“Returning to your own situation, why would a Scientist want to go along to the Wars or more specifically, why would an officer want to take the burden of accepting a Scientist on his team?”
“I did not express myself clearly. I do not wish to serve under you as a Scientist, but as a Warrior. My progress in the Scientist caste has slowed to immobility, and my superiors have suggested to me with increasing frequency that I could perhaps better serve the Empire in another caste. If this is to be the case, my personal choice for an alternate career is the Warrior caste.”
Though I tried to suppress my outrage at the implications in his statement, my next question came out more terse than I would have liked.
“Then you feel that the Warrior’s path is easier to follow than the Scientist’s?”
“For me it is. Do not misunderstand me. I am not attempting to depreciate the difficulty of the Warriors’ caste. However, for me fighting has always been easy, too easy. That’s why I entered the Scientists’ caste. With my build, it was no great achievement to run faster or hit harder than the others in training. It required no effort, so I had no feeling of serving the Empire. Having failed as a Scientist, however, it is time for me to swallow my personal feelings and preferences and serve the Empire in the capacity I am most suited for, specifically as a Warrior.”
“So you turn to me with my lack of positive-negative judgment, expecting me to somehow make special allowances for you?”
“Not at all. I expect to carry my full weight as a team member. However, I would hope to find a commander who did not hold my non-Warrior background against me, but rather would use my supplemental knowledge and abilities to best advantage. I ask no more than any Tzen, and that is the chance to be efficient, to make maximum use of all my abilities.”