Steven Caldwell

"Well, I have to warn you that I'm a career military strategist."

- Steven Caldwell

Steven Caldwell is a Colonel in the United States Air Force and the Commander of the Daedalus.

2005
Caldwell led the reinforcements to aid the faltering Atlantis expedition members several months into their entry into the Pegasus Galaxy. He and his ship arrived at Atlantis just in time to rescue the then-Major John Sheppard from his suicide mission to destroy one of the Wraith Hive Ships in orbit over the besieged planet. He destroyed the last remaining Hive Ship by beaming a Nuclear warhead inside. After twelve more Hive Ships were detected heading toward Atlantis, he took the Daedalus to the spot where they would exit hyperspace. They destroyed another two Hive Ships, but the Wraith developed countermeasures preventing beaming of nukes onto their ships. He then ordered them to enter hyperspace but not before sustaining damage. After a plan was devised to cloak the city, he had the Daedalus beam a nuke above the city's shield to fake a Self-destruct.

When several senior members of the expedition returned to Earth, Caldwell was led to believe that he would take over the command of the military contingent of the Atlantis expedition. He later found himself rebuffed when the head of the expedition, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, adamantly refused to accept any other military officer than Major John Sheppard, who received a promotion to Lt. Colonel in response to her insistence. Caldwell escorted the senior members back to Atlantis, but some friction continued to occur between Caldwell, Weir, and Sheppard in regards to Sheppard's position but they were able to work together to eradicate the Wraith computer virus that had taken control of the Daedalus.

When Major Evan Lorne discovered a dead Wraith that was possibly killed by Lt. Aiden Ford, he reminded Lt. Colonel John Sheppard that if he could not capture Ford he was duty bound to eliminate the threat.

When Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team discovered the Doranda outpost, he was very interested in the weapon. When Dr. Elizabeth Weir shut down the project, he was going to advise his superiors to restart the project. When Dr. Rodney McKay convinced Sheppard and Weir to restart it themselves, he stopped by Doran on the Daedalus' trip back to Earth. When the weapon overloaded, he used the Daedalus to block the weapons fire from hitting the Puddle Jumper.

When Lt. Colonel John Sheppard was infected with Iratus bug retrovirus, he took control of the military contingent until Sheppard was fully recovered. He implemented several new security protocols that Dr. Elizabeth Weir considered to be to soon.

When Atlantis discovered the Ancient ship Aurora, he used the Daedalus to transport Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team to its location. He ordered Captain Dave Kleinman to destroy the Wraith scout ship that was about to attack them. When he detected two Wraith cruisers on their way, he intended to destroy the Aurora before they arrived but Sheppard was given the self-destruct for the Captain of Aurora which destroyed both cruisers.

A short time later, he commanded the Daedalus during the Battle of Edowin. After Lt. Colonel John Sheppard managed to get the Hive Ships to destroy each other, he called off the search believing he was killed in the explosion.

Caldwell continued to travel back between Earth and Atlantis, making supply runs and helping to defend against the Wraith. In time, it was discovered that Caldwell had been compromised by a Goa'uld working for The Trust. Atlantis was nearly destroyed as a result, but after Sheppard tazed him, Caldwell managed to regain control of his body long enough to tell them the desperately needed access code to save the city. Hermiod was later able to remove the symbiote with beam technology. How long he was under their control is unknown.

2006
Following this, his relationship with Lt. Colonel John Sheppard and Dr. Elizabeth Weir greatly improved. He assumed brief control of Atlantis when both Sheppard and Weir were possessed by two rogue alien consciousnesses named Thalan and Phoebus who wanted to kill each other in hopes of winning a war that had destroyed their planets many years ago. Weir later thanked him for keeping an explosive situation under control. Caldwell was one of the few people who truly believed they were back to normal as he was the one person who could understand what they went through and even joked with the two about a kiss Thalan and Phoebus shared while controling them, greatly embarrasing them.

When the Stargate on Taranis was destroyed by the Volcano, Dr. Elizabeth Weir diverted the Daedalus on its way back from Earth. When he arrived and scanned the planet, he determined that it would take four trips to evacuate the planet. He beamed the first group of Taranians and transported them back to Atlantis. When he returned, he beamed Teyla Emmagan and Ronon Dex on board but the rest of the population was evacuated to the Orion.

When Michael Kenmore returned to Atlantis with his Hive Ship to form an alliance with the Atlantis expedition, he and the Daedalus were sent on a mission to test the effectiveness of the Iratus bug retrovirus on a Hive Ship. When the exited hyperspace, they were immediately fired upon by both Hives. The Hives then entered hyperspace. He returned to Atlantis and was informed they were one there way to Earth.

The Daedalus was then dispatched to intercept the Hives on their way to Earth, he instructed Captain Dave Kleinman to configure all of the Daedalus's missiles to launch as soon as the ship exited hyperspace, a task that he doubted was possible, but nonetheless managed to accomplish. Most of the nukes were intercepted by the Wraith Darts but one manged to severely damage one of the Hives. He continued to engage that Hive while the Orion engaged the other. When the Orion destroyed its Hive, the other Hive shifted its fire to the Orion. He ordered Kleinman to beam the crew to the Daedalus and aim all Railguns on the Dart bay and hold fire. He then beamed Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, Dr. Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex and Michael Kenmore from the Wraith scout ship to the bridge. When the Hive launched Darts, he ordered all batteries to open fire. This crippled the Hive but the Daedalus's shields were depleted and the ship suffered severe damage. With life support offline and no means to repair it, he beamed the Iratus bug retrovirus on board the Hive. After it ran its course, he beamed most of the crew to the Hive.

He then traveled back to Atlantis, when the Hive towed the Daedalus through hyperspace. After Atlantis detected a Hive Ship heading towards the planet they left the transformed Wraith. He was unable to assist at first because repairs had not been completed on the Daedalus. Once repairs were complete, he arrived to find the wreckage of the Hive Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team had taken to the planet. He feared the worst but Sheppard soon contacted him from a cloaked Puddle Jumper.

Caldwell did not want to rescue Ronon Dex when he was taken prisoner and given to the Wraith during an away mission, as he believed the risk was too great. He also implied that Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team gets into trouble often. His hesitation to put his crew at risk again was understandable since shortly before he had been asked to take his badly battered ship and crew to try to stop the two Wraith Hive Ships heading to Earth. He eventually agreed to get them close enough to take a cloaked Puddle Jumper.

Later, during the first test of the McKay/Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge he was commanding the Daedalus. During the test, the Tria went by he offered their assistance. Later on, after the Asurans' take over of Atlantis, he was sent back to Pegasus carrying a bomb to destroy Atlantis. He was called off by Dr. Elizabeth Weir and Major General Jack O'Neill, after they had retaken the city.

When a group of Flagisallus surrounded Atlantis and their sonar began causing damage to the Atlantis expedition, he beamed personnel to the Daedalus to relieve their pain. When Dr. Rodney McKay discovered the Flagisallus were there to warn them of an eminent Coronal mass ejection, he used the Daedalus's shield to deflect the ejection away from Lantea.

2008
Some time later, Caldwell led the USAF Daedalus, alongside the USAF Apollo, in a strike against numerous Aurora-class Warships controlled by the Asurans. Using their new Asgard weapons, they were able to destroy seven of the Warships, before participating in the Battle of Asuras, where victory was finally secured.

When Teyla Emmagan was captured by Michael Kenmore, he escorted Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's team to the planet given to them by Todd. Once there, Michael's cruiser arrived with Teyla on board. He attempted to cripple the ship without destroying it but it entered hyperspace.

Caldwell also led the Daedalus to confront Michael's cruiser when it was in orbit of M2S-445, where his research facility was compromised by members of the Atlantis expedition. Michael's cruiser was about to escape into hyperspace, but there was intervention on the Daedalus' part when it used its Asgard plasma beam weapons to stop it. The battle went to the Daedalus as it once again used its beam weapons to destroy Michael's cruiser, along with other Hybrids on board.

Soon after, while shuttling members of the Atlantis expedition to a meeting with the Wraith known as Todd, he, along with the rest as the Daedalus's crew, were incarcerated after Todd believed that the Atlantis Expedition had activated the Attero device. Thanks to the timing of Lt. Colonel John Sheppard aboard Katana's ship, he and the Daedalus were saved.

2009
Caldwell and the Daedalus later attempted to stop the ZPM powered Hive Ship before it was fully upgraded but his ship was utterly outmatched, only managing to escape when the hive jumped into hyperspace to attack Earth.