Ratings: pg-13

Disclaimer- I do not own seaQuest DSV or 2032, if I did they would not have been cancelled when they did and had gone on for at least 3 more seasons.

Summary- AU Nathan and Carol not only had Robert, but a daughter as well. Meet Nicole Bridger and how her whole life changed the day Admiral Noyce came onto her father's island to get him to Captain the Seaquest.

Chapter 2

Nicole stared at her father and Dr. Westphalen for a second and then let them in. The duo looked at Lucas, Lucas looked back at them about to protest that he did nothing.

"There is something wrong with Seaquest and we need you to dig around and find out what's going on" her father said to Lucas.

Lucas sighed and got up from the seat he was in. "Well first off, we need to go to my quarters cause Nicole's computer doesn't have access to the stuff I need" he said as he made his way to the hatch.

Dr. Westphalen and Bridger nodded their heads and followed Lucas out of Nicole's quarters. Nicole was left in her room confused and then realized they left without her. "Hey…wait for me" she called after them.

- - - - - - - - --

Lucas looked up from his computer screen after typing in a series of commands. "It's dying." He said turning to Captain Bridger.

"What's dying?" Nicole's father asked. Nicole herself was confused as to what was going on. All she knew was that while she and Lucas were in her room fixing her computer, the Seaquest had been attacked by a rogue sub and had problems with weapons, targeting and the navigation systems.

"The core of the main computer has a virus. That's what's been gnawing away at the systems." Lucas explained as he turned back to his screen.

"But if it's in the core, why isn't it affecting the whole ship?" Dr. Westphalen asked from her spot on Lucas's bed.

"Oh, it will. It just started with weapons and propulsion." Lucas replied back after checking his screen again.

Then Dr. Westphalen and Nicole's father began to discuss how the virus could have been missed in routine diagnostics. Lucas then spoke up saying that it was buried to deep into the system to be noticed and it looked like it had been there for a while, but he didn't know how long.

"I can peel back the layers and pin point the exact time frame.." Lucas started to say and then froze. "It's got dogs… watch dogs, back doors to stop people from getting in" he exclaimed.

"What do we do now" Nicole asked. She had been quiet the whole time listening to the trio express their worries.

"We figure out a way to stop it and get rid of it" Her father said to her. He turned to Lucas and was about to speak when O'Neill's voice came over the loud speakers "Captain to the bridge. Captain to the bridge."

"I think that's you." Lucas said with a smile to Bridger. Nicole rolled her eyes at the comment.

Nathan got up and clapped his hand on Lucas's shoulder "Just keep doing what you're doing." He said as he rose from his seat and went to the hatch. As he got to the hatch "Good work" he said and then left.

Dr. Westphalen stood up herself and turend to Lucas "Don't get cocky." And left as well. Nicole and Lucas just looked at each other with confused and amused expressions.

"So now what" Nicole asked. Lucas studied her for a minute and then looked around his room "We figure out the problem" He looked at his screen and then thought for a moment. As he was thinking Nicole looked around his room and noticed all the clutter. "Ever clean your room?" she asked with disgust.

"No time" he said as he began to type in some commands and focused his attention on the computer. Nicole sighed and grabbed one of the UEO manuals he had on his book shelf and began to read.

- - - - - - - -

An hour later found the two teenagers with small computers and wires in a corridor near the launch bay. Nicole sensed her father coming near them and smiled at him. She also noticed that he had changed into the UEO uniform that was left in his quarters.

"Nice duds" she commented and then handed Lucas the black wire he requested.

"How's it going" he asked the two of them.

"Slow" Nicole responed and Lucas nodded his head in agreement.

"Well anything" her father asked.

"We are still trying to get to the virus, but we did find one thing. When it was planted into the computers" he replied.

"And" her father prompted"

"Judging by the layers of data between us and him, I'd say it was planted a little over a year ago. Thirteen months to be exact." He stated.

Bridger looked at the two of them and nodded his head. "Keep at it." And walked away.

Nicole stared at her fathers retreating form and frowned for a moment. Lucas noticed that she was not paying attention. "Bridger. Nicole. Nikki" he said trying to get her attention.

"I think he knows who did this" was all she said.

- - - - - - - -

Nicole and Lucas sat in on the meeting in the ward room since they were now a part of the "How do we fix the Seaquest" mystery.

"It's Marilyn Stark. I went back through the service records and found that she served on the Seaquest and when it was in dry dock, she was the commanding officer in charge."

Nicole sat there and listened as Ford explained what happened while he served under Stark. Then her dad explained how he taught Stark most of what she knows. Then there was the argument with Dr. Westphalen about weapons.

Nicole took that as the signal to get out of there. She grabbed Lucas by his collar and dragged him out of the meeting. The two of them stood in the corridor and looked at each other.

"Oh Boy" Nicole said "I know" Lucas said. Then everyone came out of the room and Dr. Westphalen motioned for the two of them to follow her.

"Wonder what we get to do now" Lucas said as they trailed after her like ducklings.

- - - - - - - - -

Since the Seaquest was dealing with a problem the two teens were now stuck in one of the science labs off the moon pool. Nicole was bored out of her mind and wanted to be anywhere other than the science lab.

She then caught movement in the doorway and noticed her father and Commander Ford come in. Lucas nudged her. "I wonder what's going on now?" he asked.

"Well, let's go find out." Nicole said. Nicole and Lucas walked closer

and saw Dr. Westphalen and Bridger talking to Darwin. They got close enough to hear Darwin exclaim "Need air".

"What's going on?" Nicole asked as she is Lucas came up to the moon pool.

"Your father has the idea of using Darwin to help with the weapons. He wants to fire him out of the torpedo tube." Dr. Westphalen explained.

"What" both teens cried and turned to Bridger. "No, he's going to SWIM out of the torpedo tube and place this beacon on the rogue sub."

"Need air" Darwin once again exclaimed.

"You will get it with this device" Bridger explained and put the special made dolphin scuba gear on Darwin. "Try it out" he said.

"I still don't like it." Dr. Westphalen stated as Darwin went underwater. Nicole and Lucas just stood there watching what was going on.

"Darwin breathe." Darwin said when he surfaced again.

"Good. Now, what you do is swim out and tag the marker." Bridger said as he petted Darwin.

"Darwin play." Darwin stated again.

"He's got a one track mind" Lucas muttered.

Bridger ignored Lucas's comment and continued to speak to Darwin. "Just like on the island. You swim down, you tag the marker, tag the metal boat. Understand?"

"Metal boat." Darwin replied.

"Darwin, you don't have to do this." Dr. Westphalen said to Darwin.

But Darwin just shook his head and headed underwater. The three of them stepped away from the moon pool and Nicole's father spoke in his PAL about something.

After finishing he looked at Nicole and Lucas. "Ok, now we get back to finding the virus and eliminating it." Lucas nodded his head while Nicole looked at the moon pool. "Nicole, Darwin will be fine" he father said.

"He better be." Nicole muttered and followed Lucas out of the science labs.

While Her father and the command crew were dealing with the rogue sub, Lucas, Nicole and several computer techs were going over the computer systems trying to get rid of the virus. Lucas had finally found where the program and originally been uploaded into. With Nicole's help (basically she read the read outs and handed tools or typed in commands that Lucas needed) they were able to get weapons, targeting, navigation and communications back up and running, but after the torpedo hit the sub. Another hour later, they had full control of the virus and Lucas made some patch jobs so that no one else could hack into the systems without authorization from several people.

Nicole and her father were sitting in his room just talking about things and feeding pictures into the hologram projector when Lucas poked his head in the door.

"It was open" he said blushing as he stepped in.

"Come in" her father said.

Lucas came in and paused at hologram. "I'm still trying to improve it." He said motioning to the equipment. He turned his attention to the picture of who he assumed was Nicole's mom, a younger Nicole and a teenage boy."

"She's pretty" he commented.

"She's my mom" Nicole said with a smile. Lucas smiled at her and turned his attention to her father.

"Well, I just came by to tell you I thought it was very … effective the way you handled the situation." Lucas stammered. Nicole raise her eyebrow at Lucas's choice of words.

"Effective? Thanks." Bridger said a bit confused.

"So… you gonna stay, or what?" Lucas asked sitting on the bunk near Bridger. Nicole herself turned to look at her father. She too wanted to know, but was too afraid to voice the question.

"It's not that simple." Her father said.

" Why not? Come on, you like it here, don't you? I mean, it is your boat." Lucas began to argue.

"I made a promise to my wife." Bridger began.

Lucas, Nicole and her father sat in silence looking at the picture on the hologram. Finally Lucas broke the silence. "Were you two happy?" he asked quietly.

"Yes we were, we had two great kids" Bridger said and hugged Nicole who was sitting to his left side.

"You got lucky. My parents were never happy. They couldn't even stand to be in the same room as each other." Lucas began " Sometimes I wished that they would just get divorced." He added.

"Why didn't they?" Nicole asked quietly.

"Well, they said that when they got married, that they made a promise to stay together forever. I guess they didn't count on things changing. " Lucas said. Then things were quiet for a moment until O'Neill's voice was heard over the loud speaker once again "Captain, you're wanted on the bridge."

"I think that's me." Bridger said and patted Nicole and Lucas on the foot and stood up to turn off the hologram. Lucas and Nicole stood up and followed her father out of his quarters. Bridger walked down the hall with the two teens watching him.

"So do you think he's going to stay" Lucas asked Nicole.

"Yeah, he just made up his mind" Nicole said with a smile.

TBC…..