As Nathan headed for New Orleans his attention turned to his wife Rachel, and the little bundle she was holding. Chandler Scott-James was now a week old. His eyes had opened and it turned out that he had his mother's deep blues. Everything else he got from his father and unfortunately that included a ridiculous pranking and exploring streak.

From the time that he could flop about Nathan's deck and passageways, the shipling was a first rate troublemaker. He was barely the size of a human teenager so he could fit just about anywhere the crew couldn't, making him the expert at sneaking about. The cooks were his favorite victims. Steal a few of their apples and they'd be on the rampage looking for them. One time Chandler even set up a beer trap for them. During the night he rigged a keg of beer that he'd found down in the hold so when the cooks came in the galley the next morning, their yelling and swearing was heard throughout the ship before they staggered out soaked in Bud Light.

But Chandler's eagerness to explore could also get into trouble. This became a frightful reality one day.

Captain Chandler was off on a shore mission, rescuing a group of teenage boys from a bad neighborhood. Rachel was working in the lab alongside her and Nathan's worst enemy (besides the Ramsey's) Neils. Chandler was curled up fast asleep in the crib just outside. The shipling had been vaccinated the moment he was born. Rachel had created a special string of the vaccine for ships which Nathan was glad of. He wondered, not for the first time, how many of his kind were left roaming the seas.

A few hours later, Chandler woke up. He wasn't hungry, he'd been fed fairly recently. Eating could wait. Looking around him, the shipling marveled at all the shiny sparkling medical equipment. He had to get closer and touch one of them. He found he could slip through the bars of the crib and did so, landing flat on his belly on the tile floor. Finding a leg of a table within reach, he used a rigging wire and pulled himself over to it. Then did the same with the next object he could reach. He did this until he bumped into something hard but warm. A human leg. Looking up with a surprised cheep, Chandler saw a pair of brown eyes meet his.

Neils regarded the little shipling with a mixture of jealousy and hate. "That should be my son." He thought. "Rachel should've been my wife, not this tin cans!"

His anger ruling him, Neils picked up Chandler and regarded him. "Been vaccinated little one?" He sneered. "Let's find out?" He breathed on the little shipling and Chandler squeaked in disgust at the foul smell of his breath. Then Neils found a needle filled with a primordial and jabbed the tip into Chandler's shoulder. The shipling squealed, fighting him.

This alerted Rachel who launched herself across the lab and bowled Neils over, jabbing an IV filled with DNA splicer into him. The virus took effect almost instantaneously and Chandler watched as the man drowned in his own blood, despite Rachel's efforts to cover his face. She took the needle out of his shoulder (thankfully none of the primordial had entered his bloodstream) and placed him back in his crib.

"Stay there!" She ordered sternly.

Chandler cheeped once in reply. He knew not to disobey his mother when she had that tone in her voice.

...

When Captain Chandler returned and learned that Neils was dead, he was furious. How could he be expected to beat the propaganda campaign the Ramsey's were playing without him.

He confronted Rachel, who admitted to her crime.

"When we make safe port, I will turn you over to civilian authorities, and you will answer for you crime." He said.

Nathan snarled in fury.

"Something you care to add, Nathan?" Chandler asked.

"She was protecting our son, your namesake! Neils was going to kill him!" Nathan replied with barely constrained rage.

"Nonetheless she committed a crime and she must answer for it." Chandler replied.

"When we make safe port." Nathan hissed, voice dangerously low. "It won't be Rachel who walks down that gangway. It will be you, in a body bag! I will DIE before I allow you to seperate my family!"

With that captain and ship separated. They were forced to work together still for they still shared a common goal in saving the world. But once that goal was met, neither intended to speak or see each other again. They'd made their own choices, and gone their separate ways.