Lower Decks, LTJG Caras, Lahl & Nis, USS Octavia E Butler

[StarBase 118 Staff]

We’re here with another interview featuring a newer member of our community. The title of this column is “Lower Decks,” a nod to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode of the same name, in which junior officers aboard the Enterprise-D speculate on the reasons behind recent unusual actions taken by the command crew near the Cardassian border. The theme was further popularized by the animated series Lower Decks, which ran for five seasons, following the antics of an engaging group of junior officers as they carried out missions aboard the USS Cerritos.

This month’s interview is particularly special because we are speaking with three lower deckers from the USS Octavia E. Butler: Lieutenant Junior Grade Morro Caras and Kimonzi Lahl, both engineers who recently became co-assistant chiefs of engineering, and Jania Nis, a medical officer who was recently promoted to assistant chief medical officer, specializing in physical health.

Nilsen: Folks, it’s awesome to have all three of you at the newsies desk. Let’s kick things off with introductions. Tell us a little about the writer behind the character—where in the world do you hail from? Anything you’d like to share!

Caras: I hail from a little place called Texas, USA. For work, I’m a computer infrastructure engineer. Tabletop RPGs are my primary hobby that eats up all my weekends in the best way. I used to be a forever GM but not as much nowadays. I’ve done some forum RP, but this is my first PBEM.

Lahl: I’m an attorney on the West Coast of the United States working in Civil Insurance Defense. I’ve had some experience playing in Star Trek-themed games, but like Nis’s player, this is my first time playing by email. 

Nis: I’m an anthropologist and tour guide who lives in Yucatan, Mexico. I study Maya culture and history. I’ve been writing fiction since I was a little kid, and I come from a gaming family. My mom played D&D back when it was an all-white box and the rules made no sense. This is my first time doing a PBEM game though. 

Why did you choose your specific character and duty post? Was it the vibes? Any sources of inspiration?

Caras: I wanted to create a character that was amicable so that he could fit in anywhere. Big, cute, and kind of dumb, but his heart was always in the right place and he had the spirit. They say write what you know so engineering seemed like a natural fit. I accidentally made Morro Caras an idiot savant, but he still has his struggles.

Lahl: So, Kimonzi Lahl was a Trill character I had back with an RP I did with a friend. Like many things with that friend we’ve ebbed and flowed with it, and Kimonzi is almost entirely different here than she was in that RP. I’ve also loved the Trill as a concept and love playing as them in RPs as the past hosts allow so many different opportunities for shenanigans.

Nis: She’s already strayed pretty far from her original inspo, but one time when I had a severe medical issue in Mexico, I had this bizarre doctor who wore scrubs with little skulls on them, looked like she was about 12, and kept telling she needed to cut me open to “palpate” my organs. It was disturbing and I decided to go with a doctor who didn’t want to palpate me, but that planted the seeds of Jania. I ended up adding a lot of Jania’s faceclaim’s (Alexia Demie) personality to the character, so she still prefers to get her hands dirty rather than use a tricorder, but she also likes spa days and spending hours on her hair. She’s got layers!

What was your introduction to science fiction in general and Star Trek specifically? What brought you to SB118?

Caras:  My late grandfather was a geek back before people had a word for it. He was reading the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings books as they were coming out. He was the one who introduced me to Star Wars, Star Trek, and a whole slew of science fiction and fantasy. When I’d stay with my grandparents we’d always watch a Star Wars movie, and reruns of TNG. As for how I discovered SB118; My wife , who sims as Sevantha Saa, joined and was telling me how exciting it was. I had never really joined her full-heartedly into an RP that wasn’t a TTRPG, and I had been going through all of TNG/DS9/VOY for the first time as an adult. It sounded fantastic so I signed up.

Lahl: Star Trek was the movies with my Dad and Uncle. (I’m fairly certain the first one I technically saw was Insurrection, but I was a kid.) The first introduction to science fiction that I remember was the Special Edition VHSes of Star Wars when I was a kid. (As I’m typing this, I can look at my television stand and see where those old VHSes in the box set are. What can I say? I’m a hoarder collector.) And then my actual fandom intro Star Trek was discovering DS9 when it was on Spike TV back when I was a preteen/teen. Still my favorite Star Trek series. 

I discovered Starbase 118 because I was looking for reference photos for a different chat based role play I was about to participate in, and someone’s picture was one of the top results. I went to the website and was like, “Oh hell yeah, I’m down for this.”

Nis: I loved TOS and the movies when I was a kid. Mostly it was the vibe (best uniforms are still the Wrath of Khan ones, fight me if you disagree!), but I also appreciated the utopianism which was so rare in other scifi works. I like a good post-apocalyptic thriller as much as the next person, but there was just something different about Star Trek. I honestly don’t click too much with most of the new stuff coming out, mostly because it’s steered pretty far from the utopianism, but I absolutely loved Lower Decks. One thing that’s fun about this game is I can play Jania to be a utopianist without her being naive. She believes in the essential goodness of the Federation. 

You three have really made an impact in your short time here, and it’s hard to imagine the OEB without you. What’s been your favourite in-character moment so far?

Caras: You’re making me choose? I don’t like being the centre of attention in a scene. I wrote Caras to help mix in with anyone and be able to bring the best out of other characters. But I will say having to really drill down on Caras’ personal issue was a challenge and it spun straw into gold for me. His scene in the gym with Lhandon Nilsen after he discovered that his sister had been abusing him for his entire childhood really made me value him as a character.

Lahl: My favourite in-character moment to write was Kimonzi’s Zhian’tara. Each person from my crew that I brought into the JPs helped really frame Kimonzi’s headspace and her journey to become a Joined Trill. To read, it was probably the lead up and then finale to our Time Heist mission, where Kimonzi was trying to stay alive long enough to get the rest of her team home. Fricken’ Iain Turnbull stealing my “most dramatic end to the mission” crown at the last minute.

Nis: If you mean her most heroic moment, I’d say it was doing surgery on the Lahl symbiont. It was the first time I’ve ever really written medical drama, so I spent a lot of time researching conventions of the genre to avoid messing up too much. In the end, I wrote something I was really proud of, and I think Nick and I did a great job making Kimonzi seem like she was in legitimate danger even if we knew behind the scenes that Jania would be successful. But I think I’ll be most remembered for canonising the idea that there is a rumour in the Academy that the Butler has the hottest crew in Starfleet …. 

Yes, we are the hottest ship in the fleet. What’s next for our trio? What are your goals, both IC and OOC? Where do you see yourselves in the next five years? In command? Heading up a department? World domination?

Caras: IC Caras is trying to do his best as Co-assistant chief engineer. He’s somewhat in over his head, but he’s lucky he has Lahl there. He just wanted to make friends and show people the kindness that Starfleet showed him. I think he’d make a great Chief Engineer or diplomatic officer. My goal would be to have him dual-wield that kind of responsibility on a mission by having to interact with a species that is all digital or artificial. OOC, my goal is to sim with everyone’s PC on the ship. Something that I still haven’t done yet, so there are a few people I’m gunning for this shore leave. I’d also like to do a mission proposal sometime in the next year, but I really only want to do it If I have an idea I think is worthwhile; I’m sure it will come to me.

Lahl: ICly, Kimonzi is trying to keep it up with her new responsibilities and is trying to figure out if she really wants to know what happened to her late boyfriend from the Academy. OOCly, I want to climb up and eventually command a ship. (I have some ideas already for what type of ship and missions I would want to do.) But in the short term, I’m hoping to get into the mentoring game and help out with the Academy.

Nis: My mentor and I have chatted about this and one thing that’s tough about Nis is she’s actually happy where she is. She likes to be a doctor, she likes to be on a starship, and she likes to help people in a direct way. I can’t imagine her as a captain. CMO maybe. So that’s good for her, but not as easy for me from a narrative standpoint, because I sometimes struggle with giving her something to strive for. Protagonists are not supposed to be happy! I have some ideas for her to experience a failed romance, but as far as her career, I couldn’t imagine her being happy if she got taken out of sickbay, so I hope if I’m still writing her in five years, she’s still getting the chance to palpate her colleagues.

Thanks for your time,  Caras, Lahl & Nis

You can read more about LTJG Morro Caras, Kimonzi Lahl & Jania Nis on the wiki by clicking their names. 

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