The Science Of Planets:  Introduction

Greetings, students, and welcome to this introductory course.  I am Elder Kh’preng, Servant of the Web, former envoy of the Crystal Confederation, and your teacher here today.

First and foremost:  Questions will NOT be permitted during this session.  This policy always causes some unrest, so I shall explain.  As candidates for Command School, you are among the best and brightest that each of your respective societies can offer for training.  It is only natural to expect that, in a spirit of inquiry, you may become curious about the finer details of engineering or navigation.  Resist that urge!

The First Rule Of Command:  Your job is to lead; theirs to follow.  In order to lead, you must know just enough of each specialty to permit your people to do their jobs.  If you know too much, you will be tempted to meddle.  This will inevitably reduce operational efficiency, undercut your authority, and insult your officers, each of whom is a professional who has long since mastered the finer details of their position.

In keeping with this principle, our objective in this class will be to acquaint each of you with only that basic scientific knowledge required of any future commander.

Ah!  A question, and right here in the front row.  Yes? …uh-huh… OK, I’ll repeat this so the rest of the class can benefit from the lesson.  The question is, “So why does that make questions harmful?”  Permit me to demonstrate:

*SQRRRTCH*

Now, this should serve both as an object lesson, and as a demonstration of the web capabilities of mature Crystallines.  You see, it’s not just our ships.  Ehh… could someone free up the lad’s nose?  I fear he may be suffocating.  No; not the mouth.  He won’t need that.

Any other questions before we get started?  No?  Excellent.

The first slide, please.