During this time, the equipment deliveries reach a crescendo and a frenzy of installation activity is taking place. The last of the hull plates are installed, airlocks are in place, hangar doors checked and for the first time the entire internal volume of the starship is pressurized. After pressure testing is complete, system diagnostics begin.

At last, the final major components arrive. The massive warp nacelles are delivered by specialized Tug and container. Powerful Shutugs are used to maneuver the nacelles to pre-attachment positions. These Shutugs are equipped with extremely powerful tractor-beams, capable of towing a starship at low impulse speeds. As the nacelles mass can easily be up to 25% of the entire starships mass, maneuvering and positioning before final attachment is critical. Two major considerations for installation of the nacelles are the proper alignment of the warp coils and the mating of the plasma conduits. Special precision tractor-beams projectors are temporarily attached to the engine pylons and will guide the nacelle millimeters and then microns at a time to their final positions. This installation can take up to several weeks and sometimes has to be redone for proper alignment.

Once the nacelle is in the proper position, stasis field generators at the shipyard encapsulate the nacelle and pylon as large industrial transporter matrix intermixers begin a molecular joining of the two by intermixing the pylon and nacelle attach points at the atomic level. Explosive charges are installed after the joining. These are used to facilitate severing the nacelle in an emergency. In fact, while extremely classified as to composition and placement, similar charges are places all over the ship and at different times during the construction. These special packages are scuttling (or self-destruct) charges. Their placement is done by Special Federation Security Construction Teams and all that information is highly classified. Special Security Computer Programmers are on hand to incorporate this information into the programming of the ships self-destruct software. These industrial intermixers used by the shipyard are similar to the portable handheld matrix mixers used by the welding crews who fused the critical joints of the superstructure trusses at the beginning of the construction. After testing the nacelle and pylon have hull plating installed over the attachment area. Externally the starship appears complete.

Internally, crews continue to install bulkheads, circularity, and equipment. Finishing crews install paneling, flooring, carpets, comm and display panels, and other crew equipment. Also at this time the auxiliary craft begin to arrive and berthed. Some are transferred right from the manufacture, some are from Starfleet stocks, and others are from other vessels (ships that are retiring, being overhauled, or undergoing long term repair). Crew personal equipment, such as phasers, tricorders, spanners, etc., also arrive and get stored as per the cargo manifests. Most of the shakedown crew is already present; in fact, many have come aboard about the time of the nacelle matting.

Once the final simulations for warp power are complete, to test the warp filed symmetry, specialized fueling lines are hooked up and the first fuel load of deuterium fuel is pumped onboard. After this is complete, a skeleton crew runs tests on the impulse systems and then takes her out. This is the first time the ship will move under her own power. The starship exists as a cohesive unit, independent in every way from the shipyard that bore her. The crew will take her to a specialized area to receive her antimatter bottles and antimatter fuel. Escorts and Shutugs standby as she is mated to the antimatter tanker and her antimatter bottles are installed and fueled one at a time. When done, she will have enough fuel to sustain her for roughly the next three years (the Starfleet minimum for all designs).

After all her magnetic fields are checked several times in all the areas that routinely handle the antimatter fuel, she returns to the shipyard for final preparations. The hull plates are installed over the antimatter bottles and the deflector shield is brought online for the first time. Many systems will now receive their final calibration (many systems interact with each other so calibration is only possible after each system passes independent checks). Around this point in time, the official christening ceremony is planned and the launch date is set. Up to that point, work continues most of which is cosmetic, although equipment refinements continue and all the instruments tuned. At the launch ceremony, the ship will again leave the shipyard, but this time she is a fully powered starship. After a simple run around the local system (usually for public relations purposes), she travels to a Starfleet depot / range for sensor testing and weapons checks. Special target drones are used to calibrate and check the sensors at both long and short ranges. The weapons systems will target on other drones for alignment and practice. Larger starships will also undergo a series of combat maneuvers that are conducted with the participation of other starships playing the part of an aggressor to put the ship and her crew through the paces in a live fire exercise. After completion of these maneuvers, the ship is normally assigned a shakedown cruise, usually lasting several months. During this time the ship and crew undergo a proper break-in period. The ship will normally conduct low level assignments and surveys. Once the ship has left the shipyard at her christening, Starfleet began the final acceptance work, and just prior to her shakedown cruise this process is completed. At the end of the shakedown cruise, the ships chief engineer and commanding officer give their reports and Starfleet reviews them prior to activating the ship. Once activated, she will be assigned to her duty station and sector patrol area. She joins her sisters as an official starship of the Federation, protecting the frontiers and exploring the deep unknown.