Location from The Expanse by James S.A. Corey
The converted Behemoth, permanently stationed at the center of the Ring Space. Controls access to all 1,373 gates. Whoever holds Medina holds the crossroads of human civilization — and everyone knows it.
Medina Station is the most strategically important point in human space — a single chokepoint controlling access to thirteen hundred colony worlds. Every ship transiting between star systems passes through the Ring Space, and Medina sits at its center like a spider in a web of gates. The station has been controlled by the OPA, the consolidated Earth-Mars-Belt government, and finally Laconia, each recognizing that holding Medina means controlling interstellar trade, migration, and military movement. Drummer commanded it during the OPA period, establishing the first traffic protocols for gate transit. Living on Medina means living in the Ring Space, which means living with the constant awareness that the slow zone has rules nobody fully understands. Ships that accelerate too hard vanish. The Ring Builders made this place, and something killed the Ring Builders. Medina's residents work and sleep in the bones of a repurposed generation ship, surrounded by alien infrastructure older than multicellular life on Earth.
The Behemoth's massive drum section forms the station's core, still spinning for gravity. Docking arms extend from the original ship's frame, accommodating traffic from across the gate network. The Ring Space itself is visible through observation ports — an eerie sphere of star-dotted blackness with gate apertures glowing faintly at regular intervals in every direction. Interior spaces mix the Nauvoo's original Mormon architecture with OPA modifications and later Laconian upgrades. The air carries the recycled staleness of a closed system that was never designed for permanent habitation.
Also known as: Medina, Medina Station