IT Expert

IT Expert
Description:	The IT Expert is at home as soon as they are in front of a screen. They manipulate the nexus, navigation and communications terminals with ease. +2 per day (IT Action Points). Bonus for developing certain NERON projects.
Learned by:	Janice 2 Eleesha 4 Frieda 4 Terrence 5 Unknown Character	If Mush:	Kept

This versatile skill gives free action points to multiple actions around the ship. Progressing NERON Projects, Laboratory Researches, working at Comms Centre and analysing zones in planets (note: only analysing zones, not scanning for new planets) are all choices available to the IT Expert, worth 2 each. In addition to that, the base rate of success with the Hacker Kit is doubled to 50%.

Despite the fact that Janice gets this skill early, it is not crucial for her, as BIOS access does not require and Janice's main task is not research, but keeping high. Yet she usually can do these things passively (except for the occasional comfort action) and spend her on whatever is needed most, in which it supports her without limiting her options. Especially effective when used on NERON Projects when combined with NERON's only friend.

For Eleesha the skill comes into play when she succeeds Paola as the Communications Officer and starts to decode Rebel Base signals (also her objective), decipher the Xyloph DB, connect to Sol and upgrade NERON. (Given Janice's reasonably high position in the corresponding title list, this may apply to her as well.)

For Frieda, this is a straight up boost to her planet scanning ability, and arguably better than Pilot as she does not have the to properly do both scanning and flying. Also, because she is usually on the bridge, the boost to hacking the Navigation terminal can come in very handy to get the ship out of danger when the commander is unavailable. She also has a great interest in helping with CPU Overclocking, which further enhances her scans.

Terrence should put this to use on NERON Projects as well, to which he gets a number of efficiency boosts from his other skills (mostly Technician). Also, his scrap heap in Alpha Bay 2 and PILGRED tend to keep him around the back of the ship anyway.

The first candidate for an IT expert Unknown Character is Paola as the acting Comms Officer, where the 4 extra will be put to good use. Other reasonable candidates include Finola and Ian (if Biologist), getting good value out of free research points in the Lab, or Kuan Ti and Raluca for NERON. Apprenticeship or Mage Book use by Stephen may be also considered if he becomes Comms Officer.