The Last Ship: Season 1

Two civilian virologists, Drs. Rachel Scott and Quincy Tophet, claiming to be studying birds, join Captain Tom Chandler and crew aboard the USS Nathan James on their way to the Arctic. Renegade Russian forces attack them, and Chandler learns the virologists are actually collecting samples of a deadly virus that has infected 80 percent of the human population while they have been at sea. The remaining U.S. government orders the ship home, and those aboard try desperately – many in vain – to conta

Captain Chandler orders the USS Nathan James to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to restock the ship with fuel, food, medicine and other supplies. Three teams are dispatched to carry out these varied tasks. While there, they come under attack by escaped Al-Qaeda prisoners and enlist the help of Tex Nolan, a grizzled private contractor, who has been surviving for weeks. Meanwhile, back on board, Dr. Tophet is following orders from some unknown source and tries to sabotage proceedings, delaying departure

The USS Nathan James and its crew defends versus the Russian battle-cruiser, RFS Vyerni and its commander, Konstantin Ruskov, a legendary admiral studied by Chandler. Dr. Tophet attempts to kidnap Dr. Scott, and reveals that the Russians are holding his family hostage. The Nathan James attempts to escape by stealth, and Danny Green and Kara Foster go on a mission to disable the Russian ship. The ship is able to escape while Ruskov is revealed to have a Norwegian scientist named Niels Sorenson on

After leaving Gitmo, the ship and its crew are in danger when the propulsion system encounters serious mechanical problems. Dr. Scott's samples of the virus and all her research must be protected from overheating, while Captain Chandler comes up with ideas to face the ship's low water supplies and the lack of propulsion.

Captain Chandler leads an expedition team in the jungle to find monkey test subjects for Dr. Scott's experiments, trying to complete her vaccine research. The crew are held in captivity by a former drug lord who is running the uninfected village near the river, and they soon find themselves in trouble trying to accomplish their mission and help the local people. After freeing themselves and getting the monkeys, the crew decides to help liberate the village from their oppressors.

While Scott is announced to be close to success with her vaccine trials, Danny Green contracts an illness that throws the ship into panic. Chandler has to deal with the crew's losing faith in both him and the vaccine research. Danny is proven to have contracted dengue fever, not the Red Flu, and Chandler decides to show the crew Scott's work so that they understand what she is up against and trying to do.

Close to the cure, the doctor discovers that a human strand has been added to the virus, making it next to impossible to find the cure. In the communication room, a distress signal is picked up from the sole survivor of 50 people on a Jamaican fishing vessel. Scott realizes that the survivor is most likely naturally immune to the virus and may be the key to coming up with a cure. The crew is ambushed at the end of their mission to find the survivor and, in the ensuing gun battle, Tex and Captain

The Captain and Tex are transferred to the Russian ship. The Russians threaten to destroy the Nathan James if the crew does not turn over Dr. Scott, her research and the primordial strain of the virus. The crew agrees to the trade, but plants a locator beacon on Scott that enables them to locate the ship. On board, Scott helps Chandler and Tex escape and meets Niels Sorenson, Patient Zero of the Red Flu. Niels reveals that he had added the human gene to the virus in an attempt to combat it, but

With Dr. Scott back on board, the crew begins prepping for human testing of the vaccine. Six volunteer crew members are selected as test subjects, based on their genetics. However, the testing does not go smoothly, as the sailors suffer symptoms and side effects that are unexpected and far worse than anticipated by Drs. Scott and Tophet, who disagree on the cause and go to extreme measures to counter which all seem to fail. In the process, however, Scott determines the virus causes a severe auto

The Nathan James returns to the U.S. after making contact with a government facility in Baltimore under the direction of Amy Granderson (Alisha Granderson's mother), a surviving member of the Defense Policy board, and where Dr. Scott is hoping that mass production of the vaccine can be achieved, but not all is as it seems. Captain Chandler locates his family only to realize that a terrible secret is hiding behind what seems to be the new order. Meanwhile, state troopers allied with Granderson ta