The four members of SG-1 stared at the words, and looked at each other.

Jack spoke first. "I guess it's too much to assume that the alien whatsit just made that thing really really big."

Chapter 4: Who's Fault is it Anyway?

They continued to stare at the large yellow object in front of them, Carter's scientific curiosity taking over and she approached the pencil, for pencil was the only thing it could be, and touched the black letters experimentally. Meanwhile, Daniel wandered over to one of the nearby flat white rectangles that formed random patterns on the ground, and frowned down at it.

"Here's your notes Sam," he said after a moment, causing the others to come over to join him.

The Colonel frowned. Carter's distinctive scrawl was readily apparent, even a foot high, at least from their perspective. "I'm thinking the guy that wrote that song about it being a small world was never in this situation."

"Sir," Carter said suddenly. "If we're so small, how is it that we can breathe? I mean, the size of an air molecule remains unchanged, however our bodies in relation to the subatomic structure of…"

"Carter!" O'Neill barked.

Sam blinked, and looked at her CO. "Yes sir?"

"Don't." Jack glared at all the suddenly large objects around them.

Carter blushed, and looked down briefly. "Sorry sir," she mumbled before going back to her inspection of her surroundings.

Daniel spoke up, abruptly changing the subject. "Jack, this has got to have something to do with that artifact from P35-789. It must have activated when you dropped it…"

"I didn't drop it." Jack interrupted quickly, defending himself.

Daniel blinked, startled by O'Neill's reply. "Um, yeah Jack. You did."

Jack glared back defiantly. "Did not."

Crossing his arms, Daniel replied. "Did too."

Really warming up now, Jack opened his mouth to reply, when a steady deep rumble overrode him. "I do believe that O'Neill was the last one to hold the object," said Teal'c. Sam had to work to stifle her giggles.

Glaring at his two teammates in mock outrage, causing Sam to smother a few more giggles until he turned his glare to include her, Jack did the only thing he could when outnumbered and out gunned. He changed the subject. "Yeah, well before we go for another round of 'whose fault is it anyway' why don't we figure out how we are going to get back to normal?"

"And that would be how?" asked Daniel blinking innocently, eyebrows slightly raised, an expectant look on his face.

"We put that alien thingamabob in reverse, that's what," Jack declared, as if it were obvious.

"Sir, I don't know if it will be that easy." Carter spoke up.

"You'll figure it out," he said dismissively. "Let's go kids." Jack picked a direction and started off.

Teal'c stood rooted to the spot. "I believe the device is in this direction O'Neill." The large man pointed, indicating the way opposite to where Jack had been heading.

Jack scowled. "I knew that. I was just checking to see if you knew it," he muttered unconvincingly before turning around and stalking off in the new direction. The rest of SG-1 exchanged glances, Teal'c with his eyebrow raised, before following.

They fell into silence, each lost in their own thoughts and observations. Along the way the encountered many of the things blown about by the force of the energy wave that shrunk them, Sam frowning at the disarray her normally neat lab was in. Ahead, Jack had discovered a coffee mug that Sam used for pens and what not lying on its side, and was busy trying to see if he could walk inside of it.

"Sir," called Carter, she was now standing by a rather large metallic silver object. No longer did the device seem to be the size of a toaster, now it was about the size of house.

Jack abandoned the mug while Teal'c took up a defensive position, checking the perimeter and Daniel went to stand beside Sam, laying a hand on the smooth surface. He quickly removed his hand when he noticed Jack glaring at him. Sam ducked around the side of the object and the Colonel moved to keep her in sight. She stopped quickly though, and Jack nearly ran into her, but she barely noticed, lost in thought as she started at something on the side.

"Daniel, can you come look at this?" called Sam, not taking her eyes off what so held her interest, tentatively reaching to touch it before the Colonel warned her off.

"No touching." He glared at both scientists as they moved to stand next to each other. Teal'c had followed Daniel and now moved so that he and Jack could see the maximum amount of area around the alien device.

"Fascinating," mumbled Daniel, bringing Jack's attention back to his oftentimes overly enthusiastic scientific duo.

"What?" Jack's glare reminding them to not use too much techno babble.

"Sir, there's writing on here." Sam pointed. Where there had been what previously appeared to be the small scratch before was now obvious symbols. Daniel had already leaned in examining them, his brow furrowed in concentration.

"Well? What's it say?" Jack demanded after several moments. When silence met his query, he cleared his throat and tried again. "Daniel?"

Daniel blinked, never taking his eyes off the lines of script that trailed up the side of the object. It looked like they were lucky the object had fallen the way it had, or they might never had seen them. "I'm not sure, it looks like an obscure dialect of Greek, but not exactly. I have some texts in my office that should help." Distractedly, Daniel turned as if to head off to his office and get the books and Jack grabbed his arm.

"Uh, Daniel. Are you forgetting something?" Jack made a motion indicating their height, and then pointed to a pen lying nearby.

Daniel flushed. "Well that's a problem," he said, frowning again.

Jack sighed. "Well the books are out, at least not right now. We probably shouldn't leave Carter's lab for now, unless we have to. I really don't want to be mistaken for a bug if you know what I mean." Sam shuddered at the idea, and the others nodded in agreement, pondering the problem.

His eyes lighting up with a sudden idea, Daniel turned to Sam. "The computer, you have a computer in here."

Catching on immediately, Sam turned towards her desk and looked up. And up. Shading her eyes from the overhead lighting, she craned her neck, picking out the edge of her keyboard poking over the tabletop. Likely it had been dislodged slightly but fortunately not knocked off the table. She frowned; walking slowly around the table to get a better look, hoping that the computer was still powered up and connected.

"Just how in the hell are we supposed to get up there?" Jack demanded, figuring out what it was his two brainiacs wanted.

"I believe I have an idea O'Neill." Teal'c strode quickly to something he had spied on their way to the alien device. It was lying not far from where the keyboard lay tantalizingly. The others clustered around the small plastic box, as Teal'c struggled with the latch.

Jack raised his eyebrows. "A mending kit?" he asked dubiously. "And just how is a mending kit going to help us get to Carter's computer?"

"Observe O'Neill." Teal'c had managed to get the lid open and Daniel helped him fold it back. Teal'c quickly hoisted himself up and into the kit, where he picked up a sewing needle, briefly hoisting it in his hands experimentally, a satisfied look on his face. In his hands, the needle looked more like a small javelin. Teal'c quickly passed the needle down to Carter, who took it while looking curious.

Next, he picked up a card with green thread wrapped around it, passing it down to Jack, who was looking up at the man, wondering again if the device had had more than just an affect on their size. After passing down a second card, this one containing blue thread, Teal'c jumped down, and took one of the cards from O'Neill, hefting it to his broad shoulder, indicating they should follow him.

Leading the way around the side of the table, Teal'c stopped near where a few cables trailed down from the computer, connecting it to the network and power and such. He set the card of thread down, and started to unroll some of it. Still puzzled, Daniel helped him with the bulky card. Carter still carried the needle. Jack frowned as he watched the activity. He was starting to think that he wasn't going to like what Teal'c was planning. Carter was eyeing the tabletop speculatively; she seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

Teal'c had doubled up the thread, which at their present size appeared to be about the thickness of a small rope, and was creating a harness from it. Taking the needle from Carter, he quickly secured it with more thread so that it slung across his back like a large sword.

Still frowning, Jack shook his head, but he really couldn't think of another way to get to the computer, and he knew out of all of them, Teal'c would be the best suited to make the first climb. The thread trailing from Teal'c's harness would provide the best way for the rest of them to safely join him on top of the table.

"Good luck buddy. Be careful." Was all Jack would say, though he would have preferred to say don't do it, it wasn't safe, that they should find another way. He double checked the man's harness intstead, and gave his shoulder a squeeze when satisfied that the impromptu safety device would hold. Teal'c inclined his head to O'Neill, and turned to one of the cords, a thick round gray one, and used some of the thread to secure his harness to the cord. It might not prevent him from falling, but may perhaps slow his descent enough from him to be able to catch himself.

Without another word, Teal'c started his climb, Carter and Daniel making sure he had enough slack on the 'rope'. Jack watched, fervently hoping that the lonely climb Teal'c made would be uneventful.