Moto, the Langenkampean with a penchant for security

Posted originally on the Ad Astra :: Star Trek Fanfiction Archive at http://www.adastrafanfic.com/works/1149.

Rating:

General Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

Gen

Fandom:

Star Trek: Alternate Original Series

Character:

Moto (AOS)

Language:

English

Series:

Part 1 of Canon!AOS minor characters stories

Stats:

Published: 2023-11-04 Words: 658 Chapters: 1/1

Moto, the Langenkampean with a penchant for security

by Prue84

Summary

Abridged life of Moto from the Kelvin timeline.

Notes

See the end of the work for notes

Rank: Lieutenant

Occupation: Security area chief

Ship: USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

Langenkampeans don’t have an aptitude for engineering, their bodies aren’t build to make them efficient security officers, and their inclination for silence and isolation doesn’t make them skilled for command either. Their propensity for repetitive tasks makes for excellent researchers, lab technicians and other occupations when routine is seldom disrupted.

Unlike most of their peers, who apply to science track, Moto graduated in operations and is part of the red shirts that make the backbone of a crew.

Comfortable with silence and stillness, they prefer night shifts, when the lower lights offer for a more calming environment.

Ensign Moto wasn’t on the Enterprise during her impromptu maiden voyage to Vulcan, but was ordered to the ship immediately after, when cadets were sent back to the Academy and a permanent crew was formed.

In regard for his specie’s appreciation for solitude, Moto is assigned to the security area as climate-control officer. Their job is made of endless monotonous days sitting behind a console in welcome loneliness for most of their shifts. With the Enterprise blessed with mixed luck - they manage to meet trouble everywhere but no crew member is loss - Moto has to monitor brigs that seldom see any guest. Any other officer would become crazy, restless about the repetitive, long hours spent alone in an empty room, waiting for a security officer to drop a prisoner, yet Moto thrives. Such is the love for his position, that Moto had to ask a special exoneration from the captain to not be included in the required rotation.

This way, they can enjoy a loneliness that, on a starship as big as the Enterprise, it's hard to find.

With the brigs seldom in use, theirs is a very quiet job of maintenance. During their shift, systems and hardware are constantly checked for maximum efficiency: the area must always be ready for a sudden use and withstand the presence of a far more dangerous prisoner than the casual young crewman ordered to spent the night under lock to cool down after a small conduct code violation.

Moto is called on duty when the mysterious John Harrison is led to the brigs by an unusual large security detail. Commander Spock issues the direct order to monitor the prisoner, and so Moto does, their full attention never straying.

Quiet and unbothered by his accommodations, the tall human doesn’t attempt to initiate any chat, and Moto doesn’t try to either. Every basic right, as sanctioned by Starfleet regulations, is provided, and Moto supervises everything.

The questioning of the prisoner by captain and first officer is safe with Moto, who hears everything but knows to keep secrets and blend in, as if they were but a part of the room. For as much as the commanding duo is aware, there is no one sitting at the console at the centre of the area.

Quick to react when captain Kirk, former chief engineer Scott and lieutenant Marcus are unexpectedly beamed inside a brig, they stay at their post even during the direst moment, when gravity systems fail and the ship feels about to die.

But the dramatic events that placed the Enterprise against a more advanced starship also bring a change in Moto’s life. The heavy hits taken by the ship under the attack of the Vengeance claim many lives, including the one of the security area chief.

Moto is thus picked to replace his fallen superior, making them the responsible for the security area and entrusting the brigs under their direct supervision. Their task consist in managing everything that pertains the area and what it involves, including shift assignments. Now it’s them who choose security officers they judge better suited to sit at the station when they are off duty and theirs the power to evaluate the degree of danger a prisoner might pose and the resulting decision to call a for an additional security detail.

End Notes

Moto is literally a wallpaper character for the scenes in the brig. Nothing else is said, shown or explained about it, besides what Heather Langenkamp, the makeup artist who played the character, said about it: “I imagined that Moto is a climate-control officer, keeping the humidity at a proper level”. Nothing that would ever work as canon, but I took it and made it a headcanon.

There nothing much to note, besides the gender - or lack for. The makeup crew referred to the characters as a “it”, but I decided to use a more acceptable they/them.

The race is obviously an homage to the actress who wore Moto’s prosthetics, as the surname of its designer (Moto Hata) has been already used for Moto's counterpart in my Rule 63 AU.

Moto doesn’t wear any stripes, making him a rank between crew members to ensign. I elected to make him an officer.

--

Originally published on the date 07 November 2022.

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Table of Contents

Preface

Moto, the Langenkampean with a penchant for security

Afterword