Vanessa James

Second Lieutenant Vanessa James is a member of the United States Air Force, born circa 1983. She was part of the Stargate program and was stationed at Icarus Base in 2009. She was in a sexual relationship with fellow officer, 1st Lt. Matthew Scott, though they poorly attempted to conceal it.

2009
While speaking with Colonel Young, James revealed that she previously served in Iraq and was initially supposed to go back there, but was offered the Icarus Base assignment instead after being promised new opportunities.

In 2009, by the time the USS Hammond arrived with Senator of California Alan Armstrong and civilian Eli Wallace concerning the Icarus project, she and Scott were having sex in a secluded room. That night, she, along with around 80 other people were forced to abandon the base after it was attacked by Lucian Alliance, and arrived at the Destiny, several billion light years from Earth. After arriving, she and other soldiers searched the ship for problems relating to the life support worries. After they found a planet to help the situation, she was sent there when Scott was lost, in order to search for him.

She was one of several people who recorded a message on the Kino in case the kino would be found one day. She felt that the majority of the crew weren't kept in the loop on the situation. She was part of the group that brought Eli in if he knew anything Rush and Young were thinking on a way to return home. After he claimed he didn't know anything, James appointed a reluctant Eli as their "inside man", to inform them of any developments as soon as he found anything. Sometime after the ship lost power, she accused Eli and Sergeant Riley of spying on her while she slept, after she found them flying the Kino in the corridor when she left her quarters, though Eli claimed he went the wrong way.

Her name was one of 15 handpicked from a lottery to evacuate Destiny to the remaining shuttle to one of three potentially habitable planets when Destiny is on an unalterable course to a red dwarf star. While the shuttle was en route to the planet, she was the first to wish Sergeant Hunter Riley a happy birthday. Upon discovering Destiny flew to the sun to recharge, the shuttle, and James were brought back to Destiny before it jumped back to FTL. Sometime after, she caught Scott making out with Chloe Armstrong when he didn't respond to Young's radio calls. After finding out, she seemed somewhat bitter about her finding. She later informed Chloe of Scott being trapped in a crevasse despite the expedition members being ordered to stay in their quarters.

She was one of four persons in reconnaissance party sent to barren planet, which found an alien spacecraft.

She was later the first person to witness the arrival of a Blue alien mothership and played her part in saving two personnel from electrical overloads in Destiny's corridors.

She tried with some military personnel to free Lt. Scott, Eli, Chloe and Greer after they had been trapped in an alien tunnel system in the ruins of a planet. She tried but had to return to Destiny before it jumped back to FTL.

One day later she was in her quarters and talking to Tamara about the lost team, and she knew about TJ's pregnacy and that Col. Young is the father. She and some other soldiers were off-world searching for Lt. Scott's team. They were unable to find the lost team.

A day later, after one of Destiny's FTL-drives explodes, she and some other female officers were volunteering to use the communication stone to switch bodys with Doctor Amanda Perry, a quadraplegic hyperdrive expert. James did switch bodies, but regretted it due to her inability to cope with the shock of her new body on Earth and returned to Destiny. She was later host to a Blue alien mind. She also spent considerable time helping TJ care for Jeremy Franklin.

She went to a tick planet and got affected by the bug. She had the hallucination about having sex with Matthew Scott and then killing him. Then TJ cured her by removing the bug.

During the Lucian Alliance invasion of Destiny, she was sent to an Unnamed planet with the rest of the expedition. Once there, she found a system of caves for them to take shelter in during a storm. After a short time, she and Colonel Everett Young went to check on Varro and the other Alliance members in a nearby cave. As she was standing guard at the entrance a bolt of lightning struck at wall next to the cave. She was thrown backwards by the force but sustained only minor injuries.

Shortly after her return to Destiny, she was part of a team that was sent to an unnamed planet in the Ancient shuttle to replenish the food and water supply. During reentry the shuttle lost power and crashed on the planet. After Scott and the rest of the team unburied the Stargate, she returned to Destiny.

When Ginn was found murdered, she used the Long-range communication device to check on Dr. Amanda Perry. She returned and confirmed Perry was dead and that Ginn had told Homeworld Command critical information about the planned attack on Earth. Later, she was part of the team that traveled to an unnamed planet to hunt for the Lucian Alliance member Simeon. She was paired with Torres and Weber. She suffered a minor head wound by an explosive device that Simeon detonated.

Alternate Timelines

 * She was part of the off-world team which quarantined themselves on Jungle planet. She was killed by Squigglers during the first attack after they burrowed through her body.
 * She was affected by an alien micro organism brought back from "Hoth" with contaminated ice water and died of it.

Behind the scenes

 * Julia Benson (née Anderson) previously played Willa, one of Lucius Lavin's six wives in "Irresistible" of the third season of Stargate Atlantis