Nathan Spring

**Nathan Spring** was a Chief Inspector for the British police force, before being promoted to Commander of the International Space Police Force, much to his disapproval.

## Biography

### Early life

Nathan Spring was born in either 1986 or 1987. (PROSE: *An Instinct for Murder*)

### Meeting Lee Jones

In 2017, Spring met and entered a relationship with Lee Jones. (TV: *Conversations with the Dead*) Jones' mother, Clare, invited him round for tea to meet the family, where he noted Kay Jones, Lee's sister, took an instant disliking to him. She never kept her disapproval a secret from him. (AUDIO: *Death in the Desert*)

Spring rapidly rose to Chief Superintendent in the British police force, which made him highly unpopular in the force and caused him to gain many enemies. His colleague, Chief Inspector Brian Lincoln was not one of those, it appeared. His own boss, Gerard, considered him to be one of the best, but also described him as "arrogant", "ambitious", "insolent" and "insubordinate" when it came to his disregard of technology and his readiness to spend money, with disregard to the Accounts Committee. (PROSE: *An Instinct for Murder*)

### Joining the ISPF

In 2027, (PROSE: *Star Cops*) before working for the International Space Police Force, at the age of forty-one, (PROSE: *An Instinct for Murder*) Nathan Spring was investigating a drowning Earth-side. Despite the machine evidence pointing to accidental death, Spring's hunch said otherwise. He and his officer Brian Lincoln sought to find out the truth. Before concluding this case, he was fastracked to the European space station *Charles de Gaulle* to investigate the death of European parliamentary representative Lars Hendvorrsen, who was seemingly one of the two percent of spacewalkers that had suffered an unfortunate and fatal suit malfunction.

He met with two officers, Chief Superintendent David Theroux, who shared his outlook that computers could be biased and that the case wasn't a simple suit malfunction, and Stephenson, the space traffic controller, who, much like his colleagues and bosses back home, thought that the computers were flawless. Theroux and Spring investigated together until they had no option but to draw a potential murder out of their hiding place.

Spring decided to go on a space walk, to see if the murderers would present themselves, much to Theroux's concern. Meanwhile, back in the control room, it became clear to Theroux that any space walk would be visible to the controller, Stephenson, and with Spring's radio jammed, and a gun pointed to Theroux's head by Stephenson, both of their lives were on the line. After unwillingly killing the murderers outside, and thwarting Stephenson's plans to dispose of Theroux, Nathan Spring was forced to accept a promotion to Commander of the International Space Police Force, much to his chagrin. (TV: *An Instinct for Murder*)

Shortly after his appointment to the position of Commander of the ISPF, Spring was distraught to hear of the brutal murder of his partner Lee Jones. Returning immediately to Earth, he found Chief Inspector Colin Devis on the case. Despite reaching the conclusion that this murder was far to imperfect to be random, Devis refused to listen and warned him off the case. From Earth, he watched Theroux's progress in setting up the Moonbase home for the ISPF whilst also overseeing its first mission - the rescuing of the crew from the Daedalus, a cargo ship that was sent careering through space despite there being no apparent computer fault.

Spring was lured to Chiswick Park by Lee Jones' killer but was ultimately attacked. Sergeant Corman, an officer who was working underneath Devis, scared away the attacker. Upon sharing a few choice words with Devis, they both agreed that the best course of action for now would be for Spring to return to his duties on Moonbase. Whilst there, Spring and Theroux uncovered a potential cover-up by Moonbase Coordinator Professor Paton to highjack the Daedalus' computer systems, so that the crew would be forced to alter the ships trajectories and use his experimental suspended animation chambers. Spring threatened Paton with a murder charge.

Spring's attention was then drawn to the Charles de Gaulle where Corman was waiting for them. She stated that the attacker was actually a man by the name of John Smith who had stolen a shuttle and was headed for a top secret American space station. Theroux suspected Corman of lying about the whole affair, and the three of them set off after Smith in a shuttle of their own. They watched as Smith's shuttle was annihilated by the American authorities. Spring explained that he had worked out Corman's plan to frame the Russians for the invasion of the American space station, and also knew that killing Lee Jones was a small plan to draw him into it. Corman revealed herself to be a British spy. He returned her to Earth, where he met Devis at Lee Jones' headstone. Devis apologised for not noticing Corman's lies, and told Spring he was planning to charge her with everything he could throw at her. Knowing it would cost him his job, he asked Spring for one. (TV: *Conversations with the Dead*)

### Taunted by the Moonbase Killer

After his time on Mars, Commander Spring was ordered to take some time off Earthside. Whilst there, he received a message from a stranger in the style of a 'Dear Boss' as was made infamous by Jack the Ripper. It stated that a person was to be murdered on Moonbase and that Spring wouldn't be there in time to save them. Spring soon found that these letters were no hoax, and that construction engineer Reagan Prince had become the first victim of the Moonbase Killings. Furious, the new Moonbase Coordinator, Ashikir Ahmed, a vocal doubter and hater of the ISPF initiative, demanded to know where Spring had been during this emergency. As the killings continued, Spring and his team managed to piece the case together and arrest the murderer, having learnt some shocking discoveries along the way. (AUDIO: *Sins of the Father*)

### The Rise of the Collective

Whilst driving a Moon Rover with Devis, Spring recalled his police background, and just how much more there is to police in space, on the Moon and on Mars. He remembered how Paul Bailey was once an undercover cop turned devoted Star Cop, how Colin Devis was once a police officer just like him who became one of the finest officers he had ever worked with, despite often seeming a fool, and finally he remembered how Pal Kenzy was already a Star Cop before he was made Commander, and that what she didn't know about policing wasn't worth knowing. At that, Kenzy interrupted his trip down memory lane to report the suspicious death of Sonia Garrett. Spring leapt into action and ended his conversation. (WC: *Star Cops The High Frontier*)

After a simple moonwalk goes horribly wrong, resulting in the death of Sonia Garrett, Spring was called to investigate who damaged her suit and what caused her depressurisation chip to malfunction. With his main suspect protected by an alibi and raving on about aliens, Spring and his team found it extremely difficult to make any progress. Regardless, further investigation revealed that Garrett had been murdered by Xander O'Brien, who in turn had been blackmailed by a shadowy, criminal organisation to undertake the act. With a bomb planted aboard his shuttle, and with minutes before it exploded, killing O'Brien, Spring begged him to tell him who had killed both Garrett and O'Brien's own daughter. Just seconds before his death, O'Brien gave him the name 'the Collective' but died before he could describe any of its members. Spring seemed to think this was just the start of something much bigger. (AUDIO: *Dead Air*)

*Insert Hostile Takeover and Death in the Desert here.*

With Kenzy having to abandon her leave and help him on Moonbase, Spring sent Devis and Paul on shore leave to Liverpool in her place. When a worrying number of people turned up in sickbay with radiation poisoning due to faulty dosimeters, both Spring and Kenzy began to investigate. Meanwhile, Earthside, Paul soon found himself in trouble after being lured by his old friend Anton Makowski, who explained to him that the Collective were threatening to kill his family if he didn't hand Paul over. With the help of Devis, this plan was thwarted and the illegal shipping of faulty dosimeters halted from none other than Liverpool docks. However, Paul soon realised that although Anton's family had been placed in Witness Protection, his mother was not safe. He returned home to find her death body. Later, Spring insisted on Paul taking compassionate leave, much to Paul's annoyance. (AUDIO: *Old Flame, New Fire*)

*To be continued.*

## Personality

Nathan Spring is a police officer who has become dissatisfied and disappointed by the usage of computers in modern policing, and seeks to use his gut instinct wherever possible to prove that computers are flawed, can miss vital human nuance, and can also be biased to cut corners and find the easiest solution. Upon being forced to investigate suit malfunctions in space, he is annoyed to find that this system of investigation has found its way there too. When Spring takes over the position of Commander of the ISPF, he is soon to reestablish the police trait of gut instinct and natural hunches to help solve a case.

His relationship with his employees were amicable and there was a fierce loyalty between them, however, he would happily sideline them if it meant keeping them safe. Such an example would be keeping Pal Kenzy and Colin Devis on the sidelines as he sent inspectors Paul Bailey and Priya Basu on a secret mission to Mars. One particular member of staff that he had an interesting relationship with was Devis, whom he found misogynistic, racist and bigoted. He was quick to nip it in the bud, but recognised the kind nature of the man at his heart.

Early in his career at the ISPF, he suffered a tragic loss, when his partner Lee Jones was brutally murdered.

*^ I will update this upon my rewatch of the second episode.*

### Skills and abilities

Spring had a unique ability to see through lies and follow his gut instinct until he found the truth. No matter the pressure that he had upon him, whether by his superiors at the British police force, the Commanders of the Moonbase or those around him on Mars, he always managed to keep a level head, and get down to the facts until he could solve his case. He was able to command his team and get their loyalty with very little effort.

## Other information

* According to Chris Boucher, Nathan Spring is forty-one years old during series one.