BRAD'S COMMENTS:  For fourteen years the only place I had ever found stats or graphics for this class was in the back of my copy of the original STSTCS game rules manual.  An elegantly industrial design, the Lotus Flower is never officially mentioned in any of the Star Trek movies, though it does show up for brief moments on some of Data's LCARS display panels in one ST:TNG episode.  I recently had some new FASA Trek RPG scans e-mailed to me by Bernard Guignard, in which the Lotus Flower is revealed to be the "Neutronic Fuel Carrier" mentioned in the Kobayashi Maru simulation scene at the beginning of Star Trek II.  The scan above is the graphic from the STSTCS rule book, but the text below is that which came from Bernard's RPG scan.  Many thanks to Bernard for the new material!  It's nice to see this lovely class fleshed out.  As the class of the infamous Kobayashi Maru, which has bedeviled command school and Starfleet Academy cadets for generations, the Lotus Flower is a lot more important to the history of Trek than I'd ever suspected.  And unlike so many of the FASA ship classes, the place of the Lotus Flower in canon seems fairly solidified.  One final note, the stats for Bernard's RPG scan and the stats from the STSSTCS manual were markedly different in several key areas, like superstructure and engine power.  I therefore have listed two versions, the first being the STSSTCS version and the second being the RPG version.

From the FASA Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator, circa 1985
Lotus Flower Class X Freighter/Fuel Carrier
NOTES:  The Lotus Flower Class neutronic fuel carrier carries 97,000 tons of neutronic fuel.  Because it is a civilian ship, it is unarmed but has defensive shields.  The cruising and emergency speeds of the fully loaded ship are less than would be expected for their engine type because of the concentrated weight of the neutronic fuel restricts performance.
        The Lotus Flower Class vessels, Class III carrier, carry 300 passengers in addition to its fuel cargo.  This is in contrast to the Class I carriers, which are automated and carry neither passengers nor crew, and to Class II carriers, which carry crews but are not considered safe enough for passengers.
        Neutronic fuel carriers are subsidized by Starfleet because they are relied upon to transport neutronic fuel to outlying fleet installations.  Neutronic fuel, used in most types of impulse engines as an expendable catalyst, is a prime target for piracy, and so these ships often travel with a Star Fleet escort.
        The Lotus Flower Class is most noted for one of its number that does not, in fact, exist.  Star Fleet Academy's infamous Kobayashi Maru test scenario features a ship of this class as the victim of a gravitic mine attack.  Though there is no real ship called the Kobayashi Maru, Starfleet Registry traditionally lists this ship among the Federation's commercial carriers.  The fictional vessel bears the hull number H127499, is registered out of Amber Tau Ceti IV, and is commanded by merchant Captain Kojiro Yance.

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