Written for the Stargate Drabble List Riddle Me Challenge – the answer was Mini Jack. We were supposed to write a story about clone Jack from Fragile Balance… I cheated!

Mini Jack

Daniel slapped his arm and rubbed at the annoying sting left behind by Jack's boredom. They'd been in the Ancient outpost for hours now, and once the initial excitement of the find had worn off, Jack had gone from eager to suddenly throwing small projectile at Daniel for amusement.

"Knock it off, Jack." His attention so firmly fixed on the barely functioning monitor and its scrolling Ancient script, Daniel didn't bother tossing an annoyed stare at his team-mate.

"Now," Daniel said, brow knitted in thought as his fingers played across the screen, "as far as I can tell the Ancients used this place as some sort of storage facility. There's a cryptic mention to scaling down, though it could be interpreted as re-grouping as well. I can't tell. The dialect is a bit odd in places, like the Ancients version of short-hand. If Sam can power up the-," Another small projectile smacked Daniel in the leg, harder this time. Clutching his thigh, he pulled his hand away to find it peppered with blood. "What the?"

Daniel spun around to confront his team leader but the room was empty.

"Ookaay."

A third missile struck him in the stomach. Not strong enough to knock him down, but enough that Daniel tensed his stomach muscles reflexively and rubbed at the sore spot.

"Funny, Jack. Where the hell are you?"

"Here!" The voice was faint and high pitched, Daniel wasn't sure he'd heard it the first time. "Oiy, Daniel… down here."

Standing on a small platform in front of the monitor, his P90 pointed squarely at Daniel, was Jack.

A very small Jack.

Tiny would be a better choice of words. Barely five inches tall and looking mighty sorry for himself.

"Jack?" Daniel blinked, looked back at the monitor then back down at his friend. He felt like he was missing the plot of a B Grade movie. "You've been, um, busy."

"You can fix this. Right?" Mini Jack squeaked.

Yes, Jack, not a problem. Nope, not a hope… and Daniel knew it. Jack hadn't been downsized, he'd been totally miniaturized, and the meaning of the Ancient script was suddenly clear. "What did you do? And please don't tell me you were firing your P90 at me to get my attention."

Jack offered Daniel a wry lopsided grin and pointed towards the side of the platform, a raised circuit board exposed on its smooth surface.

"You touched this?" Daniel asked examining the board carefully.

Jack nodded his head and sat down hard on the platform, his teeny P90 falling across his knees.

"You've got to be kidding me! Of all the stupid, idiotic things to do!"

Jack's head drooped to his chest.

"Sam," Daniel stood keying his radio, "I need you and Teal'c in the lab right away. Jack has a small problem."

The End