I know it's bad form to open a new thread for one that was locked, but I have run into this in a specific situation that is not necessarily related to the scenario.

ProfessorShwifty - are you playing on a server? I know some servers (specifically the HWS servers) do not have the updated UCH ships in the starting systems. You can tell if they have the engineering section unlocked at the back. These obsolete UCH ships do not interact with the PDA quest so you will need to locate a UCH sector outside of the starting systems.