Lieutenant Commander Kenji Mori

Character Information

Gender		Male
Species		Human
Age		47

Physical Appearance

Height		5'7"
Weight		165lbs
Hair Color		Black
Eye Color		Brown
Physical Description		Kenji’s a slightly below average human male with dark hair and brown eyes. His hair has started to grey slightly at the temples, but it is barely noticeable unless you're standing close and looking for it. He has a compact, athletic build, helped by years of swimming and practising kendo. He can look stern at first glance but often warms up depending on situation. He isn’t big on broadcasting his emotions, or being loud, but he is not afraid to smile or share a joke or dry comment.

Family

Father		Takeshi Mori
Mother		Emi Mori

Personality & Traits

General Overview		Kenji is a calm, steady man who has spent most of his adult life in Engineering and remains perfectly happy there. He has a dry, occasionally sarcastic sense of humour and while he can be reserved when first meeting someone, he isn't particularly formal or cold. He likes people, enjoys conversation and has little interest in making others uncomfortable simply because he outranks or knows more than they do. He is especially calm when things go wrong. The worse a situation becomes, the more Kenji seems to focus on what is directly in front of him and what needs to happen next. Some have wondered if he picked up emotional control techniques from Vulcans, while others have simply found it slightly unnerving. In truth, Kenji pushes everything else aside until the problem is dealt with. Unfortunately, he tends to do the same with the emotions afterwards, preferring to deal with them alone rather than talk about them. As an Engineer he believes mistakes happen and that humiliating someone rarely teaches them anything useful. He is patient with younger officers and prefers to work out why something went wrong rather than simply assign blame. Deliberately hiding a mistake, however, is another matter entirely. Kenji is openly gay and has had relationships over the years, including one long-term relationship, but has never married. He is extremely dependable and very good at being there when someone needs him. Allowing someone else to do the same for him is considerably harder.
Strengths & Weaknesses		Kenji is an experienced and well-rounded Engineer who keeps a clear head in a crisis. He is patient, practical and willing to admit when someone else has a better answer than he does. He is also a good teacher and tends to get the best out of people without shouting at them. On the other hand, he has a habit of putting his own emotions aside until later and then dealing with them by himself. He can become overly focused during emergencies and has little patience for dishonesty, particularly when someone is trying to hide a mistake that could put others at risk.
Ambitions		Kenji has no particular interest in the Captain's chair. He likes Engineering, he is good at Engineering and would be perfectly happy spending the rest of his career doing it.
Hobbies & Interests		Kenji has practised kendo since childhood and continues to train regularly. He also swims, reads widely and has a particular fondness for mystery novels, although he becomes irritated when the solution relies on information the reader was never given. Astronomy has been an interest since he was young and despite spending his life travelling amongst the stars, he still enjoys simply looking at them.

Personal History		Kenji Mori was born on Juhraya in 2351, the only child of Takeshi and Emi Mori. Both of his parents had grown up in Japan before leaving Earth as young adults and eventually settling on the Federation colony. While Juhraya became their home, they saw no reason that leaving Japan meant leaving everything else behind with it. Japanese was spoken at home and Kenji grew up knowing the language, food, celebrations and traditions his parents had grown up with. He never considered this unusual. Juhraya was home to people from across the Federation and from an early age Kenji understood that the traditions followed in his family were no more or less important than those followed by anyone else. They were simply his. His father worked in colony security and taught kendo in his spare time. Kenji started learning when he was young and continued because, much to his father's satisfaction, he actually enjoyed it. While Takeshi hoped his son might eventually follow him into Security, Kenji's interests went in another direction. He liked machines. He liked taking things apart, understanding how they worked and, eventually, putting them back together again. As he got older this developed into an interest in larger systems, particularly the ones that kept colonies and starships running. When Kenji announced that he wanted to join Starfleet his father was delighted. When he added that he intended to join Engineering, Takeshi questioned why he wouldn't choose Security instead. His father argued that Security protected people and Kenji pointed out that if the engines stopped working or life support failed, Security couldn't protect anyone. And Takeshi conceded the point. Kenji entered Starfleet Academy at eighteen and studied Engineering. He was a good student without being exceptional, finding that he learned far better when he could put theory into practice. In 2370, while Kenji was still at the Academy, the Federation-Cardassian Treaty placed Juhraya on the Cardassian side of the newly created Demilitarised Zone. His parents chose to leave and eventually resettled on Luna. Kenji never blamed those who stayed. As far as he was concerned, the Federation had made decisions about people's homes without ever really asking the people who lived there what they wanted. He knew several people who later joined the Maquis and understood why they did. That did not mean he agreed with everything they became. Kenji has always believed that being wronged does not excuse the harm someone chooses to do in return. The Federation had been wrong, but so were many of the actions taken by the Maquis. To him, the ends have never justified the means. Kenji graduated from the Academy in 2373 and went almost immediately into a Starfleet already being pulled into the Dominion War. It was during those first years of his career that his ability to remain calm during emergencies became particularly noticeable. When systems were failing around him he simply focused on what needed to be done next. It served him well during the war, although he became somewhat too good at putting everything else aside until later. After the war Kenji spent several years on a starbase, enjoying the different challenges that came with maintaining something considerably larger than a starship. His career progressed steadily rather than spectacularly and he eventually moved into senior Engineering roles before returning to starship service. By now Kenji has spent twenty-five years in Starfleet. He has no great stories about disobeying orders, stealing starships or saving the Federation single-handedly. He has simply built a reputation as a reliable Engineer who knows his job, keeps his head when things go wrong and usually leaves an Engineering department in better condition than he found it. For the last eight years he served aboard the USS Faraday, first as Assistant Chief Engineer and later as Chief Engineer. When the Chief Engineering position became available on Faltan Station, Kenji decided that after more than a decade back aboard starships, it was time for another change.
Service Record		2369-2373: Starfleet Academy, Engineering 2373-2378: USS Telford, Engineering Officer 2378-2384: Starbase 214, Engineering Officer 2384-2390: USS Erasmus, Engineering Officer / Assistant Chief Engineer 2390-2398: USS Faraday, Assistant Chief Engineer / Chief Engineer 2398-PRES: Faltan Station, Chief Engineering Officer