The Continuing Story of Deep Space 2: Page 30
"Yes, Doc, how can I help you ?"
Captain Arthur felt a little bit disturbed by the doctor as he was trying to analyse the last sensor logs again about the cloaked ship that had past the station. Or was it not a cloaked ship and only some life form or something else ? According the computer and the sensor logs it was a ship of some kind. There were no new data comming from the two runabouts. At that moment there was not a lot of choice for the patrols. It was not yet clear how far the receiver of the relayed messages could be. Apparently it had been moving. Captain Arthur had decided that the Alpha should wait for the Beta. The only thing that worried him was that this operation was delayed with almost a complete day. But for security reasons, even Jan agreed with him. The facility, which was indisputable Federation. The only strange thing was that it seemed to have appeared from nowhere. The crew of DS2 already called it the receiver. Not a bad choice actually. There was no answer to the hails of the Alpha, so Marianne suspected that there was something wrong on the receiver. It did receive but did not answer. At the same moment, after investigation, it became clear that only certain messages, received by DS2 were relayed to the far away receiver. It was not clear yet why.
"Wel, you are the commander of this station and I thought you should know that a few members of your crew have different characteristics, wich you should know about.", the holodoc reported.
"Doc, does this have anything to do with the safety of the station ?"
"Actually not, but ..."
"Listen Doc, we are in a very delicate situation. Could you call me an other time ? Thank you.", Captain Arthur pushed the button on his terminal. The display was black.
"Captain, we have access to the main computer."
"Great ! I am on my way !"
As junior lieutenant Nadine woke up, the Alpha was only ten minutes away. She put on her uniform and joined the lieutenant-colonel on the runabout bridge. Jan looked a bit tired. He didn't have a lot of sleep lately and it was time the Beta joined with the Alpha to continue the search. Still concentrating on the course and sensor readings, the one DS2 runabout came aside the other. Greetings were unnecessary. Jan had talked to the two cadets for almost four hours. They talked about everything, but the academy. Marianne was really upset that the two students had only finnished their tasks by the time the two runabouts were together.
Jan reported to the station that all was well. Commander Luke already had an updated calculated position of the receiver. At maximum warp it would take nineteen hours to get there. While the DS2 first officer went to his quarters to get some sleep at last, Nadine took over the helm and set a course to follow the Alpha. The cadets were still trying to get an answer, but without success.
He didn't recognise this place at all. He didn't know what these readouts meant. What were all these lights and buttons ? No answer. Apparently the fires were out. What was his name ? He didn't know. His right legg hurt. That was one thing he remembered. He had broken his legg. With extremely willpower he managed to get on one foot. With both hands on the console he supported his body on his way to another one. Maybe this console would tell him something about what, where and who. Unlikely. He couldn't even read the symbols on the displays. It was as if his head was totally empty. Damn, he hit his broken legg against a box that was just standing there. The box was empty. A bit further there was another console. It took the young man almost twenty minutes to get there. He was getting weak. The readings on the displays were not helping. The readouts seemed to repeat themselves. He could not detect a pattern. Then he saw a large screen against a wall. On the screen was a projection of space. Blackness and some white dots. Space ... he knew what that was. and this was some kind of space station. And this station was damaged. He was in trouble...
"Cadets, you have to get some sleep now. It is at least twelve hours before we reach this receiver. I want you to be awake when we arrive. I wil stay in contact with the Beta."
Two runabouts were on their way, far away from their homes. Something was watching them, more than a bit curious, with more than just a bit attention...