The atmosphere within the bridge of the Akhetaten had not been a pleasurable one the past few days and every officer was well aware of it, none of them however addressing the elephant in the room. That was until the warship's CO, Captain Mary Uhmen, called the flag officer, Christopher Edwards, to her quarters.

"So what's it gonna be, Chris? For how long will this story keep up?" She spoke as she shut the door behind them, taking a seat at a previously pulled-out chair in front of a glass table positioned at the center of the quarters. She crossed her legs and took a glance at the contents of the table; a half-empty bottle of whiskey and a small glass. She pointed towards the opposing chair with her eyes. Christopher sat down, sighing.

The Commodore's conduct over the past few months had been questionable at best and traitorous at worst in many regards, including but not limited to his friendships with the Auxesia and the Vagrants. Uhmen had given him time, hoping that he'd realize what he was doing was not correct.. She was beginning to believe, however, that her hope was misplaced.


"Uhmen, may I remind you of your position and rank within this warship? The least you can do is call me sir." Christopher replied with a tone that sounded more disappointed than it did annoyed, looking into the CO's eyes. It was immediately evident that Uhmen was everything but happy with the flag officer's response.

The sound of silence echoed in the chambers as Mary rubbed her eyes with her right hand, while at the same time taking ahold of the bottle of whiskey with her left, filling half of a small glass' worth of the liquid and taking a gentle sip.

"Edwards, they've had enough of your ****." She leans forward, un-crossing her legs and hitting the glass table with her right fist in anger.

"Sheer called you a coward under his breath the other day," Uhmen begun speaking again, her speech evidently covered in anger, "Ferrel's having second thoughts on the job he picked," she continued, pausing for a few seconds as she looked away in disgust.

"Matthews hesitates to hop on the god damn radio and what do you do?" She looked back towards the Commodore.

"I-" Christopher is interrupted by Mary's left fist hitting the table. "You have Watson take over as you go out on dates with ******* Revenant. -That's- what you do." She leans back into her chair, the tension and anger being visible on the expression covering her face.

"Don't," Mary interrupts Chris yet again, catching him about to start speaking with the corner of her eye, "I don't care what you have to say." Her voice sounded cold, almost emotionless; a complete turn from the anger that followed her every syllable just moments earlier. An unnerving silence followed.


"I'm going back to the bridge. Good day, ``Commodore``." Mary continued, breaking the silence while getting up from her chair and exiting the quarters, closing the door behind her. The sarcasm was evident in her earlier tone.

Christopher was breathing slowly, his eye fixed on the half-empty glass Uhmen had left behind.


Yet his thoughts were at everything but the glass.

"Another day." Mary thought to herself, laying down on the bed facing the ceiling, thinking. Her suit was still on her, her legs positioned in such a way so her boots would be outside the bed's borders.

"Another day of having to put up with his ****," Mary spoke out loud, sighing deeply. "If he keeps this up, I'll report it to command," she continued with a hard tone in her voice. It was evident that she wasn't too happy about having to resort to command to solve the issues within the Akhetaten, but it seemed like the only option.

"Ma'am.. You're not gonna do that. Just.. Give him some time." Commander Elizabeth Burns, the warship's XO, spoke from across the room, where she sat at the glass table, facing Uhmen. Elizabeth's tone was warm, she didn't want the Commodore to end up in jail or worse - dead.

Christopher was once again missing from the Akhetaten. As every other time, nobody knew where he had went. It seemed to Uhmen that he had once again left the warship and his crew to meet up with yet another enemy of the Republic.

Her thoughts alone made her clench her fists. Silence followed.


"Ma'am, requesting permission to man the Serqet. I wish to look for the Commodore."

"Permission granted," Uhmen replied shortly afterwards, turning her head sideways and eyeing Burns, "tell Ward to keep the Akhetaten here until you're back and don't let anyone know you're after the Commodore. You are dismissed, Commander."

Burns exited the Captain's quarters, shutting the door behind her as she did. With a heavy breath and footsteps to match, she walked towards the bridge.

"Watson, I'll be manning the Serqet. Ward, keep the Akhetaten at orbit until I'm back - Captain's orders." The XO spoke, both men nodding back at her after saluting her.


Elizabeth made it to the Akhetaten's tertiary hangar, walking up to the Avenger, unlocking it and hopping into the cockpit.

"All systems show green. Watson, inform Zimmer that I need a detailed analysis of the trajectory every ship has followed over the past six hours within Liberty. I need that information displayed directly at my console once it's ready, Burns out." The XO spoke over the radio before turning on the Serqet's engine and taking off through the now-opened bay doors.

Burns found herself returning towards Manhattan, tired after a long, fruitless, and unproductive 'trip' around all of Liberty, with no sign of the Commodore around. In desperation and as a last measure before she'd dock with the trade-lane that would bring her to Manhattan - and to the Akhetaten - Elizabeth scanned all radio frequencies yet again, looking for any sign of the flag officer.

"This is Commander Burns of the LNS-Akhetaten, does anyone read, over," she repeated every few seconds, her tone growing more tired with each time.

As the Commander was about to finally give up and return to the flagship, she heard a muffled voice speak back, immediately tweaking her console to match the frequency of the transmission.

"-t's your status? I repeat, this is Commodore Edwards, Burns, I read you, what's your status, over?" Burns rested her head back at the pilot's seat upon hearing the flag officer's familiar voice, letting out a deep exhale, suddenly feeling a wave of happiness wash over her fear and doubts.

"Commodore, sir, this is Burns on the Serqet, I ... undocked from the Akhetaten to look for you. We were ... worried," the Commander spoke. Ironically enough, even though she had spent that long looking for the Commodore, she still had no clue what to tell him or how to even speak to him.

"We'll talk on board the Akhetaten, Burns," Christopher replied with a rather cold tone in his voice, perhaps thinking that Uhmen had Burns go out looking for him.

"Affirmative, sir," Elizabeth's reply came shortly after as she engaged the docking computer, the Serqet speeding down the trade-lane and getting closer to the flagship with every passing second.

. . .

Christopher headed straight for his quarters after docking on the Akhetaten, leaving his PDA on the desk and sitting down in front of it, staring blindly into the transmission from Keeper Revenant that kept repeating itself on the PDA's monitor.

A knock on the door would soon interrupt his train of thoughts as he stood up, fixing his suit and opening the door.

"Commodore, sir," Burns saluted him.

"Burns, come in," he replied with a tired, perhaps apathetic tone in his voice.

He pointed towards a second chair in the distance, shutting the door. The Commander slowly walked into the room and sat down, her look unintentionally landing on the PDA that was on the other side of the desk. Seeing what she could identify as a transmission from Auxesia, Elizabeth sighed.

"Commodore, may I speak freely?" She asked, her eyes looking at the flag officer as he walked towards the PDA in a fast pace and turned it's monitor off with the press of a button. He nodded in approval before turning his back to Burns, facing what looked like a map of all Libertonian systems at the wall. "The situation at the bridge has been only getting worse with each day, Captain Uhmen along with many others are highly against your recent actions," she sighed, "I don't know what they're planning to do about it and I don't think I want to know."

The Commander's tone sounded more concerned than anything else. The disappointment and anger on the Commodore's side became visible as he clenched his fist.

"I told Uhmen I wanted to go find you, fearing that you'll do something you might regret, and the moment we end up back here I see-" Elizabeth was interrupted by the flag officer turning around and leaning on the desk.

"Revenant reached out to me because she needs to have the intelligence Silverstone gave me," he spoke with a calm voice, entirely contrasting the tension his bodily reactions exerted, "I was disappointed to find out that she offered a sum of five hundred millions for it, I thought she'd assume that the amount of cash tied to the intelligence sharing wouldn't be of any value to me," Christopher continued.

Silence.

The awkward atmosphere was evident inside the quarters as Elizabeth gently pulled on her suit's collar as if it was suddenly too tight around her throat.

"I won't send the intel. Not at this point in time at least," the flag officer spoke again after about a minute, clearly having taken this minute's worth of time to think about his options. Burns closed her eyes and slowly exhaled, knowing that the Commodore would do the right thing for a change.

"I'm not going to betray Silverstone," Edwards continued.

Burns frowned, "does it not occur to him that he'd be betraying -us- too? Does he not realize he'd be betraying the Republic as well?" She thought.

"No, it doesn't," the Captain's voice replied to Elizabeth's thoughts as if she hit 'Play' on a tape that recorded their past conversations. Burns remembered she has had this exact talk with Uhmen, asking her these exact questions.


"I'll.. be taking my leave now, Commodore, good day," the Commander said as she got up, saluting Edwards and walking out of the quarters.

It had been two years since Commodore Christopher Edwards, now a retiree, resigned from the Akhetaten and the Navy all-together. The warship and her crew have been going well ever since, proceeding to serve the Republic even after the ship's previous commanding officer was gone. Maria Uhmen, Captain at rank at the time, has proven to be a valuable asset to the Republic and more-so to the Akhetaten with her knowledge being superior to any other officer the Navy could assign in command of a warship of such feat.

Under Uhmen's command, the Akhetaten has seen great successes in the field. Project: Akhetaten, which Commodore Edwards would pass on to her, has also reached it's completion, with the last few remaining checks being made before the new warship design is ready for deployment. With the ship having been transferred to the Forty-Sixth Fleet and Task Force Akhetaten - once disbanded due to severe casualties in the war with the Insurgency - being reinstated into active duty, the Akhetaten's career with the Republic is not expected to come to an end anytime soon.

Uhmen's excellence in her field of expertise has lead her to many promotions ever since she took command of the warship; she currently holds the rank of Vice Admiral within the Forty-Sixth Fleet and her duties range far beyond the commanding of the Akhetaten.

Of course, the Vice Admiral's new duties have taken a significant toll on her ability to effectively command her flagship.

The recently appointed executive officer of the Akhetaten has played a role of major importance in the matter of commanding the warship. Captain Samantha Brown was recruited to take the place of the ship's previous, temporary, executive officer, Elizabeth Burns.

Brown continues to impress and her conduct leaves her superiors only impressed, but even she is beginning to grow tired of the situation. With a commanding officer that has taken up the role of flag officer at the same time and is practically never present in the bridge, the Captain is effectively running the warship on her own. Busy in the Combat Information Center (CIC) half the time and in her quarter's the other half, the Vice Admiral is unable to take part in leading the warship.

Samantha is nearing the point of having had enough. What few leaves she takes from the warship to fly around Liberty in her personal snubcraft do not grant her the relaxation she'd wish for, neither is she granted the time to rest in-between missions.

The Captain is seated at her desk, looking through personnel files of officers aboard the Akhetaten, seemingly looking for something.

"No, that one won't do. [...] Ugh.. Neither will.. [...] Damnit."

The atmosphere in her quarters is heated, the frustration and borderline anger obvious in Samantha's tone.

Suddenly, "oh, what about," it struck her. Inspiration, an idea. She begins looking through the personnel files in extreme speed, searching for a very specific name.

"Come on.. I've seen the file before.. It was somewhere in here. It still has to be somewhere in here," Samantha blabbers to herself. "There!" She excitedly shouts, "Twenty-five years..! I didn't remember that one number. Mhm... Yeah, okay.. That.. Now that's impressive. Yeah, I suppose he's worth at least a try." She continues blabbering to herself before closing the file she had opened.

The Captain tidies herself up, sits upright, and begins recording what appears to be a transmission.


Samantha sends the transmission before getting up, stretching and laying down on her bed. "Let's hope this works, hopefully I didn't sound too intimidating," she thinks to herself as she closes her eyes.

Samantha awaited for the man in the docks. She didn't wish to spend any more time than was necessary in Fontana and she definitely did not wish to attract any attention.

Upon his arrival, the Captain would raise her hand so he knew who to look for. She greeted him as he got closer; "Mister Edwards, it's a pleasure to meet you in person, you look exactly how I had pictured you."

"Sure has been a while since anyone came looking for me, or sent a transmission my way. Years, to be precise. May I have the pleasure of knowing who I am speaking with?" A calm and collected Edwards spoke, standing with his arms behind his back.

"Samantha Brown, Captain of the Forty-Sixth Fleet and executive officer aboard the Akhetaten."

Edwards' eye lit up as he heard the name spoken. Undoubtedly, a name he hadn't heard in two years and one that has been constantly crossing his mind. His entire life revolved around that very ship, he had spent so many years on her that he was really unable to move on ever since his resignation, two years ago. A necessary move, of course, granted his conduct at the time - but one that hurt him deeply regardless.

"Commodore, are you still with me?" Samantha spoke. Almost an entire minute had passed in silence. She was unsurprised, aware that it would be very hard for him to comprehend what she was about to tell him. "We've been running into some very concerning issues onboard the Akhetaten, Commodore," Brown continued, "the ship's commanding officer, Vice Admiral Maria Uhmen, has been very hard at work lately - the duties she has as a member of the Admiralty admittedly do not allow her to properly run the vessel."

"And so," Samantha continued, "the responsibility of commanding the vessel falls to the executive officer - myself. The Vice Admiral has offered to promote me to the position of commanding officer, but I ain't cut for that role, Edwards. I've ... I've got a past that I don't wanna re-live. Thus, I looked at the Akhetaten's personnel files, looked through multiple times of currently and past appointed officers that have been on the vessel. And then I ran across your file."

The Captain paused for a minute, allowing the man in front of her to take in everything she just told him.

"I need you, Commodore, and if you don't want to do this for me, do it for the Akhetaten, she needs you as well."

"I ... What exactly are you asking from me, Captain?" Christopher stared blankly into Samantha's eyes. Still not having processed everything she had told him so far.

"You know bloody damn right what I am asking of you, Commodore, you don't need me to spell it out for you, do you?"

"I'll ... I need some time, Captain, I ... I hope you can understand that this isn't a decision I can just make that easily. I ... Give me some time to let all of that sink in. I'll contact you.

"Sure thing, Commodore, I'll be expecting it."