The Captain

Nathan Bridger was born in November, 1970. His father, Jacob Bridger, was a full professor at MIT. His mother Lillian Bridger was a concert violinist. Nathan’s childhood, therefore, was one of intellectual pursuit. Nathan took to education readily, and had a particular aptitude toward the sciences which his parents pushed… but his desires to actively participate in other normal kidlike pursuits – sports, arcade games, Star Wars movies – were met with fairly consistent persistence from his parents. Nathan’s grandfather, after whom he was named, was also a man of science, but a much more active one then Nathan’s father – he was an explorer and researcher, and among his exploits was his involvement in three of Admiral Byrd’s five expeditions to Antarctica in the 1940’s and 50’s. Young Nathan clearly has a strong thread of his grandfather’s gene coursing through his veins. By the time Nathan reached his teen years (in the 1980’s), his frustration towards his parent’s restraints exploded as open rebellion. He turned his back on education altogether – immersing himself in the pursuit of cars, heavy metal, and girls. Thus causing a tremendous rift between himself and his parents. And in particular, his father. The one continuing interest that Nathan could not turn his back on from his childhood was his fascination with the sea. So when is eighteenth birthday arrived (and the fat his parents were bemoaning the fact that his grade were not good enough for his to get into the schools of their choice)- he shocked everyone by joining the U.S Navy. Not as an applicant cadet at Annapolis, but as an enlisted man in the regular service. From the day he returned from Boston with the announcement, he and his father rarely spoke, and then only in short, strained conversation. His first years in the navy as a seaman 1st class he revelled in being just one of the shaved-headed, uniformed rank and file, but the mundane duties of a regular seaman didn’t exactly occupy his intellect and imagination, and he became somewhat renowned among the fleet as the el primo practical joker. (Some of the more elaborate stunts he pulled are still legendary in 2018… and his crew occasionally relates one of the more outrageous and funny ones that they’ve heard about and ask if it is true, And, Of course, they always are). It is during these early years in the navy that Nathan meets his true love and future wife, Diandria (Nina note: whom, we come to know as Carol in the series.) Diandria is studying for her masters in education at Stanford when they meet. It is a day when Nathan is on shore leave in San Francisco, Attending a Giants game with some shipmates. Because he is one in a group of rowdy sailors, he at first has a tough time getting Diandria, in the seat in front of him, to pay any attention. But by the end of the game, his more cultured side has managed to reveal itself, and soon they are dating… and on his next leave, eight months later, they are married. His marriage to Diandria is the first of two events that lead Nathan back to school and the fulfilment of his intellectual promise. The other event occurs in his third year in the navy. That event – The Gulf War.

Nathan serves on a destroyer in the Persian Gulf. His is one of the ships participating in the day and night bombing of Bagdad. It is this taste of modern-day warfare the most affects him. The ability to unleash such tremendous firepower with the mere push of a button. He decides that if he is to ever participate in anything like this again, he is not going to do it as a grunt seaman carrying out someone else’s order. If there is a next time, he wants to be a participant at a decision making level. So he returns to school, becoming what is referred to in the navy as a mustang – an enlisted man who begins the climb through the ranks towards officer. And through the nineteen-nineties and into the early twenty-first century, he moves steadily though the ranks, ultimately attaining the position of captain within the navy’s submarine fleet. During this same period that the nations of the world begin to realize the seemingly limitless resource potential of the seas… and the threat of world conflict again raises its head as undersea territoriality begins. In addition to the multinational confederations which form during this period, and individual with money enough to develop his own fleet of deep sea explorers can also be a player in this bidding war for control of the seas. The year is 2007. Nathan is heavily involved in project seaQuest – the development of the ultimate warrior class submarine. It will be larger, sleeker, faster and more deadly then any ship on or under the seas. Nathan allows himself to get caught up in the challenge of developing this ultimate ship… he doesn’t let himself think too much about what the final product will actually be capable of doing. And then…. Nathan’s son (his and Diandria’s only child) is a first year seaman serving on a explorer ship in the artic when a dispute over territory breaks out and shots are fired. Nathan’s son’s ship goes down. And Nathan’s life in the navy unravels. He suddenly sees the full evil potential of the ship he is helping to design…as well as the seeming inevitability of the insane course the world appears to be heading on. The quest for resources enough to provide food and fuel for everyone on earth has led to a mad rush to control those resources. And as passions escalate so does the eventuality of the world was and world destruction. Nathan wants none of it. He resigns his commission in the navy, and fuelled by bitterness at the loss of his son to this madness, he resolves to leave the world to destroy itself as it sees fit. He will spend what years remain indulging in his love of the sea from an entirely different perspective – by studying the sea. He compels Diandria to join him far from the insanity of what the world has become. So they venture down to the Galapagos Islands, and begin an ascetic life of marine research. Only occasionally do they hear any vague word from passing cargo ships about the world situation.

At night, while writing up his notes Nathan will smile at the irony that he is now involved in the type of scientific pursuit his father probably always dreamed for him. But Nathan’s father has long since passed away and there was never any reconciliation between them. It is in the autumn of 2015 that Diandria suddenly takes ill. A respiratory disease, indigenous to the tropics. Nathan contacts the research facility on the main island, but she is gone before medical assistance can arrive. In a midnight ceremony suggested by the natives, he sets her body on an outrigger festooned with island flowers, swims out a mile from shore, and commends her body and spirit to the sea. The next three years he loses himself in his research, living and working alone on the most far flung island. Imagine the culture shock one morning in 2018 when a high-tech navy helicopter lands on Nathan’s pristine beach. At first Nathan wants nothing to do with whatever its here for… but a conversation vis videophone with his long-time friend and mentor admiral Tarr (Noyce) convinces him, how ever warily, to return to pearl harbour and at least hear what Tarr has to say. Thirteen hours later Nathan is completing the trip to Pearl – His mind and body still adjusting to this abrupt return to a world of stainless steel, glass, plastic…Tarr lays it out for him: the world’s confederations have realized the dangerous folly of their competition for control of the sea. A worldwide anti-aggression pact has just been signed. And as an olive branch offering to this new era of hopeful cooperation, the seaQuest – the submarine Nathan was working on when he quit the navy – is to be presented to the newly formed united earth/oceans organisation. It is to be converted into a science ship. And they want Nathan to return to active duty and assume command of her as she embarks on this new mission. Nathan has little faith that any anti-aggression pact will sustain, and at first wants nothing to do with this. But Tarr implores him – because of Nathan’s submarine command experience and his science/research background, he is not only perfect choice for this assignment, he is virtually the only choice. Despite his cynicism that man will eventually find a way to either blow himself up or pollute himself out of existence – Nathan sees that this vessel and its mission of peace, its mission to explorer the seas as a saving-grace environment, could be the single window of hope, ushering mankind into a brave new future of peace and ecological accountability. Ultimately, Nathan very reluctantly agrees to sign on. So Nathan steps aboard this high-tech wonder of a ship – a ship that he had once held as the supreme example of the insane direction mankind was taking. And he is very much the man in the middle. The operational crew of this ship is made up of 88 navy personnel… all trained and ready for war that now (hopefully) wont be coming. The remaining 124 crew members are scientists, explorers… all pony-tailed and baseball-capped. Nathan’s sympathies are clearly with the scientists on board, but being a thirty year navy man, he understands the feeling and the attitudes of the operational crew as well.

Thus Nathan returns to the sea… a sea where, in a way, both Diandria and his son reside…so that when the ship is traversing the depths, he feels a certain closeness to them both. He is also shouldering the burden of being at the forefront of the new world peace. And when the threat of breach of that peace occurs, he and his ship are the first ones called to help settle the conflict. And so Nathan’s involvement in what may be the next great step for mankind begins… …and all the adventures, the explorations, the discoveries of this remarkable ship and its unprecedented mission are experiences by us through the participation of this extraordinary man. The end!