Epilogue:
The End of Time

December 28th, 2039
Bridger's Island
Yucatan

A thirteen year old with dark blonde hair stood on the dock that had been rebuilt so many times that it was near the point of falling apart as the boat from the mainland bumped gently against it. He bent down to tie the mooring lines that were thrown on the dock. "Admiral Hudson, it's great to see you."

"You too, Michael. Where's your Aunt and Uncle?"

"Up at the house, with everyone else."

"You know, I'm family, you don't have to call me 'Admiral'," laughed Oliver Hudson as he helped his wife, then his own daughter, Vanessa, off the boat.

"It has a ring to it," Michael shrugged, then he saw his father come down the stairs of the house. "Dad! Oliver, Wendy and Nessa's here!"

"I see that," said Admiral Robert Bridger as he mocked chased his son off the dock.

He held out his hand to shake Oliver's before hugging his cousin Wendy. Giving her a light kiss on the cheek, he said, "It's nice to see you."

"You too," she agreed.

"Vanessa! You've grown," he said as he picked up the five year old dark haired girl. "You look like your mother."

"Aw Bobby, but she's old..." she caught her mother's eye. "Well, maybe not that old."

The small group walked off the dock and up the stairs into the living room of the house where another small girl played with blocks. Her skin was a lovely shade of milky chocolate and she had natural blonde highlights. When Michael walked in the room, she awkwardly tried to stand, "Unca' Mike! Look what I built!"

The four year old was quickly joined by Vanessa, "Hi, Kim."

From the doorway, Kristin Bridger, with more silver in her hair watched as Vanessa Hudson played with JJ and Lucas's daughter, Kimberly Teresa Bridger. She smiled. I wish Nathan could see this. So many memories he's missed.

Hudson walked up her and held out a respectful hand, "Lady Westphalen... Kristin... it's great to see you."

"You too, Liv," she said. "It's amazing how much little has changed. But Admiral Hudson certainly has a ring to it."

"It does, doesn't it," he agreed. "And it actually doesn't take me away as much as I feared either."

Michael watched as every one gathered together, a sad smile on his face at the group. Everyone was here.

Except for one man– his grandfather, Nathan Hale Bridger.

Michael turned from the group and slipped away unseen, and unheard, out of the house. He wanted someplace alone for tonight. Everyone would be here for at least a week or so. He had time for himself. Time to reflect.

His father had impressed on him that family was important. So was, to a certain degree, tradition. But Michael, unlike his father and grandfather had no interest in the military. He knew what it was he wanted. What he wanted to be– and he was even good at it.

Michael loved photography and had racked up an impressive portfolio like Lucas had an impressive amount of hacks. He had his own darkroom that he had built with his father, but had earned the hard way. He liked the old way of doing things. Film would always have a faster aperture speed than digital, but, as digital had its uses, he had a digital studio too.

But this was not where he headed with the file folder containing photos of his grandfather with various family, friends, or places. The scrapbook he was painstakingly assembling was mostly finished. It was where he wanted to be for the last touch.

Michael opened the massive journal of memories and closed his eyes for a moment.

Opening them again, he looked over the pictures.

There was his grandfather with Lucas and the original crew on the seaQuest. Everyone looked so young compared to what they looked like now. There were a few he had never met in the picture, and a few so different, so mature, that it unbelievable. That was the first part of the book... the first tour after his grandfather took command. He had written down all the memories that could be gleaned for all five tours.

Five.

Five years the seaQuest DSV sailed– and all five were here.

Michael took his pen and wrote the final entry...

Once the night had fallen, I turned to the album I had made. I had printed out the pictures myself with a laser printer. Lasers were better than inkjet, I felt. The pictures that have special meaning were those of my grandfather's. And of a grandmother I never knew except by what my father told me of her.

People tell me that the seaQuest DSV was never the same without Nathan Bridger at the helm. That may have been true. Personally, I think they decommissioned the seaQuest DSV II because there could be no seaQuest without Nathan Bridger. Perhaps they were right. There was never another built after they decommissioned her in 2035.

They still used the technology, and the Avenger. The Grail disappeared again, so we couldn't even find him anymore. Perhaps he's still out there. Who knows.

But the end of time for the seaQuest was here.

The End

If anyone has been bitten by a plot bunny spawned by anything in this 'epic', lol, let me know. I do love it when people have ideas that are spawned from my own stories. That gives me perhaps an even bigger rush than reviews. Not that reviews are ever unwelcome. Quite the contrary

Bats eyelashes...