Lieutenant Commander Morro Caras - You know, I'm something of a actor myself
Morro Caras
((Central Quantum Transport Junction, USPS Showrunner))
Lieutenant Commander Morro Caras was back at his old job, and it felt good to be back. Dealing with something from this century. Morro Caras actually wasn’t too sure if it was from this century, or how to even classify it. The tangle was a gigantic cosmic mystery where space and time didn’t really work the same way that it did in the rest of the galaxy. Something had happened, and Caras, Nera, and Promontory had all landed in some kind of Data transport junction, Caras was beginning to suspect it was more like a power grid, or containment facility. He wasn’t an expert at quantum mechanics, well actually he was “technically” to the degree that he took four courses in it at the academy, and dealt with it almost every day on the Thor, but he wasn’t a Scientist, he was an engineer. He only understood its practical uses, not its theoretical uses. The way that Astrachthoni had implemented it seemed far more theoretical as to how someone from Starfleet would understand it. Caras wished he did, but he wasn’t even sure if he had the mental capacity to. Caras didn’t know how the Astrachthoni brain worked, but if he had to guess, he bet that the realms were controlled by some kind of neural control device, or some kind of advanced technology there integrated with a sense of there that he didn’t have. Caras was curious what others of the Thor had experienced, with the cameras rolling on them while she was with them, Sevantha didn’t really get a chance to say. Now with no cameras on them, at least not ones meant for entertainment, Caras has a question.
Caras: Speaking of which. Cap… What did you get stuck in? Has it been as long for you as it was for us?
Caras was curious to hear what the Captain had been through. Caras had been through a sheer number of other programs other Than FEARLESS, but they were only bit parts. Characters that hadn’t worked out, or shoved into a house with a bunch of other people only to be eliminated first because he wasn’t willing to be mean to everyone else to get ahead.
Promontory: Honestly, it was all like a dream. Or a series of dreams really. I’ve cycled through dozens of shows—some sort of space western, a Romulan soap opera… (straining his memory) oh, there was a swashbuckling show that I kinda liked, but it got canceled after two seasons… A few other things. (beat) And several failed escape attempts. (waving at the data center) But I’ve never seen anything like this. (turning back to the boys) What about you two?
Caras nodded at that. It kind of hurt him a little to admit that he’d actually want to watch some of those, particularly with his own captain at the Wheel. It was almost like playing and Dungeons and Dragons game with the other officers on the OEB. Seeing new sides of people, and watching them have to act out roles was entertaining, but it also let you know them a lot better.
Nera: Well, when I first arrived, they tried casting me as a Detective. But that didn’t last beyond the initial scene. They put me into a hospital drama after that. It was a bit much, even by my standards for drama. All the surgeons kept having poorly timed heart to hearts mid surgery. And they were all sleeping with each other!
Caras had to stifle a laugh at that. That sounded like the premise of an Orion play he had seen performed several times on the ship he used to live on.
It didn’t exactly sound like a pleasant experience to try and exist in though. Caras was noticing that all of the roles they were in, tended to only be entertaining from the outside, but acting a lot of them out most of the time was akin to torture, or being the only serious person in a room of fools.
Nera: I think our benevolent Directors got tired of my trying to save the patients, so they wrote me out after a few seasons. Shot by a patient too, can you believe it?! :: shaking his head:: After that, 19 consecutive seasons of Fearless with this guy.
Ay pointed and Thumb in Morro’s direction, Morro took a slight bow. All things considered, Caras was glad to get to know what kind of man Nera was in Fearless. They hadn’t really interacted a whole lot before then and now Caras fully trusted the ship’s CMO.
Caras: At first I was a guest star coming out of a coma in a drama, with a really bad catch phrase, though when we got there I think we made it more of a comedy. Then I had a series of runs on a few other shows on guest spots, and a reality show where everyone was really mean to one another. Then I ended up on Fearless, which was better, but the writers didn’t let us… wouldn’t let us leave.
When Caras put it that way, it didn’t seem so bad. But it was actually hellish, a purgatory. The writers had figured out who they were and used it against them at every angle. They never really tried to change them that much. It was almost upsetting to have someone analyze you so completely and use every facet of your being for entertainment.
Promontory: I mean, you seem older—well, mentally, if not physically. I think they can sorta decouple the two anyway. My sense is that about a week has passed by “on the outside.” But I experienced about five years. It seems to be variable. I haven’t encountered too many other Asgardians. (beat) So, you two were together at least?
Caras knew about Avander Promontory being part El-Aurian, but he wasn’t sure what side of the family Trake was on. Morro now had that question answered. That was a good sense to have, to know where you were in time. Caras had only managed to feel discombobulated when he tried to think of it since he had been “back”. Nera spoke before Morro could even put his thoughts together.
Nera: Only a week? That’s going to take a bit of getting used to ::beat:: For Fearless though, yeah, we were together for the whole thing. We found Sevantha right as the show was ending, and I found of our security guys in that hospital show.
Caras had a theory about that.
Caras: I think they figured out that together we were probably dangerous. When we talked to one of them, they seemed to want to put us in the positions where we were the most entertaining. We seemed to be in high demand, in any genre, but I swore I’d get the rest out.
Caras wasn’t about to let them take Sevantha from him.
Promontory: It pays to be genre-savvy. (beat) These Astrachthoni are like perversions of El-Aurians. Like, they don’t have any stories of their own and they are desperately trying to find meaning in other peoples’ without doing the work needed to make them meaningful…
Caras hadn’t really considered that aspect of it. They always seemed like they were trying to wrest control of everything they did appear. And Caras had really only seen them be unhappy. It made a bit of sense.
Nera: Almost makes me feel sorry for the Astrachthoni, when you put it like that.
Morro rubbed the back of his head with one hand, and dug more into the guts of the drone with another. This thing was complex, but he was pretty sure he was getting to the bottom of it. Caras let the black box in his brain do all the engineering, while the motor mouth part of his brain went on. This was his favorite way to get through an engineering workday.
Caras: I’m not sure I do. This technology has limitless potential, but they choose to wield it this way. They understand emotions, they try to evoke them for entertainment, but seemingly have no empathy for their subjects. That’s a choice.
The Astrachthoni were sick, It was hard to feel sorry for people who enslaved others, Who had knowingly put people through emotional rollercoasters just to live vicariously through it, rather than experience things for themselves. Always looking with a degree of separation.
Nera: Stories are so central to countless cultures. Creating them, listening to them, drawing meaning from them. For an entire race to have either lost the ability to create their own, or just have no interest in that simple pleasure? ::mutter:: What a sad existence.
Caras: I think it might be rooted in fear, and thus control.
Caras tinkered a little more. He didn’t understand much of the technology. He was no linguist and couldn’t figure out much, so now it was time to do what he did best, other than sabotage. Sabotage’s little cousin, tinkering. He exposed some kind of internal display he could at least see changes in as he dug around. He thought for a second he saw the waveform of a signal appear.
Promontory: Response
Nera: Doesn’t excuse the continued abduction of other races for their own entertainment. That’s something we should put a stop to if we can, or at least get the Diplomatic Corps involved.
Caras would love to see his Gymbro Lhandon Nilsen have to try and deal with these guys, but they’d probably find some way to rope him into a a spicy romantic rugby drama show, where two rivals…. Caras decided it might not be a good idea to introduce these guys to the diplomatic corps.
Caras: We have to get out of here first to do that, but something tells me they don’t want to do something boring like diplomacy, unless they’re the ones watching it. I honestly think these guys might ground for a galactic “off limits” zone.
Caras had known it had been done with other planets and species. Caras just didn’t want anyone else to get enslaved. Despite how it looked, it was still enslavement.
Promontory: Response
Caras took that to heart, he put his foot on the drone and pried out another divider, exposing some more of its innards. Now he was getting somewhere.
Nera: How’s our little friend here? Think you’ve gotten something useful out of it?
Caras was able to get the display to change. Morro had tinkered with plenty of things he couldn’t read before, and since the drone was a repair drone, he could at least guess at some of its functions. After messing around, he managed to get the waveform back, and decided to have a little fun.
Caras: There is a signal here, It might be the link to a central core. I think it’s constant, but I have no way of tracing it. I can however… cause some feedback with it, and also block it.
Caras tweaked what he thought was some kind of transceiver, and set it to cause some feedback.
He then rooted around a little more, with it seemingly disconnected from it’s core, he could start powering on parts of the drone.
A small port in the drone opened up and a link of fiber shot from the drone to the Data pillar that they had damaged. It made the pillar light up a dull green. Caras wasn't sure what that did, but he did figure it was a link.
Promontory: Response
Caras took that under advisement.
Caras: I think that’s a good sign? Now we can probably access the data but I don’t know what that means. I can turn it back on, but I've disabled its sensors, so it won’t be able to see or hear us.
Caras was only able to confirm those from the direct attachments to the actual sensor parts. These were far less complicated than the large obelisks in the room, he was dealing with power and mechanics, and not qubits and quantum resonances.
This thing could get up and still start attacking them, at least with its metal tentacles. Caras knew that wouldn’t be good, and it was a risk.
Nera/Promontory: Response
With that Caras engaged the power core to power what he was pretty sure was the brain of the drone. It’s light didn’t come on, but it’s antigrav engine made a soft hum, very similar to the same hum that the drones that did the camera work in Fearless.
Drone: Enigma systems entertainment deluxe patching drone established, please set up for initial users.
Initial users? Caras had somehow disengaged it’s memory? Or maybe it was a terminal and that signal that they severed could have been some kind of data control stream. He wasn’t sure, he had already removed a lot to get to what he needed to get to.
Caras: What do you think? Patch bot? Patchy? What should we say? I’ve removed its sensors for now, but we’re not Astrachthoni, it’s going to find out we’re intruders really quick if I flip those on.
Nera/Promontory: Response
Audio only? Audio only! The universal translator worked in their favor, it had heard the Astrachthoni, and could sound like them. Caras assumed the green light to the fiber meant that these drones still had access to their infrastructure.
Caras: I mean, if you think it’ll buy it. That means we’ll have to act like…. Some of them. I bet they order bots like these around all the time.
Caras wasn’t too sure how he felt about impersonating the Astrachthoni, he had just basically admitted to everyone that he hated them, but if this was their way to save Sevantha, so be it. Caras made sure to be careful and only turn on the drones sensors that were made for interpreting sounds.
Nera/Promontory: Response
[[TBC]]
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Lieutenant Commander Morro Caras
Chief of Engineering
USS Thor
O240106MC1
he/him/his (player/character)