Someone started pounding on the door, again, Alex nearly spilling their can of cola across Edward’s desk. The two had resigned themselves eventually to just taking out two cans he was going to use for rum and cokes and drinking them before going back. But now it seemed like someone wanted to drag the two back.

“Who’s that!?”

“I don’t know…”

“Do you think its David?”

“Could be… Come in!”

“You cocks! Why the hell did you two run off!” David yelled, “I don’t like being stood up like this and if this was to have a panic drink I wanted in!”

“David, you’re a bad influence on him and you should try to manage your drinking!”

David simply stared at Alex, “They sounds like someone’s mum, doesn’t they?”

“That what I said,” Edward mumbled.

“Screw you two…” they muttered.

“Aww, come on! Lets all go down to the officer’s lounge and get into some nice chairs then!”

Edward swirled the last bits of his drink in the can and drank them, tossing the can into the bin. It missed. “Well, ignoring that David, don’t you dare, how about instead, we go and have a walk around the ship and meet the crew then.”

“That’s a great idea I feel,” Alex piped up, “non of us have really seen much of the ship, it’ll be a learning experience!”

“I fucking hate learning,” David scoffed, “And you really need to get better aim.”

“Well,” Edward answered, walking over to the discarded can, “I’ve been trying, and this little lesson is going to be in the latest and greatest of military hardware. I think that’s something that actually interests you, does it not?”

“Oh alright then…” he huffed.

“Now come on then, lets have a little walk.” As he then dropped the can into the bin.

----------------------------------------

The door clanked behind the three of them as Edward wrenched the lock around, leaving the door sealed shut. “Well, can everyone remember to close these properly please as per procedure.”

“Well, I was only popping my head in, that was all.”

“I still want you to close it properly, right, off to engineering then?” he said, starting off towards the aft of the ship.

“Of course, you pick engineering.” David muttered,

“What?”

“You want to rub that engineering degree into our faces again, don’t you?”

“Well, I find it rather interesting that’s all.”

“I’m not sure why you find all of the machinery there anything but asinine, it isn’t anything like the railguns or anything and its all just so complicated…”

“Jealous you didn’t get a practical degree?”

“I do have a practical degree, its practical for diagnosing other people’s mental issues and gaslighting my enemies.”

“Though of course you don’t diagnose your own mental issues, do you?” Alex huffed.

“The only mental issues I have are headaches and the voices in my head.”

They both stared at him.

“If you couldn’t tell the last part was a joke.”

“Right…”

“You sound like you don’t believe me!”

“I wonder why…”

“Yeah, I do wonder why!”

“Well, the reason for it will stay veiled then. At least until you come to a time of self-reflection.”

The group then fell silent as they walked through the corridors, descending down a few sets of stairs as well as they moved further and further back along the spine of the ship. The metal clad corridors, while clean, did occasionally have points of exposed pipework running along the celling once they made their way out of the residential section of the ship. Overall, it looked a bit like the inside of a submarine, with it even including in the experience having to awkwardly shuffle around people going the other way. Though it was certainly better than floating around or having the ground slowly curve away from you.

But as they kept moving forwards the stench of lubricants and hydraulic fluids grew stronger and stronger. At the same time more panels with access to various pipes and cables along the walls also started to grow more frequent as the various signs of the engineering department popped up more and more.

“They couldn’t make it smell any better, could they?” David quipped, his nose turning up.

Edward chuckled a little, “I don’t think it smells bad, it’s just the smell of a workshop, all its missing is the smell of cut steel for it to be complete.”

“We I hope it doesn’t have that smell or else I’d think there was something concerning going on…”

“Well, lets find out as this… Ah! Yeah, that looks like the door to the control room!”

Infront of them was a door with a card reader and keypad next to it, labelled with all sorts of warnings and “keep out” signs, with a now saluting marine who had the unfortunate role of being squeezed to one side of the door.

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“Making an inspection sir?” The marine asked.

“Oh, just a little one.”

They nodded, putting their card against the door and opening the door with a “Admiral on deck”, stomping right in there with all the ceremony Edward really did not want as he and the rest of the group edged their way into the room, Alex quickly shuffling away to some corner to observe the reactor through the large windows that went across the rear end of the room.

It was quite a long room, filled with all sorts of consoles like the bridge, but they were separated into little clusters in here and there wasn’t any elevation changes. Instead, everything was on one level with the clusters either facing the rear end of the room with displays on various fuel levels and the status of the engines across the wall. Or towards the end with the large window with displays hanging from the ceiling. From the window, the toroid of the fusion reactor stood in its small reactor room, with the gentle humming sound piped into the control room for the reactor engineers to listen into closely for any faults.

“Admiral!” A voice squeaked, Edward’s head whipping around to meet the panicked gaze of a timid officer who was desperately trying to compose themselves after rushing right out of their seat to stand to attention. He placed the voice as American but was still trying to process where it was from.

“At ease…” The admiral muttered, waving them back down as he walked towards the spooked officer.

She was thin, pale and read headed, with a set of glasses like Alex’s on her nose. On her freshly ironed uniform was the name Lieutenant Amber Taylor freshly sewed on.

“I-I didn’t expect a-“ she stuttered before Edward raised a hand,

“Don’t worry, I’m not writing anything down at all, all that’s happening is I’m exploring the ship and exposing my staff to my love of engineering which my second in command seems to find completely mind numbing.”

“Ah- Uh- Well that’s good to hear…” she said, her hands fidgeting and playing with the cuffs of her engineer’s jumpsuit, “I haven’t heard much about you sir, but I have to say you’re a lot less formal than my last CO. A-and that’s not to disrespect you at all sir!”

“Oh that’s alright and you don’t have to be so uptight, this isn’t going on any records and god forbid David over there won’t be able to yell at you for not addressing me properly.” He said as he waved a hand in the direction of a thoroughly unimpressed David, a light chuckle coming from a corner of the room.

“Alright then uhm-“

“You can just call me Edward.”

“Well its good to meet you si- Edward!”

He laughed, “Its good to meet you too Amber, and is it alright if I get to know you a little more? I feel like I should know the person who’s in charge of the reactor, you know? So, what was your previous post?”

“Well I’m a transfer from the USS- I mean INCS Dallas and it’s a little exciting if I can say, to be with such a different crew now! Especially as the chief engineer!”

Now that she said it, it was certainly a southern American drawl with that notable Texan stint… But the Dallas, the Dallas…

“Ah! Wasn’t it one of the US’s cruisers, I remember spotting it a few times while on patrol…”

“And if I can ask,” She asked, coughing as she cleared her throat, “What ship were you on previously?”

“I was on the Comet.”

“Wait,” she muttered, her eyes widening, “Were you the one that lead that big flanking manoeuvre that encircled the Chinese at the battle?”

He sighed, his eyelids growing heavy, “I didn’t lead it, that was Admiral Makarov, I just took over it when he died and kept it going, leading me to now…”

“But! I’ve heard about how your ship managed to nail the engines of all of those cruisers too!”

“Well,” David piped up, “I was the one that was captaining the ship while Eddy here was ordering all of the other ships around.”

God fucking damnit you cock David, don’t call me “Eddy” if you can’t take any nicknames other than Blackthorn yourself…

“Ohh! Well- its just that I’ve heard some stories from some other people and it sounded so intense! The Dallas wasn’t really that close to it all really though and I wasn’t a head of department back then so it wasn’t all that exciting really…”

“Intense is one word for it.” The admiral muttered

“Ah… I see… Well you’ve earned your promotion I think Edward and I’m proud to be serving with you and uh-“

“David.”

“David as well!”

David beamed, giving the chief engineer a surprise pat on the shoulder as he walked out, pulling Edward with him and Alex following close behind.

“What was that for?” Edward sputtered, head whipping around as the door closed behind him and Alex.

“Well you’ve said your hello to them in there and I wanna meet the head of security as I’ve heard some great stuff about him!”

“What stuff?”

“Oh some great stuff. But anyway its great to see our engineer seems to be green, but she did like me so I think it cancels out.”

Alex huffed, “I see you haven’t changed your ranking system for people at all.”

“Don’t need to change what ain’t broke!”

“Well,” Edward murmured, “She isn’t quite green but she did seem a little meek…”

“Not sure how she will handle stress?”

“Exactly, though I think with that we just have to wait and see if they turn into a different person under pressure.”

“Like you?”

“Oh I don’t feel I make any sort of more drastic change, I just stop the messing around, just like with you, only you could serve to be more serious more of the time…”

----------------------------------------

The armoury was in more of the middle of the ship like the crew quarters and CIC was, but further down in the hull than the rest of them. But as they grew closer to it they heard yelling, rather loud and angry yelling from another American seemingly.

“Now I swear to Jesus and the lord I- Good afternoon Admiral!” The man barked, swiftly turning around from the marine he was reprimanding. The marine's face was like that of a deer, about to be run over by a car. Only for it to swerve right out of the way at the last moment.

“And good afternoon to you…” Edward said, the look on the marine’s face reminding him a lot of his days in training, with Alex sharing a similar feeling, unlike the smiling David.

“I’m Lieutenant Harley Smith sir! 13th Marine Division, 2nd Battalion! At your service sir!” The man barked. The man had wiry greying hair, an older face that looked like he was maybe in his 40s but he had a mangled scared flesh partly covering his left eye. The nasty gash that caused cutting down to his upper lip. His skin was black and had a healthier complexion than most of the crew he had met before and overall, if he wasn’t just out of having a rant with a marine, he seemed to be very friendly.

David of course, while the other two were stunned, took the opportunity and grabbed Harley’s hand and shook it, “It’s a pleasure to meet you Lieutenant! I must say you’re already more professional than most of the people on this ship!”

The Lieutenant laughed, slapping David’s back as he did, “Aww, I like you already! Good to meet you! You seem like nice man!”

“Oh, my subordinates pride me on my likeability!”

“Oh, I most certainly like you!” he said, still laughing as Edward spotted the marine behind the large lieutenant start to try and sidle out of the room without anyone spotting, but quickly failing as Harley’s expression faltered, snapping his head around.

“Corporal fucking Hailey get back behind me or I swear to dear god I’ll rip one of your legs off in front of the admiral, drag you to the airlock, and make you watch as I throw it out of there never to be seen by a doc or you ever again so you will say where you are told!” Exploding in rage the lieutenant turned to the escaping marine, his mangled eye socket opening wide as his eyes seemed to light with something, something not particularly friendly as Edward tried to stay calm and with a beaming smile, even as unpleasant nostalgia rose up again.

David on the other hand seemed to display some disturbingly great admiration and as the marine lieutenant turned back to the 2IC he simply said. “Sir I have to ask you out for a few drinks at some time.”

“I’ll take you up on that if I spot you again! Uh-“

“Its Lieutenant Commander David, and here is Rear Admiral Edward and Lieutenant Alex.”

“Oh-!” He spluttered, “Well, I’m, sorry for forgetting to talk to you two and forgetting my manners, we can get to know each other with drinks with your friend here!”

Edward and Alex apologised in turn, saying it was all alright, before edging out of the way and dragging David with them and once they were out of earshot, David let out a utterly cursed adrenaline filled sentence.

“Sir, is it still law that a captain can officiate marriages on a ship?”

The ex-captain simply looked over and laughed, “I don’t think I did any in my time and I don’t want to think of what scourge on humanity that would create…”

“Oh, it wouldn’t be a scourge, it would be a glorious gold age!”

“Nope, it would be a scourge.” Alex muttered, resolving to make sure that they weren’t there when the two had drinks later, and if possible stopping it from happening altogether.