This may be a very stupid question, but do we get to use our player character skills in space as commands? Do you have to rely only on your bridge officers for abilities?
I'm a tac officer and I can train in stuff like Beam overload III and other tac abilities, but I'm unable to see or even add them to my abilities command bar when in space, I can only add the abilites that my bridge officers have been trained in. Basically, if they don't have it, I can't use it.
For example, since you're a Tac you can train Beam: Fire at Will III. That's a BO ability that you can train one of your Tac BOs with.
However, you get your own Captain abilities. Tacs get Attack Pattern: Alpha, Fire on my Mark, Go Down Fighting, Tactical Initiative, and Tactical Fleet. These Captain abilities are inherent to you, and don't depend on your BOs. So if you go into say, a Cruiser (which lacks the BO slots for your trained abilities to be used), you'll still have them.