Project: Akhetaten - Phase One

[Armageddon]

"Good day Captain." Cobra moved some controls on his desk and zoomed in on specific parts of the model. "The primary fuel store is located in the armoury section and is protected by the torpedo bulges. There are smaller tanks located near the secondary drive system to allow this drive to run in the event of a failure. Due to the difference in power output between the cores for the drive systems there isn't a need for as much fuel."

"The fuel will be pumped through a series of pipes with electronic quick release connections and stop taps. There is also a flow limiter which will cut off the flow of fuel to a specific pipe if a leak is sensed. The fuel pipes themselves will be reinforced and are run towards the centre of the ship." He paused for a moment while he brought up a deck layout of the ship.

"As for the crew there are three main areas where quarters are available. Engineering and armoury personnel will be assigned quarters at the base of the armoury section. This will allow these officers to get to their stations quickly in the event of an emergency." He moved the plans forwards to show the central part of the ship. "Senior officers and bridge officers will have quarters assigned in the top part of the ship between the observation and bridge sections." Once again the map moved to show the nose section. "There are also quarters towards the front of the ship intended for the officers maintaining the ships forward weapons systems. As well as the pilots and mechanics for the strike craft aboard."

He switched the display back to a general view of the ship. "This way none of the crew will be centralised in one place. I am glad you find the introduction of the forward engine system to your liking." He turned to the window behind him. "The main reason I requested this meeting is to ensure that you are happy with the new scale model of the drive prototype. This design has met our design goals however our engineers don't yet have the experience with this reactor system that we do with the overlord class reactors. I would suggest that the ship will be down on power until your engineering team gets experience handling the reactor design."

Cobra brought up several power draw charts. "As you can see the optimum efficiency band is a lot narrower on this new engine type. Unfortunately, it is a negative of a prototype vessel. Initial tests show that this band may widen once the drive is scaled up to the intended size. But we won't know for definite until we build the thing and test it in real world scenarios.

I'm sure you will agree that simulations are no substitute for real world tests." Cobra pressed a few buttons and the display switched to the works schedule. "We will need to make a decision now on the design if you want the ship to launch to the new schedule. I'd suggest that the risk is low and that we should build the full size drive model to be installed. We have done all we can with scale tests. But the final decision is yours."

Cobra took a drink of his coffee and waited for Uhmen to respond.