Lotos Days
By Penny A. Proctor

Tuvok sat in the same conference room in which he had met with General Tenglis the day before, but the room was much more crowded. The ambassadors of the Grevel-Ash, Vordai and the Minenne sat at the conference table, with Dasson Vre, Lam and Shertra sitting directly behind them. General Tenglis was backed by an officer who was apparently an aide or immediate subordinate and flanked by the Chief Oligarch. Tuvok had brought Neelix along not just for his insights but also to keep the numbers balanced.

"Your accusation is outrageous," Tenglis said calmly. "You have each lost ships. That does not mean that Gunrath is at fault. I suggest you look to the weaknesses in your own fleets."

"We've done that," the Grevel-Ash ambassador replied. "In fact, we've done that for far too long. Thanks to Commander Tuvok, we began looking at other possibilities. And those possibilities point here."

The Chief Oligarch spoke in a rich and sonorous voice. "Possibilities are not worth the threat of war. You have shown us circumstantial evidence that we have explained."

"Then let us scan your planet," Tuvok suggested. "We can quickly rule out the presence of any Humans."

"And learn about our defensive capabilities," Tenglis said with a snort. "Unacceptable."

"Perhaps," the Minenne ambassador said in a voice that was almost a purr, "you would prefer that we learn about your defensive capabilities in another way. We could put them to the test."

Tenglis's mouth twisted into a sneer. "Threats, Ambassador? Have you forgotten what happened the last time the Minenne were foolish enough to attack us."

"Ah, but that time we attacked alone." The Ambassador leaned back. "We would not make that mistake again."

Tuvok spoke quickly, cutting off an angered Tenglis. "Talk of war is precipitous, gentlemen. My engineering team has only just been granted access to our shuttle. They may well discover evidence one way or the other. I suggest we refrain from threats, veiled or otherwise, until we receive their report."

"Wisely spoken, Commander," the Chief Oligarch said.

"We shall wait," the Grevel-Ash ambassador said, "but not for long. We will have an answer or there will be consequences." She looked directly at the Chief Oligarch. "Even now, a combined fleet of our three worlds is gathering at the Minenne-Grevel border. If they do not receive a satisfactory report from us by the end of the day, they have orders to attack."

Neelix started, and Tuvok pulled back a little. "I was unaware of this."

"Cooperation," said the Vordai ambassador. "Once you showed us we could work together, we realized our combined forces are a power to be reckoned with."

Joe Carey stepped through airlock that connected the Gunrath shipyard to the docking hatch of the Copernicus and heard the voice of his superior echoing in his mind. "Be careful, Joe," B'Elanna had said to him as he left the ship. Too advanced in her pregnancy to come herself, she had selected him to go in her place with Vorik. "I've got an odd feeling about this. Just stay on your toes, okay?"

Now, looking out the clear viewport of the airlock, he saw that she had been right. The Gunrath'u had placed the shuttle at the berth next to a battleship. Having that much power only fifteen meters away was intimidating – as, he realized, it was intended to be. The Gunrath'u were making a statement of some kind, but if it was anything more than 'don't mess with us,' he wasn't sure what it might be.

Then he stepped through the docking hatch into the Copernicus and stopped abruptly. The shuttle had been grievously mistreated; panels wrenched from their hinges were strewn across the floor, conduits were exposed, and event the seats had been slashed so that cushion stuffing was spilling out.

Behind him, Ensign Vorik stopped short. "The Gunrath'u have an interesting salvage technique."

"Salvage my Aunt Fanny. They were trying to steal our technology. Look at your tricorder - they tried to remove the warp core manually."

Vorik looked at the reading and frowned. "It appears they tried to phaser the locking mechanism."

"They're lucky they didn't blow up the whole shipyard." Joe moved forward, to the pilot's seat. "They went after the computer, too, but the logs are still intact." He sat down and ran his hands over the controls. "The last entry is by Commander Chakotay. They'd just been contacted by a Gunrath'u ship. There's no mention of an evacuation or of an attack." Moving quickly, he copied the log into his tricorder. "I'm going to check the technical data records next. See if the engines are operational."

"If they weren't attacked and didn't evacuate-"

"You've got it. If they weren't attacked and didn't evacuate, they were probably taken prisoner." Joe didn't add aloud, 'and perhaps executed.' He didn't have to; he knew that Vorik understood the possibility as well as he.

Kathryn reminded herself that at this stage of the plan, everything should go smoothly. The transport system from the factories to the shipyard was completely automated. Pods and containers were scanned for destination code and routed to robotic cargo ship and delivered to the intended warehouse dock. When it worked properly, it was efficient and timely, with deliveries taking less than two hours.

But when it didn't work properly, when a conveyor stuck or the scanner misread the codes, it could take hours to straighten out the mess.

Cramped into the cargo container intended to hold comm system components, Kathryn began to wonder if something had gone wrong. It was hard to tell if the container was still moving. She had a timepiece but couldn't move to see it. It felt as if she had been curled up in the same position for at least a day and the container seemed to be shrinking.

She had to laugh at herself. Only a while ago, she had been afraid that one of the men might be claustrophobic and it turned out she was the one with a touch of it.

Then she felt a jerk and realized it was from inertia. The container had finally stopped. She tried to raise her arms to lift the lid, but they refused to cooperate. Her muscles were completely frozen.

Finally she heard the release knob twist and someone pulled the lid off for her. As light streamed in, she raised her eyes – her neck didn't want to move, either – and saw Chakotay looking down. "Don't just stand there," she said. "Get me out."

Grinning with relief, he took hold of her by the arms and hauled her up. Muscles screamed in protest at being made to stretch again. "Rough trip?" he asked, rubbing her upper arms briskly.

"I've had better." She saw Emanni emerge from her container with ease. The Minenne must have taffy instead of muscle, Kathryn thought sourly. "We had a glitch."

"What?"

She explained briefly about the last second re-routing. "So we are on the opposite side of the shipyard."

Hrano came over, looking pale. "We'll never make it. Our only chance to get into one of the repair shuttles is if we snatch it while the second shift is still in briefing. It's only a five minute window, and it happens in twenty minutes. It will take us at least half an hour to get across the station."

Kathryn and Emanni both had a general idea of the layout of the shipyard. It was actually a disk-shaped space station, divided into thirty-two section. The sections were accessed through a turbolift in the center, which simply rotated to each area on a timed basis, every two minutes, taking just over an hour for one complete rotation. They had to go from section 7 to section 29, so Hrano's estimate was optimistic. There were no shafts or tubes to provide alternate access.

Chakotay looked around the warehouse, and Kathryn said, "There aren't any hidden staircases. Trust me."

His eyes locked on something and he smiled with satisfaction. "Not hidden. But there are guide ladders out there."

"EVA?" She followed his gaze. There was a storage area filled with Extra-Vehicular Activity suits.

Hrano looked unhappy. "You want us to go outside? Into space? But I've never done that."

"First time for everything, my friend," Chakotay said. "Come on."

"The impulse engines are functional," Vorik reported. "However, the main plasma conduit is missing."

Joe turned around and stared at him. "The plasma conduit? Why in the name of St. Patrick would anyone take the plasma conduit?"

"The Gunrath'u use a liquid fuel. Perhaps they thought the conduit could be adapted for their purposes."

"These people are about as honest as the Ferengi." Joe shook his head in disgust. "There was no attack on this shuttle. Weapons never came on line and shields were never raised. They were taken by surprise, which means the Gunrath'u used stealth or deception. I wonder if they have some kind of cloaking capability."

"It might be useful to examine the hull to see if there is evidence of microfractures."

"A tractor beam? Good idea. You get a suit on and check the hull. If they were tractored, there'll be evidence – microfractures, energy scorches, something. I'll keep working in here. I want to know what's working, what's broken but fixable and what's missing."

"I suggest we do a waistline tether," Kathryn said. She was fully suited except for the helmet. "You all have to stay within ten meters of the transmitter I'm wearing, and if one of us floats away..."

Harry picked up the line, threaded it through the loop on the suit that seemed to exist for just that purpose and handed it to Hrano. He tried to emulate Harry without success. "Here," Harry said. "Nothing to it."

"Easy for you to say." Hrano was still quite pale. "You've done this before."

"Not that I remember."

"You put that suit on like it was your work uniform. I never felt so clumsy."

"Don't worry," Emanni said, attaching the line. "Just keep your eyes on the person in front of you. You'll be all right."

"Everyone set?" Chakotay asked. "Then let's go."

They all put the helmets on and sealed them. Emanni checked Hrano's to be certain he'd done it correctly. Then, using the access codes Hrano had obtained, Kathryn opened the airlock and they stepped through.

Joe cursed silently. According to the data Vorik was transmitting, the hull of the shuttle was riddled with microfractures. It had been tractored, and not gently. It was remotely possible that this had happened before the Gunrath'u ship arrived on the scene, but he doubted it. "You were right, Vorik," he said over the comm system. "This ship was grabbed by a tractor beam. I don't see any evidence of weapons yet, but keep looking."

"Lieutenant, something odd is happening at the shipyard. You should be able to see from the port side of the cockpit."

He worked his way up to the co-pilot's seat and swiveled hard to port. Vorik was right. Five people had just emerged from the station, tethered together at the waist. They had climbed up a ladder on the side of the port and had just reached the expanse of roof that covered the entire station, heading toward the Copernicus and away from the Gunrath'u battleship. One of them was moving clumsily, slowing everybody else down. But it was the first two in the line who grabbed his attention. There was something about their size and the way they moved that made it impossible for him to look away.

As the five made their way arduously across the flat roof of the station, Joe realized what had captured his attention. "Vorik," he said into the commlink, "look at the way they are walking."

The first two walkers and the last one were moving with confidence, using the heavy step technique taught at the Academy. The third was also moving with confidence, but using a step-glide-step that Joe had never seen before. The fourth wasn't using any kind of technique; he recognized a first time space walker when he saw one.

"Indeed," Vorik said. "It appears that three of them have had Starfleet training. Although it could be a coincidence, Lieutenant. Other races could have developed the same method."

"Perhaps," he said, turning back to the main console. B'Elanna's admonition to keep his eyes open was ringing in his mind. "Keep on eye on them. I'm going to try scanning them."

"The short range sensors were offline," came the response.

"Damn." Frustrated, he turned back to look out of the cockpit again.

Hrano tripped and lost his footing. The inertia of the movement lifted him into the air and he started to tumble. From behind him, Harry pulled the tether and hauled him back into position. They had no communications between them since the only system was tied into the shipyard's operations, so Harry simply gave him an encouraging pat on the back.

As he did so, he noticed for the first time the ship that was berthed less than twenty meters away. It was small, a shuttle probably, but it was the markings that caught his eye. NCC 74656. Copernicus. The letters were easy to read and completely different from the Gunrath'u alphabet he'd been struggling with for six weeks. He looked over his shoulder to Emanni and pointed, trying to signal his curiosity. She peered at the markings and then raised her hands to indicate that she had no idea.

Harry reached forward and tapped Hrano on the shoulder and got him to do the same to Kathryn. She signaled Chakotay and they all stopped to look at the shuttle.

Joe watched the group of space walkers as they stopped and turned in his direction. He couldn't see their faces, couldn't tell whether or not they were Human, but every instinct was telling him that they were. He was certain of it.

Then he saw something they didn't see. Behind them, another airlock was opening. Someone was coming out after them. Seven walkers came out quickly and began heading for the others. They moved as one in a step-glide-step rhythm, moving steadily, until they stopped, and one of them extended an arm, as if pointing – or aiming a weapon – at the first five.

Joe saw the yellow-white streak of a phaser firing.