Previously…

The Barque of Heaven is set in Season Three of the show, the next mission after the episode Deadman’s Switch. The following events have some bearing on or are mentioned in the book.

           

           

             In 1928, on the Giza plateau, archaeologist Professor Langford discovers the buried Stargate. Unaware of its real purpose, the Stargate is transported to the United States, where it remains the hidden property of the government. After several attempts to reveal its mysteries a team of scientists lead by Dr Catherine Langford come very close to the solution in 1996. Unable to break the final key to actually using the Stargate, Catherine looks for help from a discredited and unemployed archaeologist.

 

Doctor Daniel Jackson unlocks the mystery behind the Stargate, and a military team led by Colonel Jack O’Neil travels through the Gate to the planet Abydos. There they meet the descendents of people transplanted from Ancient Egypt by an alien posing as the Ancient Egyptian god Ra. Daniel falls in love with the chieftain Kasuf’s daughter Sha’uri. Ra arrives in his pyramid-shaped Ha’tak space ship, the Earth soldiers lead a rebellion against Ra, there is a big fight, a big sand-storm, and a big explosion as Ra is destroyed in his ship in orbit above Abydos. O’Neil and his men return home leaving Daniel behind to marry and live with Sha’uri and the people of the city of Nagada. (Stargate, The Movie)

 

            One year later – The Stargate program is being abandoned but when attackers come through the Gate and abduct one of the soldiers guarding it, the base commander, General George Hammond, recalls the surviving members of the original mission. Jack O’Neill convinces Hammond to let him lead a team back to Abydos to find out if the attack originated from there. Joined by Captain Samantha Carter, they are met by Daniel Jackson, his wife Sha’re (Sha’uri) and her brother Skaara. While Daniel is showing O’Neill and Carter the room he has discovered, which has hundreds of Stargate addresses carved upon its walls, the same group of people attack the Abydonians in the gateroom, abducting Sha’re and Skaara. Arriving too late to save them, Daniel is distraught and determined to find his family. Returning home to Earth he convinces Hammond to let him on the rescue team. They travel to the planet Chulak, where in an unfortunate series of events, Sha’re and Skaara are implanted with a reptilian creature called a Goa’uld, everyone is captured, Jack convinces the leader of the Goa’uld soldiers, Teal’c, to help them, everyone escapes but they are forced to leave Sha’re and Skaara behind, controlled by the possessing Goa’uld. (Children of the Gods)

 

            The Stargate program is reinstated with twelve teams, led by SG-1, their mission to use the addresses Daniel found on Abydos to explore the many planets of the galaxy and to seek out allies and weapons to fight their new enemy, all the while searching for Sha’re and Skaara. Along the way they meet new friends like the Nox and the Tolan, the Tok’ra – an underground resistance movement of rebel Goa'uld and new enemies in Apophis, Amonet (using the body of Sha’re), Klorel (using the body of Skaara), Hathor, Sokar, Seth and numerous others.

            Key moments –

            While searching for the missing fiancé of Catherine Langford, the team discover a hidden chamber in an abandoned fortress, which contains inscriptions of four languages belonging to the four great races of the galaxy: The Nox, The Asgard, The Ancients and The Furlings. (Torment of Tantalus)

 

            Teal’c returns to his former home of Chulak. Because of his betrayal of Apophis, he has been declared Shol’va - traitor - his home burned and his family cast out. The team meet his mentor, Bra’tac, a wise and still-powerful Jaffa of 137 years. They rescue Teal’c’s son, Rya’c and wife, Drey’auc. (Bloodlines) 

 

            Sam Carter is implanted with a  Goa’uld revealed to be a member of the resistance movement called the Tok’ra (meaning against Ra). The Goa’uld sacrifices itself for Sam to live, but Sam is left with buried memories from the Tok’ra Jolinar. (In The Line of Duty)

 

            One year after the attack on Abydos Daniel returns home, accompanied by Teal’c. Astonishingly, they find Sha’re there, living in secret, nearly nine months pregnant with the child of Apophis. Prevented from returning with her to Earth, they take shelter in the cave they originally hid in from Ra. Sha’re gives birth and the Goa’uld possessing her returns from its dormancy. Daniel and Teal’c escape, leaving the child in hiding, and Sha’re back in the clutches of Amonet. (Secrets)

 

            Sam’s father, Jacob is implanted with a Tok’ra symbiote to save his life. He becomes the main contact between the SGC and the Tok’ra. (The Tok’ra)

 

                                    Gating to planet to search for a downed aerial recon drone, SG-1 find themselves unable to dial out again due to a missing piece of the DHD’s control crystals. The bounty hunter Aris Boch leads them on a merry chase to retrieve it. (Deadman’s Switch)