
I'm not bothered by the technicalities. I think 'active' shields are fine as if you switch them off they cease to be effective, as opposed to hull armour (passive in my book) which just 'is'.
Interesting character development - looking forward to seeing what you do with them, especially Ulene - I like the weird silent types...
Only comment so far is you've spent a lot of time developing the character of someone who is already dead (Captain Frank). You may have a reason for this (apart from the obvious - stressing that the crew is a bit dysfunctional), but personally I'd rather be finding out about the current characters more.
Good stuff though.
Cheers,
Drew.