Captain's Log, Stardate 69295

Posted on Wed Mar 1st, 2017 @ 12:35am by Captain Tim Williams

Encrypt log under security protocol nineteen.

The refit of the Highlander has begun. Our project director from Utopia Planetia and his team of supervisors have come aboard and started the job of pulling open the ship's bulkheads to expose the systems underneath ready for upgrades. Through my contacts at Starfleet's Corps of Engineers I was able to get the agreement that my own crew would be used for the refit work wherever possible, with the Yards staff used as supervisors and supplementary crews where needed. I don't think the yards staff are too happy about that, but I trust my people, and they need to be experts in these systems by the time we leave for the Delta Quadrant.

All of our upgrades are fairly significant, but the ones that I am particularly focussed on are the upgrades related to our new quantum slipstream drive. While all of the upgrades related to that particular system are pretty hefty, including reconfiguring some of the internal deck space to make room for an entirely new computer core, the main one I'm concerned about at the minute is the replacement of the deflector dish. The entire dish will need to be replaced, which means that the old one will have to be disconnected and removed before the new one is installed, resulting in at least a few days where multiple decks in the engineering section will be open to space. It's not a situation I'm particularly fond of as the captain in charge of protecting the lives of the crew on board this ship, but everyone knows the safety protocols, and the upgraded deflector dish is more than worth the extra vigilance to make sure everybody stays safe while the work is carried out. I'll be asking Jean and Grif to make sure that all of our usual safety protocols are stepped up around that area of the ship just to be extra safe.

On a personnel note rather than a technical one, I've finally gotten the main bulk of our replacement crew transfers authorised. While they're still in transit, I once again have a first officer, chief of security and helmsman. Our helmsman is fairly raw - freshly graduated from the Academy, but his scores were high enough that Starfleet thought it worth putting him into the accellerated development program. The rest of our senior staff is sufficiently experienced to be able to help guide him in the proper way to run a department, and flight control is the smallest department on the ship. Stafleet's picks for the ADP are usually pretty spot on, so I'm not overly concerned, but I'll be making sure Jean and our new first officer work closely with him in any case.