Star Trek Online

I'm pretty confused, now. The missions seem pretty jumbled. I thought I was following the "beginner path" and all of a sudden I'm in the middle of the Terran Gambit arc? "The Calling" was put up front for me after completing the tutorial. I believe I accepted that mission along with Diplomatic Orders. Diplomatic Orders is what starts the Klingon War arc (which should be "first" I would think), but The Calling is in the middle of the Terran Gambit (and I'm absolutely getting my butt kicked in the space combat portions).

I partly want to go back and start a new character just to "erase" having touched the Gambit arc. Should I be closely following the wiki to make sure I'm proceeding in chronological order? Or am I expecting STO to be more like Final Fantasy XIV where each expansion builds on the last? Is STO less linear, maybe?

I want to love this game, and it feels so close to a super fun experience, but I'm not sure if it's quirks I need to get used to, or a shift of mindset.

So, I'm not even out of the tutorial yet (I think...

spoiler

we just blew up a Borg Cube and I need to speak with Janeway on Starbase 1

), and flight during combat feels "wrong" somehow. I'm finding it very hard to maintain any sort of focus on the target.

All of the tutorials/faqs seem to focus on stats and optimization, but nothing about basic flight controls. Something just doesn't seem to be clicking for me. Maybe it's just the slow intro ship, or should I not be constantly trying to maintain an orbit around the target?

If it makes any difference, I'm playing as a Starfleet (post tng) officer.

I'm legitimately astonished that they're adding new bridges to the game.