Destiny

"The design is clearly Ancient, in the truest sense of the word. Launched hundreds of thousands of years ago. Faster than light, yet not through hyperspace. Who knows how far it's traveled."

- Nicholas Rush

Destiny is a ship in the Ancient fleet, constructed and launched around sixty million years ago from Earth. The Ancients launched several automated ships prior to Destiny, each with the purpose of constructing and seeding Stargates throughout the numerous galaxies they crossed, with Destiny itself following in their path to explore those planets and piece together fragments of a complex message embedded in the fabric of the universe itself. After beginning this process, the Ancients initially planned to wait until the ship reached a sufficient distance from Earth to board it. However, because of other endeavors, such as ascension, they never followed through on the plan. Because of this, Destiny has continued on a pre-programmed path on its journey throughout the stars, alone, for millions of years. With the arrival of a Tau'ri expedition in 2009, Destiny has a new crew.

Specifications
"It is spectacular, isn't it?"

- David Telford

Destiny itself is relatively flat and triangular in shape. The left and right sides are markedly concave, while the aft portion of the ship is convexly rounded. The ship is very long and becomes more narrow towards the bow. The surface of the ship is covered with layers of textural elements, including a large number of triple-barreled weapon turrets and anti-fighter emplacements.

Some doors in Destiny's interior are accompanied by a small control panel, much like Atlantis has panels containing control crystals that control some of the doors there. The small blue light on a door panel indicates it is on automatic. Beneath that, the red and amber lights indicate whether the door is locked or unlocked, respectively. Below the large round button, along the bottom of the panel, are eight small buttons with ancient writing on them that allow for manual overrides or door code changes.

Destiny is capable of faster than light travel but not by means of hyperdrive engines. The FTL drive spans the full rear of the ship.

It predates the ATA Gene security feature featured in the outposts and in Lantean technology, instead having an incredibly complex master code based on an advanced Ancient DNA sequence. This access code is required for access to systems such as navigation and advanced power management, but not for basic weapon and shield control.

History
"This ship could be the most important discovery mankind has made since the Stargate itself."

- Nicholas Rush

Not long after the creation of the Stargates, the Ancients launched several automated ships to explore the universe, seeding Stargates along their path. This mission began after the Ancients discovered a pattern to the cosmic microwave background radiation; recognising that the pattern could not have been natural in origin, the Ancients concluded that its presence suggested an order to the universe never thought possible, possibly some kind of message. Since this signal has decayed, the Ancients sent Destiny after the seed ships to collect the fragments and recover the entire message. It was their intention to further their knowledge of the Universe, but they abandoned the project as they started researching into ascension. Nonetheless, the Destiny continued to go from planet to planet, system to system, galaxy to galaxy for millions of years.

Sometime during its journey, Destiny was heavily damaged; as such, sections of the ship are exposed to the vacuum of space. The extent of the damage has led the crew to speculate it came under attack. There is some shielding in place, holding in atmosphere; however, the shielding is insufficient for the larger breaches and bulkheads were automatically closed and locked to compensate.

In early 2009, the personnel of the Icarus project managed to unlock the Stargate's ninth chevron. At the same time, Icarus Base came under attack by the Lucian Alliance and they were forced to evacuate through the gate to Destiny. When the Tau'ri arrived, most of the ship was either damaged or inaccessible. The ship's power level and oxygen level were also running low. The crew managed to repair the filtration system, keeping themselves alive.

A short time into their journey, the expedition came into conflict with a race of blueberry aliens, who had been chasing the ship for a long time in an attempt to uncover its secrets. Since then, the crew has had to fend off numerous attacks by the aliens. During its trip between galaxies, the blueberry aliens managed to sabotage Destiny's FTL drive, which required the crew to remove one of the units from the drive section and bypass it. Ironically, the damaged unit was hampering the overall efficiency of the drive, and had the aliens not destroyed it, Destiny would have never been able to make it to the next galaxy within the crew's lifetime.

Following the recent Lucian Alliance invasion of Destiny, Nicholas Rush discovered the ship's bridge, along with information about its mission. However, he attempted to conceal this information in the belief that nobody else in the crew would be able to understand the implications of his discovery, resulting in the death of Sergeant Hunter Riley when Rush programmed Destiny to stop near a planet with a damaged Stargate and disconnecting Destiny from a seed ship that could have provided them with power to re-dial Earth (Albeit after the unknown aliens living on the ship tried to drain power from Destiny).

Technology
"This ship... It's a source of untold power? No, no, not literally. It's more to do with what it's doing. The information it's capable of gathering."

- Eli Wallace and Nicholas Rush

The Destiny has a great deal of advanced technology at her disposal, ranging from the Stargate and Shuttles, to Energy weapons, the FTL engine, to the Solar Power Collectors and the all-important Energy shields.

Power generation
"The ship is powered by the stars themselves. Solar powered - quite literally. There is no other explanation."

- Nicholas Rush

Destiny is capable of absorbing and utilizing solar energy directly from stars. With shields active, the ship itself is able to fly into the lower atmosphere of a star, during which time a portion of the star's energy is collected and stored, making Destiny truly solar powered. At the time of the Destiny Expedition's arrival, power levels were critically low and so this method was soon initiated by the ship automatically. The IOA wanted to use that method, and channel all the collecting power to the Stargate in an attempt to dial Earth. However, after Nicholas Rush "sabotaged" the IOA plan; Eli Wallace proved later that this plan could have been far more destructive then they thought.

Shields
"They're gonna realise they can't get past the shields and they're gonna give up."

- Nicholas Rush

Destiny possesses a yellow energy shielding system which may be localized to retain the atmosphere in damaged parts of the ships. However, shield strength is dependent on power levels and the number of localized shields currently active. Destiny's shields are capable of resisting the intense heat and turbulence of a star's corona, using only reserve power, to the point where neither is at all noticeable to anyone inside. They were rapidly depleted by energy weapons during a battle with the blueberry aliens, though this is most likely due to a power transfer problem rather than a less advanced design as damage to defensive systems is very significant and most of the ship is not operational. Both shields and weapons might get their power from the same source at the moment due to damaged relays, and so the ship may have automatically diverted more power to one and less to the other to keep it balanced to allow both to run at the same time. The shield strength can also be attenuated to allow things to pass through them.

After further progression of Tau'ri repairs to the ship, according to a simulation performed by the ship's computers, its shields are now able to resist fire for over 44 minutes from nine Blueberry alien motherships. It is likely that even this does not represent the full capabilities of the ship when it was first launched, as it still suffers from extensive damage.

Weapons
"That's the way it's been for a long time, Eli. They attack, they try and get on board, the ship's automated defences stop ‘em."

- Nicholas Rush

Destiny possesses a vast array of yellow energy weapons, which is comprised of a large number of double-barreled weapon turrets located all along the ship's hull. These turrets appear to be anti-fighter weapons, capable of rapid-fire and tracking to destroy smaller ships. Given enough time and under the right circumstances, they are capable of greatly diminishing Destiny's power reserves. The weapons draw power from the shields while active, diminishing defence in favor of offence. However this could be because most of the ship is not operational. So it might not be a power problem but a power transfer problem. Destiny is also equipped with three larger energy cannons located on the underside of the hull. Capable of significantly stronger blasts than her standard weapons, these cannons are designed for use against larger vessels such as motherships. Like the standard weapons, Destiny's energy cannons run the risk of depleting the ship's power reserves, and can even cause the weapons systems to overload if used in excess, which can destroy the ship. This is most likely due to the damage the ship has taken over its journey.

FTL Engine
"Faster than light, yet not through hyperspace."

- Nicholas Rush

Destiny's Faster-Than-Light engine, or FTL engine, is capable of faster-than-light travel without entering hyperspace. An incoming wormhole to the ship's Stargate will trigger the drive to temporarily shut down, enabling the gate to connect. Destiny had sixteen individual FTL engine units, but now only has 15 after a damaged one was removed. The drive can operate normally using only fifteen or perhaps even fewer. When entering and exiting FTL, it disrupts the long-range communication device for a few seconds. Unexpected anomalies, such as the gravitational pull from an uncharted star, can cause Destiny to drop out of FTL; but the automated navigational systems can adjust the Destiny's course usings sublight engines to prevent a collision and get back on course to engage FTL again once clear. The FTL Engines must be run for at least four hours between jumps otherwise they may be damaged.

Stargate
"Isn't it something? Rush figures that this gate predates all the others we know of, like a prototype. It's the only way we're ever going to get home."

- Eli Wallace

The Stargate aboard the Destiny is a different, older design from the Stargates seen in the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies. According to Dr. Nicholas Rush, the Stargate aboard Destiny is among the first of the Stargates ever created. Furthermore, the Stargate aboard the Destiny is the same design as those constructed and distributed by Stargate seeding ships across the universe, being slightly smaller than its successors.

Because the entirety of the Destiny gate spins rather than just the inner ring, the chevrons spin as well and therefore the addresses do not line up with the chevrons to lock. The chevrons merely function as indicators, lighting upon powering of the gate. Instead, the gate spins clockwise until the first glyph is positioned right underneath the Gate bearing, at the topmost position. The Gate then changes direction, spinning counter-clockwise until the the next glyph is locked. This alternating process is repeated until the point-of-origin glyph is locked and the wormhole forms. The orb at the end of the bearing lights up briefly as each address glyph on the Gate locks directly below it. Once the wormhole is formed, the gate bearing remains lit while the gate is active, as does a final chevron in the floor. The wormhole texture of this gate type also appears different, being silvery and darker at the edges. As the wormhole disengages and the Stargate shuts down, all lights turn off at the same time. This is followed by a several second blast of CO2 from vents on either side of the gate.

Locations

 * Bridge
 * Brody's bar
 * Cargo hold
 * Communication lab
 * Control interface room
 * Crew quarters
 * Elevators
 * Gate room
 * Hydroponics lab
 * Infirmary
 * Kino room
 * Mess hall
 * Observation deck
 * Research lab
 * Showers
 * Workout room

Technology

 * Artificial Intelligence
 * Ancient maintenance robot
 * CO2 scrubber
 * Control interface hub
 * Database
 * Docking clamp
 * Energy shields
 * FTL engine
 * Hubs
 * Interface chair
 * Jump countdown
 * Kino
 * Dispenser
 * Long-range communication device
 * Ship-wide neural interface
 * Recharger Plate
 * Shield emitter
 * Solar power collectors
 * Stargate
 * Gate bearing

Crew
"We're going to have to be tough, disciplined. The road may be longer than many of us hoped. We will have to sacrifice, compromise, work together without exceptions. We are going to survive. We are going to make it home. Make no mistake."

- Everett Young

Senior staff

 * Colonel Everett Young (Expedition Leader and Military Commander)
 * Lieutenant Matthew Scott (Temporary Military Commander)
 * Doctor Nicholas Rush (Senior Scientist)
 * IOA Camile Wray (IOA official and Civilian contingent)
 * Lieutenant Tamara Johansen (Chief Medical Officer)

Behind the scenes
According to Joseph Mallozzi on his blog, Destiny was part of a very long-term project by the Ancients which had put it in place millions of years ago. However, what the mission was and why they made it remains a mystery.