Timmy viewed the remains of D2 and with a sense of dismay he said, “The last news I got told about was the cockpit of Forgestriker had been almost destroyed and hole had been smashed through her structure; the skipper said the controls had been jammed and he couldn’t free them.”
The circulating air had the effect of bringing more soldiers out of hibernation, sooner than they had expected; disorientated and battle-weary they struggled to the windows to find out where they where, the general comment was, “Where the hell are we? This sure to hell ain’t Baal.”
Frank glanced at Timmy and Timmy looked at the gathering soldiers, all lost and alone in dead space and Frank said, “Are you gonna tell ‘em’ Timmy?”
A shout from the back rang out, “Tell us what? What is wrong and where are we?”
Silence followed as Timmy and Frank chatted silently to each other, the hushed tones making the ominous news even more fearful, as Timmy turned to speak, a voice called from the balcony above, “Holy shit! Please don’t tell me this is where I think it is.”
Soldiers turned to see Group-Maeir Dennis Jacks looking in horror out of the window nearest him.
Frank replied, “That depends on where you think this is, Dennis.”
Not taking his eyes from the window, he said, “The worst place in dead space, the thing nightmares are made from; D2, ‘The Dead Station.’
A young recruit standing close to him turned to Dennis and asked, “Why did you call D2 ‘The Dead Station? Is it because nobody has heard about the station for years?”
Before Dennis could reply, Hendricks appeared from his room at the rear of the balcony and asked for silence; the men not realising what had happened prior to the ship closing down fell silent for the man they recognised as an officer, after a short pause he spoke, “I’ll get to the point; two days ago I sent my resignation in, so I’m not your officer-in-charge any more, I’m a foot soldier like the rest of you. To quell any more rumours, yes, this is D2 and I had no intention of ending up here, reputation or not, this place scares me; a disused system suddenly comes to life after 40 years, if that isn’t scary, I can’t say what is. Our only hope lies in salvaging what parts are here and jerry-rigging Forgestriker to try and get power for her.”
A soldier turned to Timmy and said, “The question remains; why did Dennis call this ‘The Dead Station?”
Dennis glanced at Mal Hendricks and said, “Shall I let him in on our secret or will you?”
The recruit was getting nervous about all the talk of D2 and now the mention of secrets, so he said, “For cryin’ out loud! Tell us, so we know what the fuck is happening here, Dennis.”
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