Teal'c stood over the device, the crystal array lighting up as he touched various buttons. Daniel and Carter touched sensors to the device to measure the output of various controls in the base of the pedestal. All three were entirely engrossed in their work as Jack led Loran back into the room.
"What have you got?" he asked. All three immediately straightened up, less a coming to attention and more a way to show they're alert, and Daniel smiled. "We think we can turn it off," he said, pleased with himself or the team, it was hard to tell. Daniel wasn't usually one to take much pride in his own work. To him it simply was. But there was no denying the way he nearly beamed as he stood there and all Jack could assume was that he was glad he was saving everyone on the team except for himself, doing what he felt had to be done to set the universe in balance once more.
"Don't let them," Loran hissed, his insides clenching and icing over. "They'll die like my parents."
Carter nodded at the assessment, eyes going a little soft at the edges as if her heart was lurching out toward the kid. "If we shut it off cold turkey, Loran is right. We'll go into withdrawal again. But Teal'c and Daniel have translated some of the writing inside this thing sir and we think it was designed to be turned down incrementally."
"The Goa'uld who used this place needed human slaves in order to tend their needs while they were here," Daniel explained, picking up the words where Sam left off.
It made sense. Addicted human slaves weren't very effective at dealing with the needs of the Goa'uld.
"We've already taken it down a notch without any harm," Sam continued, oblivious to the way she and Daniel sometimes truly embodied the running joke at the SGC that they were the Science Twins. Daniel thought in an upward direction, Carter thought downward into the details. They met in the middle and rode that line more often than not. For a moment, Jack wasn't sure if he should feel grateful they were on his team or worried that he'd never be able to keep up. At least he had Teal'c on his side, helping him keep up the less cerebral aspects of being on a first contact team.
"Within two or three weeks your brain chemistry will return to normal," Teal'c pointed out in a voice that was somewhat monotone but still full of inflection and meaning if you learned how to look for it. "You may then return home."
Jack could think of worse ways to make up for his lost leave. Even if it meant shacking up in a tacky Goa'uld place. Maybe he could fashion a fishing pole, or better yet, request one be sent over. "So three weeks in a palace by the beach?" he asked, shrugging a bit as he thought of all the ways the team could use a vacation and all the ways their leave always got interrupted. Not this time! Not if it was mandatory. Their lives depended on them staying out of the mountain. "Teal'c you don't have to hang around. Why don't you head back and let Hammond know what's going on?"
Teal'c gave a nod of his head. "Very well," he said as he turned to leave.
"And then you'll leave?" Loran asked, feeling a pang of anxiety and sadness as he looked up at Jack, eyes blown out with terror..
Jack nodded, his hand resting on the boy's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him and ease the wash of panic he felt from the kid. "I think we all will. Right?"
He shot Carter a look and she nodded. "Yeah. He should return to normal along with the rest of us." Her voice took on a slight tone, the one people used with children as if the tone and sound were more important than the words. Jack suddenly vowed never to talk to Loran like a kid from here on out.
Loran's expression turned from near panic to understanding as he dissected the words. We all will leave. Along with the rest of us. He looked at Jack with a wide smile. "Then I can go with you?" he asked. They weren't leaving him alone again. He knew he should feel selfish and like he was betraying his parents, but he had become old enough on his own to realize that maybe he wouldn't be betraying them if he continued with his life.
"Sure." Jack said. Daniel and Sam glanced at each other and slipped out after Teal'c, leaving Jack and the boy alone. "Come on. Let's go see Teal'c off."
The pair circled around the device and headed for the Gate room. "You like ice cream?"
Loran peered up at him. "What's ice cream?"