Lieutenant JG Morro Caras - another empty chair

[Lhandon_Nilsen]

One of my favorite things to read in sims is the hint of the person a character is about to become. In this sim, Lhandon has been killed,* and the video is on display for all to see. Morro and Lhandon were close. We see Morro fight through the pain of seeing one of his closest friends lying dead on the screen, motivating Lhandon's old department into action and channeling their pain into something meaningful. This gives us a glimpse of the type of leader @Morro Caras will become.

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(( Stellar Cartography, Deck 11, USS Octavia E Butler ))

Lieutenant Junior Grade Morro Caras had just made a big mistake. He had not idea that the Zet were so driven by greed that ad revenues were even included in their most basic of tasks. It was a small oversight had lad large consequences, ads were now all over Astrometrics, and probably the rest of the ship.

Caras: You guys have advertisements in your ACCESS CODES? It got past the containment layer because your computer is on top of containment to pass the credentials through.

 

Forsyth: Turn it off, I’m starting to get a headache….

Grend: ::pressing an extra few buttons:: There we go. I never liked Gau’zu’rak, too much of a pompous pomp. Thinks they can fight but really couldn’t fight their way out of carrier bag.

Caras knew people like that in the Syndicate remnants. He was tired of Zet culture reminding him of home.

Promontory: Thanks. (beat) OK, is there anything useful behind all this?

Forsyth: S-Sorry, That just was a lot of noise.

Caras couldn’t blame Forsyth. Caras had been surprised by it as well, and didn’t know how to turn it off initially.

Grend: This is the “for one” page. The algorithm gives you what you most want based on what you’ve interacted with before. The trick is to not get sucked in.

Caras: And the point of information isn’t news but engagement to keep you on the platform long enough to buy a product.

There were markets like that in the vale. Traps to keep you in and spending, this was just the digital version of that.

Long scrolling viewers of information went through videos, pictures, and audio clips of day to day life on Koreli IV and their media covering it. Promontory eagle eyed as ever spotted something that pertained to them.

Promontory: Wait! (pointing) That one, what does it say?

Grend: A reward? ::looking at the officers next to him and then back to the page:: Are they your people?

Forsyth: Looks like a wanted poster, Sir.

Promontory: Wanted!? Oh no—no no no no no. This will not stand!

Caras saw three Starfleet officers on the poster. The pictures seemingly had been taken in motion or were pulled from security feeds. Caras immediately recognized the shapes of two of them. He gasped. Nilsen and Saa.

Grend: Purple? What does the purple one mean? That’s a royal colour, is he your king?

Caras: He would be one that would talk to kings. He’s our diplomatic officer.

Caras really wished that Nilsen was here to negotiate with Grend. The prince had been on his nerves most of the day.

Promontory: C’mon, we’re going to the Operations Center, we need to get to the bottom of this!

Forsyth: Of Course, Sir….

Grend: What is an Operations Center?

Could this Prince just not put two and two together? Morro gave this next comment through gritted teeth. 

Caras: If the computer core is the brain of the ship as an object, the operations center is the brain of the ship in the abstract as it relates to duty. Typically no information is coming in if ops is down. We’ll need its resources to go through all of this mess.

Forsyth: Response

((Operations Center, Lower Level, Deck 7, USS Octavia E Butler))

 

It didn’t take them long to get to operations. Engineering had apparently been hard at work on repairs and it seemed like a lot of the secondary systems were working, which meant that certain turbolifts could at least be reliable through the ship. Operations were alive with the crewmen going about their duties. A lot of processes were having to be done manually. They wouldn’t have been able to get the sensor data earlier if it wasn’t for the around the clock work of the Operations center. Grend looked enamoured with Operations when he came in. Caras supposed it was impressive. It was no dual warp core, but it was probably more reflective of the network of Royal workers that Grend was probably used to. People flowing in and out all having some kind of job to do.

Caras sat and pulled up the wanted poster, and more information about those on the surface, at least what was being posted about them. Grend was being uncharacteristically helpful.

Grend: What are their names?

Caras: Lieutenant Lhandon Nilsen, and Lieutenant Sevantha Saa.

It felt strange to introduce his two closest friends on the ship to a complete stranger while they weren’t there. Morro greatly disliked it, not that Grend would be someone he’d be eager to introduce.

Promontory/Forsyth: Response

Caras didn’t have any familiarity with Greaves, but Promontory seemingly did.

Grend: Lh'andon'Ni'l'sen, Se'van'tha'S'aa and We's'Gre'av'es. Got it. I'm going to search all the records I can

Caras: Don’t work too hard on those names. Prince Grend, I have a collection of postings for you to look at that the algorithm has picked up about Starfleet. Can you glance and them and tell me which ones might be 

The algorithms they ran, had already pulled all kinds of posts that had webbed out from the initial wanted poster. Most of them were rude comments about their uniforms, or how much of an inconvenience they were. Something must have happened.

Promontory/Forsyth: Response

Grend: There's one here. It's a post from Ka'al'sa'ylon'Stal. She's an opinion—erm...she says a lot of things, people listen to her. I think it's about them.

Grend played the video of Stal.

Ka'al'sa'ylon'Stal: They act so nice, as if Kaliwn could not melt in their mouths but as most Zet know, and now we will tell you; they are worse than the dominion. My name is Ka'al'sa'ylon'sive, I'm a political commentator specializing in intergalactic relations.

Grend: Another word for spouts rubbish.

Caras: That seems to be the consensus for this whole platform. Even the people on the platform agree that it’s bad. Why do they keep using it?

Promontory/Forsyth: Response (optional)

Ka'al'sa'ylon'Stal: Starfleet are here, let's talk about it. The video I'm about to show was automatically uploaded by my colleague Gi'We'Atyu'Ka'en'Hale. As you can see, she was attacked, without any reason by Starfleet, hiding as regular Danni.

A video then played in her feed of of Lhandon approaching the Zet named Gi'We'Atyu'Ka'en'Hale.

Ka'al'sa'ylon'Stal: You can see here that the Starfleet officer approached Gi'We'Atyu'Ka'en'Hale and in the interest of peace, which I can tell you, is all Hale wants, she did not open fire. In fact Hale tried to communicate with the officer however—

It quickly cut and then Lhandon firing on Hale,  Stal then interjected with her commentary.

Morro wanted to pause it but instead he let the video play out. There is no way it happened like that. Caras didn’t think that Stal was much of a reputable analyst.

Ka'al'sa'ylon'Stal: As you can see here, Starfleet wanted the communications node that Hale was working on, and instead of working with us or coming in peace like they proclaim; they opened fire upon Gi'We'Atyu'Ka'en'Hale, an Ephemeral Soldier working with her, the Ephemeral who were providing support and most damning of all, the two innocent Danni who had so kindly agreed to help Gi'We'Atyu'Ka'en'Hale with her work.

To Morrow, Stal seemed like she was milking it.

The video cut to the  winged Ephemeral flying above Lhandon and both of them firing at each other. The video paused suddenly.

The workers around the Operations Center stopped when Lhandon's image was displayed. Lhandon used to be their boss before this mission when he moved to the Diplomatic officer. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, but this was the best place to access this information. Morro didn’t believe any of this framing, he didn't think any of the other Starfleet personnel here would either. Lhandon’s jovial attitude and work ethic were well known.

Ka'al'sa'ylon'Stal: We are fortunate however to learn that while the brave Ephemeral was shot down, they were able to crawl to safety, and further.

She then cuts the video to show Lhandon lying motionless on his back, arms wide.

Morro’s heart skipped a beat.

Ka'al'sa'ylon'Stal: That brave and selfless Ephemeral was able to kill the Starfleet officer, so that one will no longer be a threat.

oO no… It can’t be Oo

There was an audible gasp from the operations, some giving an involuntary shudder, others just staring at where the video was being displayed. Morro was one of them. His heartbreak was almost audible.

oO it’s not true Oo

Ka'al'sa'ylon'Stal: Sadly, the Danni did not make it, and I'm waiting to hear back from Gi'We'Atyu'Ka'en'Hale to see if she survived, or if she had rehusked. I will keep you updated. Don't forget to follow me for more updates.

oO it’s not possible Oo

The video ends and Grend stopped it from looping.

Caras searched his feelings. Starfleet officers died in the line of duty all of the time. But it was his first mission as diplomatic officer. Why did it have to be him? Caras couldn’t process Lhandon’s death. Not right now. Not while Sevantha was still down there, and they were wanted. He had to make sure she didn’t share the same fate. He couldn’t lose both of them.

Grend: Erm...okay.

Caras: … why… He didn’t deserve that. He would have never fired without provocation. Her story is a lie, and I want justice for my friend. Our officer.

Caras was gripping the table hard.

Promontory/Forsyth: Response

Caras… attempted to pull himself together. He was doing his best but just the immense shock and stress… He couldn’t just stay quiet.

Grend: Maybe the security feeds then?

Caras: As long as we can use them to find the rest before they kill another one of us.

Promontory/Forsyth: Response

Caras was motivated now. But he couldn’t do this alone. He was now the tallest, so he stood up and looked at all of operations.

Caras: Operations. I know what you just saw was awful. Nilsen up until very recently was your Assistant Chief. We can’t let him die in vain. We need your help to find the others, with the power being unreliable and another fleet incoming, we have to be ready to either step in, or pull the rest of them out of there. I need your help to search through all of these thoughtless, contradictory posts and find things we can use. I also need a team dedicated to the filtering of ads. I wish it was more of a real fight, but it's the only fight that’s going to help us save the rest of the crew, and avenge Nilsen.

Some people in operations still looked distraught, most gave some nods and got to work. It did seem as motivational as Caras wanted, but it was better than staying in shock.

Grend/Promontory/Forsyth: Response

Caras: Prince, please help with those security feeds. If you can get us access. Please, you have to try. We’re trusting you. You’re the only one that can.

Things had gone from bad to worse. Caras didn’t want to shut down though. He couldn’t be idle. Not when others were in danger. He was frantic, and emotional, but he was trying to harness it for his duty. To get communication, to help the others. It’s what Nilsen would have wanted. He’d have to rely on this guy, but the stakes raised like this, Caras had no ego, he had no propriety. He’d beg the prince if he had to. His friends was gone, and if he didn’t act quick, they could lose more. He could lose her.

Grend/Promontory/Forsyth: Response

A Myriad of screens and feeds came up. Several active surveillance systems in the Palace and other properties seemingly owned by the Royalty on Koreli IV.

Advertisement: Gau’zu’rak Bazkite here for Gylelkeset, now that I've been taking Gylelkeset for awhile I get asked the question, “Is it ok if one limb hangs a little lower than the other”. Gylelkeset can…((muted))

Caras had learned the trick and muted the ad. He couldn’t make it go away but he could put it on the far side of the viewer. Caras checked the defense grid of the palace systems they were in. So far they hadn’t been detected. Then he saw something that caught his eye.

Caras: Palace holding? Do you guys have a prison in your palace? Like a dungeon?

Saying “dungeon” rattled Caras a little… there would be one empty seat at the Dungeons and Dragons table. He’d have to find a new spotter at the gym. He’d never look at Rugby the same again. He had to pull himself together. He couldn’t fall apart because Lhandon was gone. He couldn’t. He kept his resolve, but several tears welled up in his eyes. He persevered... for the moment.

Grend/Promontory/Forsyth: Response

 

[Tags!/TBC]

 

—

Lieutenant JG Morro Caras

Co Assistant Chief Engineer

USS Octavia E. Butler

O240106MC1

he/him/his (player/character)

*or has he?

[Richard Matthews]

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Caras: You guys have advertisements in your ACCESS CODES? It got past the containment layer because your computer is on top of containment to pass the credentials through.

God, can't even escape ads in the trek future. 

[Lhandon_Nilsen]

12 hours ago, Richard Matthews said:

God, can't even escape ads in the trek future. 

May I introduce you to unhinged, unlimited mega-capitalism. The character of Grend in that sim is a Zet...or to give him his full title; "The rightful Prince Da'ni'Grend of Koreli-Four and the Danni people, child of the slain king, Zet King Ma'det'ain'ths'ng'in'Grend"

https://wiki.starbase118.net/wiki/index.php?title=Zet

[Alora DeVeau]

I couldn't help but think of this song.
 

 

[Lhandon_Nilsen]

2 minutes ago, Alora DeVeau said:

I couldn't help but think of this song.
 

 

If the next act doesn't turn into Les Mis, I'll be most disappointed lol