Lieutenant Chris Ballard was the original chief engineering officer of Starbase Vanguard in 2265. He was part of the team that built Deep Space Station K-5. Ballard was flummoxed by the systemic failures aboard Vanguard caused by the Shedai Carrier Wave. He was killed by the self-destruct function of a Rigelian scrambler-transmitter that had been insinuated into Starbase 47’s comm relays. He was replaced by USS Lovell engineer, Isaiah Farber. (VAN novella: Distant Early Warning)