cthia wrote:This has always amused me quite a bit. How does Honor know so much about engineering? She seems to be quite knowledgeable about certain aspects of her Chief Engineer's bailiwick. I would have missed it on a Jeopardy question about how much cross training a CO has.
It's been pointed out in several places that the Meyerdahl genetic modifications resulted in high intelligence and a brighter mind-glow. Might those mods have also brought increased memory capacity? It would be useful at Saganami Island, where the preparation of Queen's Officers would include exposure to all aspects of a ship's operations. By the time she was ready for her middy cruise, she'd be ready for the hands-on exposure to those aspects, and learn even more though experience.
I've often thought that part of Honor's tactical ability comes from her deep interest in military history, and that would be even more effective if (as I expect) she's endowed with greater memory capacity and enhanced abilities at correlation and pattern analysis.
As a former Army officer, I was at least exposed to how every branch operates, even though we were expected to choose a branch and specialize. An officer can do their own specific job better if they understand where that job fits into the big picture. Honor would have trained the same way, but with increased mental capacity and longer learning time due to prolong, she'd have been a walking encyclopedia of military ops by the time she made Admiral.