Cobra once again began speaking after hearing Nova's questions.
"Well Nova, the rear part of the engine is actually free floating and kept within tolerance by the secondary shield generation system and the forces generated by the core during operation."
He paused to bring up several simulations on the main screen in the meeting room.
"As you can see, the drive has passed simulations and small scale tests and is showing that it can meet spec. The fact that the primary drive core itself is not actually connected could be considered an advantage." He paused to bring up several destruction simulations. In the case of a failure of core containment the rear part of the drive system has been designed to disconnect and push away to a safe distance. This will either save the ship/crew or reduce the cost of repairs.
Also, in the case of core depletion/machinery wear out the core and drive system can be easily accessed just by cutting power to the drive while in a shipyard, rather than a costly refit that includes disassembly of a large part of the rear of the vessel."
Cobra paused again to make sure they had both received their copies of the schematics and simulations.
"It is good to know that all of the components have been ordered on schedule and you are agreeable with the design. By your leave Cobra, Commodore we will begin laying down the frame of the ship."
Cobra once again sat down and waited for the others in the meeting to speak.
Nova looked over the simulations, watching and observing. She was surprised at how durable the rear components seem to be, and how easily they can be detached. Now her mind moved forward, laying the foundation of the warship.
"I'm being pressured to finish this project as quickly as possible, but I still want all parts and components tested to ensure this is done right the first time. If all goes well, the Admiralty may look at extending this to a new ship class for production instead of just a single ship. Granted, Akhetaten would be the lead ship and test bed, but it'd be a very ambitious project. Commodore, anything else for this meeting?"
"The Republic was always concerned with the safety of our warships' crew when designing our battleships. It is evident in the designs both of the Osiris and the Overlord that the entire engine segment is built in a way so as to minimize damage to the rest of the vessel should the engine catastrophically fail," the Commodore noted as he looked at the animations, "it greatly pleases me to know that you've implemented the very same mechanics on your designs, Cobra."
Christopher stood up and eyed Cobra and the Rear Admiral.
"I believe that the project is officially a go. I have nothing further to add to this as I am more than covered by Cobra's speech. The laying down of the ship can begin in due time, Rear Admiral."
The Commodore remained standing as if he was waiting to be dismissed by Prower, thinking that his work here was done. Edwards was looking forward to overseeing the re-construction of the Akhetaten as soon as it would start, but first he would head to his quarters and get some well earned rest.
She had listened to everything, taking it all into consideration and nodding, allowing them to continue. "The designs are more or less finalized now, internal arrangements will be made to fit the new design needs. That will be all for now, gentlemen. Dismissed. She dismissed the both of them waiting for them to exit the room and the door to close to stand up, looking out her window into space.
"A rather ambitious project, we'll see how it goes. Hopefully things go well and an advanced design can finally stay within the Navy. Still.." She reached down, paging her lead NID operative. "Agent, I'm assigning you to oversee the secrecy of the Akhetaten project. It is classified top secret and word about the work is not to get out. Any leaks are to be reported to me. Plant some ears within the security staff aswell, if anyone so much as thinks of opening their mouth to anyone not authorized to know, I want to hear about it.""Yes, Admiral." She set her communicator down, staring out the window.
The last few months brought little news to the progress of Progress Akhetaten, with Edwards' leaving of the Fifth Fleet after recent turmoil between him and other high ranking officers of the Osiris-class hindering the ship's progress in parts that would require the Commodore's attention.
A few weeks after Edwards' resignation from the Fifth Fleet, the battleship would see a new commanding officer assigned to it, following the natural flow of ranks within the ship; it's ex-XO, Maria Uhmen. As predictable, Uhmen would need to be updated with the status of Project Akhetaten in a manner sufficient enough for her to be able to continue Edwards' work of leading the project alongside Rear Admiral Prower.
The Captain was ordered in Juneau immediately in order to be debriefed on the project and given all the necessary information she would need going forward. She swiftly made her way to the shipyard and navigated to Prower's office, knocking twice on the closed door.
"Enter." She allowed time for Uhmen to enter the room and dispense with the standard greeting. "Good to see you here, Captain. As you know the Akhetaten is undergoing full refit and rebuild. With your new position as the commanding officer of the vessel I feel prudent to fill you in on everything. Firstly, the project is currently top secret. We've been at this for ages now and I anticipate it will still take some time longer. We're looking to the future of warfare with the construction of the Akhetaten, something powerful, fast, and suitable to take control of any battle it sees. As such the Akhetaten is being purpose built with the future of warfare and our strategy in mind. I'm sure you have many questions, so I'll answer as many of them as I can."
She was still in her chair, having set down a datapad to address the Captain.
Uhmen gently opened the door to Prower's office and entered, swiftly closing it behind her.
"Rear Admiral," she addressed her by her rank with a respectful tone in her voice as she saluted. The Captain stood in front of the desk and listened to Prower speak. It was no secret to her that the Osiris-class is receiving a full overhaul - much like the rest of the crew, Uhmen actively took part in the disassembling process and showed great interest towards the Navy's investment in the old battleship.
The specifics, however, she was not aware of.
"The secrecy of this project will continue to be upkept, Rear Admiral, there are no doubts or worries about that," Uhmen reassured her higher-up, "I will require access to all of the files regarding the ship itself if I am to be in charge of this project. I'll have to look into the specific blueprints in order to be able to judge the progress, validity and possible flaws on the design our engineers have came up with." It was clear that the Captain was well aware of the responsibilities that would rest on her shoulders after Edwards' leave from the fleet, as it was clear that she had no intention of acting any less professional than her standards allow.
"On a last note, I would like to know the availability and working hours of the Akhetaten's crewmates that were submitted to Commodore Edwards during the beginning of this project in order to work on a more effective schedule to hopefully prevent the further delaying of this project."
"The necessary information will be forwarded to you over secure lines. The files and information, alongside the blueprints. Normally the crew works a standard workday while construction is underway. We've moved outside the planning phase and are just in the regular construction building now. We've already gotten the first shipments of materials to go further than the structural skeleton necessary. You'll have plenty of time to review everything. Is there anything else? Work should begin tomorrow."
Nicole was rather calm about it all, there wasn't much left to do about everything aside from the actual shipbuilding now.
The shipyard was bustling with activity. The frame of the nose section was laid down, the distinctive shape supported by several struts while the frame was being reinforced.
Cross-bracing was being added throughout the nose section. With particular attention being paid to the parts which would be stressed by the combat maneuver system. In a separate dock a scale model of the new drive system had been constructed to verify that real world performance would meet the specifications outlined in the plans.
The armoury was partially complete with the strengthened torpedo bulges that formed part of the citadel around the munitions storage areas being constructed. The majority of the section was still missing it's hull plates and electronics with only the sections where they were required to mount the bulges being completed with the plates installed.
Cobra sat in his Avenger fighter monitoring the construction process. There had been some delays caused by the new drive system initially, but these had been resolved relatively quickly. On his datapad he sent a message to Captain Uhmen to request a meeting to discuss the progress of construction and discuss the main drive system tests.
Uhmen had spent the last few weeks evaluating the previous working schedule that was made under Edwards' command and making changes where she deemed changes being necessary.
The rearrangements naturally would cause a considerable amount of delaying on the progress of the project, but there was hope that the new schedule Uhmen had came up with would help speed up the rest of the process.
With Cobra in charge of the ship's construction, Uhmen was not surprised to receive a message from him requesting her presence in order to discuss matters regarding the ship's construction and more specifically the drive - the part that had been causing the most delays in the process.
The drive, in it's conception, was a prototype design, a similar of which was never built before. It was expected that this would lead to several problems during construction that the team would have to get past, however Uhmen was still unaware of the specifics regarding the drive.
Uhmen made her way to Cobra's office in her earliest convenience and knocked the door before entering.
"Good day Cobra," she said as she entered the office, taking a seat on the opposite side of Cobra as she did. "I trust the ship has been coming along nicely and the blueprints we've came up with aren't flawed," she continued as she looked at the scale model of what was the conception of what the final version of the ship would look like.
"Good work on the nose, the Overlord-class and the inspiration taken from it is fairly obvious and there wouldn't be a reason not to improve on the Osiris' outdated features. The torpedo bulges positioned in critical parts of the ship around the citadel and the armory are yet another genius copy and repurpose of the similar Overlord parts," Uhmen commented as she kept her attention at the three-dimensional holographic model on the desk, "what are the plans for the connections for the primary and secondary drives and how are the crew compartments going to be implemented in the design? In addition, I believe that the extra thrust added to the ship's drive with the introduction of the tertiary engines on the nose is a brilliant idea."
