Reporting on a rather interesting event, which occured approximately 1 hour ago.
It began with the encounter of two Spirits, one which seemed to be smaller, and one which appeared quite large. They seemed aggressive, and boxed in a Ranseur-class Dreadnought, known as "Perconte". The Spirits fired some sort of energy beam towards the capital ship, and the Perconte returned fire. After the vessel suffered a significant amount of damage, it docked back into Malta's drydocks, shielding itself.
The Spirits remained in far orbit, seemingly waiting for "Perconte" to return. After a few minutes, the dreadnought launched back into orbit, seemingly at a standoff with the larger Spirit. Several tense moments later, and the Spirits seemed to back off, moving away and behind the planet.
This is where it got rather confusing. As the Spirits departed, my scanners alerted me to the presence of an object in my cargo hold, which had not been there before. I landed quickly, and, after rushing back to inspect my hold, I found a small vial.
It has some kind of viscous, strange-colored liquid inside of it. After a preliminary scan, it seems to be similar to cardamine.
Any insight as to what it -is-, exactly, would be greatly appreciated.