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!