This is something that has bothered me quite a bit recently and I haven't seen many, if any discussions about this.
Why would someone work at the NSS Exodus, when it's in a dangerous space environment subject to meteor impacts, space carp migrations, occasional department wide plasma fires, occasional engine complications and also being (excuse me if I'm wrong) canonically also affected by occasional raider or terrorist attacks? Even if the latter doesn't apply anymore, it's still ridiculously dangerous because you can still see at least a couple of deaths in every round (even if it's extended), and honestly, most characters are so apathetic they don't react to severe workplace hazards, accidents or deaths anymore. Realistically and when compared to other environments, workplace injury and death rates would be high even for occupations that don't directly deal with dangerous elements (engineering, science and security being the departments exposed to the most risk). Even with a well-staffed medical department, it would do little to help during severe accidents. It's just too risky for anyone.
I could only come up with two main logical reasons for this. One, that NT pays far higher salaries (along with hazard pay perhaps) to any employees who are willing to be assigned to dangerous workplaces such as space stations. That way, people who are willing to risk their life for a higher pay are attracted to the NSS Exodus, and eventually are so used to the environment that they can't afford to be emotional about this. This would make sense for some of the lower departments such as supply, civilian or security who don't earn much of a high wage in normal situations. Working as an engine technician or plasma researcher here would be pretty much a deathwish due to how sensible and subject to sabotage their related facilities are, so why would they bother coming here when they have enough education to possibly secure a high-paying job on a safer planet? You could say that some plasma researchers are fanatical about their job, but this is surely not the only plasma research facility in the galaxy.
The second reason is political motivations or industrial espionage. As far as I know, the NSS Exodus is at least somewhat (politically) relevant in the system, so some of the employees are bound to be corporate spies hired to steal research data or sabotage important facilities, political instigators determined to destabilize important NT holdings or spies employed by nations to gain intel about NTs developments. This is already reflected in our antagonist system so it makes sense.
So why do YOUR characters risk their life working in this environment, when something lesser could perhaps do the job? The thrill of danger? Being willing to do anything for a better pay? Anything else? Typically when I asked people about this in the past they couldn't give me many good responses, sometimes even saying that it didn't matter.
