When the Enterprise B is launched at the start of Generations their is clearly a Starfleet admiral on the bridge. Wonder why she disappeared once the ship ran into trouble, could have offered up suggestions when the captain was clearly out of his depth. For anyone who was read the Novelisation was this admiral mentioned at all?
A woman given a position of authority over Kirk? Well I never! It's been a while since I read the novel and don't recall any of the guests or officials being identified, as for why she didn't take an active role in the events that happened I can only assume that she had more faith in Harriman to fulfil his role (how the E-B Captain is portrayed in Generations really bothers me, he's made to look like a bumbling fool just to make Kirk seem amazing).
She was probably in charge of the construction and decided not to say too much when everything they needed wasn't going to be installed until Tuesday.
Can't view the images right now...is she still clearly on the ship after they've left Spacedock? Maybe she was a desk jockey admiral and knew Kirk was better-suited for the situation. ...maybe this was Harriman's Kobayashi Maru test? ...wait...
An admiral at a PR event? She most likely disembarked before the E-B got under way. They were in a drydock up to that point, no? She was on the drydock at the beginning. Maybe she was over the Starfleet PR department.
She was probably an admiral in the publicity section, there for supervision of the big event - making sure the reporters saw what she (and Starfleet) wanted them to see.
That would be that Starfleet was unprepared to respond to a distress call a short distance from Earth?
Rather that consolidating all of their major systems install work to a single day was going swimmingly for all concerned!
You have to wonder why they didn't just delay the launch of the Ent-B until after all those major components were arriving on Tuesday. Maybe the launch was set on some historically important day, like a major anniversary, that Starfleet was trying to exploit for maximum publicity? Maybe the 30th anniversary of Kirk taking command in 2264?
To be fair, it's not like they expected to do anything than a quick run around the block. Besides a ship can be commissioned but not enter service immediatlky after the ceromony. It's not like that had been any incidents in the past when they needed a fully equpped and ready starship to respond to an emrgency situation.