JP: Lieutenant Commander Josh Herrick & Lieutenant JG Morro Caras - Nothing causes much ado
Morro Caras
((Club Cloud, Erupta, The Skies of Seytoxal))
((Time Index: After Awards))
Morro Caras was back on Seytoxal, but this time on a completely different geographical location, at a new resort. This one was far different than the one he had been to previously. Morro was sadly still in uniform despite it being a club; a series of events had left him unable to change. Morro dug having a department-only afterparty.
Usually, they sat with their own division at a series of tables, and then there was a lot of mingling afterward, But this time it was just them. Not everyone always mingled. Most of the science officers actually kept to their own since a lot of them were introverts. Engineering was always a mix. Caras was a very extroverted and outgoing person, he had collected a lot of the introverts in the lower decks and had introduced them to people in other divisions. Cliques had formed within engineering as well, and now as one of the acting heads of engineering, he found himself out of most of the circles. He had gotten a lot of congratulations, but no one really stayed to chat.
Morro sought out Josh Herrick, their newly designated intelligence officer. He was curious to what his share of the duties were as Acting Chief of Exterior Systems and Propulsion. Josh quickly gave him a rundown. Once Herrick had made it pretty clear to Morro what his split of the work was, an ensign came up to give them both congratulations on their new positions.
Ensign: Congratulations you two! Do you guys talk about anything other than work though?
The happy ensign walked off without a care after dropping that bomb. Had Morro ever talked to Josh about anything other than work? How well did he actually know Josh Herrick?
Caras: I mean we don’t only talk about work right? She’s exaggerating.
Herrick: I mean… When you’re serving on a ship that’s as ‘accident prone’ as the Butler, and with how passionate the team is, I would say it’s a safe bet that 99% of our conversations are work-related.
Caras pontificated on this for a moment. It was true, most of the engagements for conversation were mostly work related because people would come up to Morro about a work thing, and then disperse interpersonal banter while he was working on a problem for them. Or they had questions about a replicator or the holodeck, and then they would talk to him about their latest creation.
Caras: Right… Right! Yes so how is ::pause:: how are… things?
Josh took a moment to answer the question. First looking across the sea of familiar faces, most folks had elected to participate in this evening’s theme of ‘One with the Clouds,’ Vulcans excluded. After looking at various photos of clouds and negotiating with the replicator, he achieved something satisfactory.
The hour spent selecting it had been a good distraction from the awards ceremony, which had felt like a final step from one chapter to another. Now, seeing the team here, the ex-chief was reminded again.
Herrick: Complicated; it feels like I’m leaving a piece of myself behind.
The word had left his mouth before he’d thought to stop it, but today, things were closer to the surface.
Caras: I see. No doubt, no doubt.
Josh cast an upward eyebrow toward the emerald-toned officer. This was killing Morro, usually he was really good at this. Josh wasn’t even his boss anymore.
Herrick: We could talk about something else that is less deep. (beat) Perhaps the conflicting reports we received on who actually solved our computer core woes — I’d never seen someone literally write themselves as a ‘hero’ in an official report before.
Caras: To be honest a specialist is like that is what was needed. I wouldn’t have trusted myself with such a delicate operation, not after being the one that botched it. If they want to be the hero and that’s what they need seems ok to me. As long as our ship doesn't suffer from multiple personalities, I'm fine.
Herrick: (musing) A computer with dissociative identity disorder, wouldn’t that be something? I’ve always found our interface to be a little more… aware than most. I did find it interesting that we are still working to extract it from our systems.
Caras: Well it seems like Lahl will be keeping an eye out for it for now, since computers are now in her purview. Though if anything breaks containment or becomes a problem, at that point it might be an intelligence risk. You might be within your duties to stop it.
Caras was mostly joking about that… Mostly.
Josh let Morro’s comment wash over him, the engineering department’s responsibility versus intelligence; it was an unintentional prod for him to start reframing how he thought about his role on the ship.
Even though the Orion was several years younger than him, everyone’s life widely varied. Perhaps he could offer some advice or at least just an ear. He’d heard their folk had tended to be good sounding boards, at least when they weren’t pirating ships and taking loot.
Herrick: Have you had much success at moving through larger life changes?
Caras: I’m not sure. I feel like my life is more a series of books I never finished. None of the chapters feel closed. I recently ran into someone from my past here in the Gamma.
The thought of his past catching up with him was still fresh on Morro’s mind. It was a near miss.
Herrick: Oh?
Caras: I actually got to do a bit of intelligence work. Got to play spy or secret agent for a day. It ended up being kind of a dead end, but it was fun to do. Found out the old pirate captain I was shadowing is washed up. There is a reason that he was probably pushed out of the Vale, where I'm from.
When Josh had been forced to relive six months of their timeline, as was first approached by Starfleet Intelligence, his imagination also conjured up scenes of secret infiltrations and double identities. In reality, which he should have realized from Avander’s time in the position, the bulk of it was pulling at threads and stringing them together until they formed some coherent form of connective tissue.
In some cases, it’d been several months of research and validation before spending a single day in the field to vet the quality of the whispers and supposition in person. Rumours and intrigue were in abundance, unlike facts.
Herrick: Your experience sounds a lot closer to what I experience in holo-novels, but it’s a lot less glamorous than you might suspect.
He was sure he’d actually heard that same line in one of those holo-novels, but he never believed the character. Morro hadn’t mentioned how recent his secret agent playacting was, and given that the second officer hadn’t seen an official report, he decided against asking about it. He’d learned that some lines of questioning were better abandoned when no one would benefit.
Caras: ::laughing:: It wasn’t glamorous at all. It was mostly just staying quiet, having drinks, dancing, and not blowing my cover. A diplomat ended up doing all for me in order to settle a personal matter. I just had to stand there, observe it, then write my report after.
Herrick: And that bit about the Vale, is that one you consider done with now?
Caras: The vale is a harsh lawless place, Orion, Gorn, Ferengi, some Klingons and then a handful of native species. My parents are still there and they were trying to kill me when my sister and I reached out to Starfleet. My sister hasn’t responded to any of my messages since I graduated from the academy. So to answer your question; no… none of my chapters are closed. I just keep opening new books.
It wasn’t a sad remark. To Caras, Starfleet was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He met the best people he had ever known here. He had friends, best friends even. Morro was just very aware that at any point in time his past could catch up to him.
Herrick: So then what piqued your interest in Starfleet?
Caras: It’s funny, the first Starfleet officers I ever met were intelligence officers now like yourself. I think one is still around, but the rest are retired or I just can’t find them. They offered my sister and myself asylum for a large amount of intel on the remainder of the Orion syndicate. I think they used that intel to make plans. Plans that are need to know, and despite being from the Vale and those pirates, I don’t need to know.
Morro was fine with that, but this was the first time he had actually talked about it. He and his sister had always wanted to run away, they even tried a few times, but they could never get far enough; they were always found and returned to their parents.
Herrick: And are you still close with your sister?
The comment of Morro’s kin reminded the Terran that he hadn’t yet contacted Em, his own sister, since his father had surprised him back on DS9.
Morro’s face visibly darkened. He gave a hard, definitive answer.
Caras: No.
It was possible that the topic was off limits unless you were in the confines of a gym. Josh seemed to come around with another good personal question.
Herrick: And, another book in-flight is your relationship with Lieutenant Saa?
Josh started to feel he was leading an interrogation rather than a friendly conversation, but he was getting to know the man he’d spent the last nine months with considerably better in the last nine minutes.
But they were on the topic of relationships and it was a small ship. Morro and Sevantha were always seen together if it wasn’t the gym. He was asked constantly by others if they were dating, up until recently he had always brushed it off with an answer in the negative. This was the first time that question had come up, and it was difficult to answer it.
Caras: We’re friends. I think she’s one of my best friends. Right up there with Lhandon.
It was not a lie by any stretch, but it was rather unconvincing.
Herrick: That’s it?
Caras: ::sigh:: No. Recently things took a turn. They’ve gotten more complicated. How did you know?
Herrick: I wasn’t sure, until now at least.
Morro winced a little. When someone always projected a jovial and welcoming front, it was easy to notice when they were being uncharacteristically quiet and reserved. Plus he had been actively hiding from Sevantha for a week or so.
Caras: Dating, particularly in Starfleet, is a minefield. That and it’s something I have no experience with. I’ve always struggled with almost everything in my life.((beat)) Except with Sevantha, everything is easy. It feels so natural. It scares me. If I'm just not good enough for it or mess it up, I'm not sure what I'll have. Taking a step into dating seems like breaking down a dam, you can’t put it all back in, you have to build a new one.
Josh sighed; Starfleet seemed to have a liberal take on onboard relationships that was too comfortable for him. The general rule was as long as they didn’t fall within the same department hierarchy or command team, you were ‘golden.’
But, for him at least, other things muddied the waters, like rank disparity. Immediately Eli popped into his mind.
Herrick: I wouldn’t push you in either direction. I worry that a ship of six hundred crew is a relatively tight boat with everyone in each other’s business. If anything did happen, would you be able to keep things amicable?
Caras: I can’t imagine a world where she and I are not friends, and I don’t want to.
Morro had friends; real friends for the first time in his life. If he and Sevantha chose to pursue a romantic direction with their relationship and it didn’t work out, he would fight with every proton in his being. Until all the energy that one could call the being “Morro” was no longer in his conscious control, he would try to be friends with her.
Herrick: ::nodding:: I’ve had past relationships where we’ve remained friends but I won’t lie and say the dynamic hasn’t shifted following the breakup. Before we pursued each other, there was this spark of ‘will they, won’t they’ which meant that I’d go above and beyond to find ways to spend time together. Once that spark fizzled… well you get the idea.
Caras: I’ve heard that. I don’t think I’ve ever had that with Sevantha. To me there isn’t a spark, it’s just like someone started slowly turning up the heat.
Morro was mostly oblivious to others' perceptions about his own relationship with Saa. Despite being a pen pal with her, then her being on the ships for months and them growing even closer, the most they had gotten was a “are you two a thing”? Which at the time they were not, so Morro answered pretty openly.
Herrick: I don’t know how long an Orion lives, but there will always be reasons not to do something. But if you’re always choosing what you consider to be the easiest or least risky, you’ll never reap the rewards of what could have been. Why deny yourself the chance of ultimate happiness on odds alone?
Was romantic involvement truly the ultimate happiness? Morro wondered. He had never seen a real life relationship workout like it did in the holonovels. His parents were a mess. Sevantha’s seemed mostly ok. Most of the couples that had been around him for an extended period of time seemed like they were time bombs. Could this path with Sevantha really be ultimate happiness? She had already made him so happy as his friend. It was hard to imagine being happier.
Caras: I’m not a bad gambler, but weighing the risks is very difficult with something I treasure so deeply that I feel like I just got.
As they moved on to lighter topics, one of the servers had dropped by with their ‘snacks’ of the night. Shot glasses were being distributed between them, each with a different cloud-like vapour. After confirming there would be no intoxication post-consumption, each of them grabbed one and pounded it back.
For just a split second, their skin felt as if it were under infrared lamps, and then there was an immediate shift as if they were transported into a blizzard. The effects quickly dissipated, leaving them back in the same state before they’d started.
Herrick: See, why deny yourself something unforgettable?
Caras: You’re right. It was very nice talking to you… Josh. I’ve got to go. Have a good night!
That was the first time Morro had used his first name directly when speaking to him. Morro gave Josh a brief hug. There were a lot of firsts tonight. He ran to the edge of the balcony of the club and tapped his comm badge. The shimmery energy of the transporter soon appeared around him to take him to his next destination.
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Lieutenant Commander Josh Herrick
Intelligence Officer | Second Officer
USS Octavia E. Butler
O240005JH3
he/him/his (player/character)
&&
Lieutenant JG Morro Caras
Acting Chief of Exterior Systems and Propulsion
USS Octavia E. Butler
O240106MC1
he/him/his (player/character)