Cobra looked at the holographic display and nodded. Looking over the plans on the holographic display. "It's certainly an intriguing development." He paused while he looked at the design in further detail.
"Admiral, I only have a couple of questions at this time. I may have some additional questions once I have looked over these plans in further detail however. For now, I would just like to confirm which of the drydocks we are going to be using for the work and if any of the components have been tested outside of sims yet?" Cobra then sat back and awaited a response.
"Drydock three, the other large dock, is being used for this project. The engine bay is currently under construction and will undergo it's trials shortly. Hopefully if the engine prototype works properly, we can speed up construction, however we're not entirely sure it will be the same as we're testing it in an Overlord engine housing as opposed to the dedicated housing it'll be in. Other parts haave no undergone trials outside of simulations and will be tested prior to installment. The hard part is first breaking up the Akhetaten."
Cobra nodded thoughtfully. "I think that's all the questions I have for now Admiral, with your permission I will go over these plans with the engineering team in further detail?" He paused to look at the plans again. "I would also like to take some time to look at the simulations so that I have the full picture before starting any work."
Cobra once again went quiet focusing on the holographic display.
"Detailed information and schematics will be made accessible to you, as well as being on this datapad. Simulation info is still coming in but the projected components are being run through now, so they should be completed by the end of the day, barring any changes being made. In about an hour I'm going to visit Edwards aboard the ship and see if it's ready to begin. Take the time you need to get familiar with the design, we'll be starting from the back forward, so the engine and it's compartment will be first. In the mean time, I'm going to oversee some tuning done to my Bastet. Power coupling has been giving me issues with keeping the thruster powered. If you need additional info, contact me, but I want you to check in with Edwards sometime aswell, get his thoughts and ideas." She stood up, setting a linked datapad down for Cobra to take, dismissing herself to work on her fighter for the next hour, letting Edwards finish handling his crews affairs.
Cobra took the datapad and signalled for the engineering team to follow him. "Can you head down to Dry dock 3 and supervise the breakup of the ship? I want to see what parts if any are going to be salvageable from the original systems. If nothing else we should be able to re-use some of the hull plates.
I'll be down at my Avenger's docking bay for a couple of hours and then i'll join you. Need to study these in more detail." Waving the datapad he held in his hand. After receiving a nod from the engineers Cobra began walking back to his Avenger, reading the datapad as he did so.
After about an hour and a half, Nova got out from inside her fighter workshop, cleaned herself up and began heading down to the drydock, intent on finding Edwards to ensure everything was going to schedule, even though she'd lost track of time herself. She boarded the Akhetaten, searching for Edwards, finally finding him at the bridge."Edwards, I do hope everything is going along fine. I apologize for being late myself, had another matter to attend to while waiting. I do hope the crew was brought up to speed with what's happening and why?"
She stepped towards the window, looking out towards the drydocks as repair ships and crews began fixing the Akhetaten in place, the first stage of breaking the ship up. "I hope there's no.. resentment, about what's happening with the ship. Don't want anyone to have any mixed feelings about the project."
It had been just a few hours after Edwards had last seen Prower, and in those few hours the Akhetaten's crew had been informed about the procedures that are to come. Christopher knew they didn't have a lot of time to move everyone's belongings from the ship so he informed the commanding officers of each section of the ship and had each of them inform the crewmembers that were under their command, with Christopher spending his time on the bridge, taking care of all the software related issues that had to follow. The Akhetaten was, effectively, a floating data-bank. The ship had been in active service since before Liberty's war with Rheinland, the entries on her file registry being endless.
By the time the Rear Admiral arrived, the crew had entirely disembarked the vessel, Christopher being the last inside, sitting at the Captain's chair. He rose up from the chair and saluted Prower. "Welcome aboard, Rear Admiral. As you can tell by the silence that has filled the ship, she has been completely emptied of every valuable and non-valuable piece of hardware and software that was stored aboard."
Christopher followed her towards the window of the observation deck. A slight smile covered his face as he looked down towards the repair crews. "I've been thinking about this moment for a few months now, Rear Admiral. The Akhetaten is an old ship, this procedure is something I knew would be unavoidable at some point." Christopher sighed. "I've had discussions with many of them, before any of this was official, before any of it was actually planned. She needs it, Rear Admiral - she's been in service for God knows how many years, and the crew knows this."
"Good. Atleast everyone understands why we've deemed it necessary for this to happen. Everything else is undergoing the initial stages, so we'll be getting under way soon enough. In the meantime, I've gone over some options for the crew that we can discuss but there's something else I want to make sure of first. The project is currently classified top secret, so we can't have any answering any questions as to the Akhetatens current assignment or anything. So while away, nobody can say what's going on, understand?"
She turned back to him, eyeing the interior of the bridge. Soon it would be wrapped in all kinds of equipment for being stripped out. "With that out of the way we have a couple options for your crew. The first is much earned shore leave while the project undergoes it's completion, with a select few remaining on the station to provide our teams with much needed information to continue our construction efforts. The second option is volunteering to remain on duty to actively aid in the construction process. Either is fine and they'll be paid no matter what decision they make."
"Of course, Rear Admiral. We've already discussed that - as far as anyone outside those directly involved, Project Akhetaten does not exist." Christopher paused for a few seconds as Prower turned to look at the bridge. He then walked beside her. "I can't speak for all of them, Rear Admiral. I think the best course of action is sending a message in their individual PDAs and letting them choose by replying to it, that way everyone gets what they want."
He turned his head around, eyeing the rest of the observation deck for one last time. "Unless there is something else that you need to inform me of, we can disembark, Admiral - I am done here." He spoke with a calm voice, ready to head out.
She had resumed looking out the bridge of the ship, glad things were proceeding on schedule. The whole process with the crew had gone along easier than she had anticipated. All the same, they were ready to begin work on the inside of the ship. "That will be all for now, Edwards. If we need something else I'll be sure to reach out to you. Enjoy your time off, once the ship is ready to launch again, we'll want to proceed as quickly as possible."
After dismissing Edwards, she had begun talking with another R&D agent of hers. "Alright, the crew has disembarked from the ship, coordinators for the interior of the ship can begin procedures to strip down the interior. All things are to get underway immediately, I'll be returning to my office to check over the materials and undertakings of experimental modules for the new hull, I'll be reachable if something important comes up." With that, she had departed back to her office, interested on checking on Cobra's ideas.
