retraction process.
"Closing the net."
With this the probes started closing the open end of the net very slowly. If it was retracted too fast it could make pieces of the debris bounce inside the confines of the net, that would damage the leftover pieces of the satellite even further.
This process was taking quite some time as Joe was careful to not damage anything more than absolutely necessary. After almost half an hour the net was closed securing pretty much all of the debris.
"Net is now closed."
"Copy."
Now for the interesting part.
"Retracting the net."
"Confirmed, go slow."
"Confirmed, I'm in no rush."
Joe started the winch that pulled the net into the Mule. The trick here was that the net would tighten around the debris, securing it further. Meanwhile the drones would provide a counterpoint to control the motion of the net.
Slowly the net was tightening and pulled into the confines of the Mule. The drones where bringing in the rear. After another 10 Minutes the net was secured in the Mule, additionally fastened to the hold by the drones magnetically locked to it.
"Debris is secured, closing up."
"Copy that. Good work!"
After the Mule was sealed up again Joe started the return journey to the Hermes.
"I'm coming back, ETA 25 Minutes."
"Copy that. Trajectory confirmed."
Joe settled in for a relaxing trip back to the ship that was over very fast. Approaching the ship she again marveled at the engineering feat it represented. Especially the engine that made it so much faster than her family's ship.
Joe docked carefully with the Mules berth, the whole process was becoming routine very fast. She powered down the Mule and exited the cockpit. She was greeted by a beaming Sunblast.
"You where right, I'll admit that. Worked like a charm. Almost too easy."
"Told ya! They've been doing that in Earth orbit for quiet some time before gravity generators became small enough. Your way would have damaged the pieces more, we don't know how fragile they are."
"Right. I brought them here, try not to break them any further."
"Yeah, yeah."
He was turning his attention to the Mule as the top started to open. The crane lowered as a deckhand was climbing inside the Mule's hold. As the crane slowly ascended it was pulling the now compacted net with it. Once it cleared the Mule it was traversing to the side and slowly setting it down assisted by two other deckhands.
"Alright, have fun! I have a ship to fly!"
Joe exited the cargo bay and headed for the bridge.