The OP is explicit that the Dawn Treader is space navy. Anyway, what really interested me wasn’t people’s answer to either scenario alone, but rather the intersection of diergence of people’s reactions to both: that is whether people saw ordering the officer to sacrifice herself or himself to be a moral good in both stories, or a moral evil in both stories, and whythe situations are different.
I’d order the sacrifice in both scenarios. I’d prefer they volunteer first, though. Only in the first scenario would I consider failure to volunteer a moral failing, though - heroic self sacrifice is what you sign on for when you join this man’s space navy.
What if it’s not the navy?
Somebody upthread answered by saying that “Kaylee and Riker both bite it.” While Beardsley Mansluttison would surely have volunteered, should Cutie 'Wrench be ordered t die? She’s not a hero or a glory hound; she took the off-world job because there was no work at home and she needed to eat. (And often had to tighten her belt when working for Cap’n Hammer.)
In other words, do you try to force a civilian to play Horatio-in-the-warp-chamber?
And if not: why is Kaylee different than some other girl who went to Spacefleet Academy because she needed a job?
Philosophically it might be different for a civilian vessel, but in the real world it’s not (since so many are about to die) – if she’s the best choice, then I order her to do it. If she refuses, I’ll try to talk her into it if there’s enough time; if not, then I shoot her (assuming there are more officers with the skills) or threaten her (if there are not).
The Captain of a vessel has the same responsibility to the passengers and crew onboard whether or not he is military.
Depends on the general traditions of the service in question, IMO - i wasn’t talking about navies in general, I wouldn’t fault a modern navy engineer who didn’t want to obey such an order. It’s specifically the space aspect of it that I think demands the extra heroics - not because it’s an armed service, but because it’s PULP. Buck Rogers, Space Cadets, you know the drill.
I’d have answered differently if they were more traditional trolley scenarios. Not to the ordering the people, but as to the moral weight.
Based on my experience, what’s more likely to happen is that the skipper will relieved of command, and forced into “early retirement.”
If it’s not the navy, that means I get to hand-pick my crew; I’d rather not think about how desperate I’d have to be to hire an engineer who wouldn’t be willing to sign on for that risk.
Really? One of your interview questions will be, “Are you willing to commit suicide to save the remainder of the crew?” On a private vessel?
Which is why I said the skipper would be lucky just to be demoted. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if the exec-sacrificing skipper got relieved before his ship made port.
Well, I wouldn’t use those exact words… But yeah, I’d try to ask questions that would give me a good idea of how he or she felt about the notion of self-sacrifice. There’s a greater-than-zero percent chance that the majority (if not all) of my senior staff would be ex-Space Navy.
I think the supply of self-sacrificing engineers will be pretty small and not identical with the most technically gifted engineers, just as the set of officers most gifted at hand to hand combat wll not be identical to the set of the best medics.
ETA: I also doubt the qualities you seek will be educed by the interview process.
Small is fine; I just need greater than zero. I’ll close the deal.
I think you underestimate my ability to ask the right questions… 
You’re jesting, of course. But pretending that you’re not, I can only respond that there ARE no right questions to ask for a case like this. Nobody will know for certain whehter they’re willing to sacrifice themselves until they’re tested.
I have a test that would give some evidence.
You’d need to cobble together a rationale to hold the interview in the same space as a bunch of kids – maybe in a cafeteria.
Mid-interview you arrange for a Muslim looking guy to jump into the room, scream “Allah Akbar”, and throw a prop hand grenade right into the kids group.
Does your interviewee leap onto the grenade to save the kids? “You’re hired!”
Um, maybe a little tough on all concerned, but …
Hey buddy, who’s the star of this picture, you or me? 
Captain Kirk would have the right magic questions. Captain Reynolds would have the right magic questions. Hell, even Cap’n Crunch would have the right magic questions. I assure you that Captain Reluctant A. will also have all the right magic questions.
Alternatively, I will hire Natasha Romanov to conduct all of my personnel interviews.
Malcolm Reynolds didn’t even have a chief of the engineering deparment. He had a single mechanic who, when first put to the test, turned and ran under fire.
You hire your technical staff for their technical skill, because that’s what they need every day. You hire your tactical officers for badassery. And you can’t hire for willingness to commit heroic sacrifices, because there’s no reak wa to test for it that doesn’t destroy the test subject.
Sure there are; you just have to stop thinking like a Lawful Evil genius, and think more like a Chaotic Good genius.
—my bolding—
I agree with this.
I think it might be okay to ask the exec to volunteer for this honor, but I’m not even sure that is true.
But hardnosed thinking like this gets people killed, so I’m not sure what I’d actually do.
- I don; do D&D,
- This is not an Evil!Skald thread. If it were, I would have murdered you five times by now.
3 But if I WERE wearing the Cobra Commander headgear, I’d say that you’re confusing lawfulness with practicality. Just as you don’t kill someone for turning down a job offer (because otherwise the only people who’ll ever interview with you are the ones planning to assassinate you), you don’t break faith with your own people. If you’re a bad guy and one of your guys gets arrested while on a job for you, you either pay for his defense orbreak him out of jail. If you’re a good guy and somebody from my side demands you turn your exec over, you say “Nuts!”, because otherwise your other troops will refuse to follow even your lawful orders. - And as I said, there are limits to thinks you can test for. If you had a precog on staff you might be able to figure out whether an XO candidate had this problem coming, but if you had a precog onstaff you’d never have had the alien attack problem in the first place.
Ah, but you’re forgetting about my personnel interviewer, Black Widow. She’ll get the answers to the questions that the applicants didn’t even know they were being asked.
The other three points don’t really address my objection, and we mostly agree in principle on #3, anyway.