Daedalus

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Daedalus

Summary

The Daedalus is a space-worthy battle starship created by the Air Force using Earth and alien technology. The BC-303, Prometheus, was its precedessor. The advantage which the Daedalus has over the Prometheus, however, is that it was built with all of the advanced technology which the Prometheus possessed, and never had to go through the several retrofits (mostly done by the Asgard as thank you gifts) to obtain the same level of sophistication. The Daedalus was introduced in the episode, 8.19 "Moebius Part 1".

Later, the name Daedalus was given to the class of Deep Space Carriers, under the project number '304, which follow the same design plans. The project number's prefix, however, is not currently known. (See "Daedalus-Class Ship" article for more details about this class of starship.)

The Daedalus itself is meant to provide protection to the Atlantis Expedition in the Pegasus Galaxy and to ferry supplies and personnel between Atlantis and Earth. Consequently, the majority of the ship's missions are in the Pegasus Galaxy (as seen in Stargate Atlantis), but there are times when it has served in the Milky Way (as seen in Stargate SG-1).

Mythological References

In Greek mythology, Daedalus was an Athenian architect and inventor who designed the labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. It was built as a prison for the Minotaur, a man-eating monster that was half man and half bull. The labyrinth was so skillfully designed that no one who entered it could escape from the Minotaur. Daedalus revealed the secret of the labyrinth only to Ariadne, daughter of Minos, and she aided her lover, the Athenian hero Theseus, to slay the Minotaur and escape. In anger at the escape, Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus in the labyrinth. Although the prisoners could not find the exit, Daedalus made wax wings so that they could both fly out. Icarus, however, flew too near the sun; his wings melted, and he fell into the sea. Daedalus flew to Sicily, where he was welcomed by King Cocalus. Minos later pursued Daedalus but was killed by the daughters of Cocalus. ("Daedalus," Microsoft© Encarta© Encyclopedia 2000. © 1993-1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.)

Stargate References

Missions

SG-1 with the ZPM found in Egypt which was used to power the Daedalus on its first mission to Atlantis
Daedalus lands on Atlantis Base
Daedalus and errant F-302 flying toward a sun

The Asgard hyperdrives were being tested near the end of SG-1's eighth year of operations in order to send the ship to Atlantis in the Pegasus Galaxy. It was the hope of the three members of SG-1 that they'd be permitted to go to Atlantis, rather than having only one member go (Daniel Jackson had been slated to go onboard the Prometheus, but that rescue mission had to be aborted because of hull damage). The team felt that now that the Replicators, Goa'uld System Lords, and Anubis were pretty much gone and their immediate threat to the galaxy had been removed, that all three of them could go (8.12 "Prometheus Unbound", 8.17 "Reckoning Part 2", 8.18 "Threads", 8.19 "Moebius Part 1").

But, in the meantime, the SGC received a transmission from the Atlantis Expedition nearly a year after contact with them was lost. They were under siege by a powerful enemy known as the Wraith and were prepared to self destruct to prevent the Wraith from using the Stargate to get to Earth (the Stargate on Atlantis was the only one in the Pegasus Galaxy which could dial Earth). The brief data burst that the Expedition was able to send in 1.3 seconds provided plans of the city, information from the Ancient Database, and personal notes from Expedition members in case they were overrun. But, the discovery of a fully-powered Zero Point Module (ZPM) in Egypt (placed there by a future version of a time-traveling SG-1) came in the nick of time. Gen. Jack O'Neill sent a large, heavily armed contingent of Marines, commanded by Col. Dillon Everett, through the Stargate (powered by the ZPM) to help defend the base. The Daedalus was sent to the Pegasus Galaxy with the ZPM and advanced weapons technology. According to Col. Everett, the Daedalus would reach the Pegasus Galaxy in less than four days with the ZPM connected to the ship's hyperdrive. (8.19 "Moebius Part 1", 8.20 "Moebius Part 2", Stargate Atlantis: 1.17 "Letters From Pegasus", 1.20 "The Siege Part 2")

Because the Daedalus was sent to the Pegasus Galaxy in an emergency, SG-1 weren't able to go to Atlantis on the ship's first mission. Not long afterwards, the team disbanded, with Teal'c going to Dakara to help lead the new Free Jaffa Nation and Carter heading up the Research and Development department at Area 51. Daniel Jackson was the only remaining member of SG-1 at the SGC base, but he had been reassigned to go to the Atlantis base as the "world's foremost expert on the Ancients". He was excitedly packing his office so that he could make the next trip to the Pegasus Galaxy onboard the Daedalus, which had succeeded in defending Atlantis and was bringing Expedition personnel back to Earth. Because Earth still did not have enough power to open a wormhole to the Pegasus Galaxy, the Daedalus was primarily used to transport supplies and personnel between the two locations. (9.01 "Avalon Part 1", Stargate Atlantis: 2.01 "The Siege Part 3")

The new leader of SG-1, Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell, was ordered by Gen. Hank Landry, SGC's new commander, that he needed to select his team members. Mitchell asked Daniel to rejoin SG-1, but Daniel turned him down, not wishing to give up this opportunity to go to Atlantis. Through a series of several interruptions instigated by Vala Mal Doran, the thief who had tried to steal the Prometheus, Daniel missed his trip to Atlantis, the Daedalus having left without him because he was incapacitated by a set of Kor Mak bracelets which Vala had forced on him and herself in order to guarantee that she get her fair share of a treasure she had asked Daniel to help her find on Earth. As a result of using Ancient technology discovered among the treasure found under the Glastonbury Tor in England (called "Avalon"), Daniel and Vala unwittingly made humanity's presence in the Milky Way apparent to a group of Ascended Beings known as the Ori who aim to convert the humans of the galaxy into worshippers or destroy them if they refuse. (9.01 "Avalon Part 1", 9.02 "Avalon Part 2", 9.03 "Origin Part 3")

It is possible that the trip to the Pegasus Galaxy which Daniel had wanted to take on the Daedalus was the one on which the ship suffered from a computer virus planted by the Wraith during the battle the Daedalus had with several hive ships. This virus overtook the ship's systems and nearly killed all onboard when it set a course for a nearby star. Once the ship was successful in killing off the crew with the star's radiation, it was going to provide the Wraith with the means of getting to Earth. The Wraith hive ships are not capable of traveling the great distance between the two galaxies, but the Daedalus was. Fortunately, the virus was eradicated before the Wraith received information about the ship's hyperdrive and the coordinates to Earth. (Stargate Atlantis: 2.02 "The Intruder")

Daedalus with the Ancients' Aurora
Col. Caldwell as a Trust Goa'uld
Prometheus is destroyed over Tegalus

Without a ZPM powering the ship's hyperdrive, it took around 18 days for the Daedalus to get to the Pegasus Galaxy from Earth. Because of this, the Daedalus was not always present when the Atlantis base needed defending. When it was discovered that an Ancient starship was transmitting a beacon back to Atlantis, Col. Caldwell took Lt. Col. John Sheppard's team to rendezvous with the drifting ship, called the Aurora, hoping that it was still operational enough to defend the city. Sheppard's team discovered the ship had been irreparably damaged and its crew in stasis. The Atlantis Expedition wasn't the first to arrive at the Aurora's site, however. A Wraith had boarded the ship, substituted itself for the ship's second in command in the stasis system's virtual environment, and attempted to gain information on the ship's advanced hyperdrive technology. The Wraith also had company coming, treatening the Daedalus and the team onboard the Aurora. Through a link established with the stasis technology, Sheppard and McKay told the captain the situation: the crew was aged beyond hope of survival outside the stasis and the Wraith were on their way. Not wishing for the Wraith to gain access to the ship, the captain decided to self destruct when the Wraith ship was near. Caldwell, Sheppard's team, and Dr. Elizabeth Weir performed a toast in remembrance of the crew of the Aurora after its destruction. (Stargate Atlantis: 2.09 "Aurora")

During one of Caldwell's visits to Earth, he was unknowingly taken as a Goa'uld host by members of The Trust. This Goa'uld used Caldwell's command access codes to rig the ZPM to explode when excessive power was demanded from it, such as when the Stargate was connected to Earth or when the city's defense cloaking shield was raised. With intelligence gathered from NID Agent Malcolm Barrett who was investigating the Goa'uld's infiltration of The Trust, the Daedalus was used as a communications relay to inform Weir to not dial Earth for her regular check-in. Caldwell then returned to Atlantis to assist in the investigation. When Wraith ships were detected on their way toward the city, an intense investigation commenced to find who the Trust spy was. They prepared to evacuate the city using the Daedalus, but finally, the Goa'uld in Caldwell was discovered because it was revealed that it was his access codes which had programmed the ZPM to overload. Fortunately, the hacking he had done was overridden in enough time to hide the city under the cloak. Hermiod used the Asgard beaming technology to remove the symbiote from Caldwell. Although somewhat shaken by the experience, Caldwell returned to his duties as commander of the Daedalus soon thereafter. (Stargate Atlantis: 2.13 "Critical Mass", 2.16 "The Long Goodbye")

The Prometheus''s final mission was to the planet Tegalus to determine the fate of Daniel Jackson after contact was lost with him after he went to the planet to open peace negotiations between two warring nations. Additionally, the Prometheus was prepared to destroy an Ori-designed killer satellite which one country was using against the other to force them to turn to Origin or be destroyed. Using early-stage schematics of the satellite, the remaining members of SG-1 and the Prometheus crew underestimated the satellite's capabilities and the Prometheus was destroyed. There were 76 survivors of the over 115-member crew. Sadly, Col. Pendergast, the commander of the Prometheus, was among those who died in the destruction of the ship. Daniel, however, was successful at negotiating a deal between the warring nations, which included access to the Stargate. After the SGC's personnel returned home, talks apparently failed and contact through the Stargate was lost. Gen. Landry sent the Daedalus to the planet during one of its return trips to Earth to investigate. They found that the two nations went to war once again, but this time, they wiped each other out and the Stargate was buried in the rubble. (9.15 "Ethon")

Ancients' Orion
Orion (foreground) destroyed in battle with Wraith
Daedalus in battle with Wraith

The Daedalus was called into service to ferry the population of Taranis when a supervolcano threatened the planet. The Stargate was swallowed up by the lava and the volcano was emitting harmful gases into the atmosphere. Sheppard's team had also discovered that these people had an Ancient starship like the Aurora in a bay on the planet and wished to negotiate for its use, but then the volcano was awakened when the society's shields failed. The Daedalus couldn't carry all of the people in one trip, so it had to make several trips, but the volcano was threatening to erupt before all of the people could be evacuated. McKay worked on the Ancient ship's systems to use it as a ferry — it was larger than the Daedalus and could successfully carry the remaining refugees. Using the volcano's eruption to eject them from the bay and opening a brief hyperspace window, McKay successfully salvaged the ship and saved the people. Sheppard renamed the ship the Orion because he didn't like its original name, Hippaforalkus (named after an Ancient general). (Stargate Atlantis: 2.19 "Inferno")

Because all of the Wraith were awakened and attempting to satisfy their hunger from the same feeding grounds, a civil war broke out among them as they competed for food — humans. The Wraith hive to which Michael Kenmore, the Wraith-turned-human by Dr. Carson Beckett's retrovirus, belonged contacted Atlantis to strike up an alliance. If the Expedition agreed to help them turn their rival hives into humans from which they could feed, the Wraith would leave them alone — possibly for several generations. The Daedalus was assigned to work with the hive Queen and Michael to test out delivery systems of the retrovirus which had been developed into a gaseous form. The first test was a failure when the rival hive detected the canisters and the Daedalus barely escaped when Michael's hive was damaged. The Daedalus was sent out once more after the Queen sent Atlantis complete details on hive ship defense systems. They found that they could target certain ventilation systems to deliver the gas undetected. As soon as the Daedalus dropped out of hyperspace, it was fired upon by both hives — the Wraith had deceived the Expedition and had succeeded in downloading a virus into the Atlantis computer systems which gave them access to Earth's address. Caldwell returned to Atlantis after the hive ships left in hyperspace. Dr. Weir sent him back out to stop the hives from reaching Earth any way he could. She also sent Maj. Lorne and Dr. Zelenka in the Orion to help out. When both ships were engaged in a battle with the Wraith hives, the Orion was destroyed, but Caldwell was able to rescue its crew before it blew up. They managed to take control of the last hive ship before it could destroy the Daedalus by sending the retrovirus gas to it, converting the entire crew, except the Queen, into humans. Surprisingly, this idea was Michael's. (Stargate Atlantis: 2.20 "Allies Part 1", 3.01 "No Man's Land Part 2")

Caldwell and Sheppard returned to Atlantis with the Daedalus and the captured hive ship. They placed the converted Wraith on a planet without a Stargate and Dr. Beckett continued to treat them with the retrovirus, hoping to perfect it so that the men wouldn't have to take it every day. They forced the retrovirus on Michael, even after all he had done to help them capture the hive ship and survive the failure of the alliance. But Michael and a few others grew suspicious and stopped taking their injections, and once their memories returned, they overpowered Beckett's team. Because the Daedalus was still crippled from the last battle, Sheppard took his team to the planet with the captured hive ship. They discovered that the captured Wraith connected through their natural links with a hive ship which was on its way to pick them up. Sheppard decided to fire upon the encampment after rescuing Beckett (the rest of Beckett's team was killed by the Wraith) because Michael and the others could give away Earth's location. The hive ship which was called to their location engaged Sheppard's hive ship in battle. Sheppard lost his hive ship, but the team escaped in a puddle jumper. The Daedalus arrived after the battle was over and rescued them. They weren't certain, however, if all of the Wraith died in their bombardment, and if some survived, the Wraith threat to Earth and Atlantis was not eliminated. (Stargate Atlantis: 3.02 "Misbegotten Part 3")

Crew

The crew of the Daedalus is most likely rotated whenever the starship returns to Earth. It currently, however, has Col. Steven Caldwell as its commander, with the Asgard Hermiod in permanent station as the Asgard's representative (the Asgard have provided Earth with the majority of advanced technological features of the ship, including the hyperdrive and beaming technology).

Episodes

Notable Characters

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Further Reading


--DeeKayP 12:48, 28 Mar 2005 (PST)