Enlisting

Right away, most players will want to enlist aboard a starship. For citizens, a list of faction ships in orbit at the citizen's location can be brought up, from which the player may select a craft to join. Alternatively, a list of all faction ships across the entire galaxy can be browsed, for those players who might like to join their already-playing friends aboard a particular ship (the only trade-off being they'll have to wait for that ship to come to their location and bring them aboard).

Civilians come aboard ships in exactly the same way, although this is not technically 'enlisting'. Since they are not a citizen of the faction, boarding the craft will not make them a crewman, but a simple passenger (they may still work aboard the vessel to gain merit points and skill points, however). The advantage for civilians is that, when looking for a ship to board, ships of all factions are available as choices (although whether or not the chosen ship's Captain will bring civilians aboard is another matter).

Captains do not 'enlist' aboard a ship per se, but rather, they take command of one.