Lower Decks Interview: Lieutenant JG. Kaito Moore, Amity Outpost
We’re here with another interview with a newer member of our community. The title of this column is “Lower Decks,” hearkening back to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode titled “Lower Decks,” in which junior officers aboard the Enterprise-D speculate on the reasons for recent unusual actions taken by the command crew near the Cardassian border.
This month’s interview is with the writer behind Lieutenant JG. Kaito Moore playing an El-Aurian/Human, Male, Tactical officer assigned to Amity Outpost.
Marsh: Tell us a little about the writer behind Lieutenant Kaito Moore. What are your hobbies? What do you do for fun? Anything you’d like to share!
Moore: Hello everyone, my name is Mack. I currently live in Las Vegas, Nevada, but I will likely move sometime in the next few years. I have a degree in History Education and work as a private teacher, mostly for English as a Second Language learners.
When I am not teaching, I usually relax by doing one of four things: Starbase 118 Sims, playing video games with friends, Tabletop RPGs, and Flight/Space Sims. Right now, my current Sim poison, and most likely going forward, is Star Citizen, which I have played with some members of SB118.
Speaking of which, shameless plug, Captain Niac and Captain Mei’Konda, we need another adventure on one of your big ships.
Is this your first time roleplaying or have you written in other communities in the past?
Moore: Yes, I have. I’ve been a roleplayer for a long time. I started in Star Wars Galaxies a long time ago. I met many great friends there who I still roleplay with today, but we moved on to tabletop RPGs for our RPs.
I am currently in a few different games. One is set in Mass Effect, where I play an intelligence officer. Another is set in an Alternate Universe 1920s where airships dominate the skies, and my character is Oliver Quinton, a retired high-flying ace of the Royal Airforce.
I’m also in a Star Wars game where I play a smooth-talking criminal turned rebel, and I run two games of my own. One is a Fallout 2d20 game set around New Vegas, and the other is a Star Trek Adventures game, Star Trek Concord, which is currently set in 2351.
Outside of that, I have roleplayed in various video games in the past and have played my fair share of other TTRPGs.
What brought you to Starbase118?
Moore: The Dominion War. I was doing some research on the war for a future game, and to the few players of mine who I know are going to read this, don’t worry—you are totally safe from the Dominion, and nothing bad will happen. But I was doing research for a future STA game.
I ended up on the Starbase 118 Wiki. I had seen the website before quite a few years ago but never checked it out in detail, outside of some light glances at the Wiki. I found myself reading through the Wiki about the war, which then turned into reading about some of the ships, history, and crews. Eventually, I decided to give it a try. I honestly didn’t know how active the fleet was. Playing by email seemed like a foreign and old concept to me. Most RP that happens in other communities tends to happen on Discord or in video games. Sometimes forums, but even that has started to die down. So I was skeptical but hopeful that maybe there was a ship or two of awesome roleplayers where I could get more of my Star Trek itch scratched.
Turns out it was way more amazing than I imagined.
Why did you choose this specific character and duty post?
Moore: Kaito Moore is kind of interesting for me because he is the first character who is the child of a previous character. When I was signing up for Starbase 118, I was stuck on what kind of character to make, and one of my players suggested I make a child of Captain Moore, the NPC Captain of the Concord, and Chandra Aphelion, the CMO player from my game. She had pursued a relationship with the Captain already, so that was well established. Needless to say, her player not only loved the idea but encouraged it. We picked names, talked about how he would be raised, and more. She even checks up on how Kaito is doing, and sometimes they exchange letters, which I posted some in a few sims after modifying them to fit 118 standards.
The same can’t be said for his duty post. I picked Tactical as my main focus due to two reasons. The first is because it was the lowest staffed position in the fleet. Tactical has a cool job, and while Engineering and Science get the spotlight most of the time, when it is Tactical’s turn, it is a position that can shine brightly.
The second influence on my choice is the El-Aurian stereotype. El-Aurians are considered listeners, natural counselors, diplomats, and in some cases, con artists. It seems they are a species destined to play the support role. Even our own Wiki supports it with this line: “Many surviving El-Aurians have found their way into the Federation territories and soon into the ranks of Starfleet, although seldom, if ever, in positions of leadership, as they usually prefer to operate quietly in support positions.”
I disagree with the above. You mean to tell me the species of peaceful listeners, who not only had a cold war with the Q and came out on top but resisted the Borg so hard that their world was decimated and most of them killed off, rarely goes beyond quiet support positions? My theory is most survivors might be more focused on support. They were the civilians, the musicians, the artists, the scholars, the scientists like Soren, but they were a piece of a decimated species. The leaders, the fighters, the heroes died fighting and buying time so that others could survive. The El-Aurians are known for taking a support role in Starfleet because they are the survivors, but Kaito is a second-generation El-Aurian. Those rules don’t apply to him. So he was not allowed to be a counselor or diplomat. I wanted him to push back against that species stereotype, and overtly too. He knows he, and his father for that matter, aren’t like other El-Aurians in the fleet, and he is proud of it.
Do you draw any inspiration from television, films, or books when writing your character?
Moore: I try to keep Kaito as original as possible, but I do pull some inspiration from Captain Pike, or more accurately, what I imagine any kid raised by Captain Pike would be like. When Strange New Worlds came out, my STA players and I watched the episodes as they were released each week. I kept on getting comments on how similar Captain Moore and Captain Pike were, so I decided to run with it. When I write for Kaito, I think about what he would be like raised by someone like Pike.
But outside of that, Kaito is mostly himself. He is influenced by his parents—lucky for me, I know how one parent thinks, and the other is more than happy to tell me how she would have raised him. He is also influenced by the people he grew up around, which is a modified version of the Concord’s crew for SB118.
I did add some past events for him, such as traveling for two years to figure out if he really wanted to be in Starfleet or not. I am fairly certain I took a few inspirations here and there, but I can’t pinpoint any exact examples. They are more generic inspirations and tropes for me to build his background on.
Where would you like to be in a few years? Would you like to be a CO or XO? Were you interested in contributing to the community by participating in an OOC group?
Moore: That is a good question. My hope is that in a few years, I will still be happily in the fleet. I can see Kaito maybe being a department head storywise, but that all depends on how the story unfolds.
While one day Kaito will be a captain, at least storywise, he has the drive for it and the years to pull it off, but that day could be decades or centuries away, maybe. As for myself, I guess that depends. I don’t think anyone should want to be CO or XO, at least not for the reasons of wanting the position. Those positions are more OOC than In Character, and in my opinion, they need to be filled by someone who understands that they are sacrificing some of their fun, their time, and in some cases, their sanity, to make sure the players on their ship are having fun. In many ways, being a CO/XO is like being a Game Master. While it is fun telling stories and watching your players solve and tackle the challenges you throw at them, it is different than being a player. It isn’t the same experience. Even if you run a GM-NPC, you have to let others shine. It is their story; you’re just keeping the universe together for them. As far as I am concerned, CO and XO are doing the same thing: keeping the universe together and helping them achieve their story. That’s not to say COs and XOs don’t get their own stories, but they have a responsibility, in my opinion, and someone shouldn’t seek that position without taking that responsibility.
That being said, I have been in this same position before, where I was more than happy to be a player, and thanks to my upper leadership along with an urge to give back and help others have fun, I found myself in a leadership position similar to a CO/XO. It wasn’t exactly the same but similar to here, so who knows. Right now, I am happy to be Lt. JG. Kaito Moore, but I already have had the itch to help out more with Amity, and maybe that leads to CO/XO down the line.
Thanks for your time, Lieutenant Moore!
You can read more about Lieutenant JG. Kaito Moore on the wiki.
