Thankfully, within seconds, Alamagor managed to restart Jack's heart, the colour on the monitors changed from yellow, back to orange, finally settling again on black. Both Sam and Daniel audibly exhaled as they realised he was out of immediate danger.
It seemed to take forever, neither Daniel or Sam could follow what was being done or relate it to Earth medical procedures but eventually Alamagor announced that he was finished.
"Did you remove the device?"
"I did."
"Will he be okay?"
"He should regain consciousness shortly."
"What happened back there?"
"It was a reaction to the procedure, there should be no long term effects of what happened."
"Should?" Daniel asked, his eyebrows creeping towards his hairline.
"I cannot be certain though his heart was not stopped for more than a few seconds. I am confident that this will not happen again. Who wishes to be treated next?"
"Can't we wait until Colonel O'Neill regains consciousness?"
"You show such strong feelings for the people you serve with," Alamagor said as though it was an alien concept to him.
"Yes we do. It is part of what makes us good at what we do," Daniel tried to explain.
"I do not understand this concept myself," he said with a definite air of superiority.
"Whatever works for you. Can we wait until the Colonel wakes up?" Sam asked again, slightly impatiently.
"I suppose," came the off-handed reply.
It was not long until they noticed O'Neill start to show signs of waking up, both Daniel and Sam crossed over to him.
"Jack, can you hear me?" Daniel asked.
"I feel like I've had a good night," came a slightly slurred reply.
"No such luck, Sir," Carter replied with a slight smile. It sounded as if the Colonel was intact.
"I figured as much," O'Neill commented as he opened his eyes and immediately regretted it as the harsh light of the room infiltrated his eyes. He resorted to a squint as a compromise between being able to see and controlling the jackhammer in his brain.
"How do you feel, Sir?" Sam asked.
"Peachy."
Oh yeah, the Colonel was still there.
"I'll go next," Sam announced, turning to face Alamagor.
"Let us commence with the procedure."
Thankfully both Sam and Daniel's procedures went without a hitch, they did both, however, wake with what felt like a hangover from hell, much as Jack had. It took them all a while to be able to stand and face the bright lights.
"Look, as much as I'd love to say this has been fun. It hasn't. So we're going to be off now," Jack said with his usual brand of sarcasm.
"Thank you for removing the devices," Daniel said, trying to be polite as he could.
"We have to thank you. You have been both educational and, um, entertaining in your own ways."
"Well it's good to be of service," Jack replied with an exasperated sigh. "Can we go now?"
"You may depart."
Jack, Sam and Daniel left the compound, they weren't surprised to see Malatesar outside the medical room, waiting to escort them out, as the exit door opened, he turned and left SG-1. As soon as the door opened, SG-1 exited and were greeted by SG-2 and SG-3, all with their weapons raised.
"Stand down," Jack said, his voice betraying the tiredness he felt.
"Is everything okay, Colonel? We were starting to get a little concerned?"
"Everything's fine, better than fine actually. We are all de-chipped."
"You sure?"
"I bloody well hope so, otherwise I flatlined for nothing," Jack replied. Daniel had filled him in on the eventful round of surgery whilst Sam was being treated.
"Let's get you all back to the SGC," Griff said, the news that O'Neill had almost died made him more eager than before to get them back to the base and into Dr Fraiser's expert hands.
"Couldn't agree more."
The trip back to the Stargate was thankfully uneventful, everyone was glad to see the gate in the distance and more than glad to step through it back onto Earth.
General Hammond was in the gate room to meet the party as they returned.
"How did it go?" he asked to the assembled group.
"You are probably very pleased to hear that we are all free of alien influence. They agreed to remove the chips."
"They did?"
"Yes Sir. Apparently that as we were aware of the devices, we were no longer educational or entertaining to them so they saw no reason not to remove them," Carter explained.
"Good job, everyone. We'll debrief properly once you have all been cleared by Dr Fraiser."
"Thank you, Sir," came the response from a number of the assembled personnel before they all left the gate room and headed up to the infirmary. Janet was on SG-1 almost before they were through the infirmary.
"We're fine, Doc."
"Jack nearly wasn't though," Daniel said, knowing the Colonel wouldn't admit it unless he really had to.
"What happened, Colonel?" Janet asked in her best physician mode.
"I don't remember but apparently there was a little iffy moment when they were removing the chip.
"He flatlined," Daniel clarified.
"Colonel, pick a bed. I want you on a cardiac monitor for a while. Sam, Daniel, I want to monitor you pretty closely. The rest of you, someone will be over to do your post mission physicals as soon as possible."
Jack went quietly and took up a place on one of the beds, his usual for infirmary stays. Every member of SG-1 had a favourite spot and Jack, Daniel and Sam all took their beds and waited for Janet.
She immediately went to Colonel O'Neill, she could guess that he would be the one to volunteer to be the first to have the procedure done without having to ask him. The news that his heart had stopped was slightly concerning to her, though he didn't seem to be showing any side effects of it.
She hooked him up to the cardiac monitor and was pleased to find that all his vital signs were more or less normal, all the differences could easily be put down to the stressful events of the past few days.
She wanted to keep a close eye on him but was confident there was no lasting damage from the cardiac arrest. After a quick examination, she sent Daniel and Carter down for a CAT scan, hoping that it would confirm that the chips had been removed and that they would finally have SG-1 back.
SG-1 were sitting round the briefing room table, waiting for General Hammond so they could start the debriefing. As soon as Hammond entered the room, O'Neill and Carter both stood before Hammond waived them back to their seats.
"I have spoken to Dr Fraiser, who is confident that the devices that had been implanted into yourselves on P2X-739 have been removed. The CAT scans show no signs of the devices remaining. As there have been no more 'incidents' since your return, I am happy to remove the restriction keeping you on base."
There were smiles all around at this announcement.
"Thank you, Sir," Carter said, a broad smile lighting up her face.
"You are all on leave for two weeks, as long as there are no more problems during this time, then you will be back on the mission rota. And when I say leave, I expect you all to leave," Hammond said, looking in particular at Sam and Daniel. "I don't want to see any of you on base unless there is a medical reason why you need to be here."
"Yes, Sir," came the enthusiastic response from Jack, followed by slightly less enthusiastic responses from Sam and Daniel, Teal'c just nodded.
"Dismissed," Hammond said, standing from the table and heading back to his office. He knew that he had just spoilt Dr Jackson's and Major Carter's plans but they needed some leave and he knew he would have to make it an order to ensure the actually took it.
"So, what are everyone's plans?" Jack asked, with a devious tone in his voice.
"I've got a translation that I really wanted to finish."
"I want to work on my bike for a bit."
"I had planned to rent Star Wars from the video rental establishment."
"No, Teal'c was closest. The correct answer is, we are going to rent some video's, buy some food and have a barbecue at my place. That's an order."
"Sounds like a good idea, Sir," Carter agreed, surprising Jack with the ease at which she agreed.
"Why not," Daniel agreed, with two weeks there was plenty of time for him to do the translation and there was no way that Jack could keep him hostage for that long.
"I too will attend, though I would like to rent Star Wars," Teal'c reiterated.
"We can rent Star Wars, T," O'Neill agreed, albeit slightly reluctantly.
Hammond watched the four members of SG-1 make plans together for their break before leaving the briefing together, chatting comfortably. It never ceased to amaze the General that despite what the team had been through or maybe because of what they had been through since their inception they were closer than ever. Even the actions of a group of aliens who had wanted little more than some information and entertainment at the expense of the team could not drive them apart.
He wondered, how, even after so many years of military service and his time in this command that things still surprised him. Though, some things he could count on and one of them was the people under his command, they always seemed to win through in the end.
The End (Finally).