[snip]

I like the concept of this. It is well thought out and does fit into the feel of Trek as a whole. That being said, however, as a prototype technology I see it working, but the idea that an officer would be given one of these and then just thrown back onto a starship doesn’t sit well with me, especially after the project was shut down. There was (obviously) only a limited number of these given out, and I highly doubt that Starfleet would want the possibility of the following to occur:

A potential loss of both the officer and the device or the potential for re-injury of the same limb/device
The device falling into the hands of an enemy such as the Klingons.
Any combination thereof.

I could see this being a device that limited the officer to a career of starbase assignments. Kinda similar to how modern military who are injured but allowed to stay in are often relegated to support roles that keep them safer. Plus, in the 10 or 11 years the project was actually actively collecting data, it would see to me the recipients would be closely monitored anyway, much like with any major medical procedure in modern day that’s highly experimental. They’d need regular visits with a BALP-1 coordinator/doctor/scientist, as well as with a regular physician.

Again, over all, spec isn’t bad, I just can’t see it being something they’d risk losing on a starship.

Katy

== So Katy does point out a decent flaw or thing to consider for the next draft to work on. Maybe as a compromise to it you maybe have something like what Katy said where they’d be kept in safer spaces of the Federation, only being assigned to longer range ships if they had say a NPC consultant person for obvious reasons?

Robert Archer EDir