Never finishing this story has always been one of my regrets. There are no excuses but I am sorry. If anyone is still reading, here is, finally, an ending. This and the next and final chapters are totally unbetaed. All mistakes are mine and mine alone.
Daniel was the first one to see them standing in the doorway, he quickly tapped Jack on the arm.
"What now, Daniel?" Jack said impatiently.
"Um," was all that he said, he pointed over to the compound. Jack sighed and followed his gaze.
"Hey fellas, we've been looking for you. Could you do us a favour, we've got these chip things in our heads, making us all go a bit wacky. If you could whip them out, we'd be really grateful."
By the time that Jack had finished his request, SG-2 and 3 had turned around and raised their weapons against the aliens, resulting in a stalemate situation.
"Put down your weapons. You will come with us," Alamagor shouted across the space dividing the two groups.
"Will we?" Griff shouted back.
"It's what we came here for," Jack muttered to the Major.
"How about a deal?" Jack called out. "These guys stay here, with their weapons. And the three of us come with you, how's that?"
"Is that a good idea, Colonel?"
"Probably not but do we have a choice. Do you have any better suggestions, Major? No, well, that's the plan then. Daniel, Carter, you okay with this?" Jack said under his breath to the other two.
"Yes Sir," Carter agreed for the both of them.
Jack, Daniel and Sam all followed Alamagor and Malatesar into the compound, leaving SG-2 and 3 standing outside the compound.
Sam started an attempt at conversation with Alamagor but it quickly became obvious that he wasn't in the mood to talk. He lead them through the compound, Malatesar was bringing up the rear with two of the armed men from outside, the others having left the group as soon as the exit had been sealed.
"I told you that the exit was close by," Daniel said in a low voice to Jack.
"Well, I promise I will never underestimate your botany skills again," Jack replied shortly. "And if you could try remembering a route out of here, that would be helpful," he added.
"Sorry," Daniel replied offhandedly.
After a few twists and turns, the group entered a room, it was simply decorated with a metal table and chairs. They all sat around the table, Jack only taking a seat when threatened by Malatesar.
"You know?" Alamagor asked.
"We know what you did. We don't know why," Sam clarified.
"We did it to understand."
"To understand what? How our security systems work? How best to attack our planet?"
"That was not our intention, we do not wish to attack your planet. It has nothing to offer us, you are nowhere near as technologically advanced as we are," Alamagor said with a superior tone which reminded Jack of the Tolan.
"What were you trying to understand then?"
"We wanted to understand how you react to certain situations, how you behave as a society, especially as you go through difficult situations as you recently have."
"And what did you learn?" Jack asked bitterly.
"That you are well versed in crisis situations, that you are willing to sacrifice much. You are, however, over reliant on emotion. You are ruled by your emotions to the point where much of your behaviour is dictated by them. Especially you," he said, indicating Sam.
"You know what? I think we could have told you that, without you putting us through all those mind games. Do you understand what you did to us? What we did to each other when we were under the influence of your little chips," Jack asked, dangerously calm.
"We were watching what occurred. I must say that the effects were different to what we have seen previously. I believe that you became aware of what you were doing?"
"Yes," Sam replied with bitterness in her voice.
"You did perform very well however. There were many entertaining incidents involving you and you do seem to have a greater grasp of technology compared to the others. We were, in many ways impressed by you."
"Entertaining, you thought that what happened was entertaining? I thought that it was degrading and a personal violation," Sam spat back.
"As we have said, it was not our intention for you to discover this, at least not in the way that you did. We can only apologise for this aspect of the experiment."
"Well apology not accepted," Jack replied.
"Whatever your motives were, can you please get these things out of our heads?" Daniel pleaded.
"I do not know if we can comply with this demand," Alamagor replied.
"You don't know? For crying out loud, how can you not know."
"Because we have never had cause to remove the devices. We may be able to deactivate them."
"You may?" Carter asked, her eyebrows creeping up slightly.
"Whatever, I'm not sure that'll be good enough. We tried to shut them down ourselves, it didn't exactly work."
"Yes, that was interesting. An ingenious yet relatively primitive attempt to shut down the devices. We were aware of your plans and temporarily shut the devices down."
"What we are saying is we want these things out, permanently. Or you will find just how 'primitive' our weapons are."
"You are no match for us."
"Not on our own but there are many, many more of us. With bigger weapons, much bigger," Jack stressed.
"This may be true but, as we said, we do not know if it is possible to remove the devices."
"Well, can't you at least try?" Jack asked.
"We can try but we will not be able to guarantee your safety should we do so."
"I don't care," Jack replied simply.
"Colonel," Carter objected quietly.
"I don't Carter. I can't go through life like this, wondering who I'm going to attack next, if next time I'm going to kill someone. I won't spend the rest of my life in solitary confinement or drugged up to the eyes."
"I understand that Colonel but they could shut the devices off."
"And risk them turning back on again if they get bored. Wondering if I'm going to lose it again. Remove it."
"As you are aware of the presence of the devices, you serve little educational value. We will therefore attempt to remove the devices, if that is what you wish. It may be useful for us to understand how to remove the devices without harming the subject."
"How generous of you," Daniel commented with a definite bite of sarcasm in his voice.
"I can only speak for myself but it's what I want," Jack said
"I want it out of me as well," Carter agreed, she had been sufficiently swayed by what O'Neill had said. She wanted her life back, which she realised she would never have with the device left in her brain.
"Yeah, me too," Daniel agreed.
"Who will be first?"
"I will," all three of them said at almost the same time.
"I will," O'Neill said again, with an air of finality.
"Are you sure, Sir?"
"Yes Carter, my brain isn't quite as valuable as yours or Daniel's. It should be me."
"We will prepare. You will stay here," Alamagor said, standing.
Without another word SG-1 was left alone in the room. As a matter of curiosity rather than anything else, Sam tried the door and was not surprised to find it locked. She turned and shrugged to the other two.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Jack?" Daniel asked again.
"Yes Daniel. I'm sure, what else are we supposed to do. I don't trust them as far as I could throw them but as far as I'm concerned it's better than the alternatives. My mind's made up."
"I do agree with you, Jack. I'm just concerned, they fitted the damn things and now they don't know if they can remove them."
"Don't remind me," Jack said with a sigh.
The three lapsed into silence, not knowing what else to say. It wasn't long before Alamagor and Malatesar returned.
"We are prepared," Alamagor said with an air of confidence which made Jack feel slightly uneasy.
"Can we watch the procedure?" Carter asked. O'Neill turned and gave her a look, she gave a slight shrug in return.
"That is acceptable. Come with us," Alamagor said as he turned and left the room. SG-1 filed out of the room, with Malatesar following them out.
"You want to watch?" Jack asked Sam in a whisper as they walked through the halls.
"Not really, I just thought that if we're all there then they won't try anything," she replied in an equally hushed voice.
"That's reassuring," came the sarcasm laced reply. Despite the tone of his voice, Jack appreciated the thought and felt slightly comforted by the fact that his team would be there.
They were taken to what was obviously a medical room, it looked very much like a hi-tech version of the SGC infirmary.
Jack was directed to a bed where monitoring equipment was attached to his head and chest.
"Try to relax, Colonel O'Neill, this should not be painful," Alamagor said but there was something in his tone which implied that he did not care whether it hurt or not.
"Yeah sure you bethca," Jack replied, he didn't think that it would be easy for him to relax knowing that he was about let a hostile(ish) alien mess about with his brain.
Jack felt the local version of anaesthetic working on his system, he felt himself drift away. Before he lost consciousness, he looked at his team mates who were looking on with concern, they both smiled slightly at him, trying their best to look reassuring but neither of them managed it that successfully.
As soon as Jack was completely unconscious, Alamagor went to work, despite the air of confidence he projected, he was definitely uncertain about completing this surgery. It was only five minutes before Sam and Daniel started sharing concerned looks.
They were watching the monitors that Jack was hooked up to and the lines being displayed were becoming more and more erratic, which could not be a good thing. Suddenly the monitor started flashing orange and emitting a series of high pitched beeps.
"Orange can't be good," Daniel said, looking over to Sam with concern etched across his face.
"No, I think orange is very bad," Sam replied.
"Do something," Daniel shouted at Alamagor.
"Please," Sam added.
They looked at each other and then back at the monitors, which were now bordered in yellow and emitting a constant tone.
"Yellow is worse?" Daniel asked, already knowing the answer.
"Flatline," came the simply reply from Sam