Kenrick Morse

Kenrick Morse is a cadet at The Pilgrim Space Academy.

Background
In March 2212, twelve-year-old Kenrick was onboard the Starship Eva with his parents Alan Morse and Patricia Morse, who were both successful starship engineers. They were returning from a conference in the Alsafi system when the ship was attacked by pirates. His parents sacrificed their own lives in order to save Kenrick, putting him inside of the ship's only escape pod.

The life support systems in the pod were only meant to last a few days, but Kenrick was alone in there for nearly a week. By the time he was rescued by a passing merchant ship, the lack of oxygen had already caused serious damage to his brain. He was in a coma for a month, and doctors weren't sure if he would ever wake up.

However, the money that his parents had left behind meant that Kenrick was provided with cutting-edge medical care, including being fitted with an extremely experimental neural implant. He would eventually make a full recovery.

Early Years at the Academy
Kenrick joined the Pilgrim Space Academy in 2214. He made friends with Diane Romero and helped her to further develop her droid named Norbert. Since he is a gifted programmer, he mostly worked on improving Norbert's artificial intelligence.

When Margaret Dale joined the academy, the two of them quickly found common ground since they'd both undergone brain surgery. When Maggie became suspicious of a couple of faculty members, Kenrick used his programming skills to hack into their personal computers as part of the investigation.

The following year, some of his fellow cadets got together to organise a birthday party for him. Maggie gave him a copy of Symbiosis as a present. Although he was initially grateful, he became upset when Maggie inquired about what gift he'd received from his parents, not knowing that he was an orphan. She quickly apologised once she learned the truth about him.

Shortly afterwards, Maggie experienced an unusual episode during which she lived through the events leading up to his parents' death as though from his point of view. At first they suspected that Kenrick might have developed some unusual psychic abilities due to his implant - but they soon realised that Maggie was the one with the abilities.

(More to come!)

Neural Implant
Much of his character is defined by his neural implant, which he describes as being like having a "a close friend." The implant probably accounts for some of Kenrick's programming skills and his exceptional abilities at chess.

Maggie learned that he regularly has nightmares about a red moon, accompanied by a feeling of helplessness and loneliness. He believes the moon symbolises his neural implant. He's also admitted that the implant has rendered him unable to cry.

Professor Copeland implies that the implant is in fact controlling all of Kenrick's higher cognitive functions, and that Kenrick's consciousness is still in coma so there's no real symbiosis taking place. However, he does admit that even he doesn't fully understand the nature of how neural implants work.

Personality
Kenrick is quite a shy and reserved young man, rarely showing very much emotion, though he does seem to possess a lot of empathy. He's not much of a natural risk-taker.

Academy Crew Members

 * Captain: Margaret Dale
 * Navigator: Travers Bishop
 * Comms Operator: Kenrick Morse
 * Technician: May Martinez

Appears In

 * Space Pilgrim Academy: Year 1
 * Space Pilgrim Academy: Year 2
 * Space Pilgrim Academy: Year 3
 * Space Pilgrim Academy: Reunion