Welcome to the Bridge of the USS HIGHLANDER

The bridge layout of this powerfull warship is compact, but nonetheless accommodates the familiar engineering, tactical, conn and ops components and shares many features with bridges of larger Stafleet vessels. At the centre of the action, the command chair rests on a small, elevated platform, separated from the other duty stations positions which surround it. At the forward end of the bridge, the main viewscreen occupies its trademark location in the commander's direct line of vision. A merged conn and ops station sits between the command chair and the main viewer, while the other stations line the perimeter of the bridge.

A set of compute displays and control panels are located on each side of the command chair for easy access. The display automatically keeps the commander informed of the ship's status, and crew members at the bridge stations can also feed data to the command chair displays for the commander's evaluation. Two tactical stations,on either side, are situated closest to the commander. Both Tactical stations which work independently or can be networked together, control the vessels awesome collection of advanced weaponary. Tactical is also responsible for, among other thing, shield and tractor beam operations.

Since the Defiant Class is admittedly 'over-gunned', tactical must work very closely with Engineering and Conn / Ops to avoid stressing the ship - especially when traveling near its speed limit of warp 9.8. The dominant piece of hardware in the bridge's aft area is the mission ops table. Although it looks something like a picnic table built for two, recessed within, one on each side, are computer access terminals. On the Bulkhead near the table, passive display panels report data for mission ops ( secondary mission activities ), engineering, and enviroment. Another bridge feature is the replicator, conveniently installed in the aft area. A relatively new addition to the defiant class, is the bridge holographic communicator, a kind of advance view screen. When not in use, the communicator resembles an unobtrusive ring on the deck, but when activated it projects a realistic, three-dimensional image of the message's sender. On the bridge's port and starboard sides, behind the command chair, sliding access doors provide egreaa to the other parts of the ship.