I’m afraid I haven’t given a whole lot of explanation for this one.
The Kandarinese have found a funny little (or not so little) device, and they think they know what it does. However, one Kandarinese faction wants to keep this a secret from another, and so they’re looking around a bit for talent, although they are looking for awfully odd talent: things like astronomers, cartographers, historians, linguists, and biologists.
It’ll all be clearer a bit further on.
Since I’ve gradually realized that most of the EP had gotten the wrong idea about it, I owe you all an explanation for the geographical situation here:
-Malev, the capital of Kandarin, is not in the East Pacific. It is elsewhere, several thousand miles (possibly tens of thousands, depending on what the NS-'verse is) in a direction roughly north of the region. Malev is not on the EP map and will not be on the map.
-The Kandarinese territory in The East Pacific is an underpopulated, underappreciated, unincorporated backwater territory. It serves as a crossover point for the underground rail networks and little else, connecting more important hubs slightly north of the regional border and in Sparta Nuva, respectively.
-The finding Sartorio is interested in is in the aforementioned backwater territory and not anywhere near Malev.
The head of Caer’s transport team is from the Navy because the Federation has no standard air force. As a result, the Navy (space, not blue-water) fills the role of air support and so most officers with any experience with conventional aircraft can be found there.