"No, it's not toxic to either you guys or to me." said Jahv. "But it does seem to have reactive properties with certain organic strains of.
"Hey!" yelped Davy. "My suit is dissolving!"
"Mine, too!" added Niklas.
Jahv looked down and noticed that he was practically naked except for his boots, as well, which were made from a different, non-organic material.
Keith was almost laughing. "Boy, all of a sudden I'm really glad I kept my underwear on."
Within seconds, except for Keith's underwear, all the four boys were wearing were their boots. "What do we do now?" asked Niklas.
"I don't think there's much we CAN do." said Jahv. "These plants seem to be plentiful, and react to the presence of what they obviously consider a threat. While they can't harm us, they can clearly dissolve certain plant-based organics, which our uniforms were made out of."
"Good thing my shorts aren't cotton." remarked Keith, finding it difficult to keep a straight face.
"I can replicate new uniforms once we head back, but it'd be wasteful to attempt to replace them now." said Jahv. "These plants would just do it again."
Davy shrugged. "Oh, well, it's an isolated planet, with maybe only a handful of survivors here besides us. Let's hope they're not too picky about clothing."
"Let's hope there aren't any nastier specimens of plant life around here." said Niklas.
"Hey, guys, what do we call these plants?" asked Keith. "How about stripper plants?"
"Keep it up, Keith, and I'll throw your shorts into a tree." said Davy. "With or without you, I'll decide later."
"Let's keep going." said Jahv.
Fortunately, none of the plants in the jungle the boys had to make their way through seemed especially harsh. No thorns, burrs, or sharp-edged leaves to tear into skin. Even the bark of trees seemed soft to the touch. Roughly half an hour later, the group found the distress beacon Jahv had detected.
It was about two feet high, with a dish about four feet in diameter and a coil of glowing blue wire running in a spiral pattern throughout the dish. Nearby, perhaps twenty yards or so, was a fair pile of wreckage of a vessel somewhat larger than the one the boys had arrived in. It was difficult to be certain. "Nasty." remarked Keith.
"But someone survived." said Davy. "This distress beacon didn't set itself up."
Jahv seemed stunned. "I don't believe this. The shuttle, this equipment — it's Dorrian!"
"Someone you know?" asked Niklas.
Jahv shook his head. "Dorrians are — were — a race, like Keyro and I are Botarans."
"'Were'?" asked Davy.
Jahv paused to explain. "A number of years ago, a race called the Soluans — huge, lizard-like beings — warriors and conquerors, although more nasty than effective — invaded the Dorrian homeworld. The Dorrians fought back — a little too well."
"How do you mean?" asked Keith.
"They defeated the Soluan fleet and sent them packing, but the Soluans detonated a terrible device over the planet. An atmospheric incendiary bomb. It's banned by any reasonably civilized race in the galaxy." explained Jahv.
"What does it do?" asked Niklas. It certainly sounded unpleasant.
"It causes a chemical change within the atmosphere of any world. Literally ignites the atmosphere. Once started, there's no known way to stop it. It burns the world to the ground, turns it into ash. Only a handful of Dorrians managed to escape. A lot of those were offworld to begin with." said Jahv grimly. "Out of seven billion known Dorrians, it is estimated that only a few thousand remain, scattered across the stars."
Everyone was silent for a long moment. Finally Keith spoke, "Well, it looks like some of them ended up scattered here, and maybe survived. Like Davy said, that thing didn't set itself up."
"What were these Dorrians like?" asked Niklas.
"They were an elegant people." replied Jahv. "They were builders. Architects and designers, mostly, with a good level of technology. Everything they did had an element of ornate decoration to it. Everything. Look at the legs on the distress beacon."
The other boys looked more closely. Indeed, the three small legs of the distress beacon were elegantly curved and sculpted, and seemed to be made out of a mottled copper-like metal.
"They were a quiet and peaceful people." continued Jahv. "And they wore the most amazingly ornate robes. Dorrian fabric sold for high prices on other worlds. The Soluans made themselves pariahs of the galaxy by attacking and destroying them. Not that anyone was that fond of them to begin with."
"But obviously these Dorrians could fight." said Keith. "You said they defeated the Soluans before they dropped this bomb."
Jahv nodded. "They could fight very well, but it took a lot to anger them. An invasion would suffice, though."
Jahv scanned the wreckage. "According to decay readings, this shuttle has been here for approximately three to four years, possibly slightly longer. Difficult to tell through the nearby plant life, which of course has its own decay rate."
Niklas sighed. "Then whoever survived could be dead by now. Or far away."
"Could." said Jahv. "Whoever set this up had to be trained to do so. And standard procedure is to stay reasonably near the device at all times, regardless of how long it takes. Also, the readings I've been taking on the way in show that most of the fruit on the nearby bushes and trees is not only edible, but highly nutritious. I'm actually amazed that no sentient native life exists here, but stranger things have happened."
"You going to analyze this entire adventure through that gadget of yours, and keep throwing big words at us, or try looking around once in a while?" remarked Davy. "This is incredible! We're really exploring another world."
Jahv smiled. "I'm sorry. It's how I was raised. I keep forgetting how unusual this is for you."
"So what do we do?" asked Niklas.
"Whoever placed the beacon here, if they're not nearby, should be carrying a beacon tracker. If anything deliberate is done to the distress beacon, such as shutting it off — in other words, something that could not happen by accident, it will set off the tracker. Hopefully they'll come to investigate." Jahv knelt down near the machine and switched it off. "Meanwhile, we can explore this wreckage for clues as to survivors."
"If you guys would wait a second," said Keith, "I gotta pee."
"Watch out which tree you choose." offered Davy. "They seem to have more personality here than on Earth."
"So I'll whiz in the grass." muttered Keith, walking off a short distance and lowering his shorts. Seconds later, a sound vaguely resembling someone playing a harp — badly — emanated from where Keith was standing. "What the —!!!!" swore Keith, jumping back.
Jahv pointed his scanner at the grass, but recalling Davy's admonition, put the device in his backpack and instead plucked a single blade of grass and held it up towards the sun. "Remarkable. These blades have tiny perforations in them that react with liquid and produce a musical tone. In a rainstorm, this place would sound like a concert!"
Keith returned to the group moments later, swearing and without his shorts. "Decided to go along with the current dress code?" asked Davy.
"Ah, shaddup." muttered Keith. He wasn't about to admit that he'd been so startled by the musical grass that he'd pulled his shorts up without completing his intended business and had soaked them. He had then removed the shorts, finished what he had to do, trying to keep it quiet, wiped his front with a dry section of the underwear, and tossed the shorts against the nearest tree. The tree had subsequently absorbed the shorts into its bark. That had been more than enough to get Keith to return to the group.
"How long do you think it will take for someone to respond to you turning off the distress signal?" asked Davy.
"Hard to say," answered Jahv. "Let's have a look at this wreckage meanwhile."
The shuttle managed to retain some of its native elegance even though it was trashed, ripped open in several places, and covered with local flora. The boys could see elegant sculpting both in the hull and what remained of the furniture inside. It was also a lot larger than how it had appeared from a distance.