"So all this was over some Ancient toy?" Jack asked, staring skeptically at the dozen or so photographs Daniel had scattered across the briefing room table. Some had been taken from the notes found in the NID's secret base, others were of the fragments left over after Colonel Attison had shot it.
"Basically…yeah," Daniel answered, sounding reassuringly lucid and Daniel-like if not up to his full strength. Janet sat next to him, a decidedly dark look on her face. While Daniel had finally been cleared to go home, or at least to Jack's home, she had not approved of this debriefing. "It was sort of like hypnosis," Daniel continued, "You play it on your friends and get them to do whatever you say. Within reason, of course, I mean, if you asked to do something completely against their nature, they wouldn't do it. That's how I got out of the base…once I got it working I just kept telling people to let me out, and they did."
"Not against their nature?" Sam asked, looked decidedly unnerved. It didn't help that Daniel still flinched every time she made any sudden moves.
"No, no, I mean…" Daniel started, flinching slightly again in spite of himself. If Sam was feeling guilty then Daniel felt equally so, because he knew he was making her feel guilty but he couldn't help himself. Even knowing it wasn't her, it was still her voice that had said those things and her touch and, really, he still felt jumpy when anyone startled him.
"It really wasn't quite the same with you, Major," Janet interjected, bringing up her own charts, "They were using similar technology without understanding it. As near as I can tell, this box was meant to instantly put people into a suggestive state, allowing Daniel to manipulate them. The brain scans on everyone he turned the box onto came out clean. What was used on you was completely different; they tried to combine the box's power, which they didn't really understand, with another technology."
"Exactly," Jack agreed heartily, as though he had done the research himself, "You're debugged, Daniel's detoxified, and Teal'c's…Teal'c."
"Right," Daniel answered, doubtfully, "So once I translated it, I was able to turn it on, and walked out just in time to meet up with everyone."
"Thanks to one of Carter's little bugs," Jack added, feeling a little guilty himself about how coldly he had been treating Sam. It was her tracking bug, deftly maneuvered by way of miniature camera onto her contact by Jack, that had led them to Daniel in the first place.
"I do not understand why they would allow you access to this artifact, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c announced, "Would it not have been safer to show you pictures of the symbols?"
"Yes…yes it would but look at these pictures," Daniel explained, shoving a picture towards him, "The artifact wasn't very photogenic. Some of the finer symbols don't show up at all and, well, you really had to see them in place to make much sense of them"
"I see," Teal'c answered.
"And really, they didn't have much reason to think I'd be a threat. I mean, they weren't letting me touch it myself, I was still hurt, and drugged."
"I'll say," Jack mumbled to himself, earning a glare from Daniel. The first day or so back while the drugs were still working there way out of his system had been interesting, to say the least. Jack had considered making a few recordings for blackmail purposes. Luckily, they had found detailed notes of everything Daniel had been given, and once the drugs were out of his system he was basically back to normal, with no ill effects.
"So basically, sir," Jack said, after everyone had a chance to explain things and go over their charts, "Makepeace zapped Sam, those armbands made her crazy, Daniel almost died, again, Sam got better, Daniel got kidnapped, Sam played with her doohickeys, we stormed the fortress, Daniel walked out, Sam shot Colonel Attison, she shot the alien toy, and we all came home."
After a moment of silence, Janet started to respond, stumbling slightly, saying, "Well that's…"
"Concise?" Daniel supplied.
"Indeed," Teal'c said. Then Sam actually giggled, causing everyone to turn worriedly towards her.
"Sorry," she said, coming swiftly back under control, and on that note, Hammond ended the debriefing.
The End
But not really, because I'll probably right an epilogue. Eventually.