From an engineering point of view

 Every morning his orders came through to his PADD and he dutifully followed directions. It didn't bother him overly much though, as he knew he was damn lucky to even be in Starfleet at all.

 

And every evening he met with Shelly and they continued to catch up on their storied lives. Mostly over a shared late meal, as she was also being given training by the powers that be. David was most grateful that command had allowed her to even stay at Lotus Fleet base. Another bit of luck.

 

 Just the day before David had assisted in finishing the main deflector dish recalibration on the Alsea, and the engineering crew had given the ok for final inspection. He met up with Shell that night and after a light dinner they had parted early. David had been busy most of the day and wanted to hit the hay early.

 

 Now, early Wednesday morning, David arose early and went for a jog along the promenade. None of the shops were open at six forty-five in the morning and the aisles were clear of almost all pedestrian and civilian traffic. Only the ever-present security pairs could be seen moving on their rounds about the station, a testament to Lotus Fleet's commitment to internal station security.

 

 At his arduous, fast but steady pace, Rogers worked up a sweat in no time, but pushed through the tingling in his muscle's and started his second lap around the large ring. To his left the various shuttered shops passed at a measured rythm, interspersed with corridor's connecting this innermost ring to the outer ring of the Capitol class station. Passing by to his right were the large observation windows overlooking the inner docking spaces. David glanced though each massive transparent aluminum window as he circuited the station.

 

 And though each vista he glanced at each ship docked within the titanic space; ship's with docking clamps engaged and ships with running lights glowing. Each view revealed another of Lotus' great fleet. The stately Aurora, docked for maintenance. Next was the Phoenix, on layover preparing for another mission. There was the Lotus, a third of the way again around the station.

 

 As Rogers came upon the next ship in rotation he developed a sudden cramp in his right leg and slowed to a walk, limping slightly. Making his was to one of the many bench's arranged along the windows he sat and massaged the cramp out of his calf muscle, gazing at the Prometheus class vessel slighly below his vantage point on the promenade. Suddenly he noticed a shimmer envelope the Alsea then fade out. Being the engineer he was, knew that her shields had just gone up.

 

'Now that is damn peculiar,' David thought wonderingly.

 

(interjection) The following timeline will be jerky but intended to fit into Syntron's  "A Vulcan In Limbo" post. which is locked  to Jeff and Kheren BTW. ;) )

 

After a long interlude of hushed whispers and clandestine orders floating about the station, Rogers finally found a spare hour or two and got about looking for more answers to satisfy his need-to-know.  The thing about a front line base like Lotus Fleet's Capitol class, the promenade was the only place to find R&R facilities; unless you were a resourceful, and clandestine, engineer. Like all Star Fleet facilities there were out of the way back-water rooms, off the beaten path, that were almost never visited by anyone except the rank and file grunts who needed to operate the various equipment stationed within these nondescript places. And these very same characteristics of rarely seen rooms were the same characteristics that always drew the resourceful engineer's of every base in their quadrants; a place to shoot the bull and dis on the higher-ups.

 

 Rogers found the place unusually crowded when he entered Docking Bay Maintenance spares store room on deck 162, far below the officers quarters on deck 14. The station was on a weird, quasi-lock-down and he had expected only a couple staff hanging around doing what maintenance does, looking for parts or taking the endless inventory that Operations brass always seemed to demand 'Right Now!". Here however was almost fifteen engineers taking a break and talking in subdues whispers. David exchanged a couple of pleasantries with a few NCO's as he made his way though the crowded space toward the station's assistant chief engineer, Lieutenant Benjamin Smith, near the rear wall.

 

 "Any news Ben?", David asked seriously. He knew that anything of import that happened around the base would be fairly well known by the engineering staff. No matter what went down, either on board a ship or on a base, was always gossiped about by the engineers.

 

 "Buck!" the lithe Martian responded. "Nothing at all Commander. Its like the entire station phased out of existence! I was talking to Tobia over by Comms about an hour ago and he said they've locked everyone out of maintenance there."

 

 Smith took a furtive glance about the room then leaned in a bit closer.

 

 "P.O. Shay was kicked out of Ops after the alert, Not so much as a how-do-you-do ... just escorted to the door by Samji. But before she left she noticed that the Alsea wasn't answering hails of the Fleet Captain!"

 

 David nodded an affirmation as Ben confirmed his own suspicion's. "Yeah Ben, something nasty is afoot alright. But it ain't a war footing, otherwise Gonzalez and Harding would be lording their grunts all over the station."

 

 Rogers looked around the somewhat crowded room again, trying to see if perhaps any flight control or Ops NCO's were about.

 

+++++++++++++++++++

 

  Having learned nothing earlier, David finished his work shift and then decided he should check in with his sister before he retired. Making his way onboard a ship docked at Lotus base was a drawn out process of checks, counter-checks and bio scans; followed by a few more checks and rechecks to ascertain one's validity to be boarding the said ship. After five minutes of this Rogers decided he would rather submit to one of Dr. Nasaro-Myths' damnable health checks again. And that thought brought a smile to David as he left the boarding hatch and made his way toward the innards of the ship. Pausing by a terminal just outside the doorway, Rogers queried the system.

 

"Computer? Where is Ensign Shelly Rogers"?

 

 Hardly a second passed when the pleasant ship's voice replied. 'Ensign Rogers is currently in the main lounge; Deck ten; forward.'

 

 Without a second glance at the display David turned away and proceeded down the hall way toward the nearest turbo lift. Once inside he gave directions to the wall. "Deck ten."

 

 Almost thirty seconds later the lift stopped and David exited the opening to proceed toward the main lounge. As he entered the lighting of the brighter hallway was cut off as the doors swooshed shut behind him. The lounge was barely occupied and David spotted his sister near the front window port side. Making his way there he noisily scuffed his shoes on the carpet as he rounded into her view.

 

 Seeing her hazel eye's widen slightly in surprise he braced himself for an inevitable hug as she rose with slightly subdued enthusiasm and pulled him into an embrace.

 

"Dave! I'm so glad to see you!"

 

"Nice to see you too Shel," David said as she squeezed him affectionately. "I hope I'm not intruding on anything?"

 

"Not at all, not at all. Just winding down after shift. Perfect timing."

 

 Allowing her to sit down again David took the chair across from her, back to the window, so he could also see the entirety of the room behind her. A young man in a nondescript style jumpsuit appeared and David ordered a pair of what Shelly was sipping on. The guy left to get the order and Rogers, looking about the room as casually as he could, leaned slightly forward and, placing his right hand on her left on the table, looked into the hazel eye's of the former Syndicate agent.

 

"What is going on around the base Sis?"