Pakhet

[Tenacity]

---Several weeks later---

The inter-ship comm beeped in Aki's quarters, and she rolled across the bed to hit the voice button. Mumbling, still half asleep, she responded, "What?"

"Sub-Commander, there's a priority one message coming in for you." The ensign on the other end replied.

"Have the cap'n take it" She groaned as she rolled back over, trying to get back to sleep.

"The message is for you, ma'am, not the captain."

Aki sighed and sat up, "Arright, patch it through."

She stumbled over to the desk in the corner of her quarters where a computer screen jumped to life. The face of the sixth fleet admiral appeared, and aki jumped, trying to cover herself... it generally wasnt standard protocol to talk to fleet admirals half naked. She quickly sat down at the desk so only her face appeared on the admiral's end.

"Sleep well?" He asked in a stern, criticizing voice.

"Uh, sorry admiral, Eisen's on watch now and I just finished a thirty-six hour shift." She stammered.

"No need for explanations. Listen, I need a report from you on the Pakhet's performance and systems. High command wants to push the joint order-zoner fleet project to the next level, and they need input from officers who have been serving aboard the current ships."

"Yes sir... uh... permission to speak freely sir?" Aki said, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes.

"Go ahead." Responded the admiral, with an impatient tone to his voice.

"What do you mean, 'next level'? We've already got zoner destroyers and battleships operating with the order, we've tested weapon and systems compatibility on these ships, and we've had plenty of order crewmen learn how zoner ships operate... I dont see much of a next level to go to..."

"I cant reveal all information yet, but I'll let you in on what little I know. Word from high command says that the zoners are developing a new line of ships, including a remarkable armored transport. We want relations with the zoners to keep up as they have been - if we can get some of those transports we might be able to create what our own engineers have failed to thus far."

"Not sure I follow, admiral..." Aki replied, a bit nervously at testing the admiral's patience.

"From initial design schematics, this 'armored transport' the zoners are building is small, fast, and very efficiently constructed. High command wants to try out some new systems that have been developed in the field of surveillance and recon - they want to turn one of these transports into a stealth ship."

"Dont the Osiris battleships already have functional cloaking devices?"

"The Osiris is getting out of date, it just cant stand up to the enemies we've been facing recently. It's too large to serve as an efficient recon ship, and the cloaking devices used onboard those behemoths suck enough energy to power an entire planet. The newer stealth systems dont render a ship invisible but are much more efficient at hiding it from scanners, and frankly that's what we need right now - we havent had any reliable intel from liberty or the other houses in years because they've got methods of detecting our cloaked ships."

"Understood, Sir. I'll have a report filed and transmitted by the end of the week."

Aki shut down the comm screen and wearily crawled back into bed.

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