The door slid open to reveal a room about the size of a walk-in closet. "This is the sauna?" asked Davy.
"No," said Jahv, "this is where you two leave your clothes. They're not permitted in the sauna."
Keith shrugged and pulled off his shorts and removed his sandals, and Davy dispensed with his overalls. Then they went through a second sliding door.
Steam emerged from a large region across the floor. That region, however, was not steaming water. It was bubbling, dark olive green mud. "You're kidding, right?" said Davy hesitantly. "Green mud?"
"It's very therapeutic." remarked Jahv. "Gets all the stress out of your system."
"How deep is it?" asked Keith, looking intrigued.
"About two feet." explained Jahv. "There are seating areas within the mud, and of course the walkway around the perimeter, for those…" he glanced at Davy, "reluctant souls who might only wish to dip their feet in or something."
"Heck with that!" retorted Keith, who had backed up several feet into the short corridor which led to the small room where they had left their clothes. He then took a running start and yelled "Cannonball!" He brought his feet up and flew into the green mud, which made a loud SPLORK! noise as Keith hit.
Seconds later, a green-mud-covered Keith popped to the surface. "Yow!" he exclaimed. "This stuff is pretty hot! But that was a blast!"
Jahv had walked down a couple of nearby steps, but was now swimming out towards Keith. Davy was still at the side of the sauna pool. Jahv scowled, somewhat amusedly. "This was more or less your idea, Davy. Are you not going to participate?"
"Heck, he's still getting that 'haunted mud' story out of his mind from where Keyro landed." laughed Keith.
Jahv made his way back to the edge of the sauna pool, and tried splashing some of the mud on Davy. Davy backed up a few steps. "Don't make me come out there and throw you in." said Jahv. "I'm a lot stronger than you are."
Davy frowned, but came closer to the pool. "Well, okay. But I don't want to stumble on the way in. Lend me a hand?"
Jahv stood, came to the top step, and extended a hand to Davy. Davy, catching the young alien completely unawares, hauled Jahv out of the mud, lowered him to the floor, slightly twisted his arm behind him, and then sat down on his back. This, of course, got a fair bit of mud on Davy, but he didn't seem to mind. "Now, Mr. Lot-Stronger-Than-Us-Poor-Humans, here's a little lesson in leverage, and we won't be throwing any more mud in my direction, will we?"
Jahv was giggling. He knew Davy wasn't serious. "Okay, okay! I give! Cousin! Cousin!"
"The word is 'Uncle'." called Keith, who had come over to the edge of the sauna pool to watch the amusement.
Davy let Jahv up, and then jumped into the mud pool in a fair approximation of Keith's cannonball. Jahv himself re-entered, and for the next several minutes, the three boys wrestled around, until the heat and the strain of moving around in the thick mud exhausted them. They headed for the edge of the pool to catch their collective breath and talk.
"Jahv," asked Keith, "that replicator thing you brought with you. Is there anything it can't make?"
"It's actually rather limited." said Jahv. "I'm trying to get it to make machine parts for a project I have in mind. But it's good for some stuff. Mostly small stuff."
"Why, when you have that bottomless backpack, would you even need it?" asked Davy.
"Some of what the fabricator — and for that matter the food replicator — can do is make things we can't carry with us. Perishable items especially. Certain medications, stuff like that. But they have their limits. The food replicator couldn't be used to feed the world, or anything."
"Why not?" asked Keith.
"Power pack would burn out long before then." said Jahv. "Theoretically, the fabricator can make replacement power packs — if I can get it to do that. But they're really not designed for such massive use. It's like — I don't know how to make a comparison that you'd understand."
"Like using one candle to light an entire house?" asked Davy.
Jahv nodded. "Close enough, I guess."
"You mentioned perishable medications." said Keith. "You a doctor or something?"
Jahv giggled. "No. But even kids younger than Keyro have to have some first-aid training to travel in space. And you get more training each year. I can't do surgery or diagnose complicated illnesses or anything. But I can take care of minor injuries and stuff. Space travel may be fairly common where I'm from, but it's never one-hundred-percent safe. We don't take it for granted. Space can be a very dangerous place."
Keith suddenly thought of something. "Hey, how long we been in here?"
"In the mud?" asked Davy.
"No, in this whole holocron thing. Since the lake." replied Keith.
"I think it's been about three hours." remarked Jahv. "I'm still getting used to your time measurements."
Keith cringed. "That makes it late afternoon. I dunno about Davy and Martin, but I need to be getting home."
"Yeah, me too, really." added Davy. "But this has been a blast!"
"Holocron access." said Jahv. The device appeared to be floating on the mud seconds later. "End program."
That put the three boys back in the dome-tent. The mud was completely gone. Their clothes were piled about five feet away from them. Keith and Davy wandered over and redressed. "All that mud just disappeared!" said Keith.
"It was holographic." said Jahv, grinning.
"It sure FELT real enough." remarked Keith.
There was a rustle at the dome-tent. Davy looked over, and grinned. "THEIRS isn't holographic."
Keyro and Martin appeared in the entryway, both plastered in mud. If it weren't for Keyro's large eyes and antennae, it would have been hard to distinguish one from another. But something wasn't quite right. Keyro was supporting most of Martin's weight — rather effortlessly, it looked like — and Martin had a pained expression on his face.
Keith was the first to notice. "What happened?"
Then Martin limped in and it was obvious. There was an ugly gash on his upper leg. The boy was close to tears, but trying to be brave.
"We think there was a sharp tree branch or something under the mud." said Keyro.
"We should clean him up and take him home, quickly." said Keith.
"May I try something?" asked Jahv. "I might be able to heal this much more quickly."
Keith frowned. "Jahv, you may know some first aid, but you can't know anything about treating humans."
"A cut tends to be a cut." said Jahv. "We're not that different."
"Let him help, please." cried Martin. "This hurts too much to wait."
Keith bit his lip, but nodded. Davy and Keyro hauled Martin over to a nearby table. Jahv was already fishing around in his backpack. He brought out what looked like an oversized lunch box with alien script on it. "Basic first aid kit." he explained. He opened it, and very few of the contents looked familiar to either Keith or Davy — except from a few episodes of Star Trek.
Jahv dug around, scratching his left antennae. He was remembering basic procedure for cleaning and treating large cuts. First — clean the area. Medicinal cleaning spray. He found the spray container. "This may sting, Martin." he informed the whimpering boy. Jahv sprayed the cut and Martin screamed, pulling his leg away. Everybody flinched.