Alright, from what I understand, here's some potential jobs of everyone who submitted sheets.
Indigo Diadem (Kj1225), in charge of security and armory, expert on studying new cultures
Averus_Salamoth (Pencil_Art) Biologist, expert chemist
Cathelyn (Arcvasti) Biological surveyer, expert genetic engineer/analyst
S4 (Tiruin) Ship's doctor, expert in both xenobiology (studying unknown life forms) and medicine (in a wide variety of species)
Jiggle (LuckyKobold), engineer and (when need be) mechanic
Sound-Glorious-And-Bring-New-Life-Unto-Creation (Dorisdwarf) diplomat, communicator, negotiator
Everyone else either hasn't submitted a sheet yet, or didn't include any skills (or just athletic/combat skills only). Unless I missed someone.
So, Y'ALL NEED MORE SKILLS.
Err, Hugo?
People aren't limited by how skilled they are--in reality, too. While society may run on the case of 'required knowledge', that is not how the person is...constructed, so to say. One may be skilled in retail, yet be able to diffuse a situation where an armed and crazed robber barges into the store because of their knowledge and experience in communication (though unlisted).
Make leeway for a trial by fire, is what I'm saying. Given the discussions now--we may be dangerously verging on analysis paralysis, wherein one goes too much into the details that the fleshed out version is...akin to the concept of 'best on paper'.
In this case, "able to diffuse a tense situation" would also be on the skill list of the hypothetical retailer. Though there is room for hidden depths, I suppose. It's just ATM it looks like we have mostly fighters etc. and I think some people simply forgot the other skills after putting down their racial abilities.
So, Y'ALL NEED MORE SKILLS.
What? Skills? I thought they were throwing us into an event horizon precisely because we were shit at things and thus entirely expendable. Why would you throw anybody competent or halfway needed by society in there? They probably thought better of it after the first three times they tried it at the very latest.
Speaking of, have they tried probes? And if those didn't work or emerge somewhere else in the universe, why do they think sending people into it is anything but a monumentally stupid idea and a waste of resources and gumption that could be better used in the salt mines of Paradise-27a?
Somewhere I stated that no one had ever flown into it deliberately before, but they had tried many probes in the past.
FAKEDIT: It was in the pitch on the Gaming Block thread
The players are on a ship headed on an expedition into "The Dark Star," a huge event horizon that seems to have far less mass than a black hole should have. Nothing that's gone into it has ever been heard from again, though aside from probes no one's ever intentionally flown into it.
So, the entire thing banks on the fact that this is something no one has ever tried before, so people going in prepared might have a chance. If they just wanted to get rid of unimportant people, why would they bother with the pretense of an expedition in the first place? That only makes sense if the person they were trying to get rid of was some kind of scientific authority or other figure with too much influence to simply assassinate. Everyone else thinks it's a suicide mission, but the entities funding/supplying this have been convinced that there's a small chance at least they'll get a return on their investment. Let's assume some bright spark pitched the idea, and the crew are volunteers unless otherwise stated.