The Full Circle Six

by Edward T. Anthony

  Three hours later, everyone was still having a wonderful time, with the exception of Jaws. The communications expert had checked on the racecraft and everything seemed to be in order and ready for take-off. Well, they were having so much fun, he thought to himself, might as well let them party for a while longer. Drake wouldn’t let it get too out of hand, anyway.

  The natives had prepared a perfect party section with balloons, streamers, and party favors, more food and drink, and yet more flowers for everyone.

  “On Purefection, everyone is a winner,” said one of the beautiful female inhabitants as she was hanging a banner that read, “Congratulations Race Winners!”

  The music was breathtaking, strings, drums, and flutes mixed with singing, lilting voices. Jaws saw Freddie and Priscilla dancing together, who were odd, because he could not remember having seen them come back from wherever it was that they went. Freddie was dressed in his finest robes. Priscilla was wearing several flowers in her hair, and both of them were wearing expressions of what Jaws could only take as euphoria. Jaws looked away, and then quickly turned back in surprised disgust as he witnessed his two teammates lock into some sort of mouth embrace.

  Everyone but Jaws was dancing and having a great time. He noticed this, but all he could think about still was getting back to the race. It was nearly nightfall, and they had been celebrating for five hours. He didn’t suspect that something was wrong until Drake stepped over to him, laughing loudly and gesturing with his hands.

  “JAWS!” Drake yelled happily. “Come over here!”

  Jaws sighed and turned away. He didn’t feel like celebrating, no matter how rare it was to see the commander in such a state. It probably had a lot to do with the cold drinks.

  “Hey, Z.J.,” Drake continued, now on his way over, much to the dismay of Jaws. “Come here, you wonderful, big nosed creature!”

  This struck the communications expert as bizarre, for he had only ever seen Drake look at or refer to his nose in revulsion.

  “Have I ever told you that you have the most extraordinarily amazing nose?” Drake was looking at Jaws with a huge grin and sincerity. “It’s the greatest nose I’ve ever seen! Ha ha ha …”

  “Captain, I believe we should be getting back to the race. The craft is ready to go, everything fully charged, and the celebration will be ending soon, I mean the sun is going down right now and …” Jaws did not get to finish his sentence, on account of Drake interrupting, once more in a thunderous, jolly tone.

  “Nonsense! We have good reason to celebrate after all of our hard work! Don’t you get it man? We’ve already won the race! We’re in first place! We’ll always be in first place here!” The commander’s stance and motions, and his entire demeanor changed from its usual smooth, sure, and easy fluidity.

  “Why would anyone ever want to leave Purefection?” A nearby native male asked.

  “It’s beyond me, my good man!” Drake looked as if nothing at all could bother him at that moment.

  After Drake’s final statement, there was an earsplitting bang, which caused Jaws to dive to the ground, becoming completely invisible. He could hear his partners screaming, and slapping sounds. There were different colored lights everywhere. Jaws was starting to feel the beginnings of fear, so it was the worst possible time for the fireworks to start. He was about to panic, but before he could, it became clear that the screams were cheers and laughs. Confused, Jaws stood up and looked around. Everyone was staring into the sky, so naturally he looked too. Another bang went off, accompanied by a splash of brilliant gold and red sparks, which showered the sky in a spiral fashion.

  Jaws turned again to find Drake, and spotted him a few steps away, staring in awe at the fireworks, clapping and cheering. In fact, he could not get the attention of Drake, or any of the rest of the crew. They were all too enrapt by the trance of the rhythmic lights, alternating colors, in time with the music playing.

  Still slightly fearful, Jaws began to make his way back to the racecraft. He could not figure out why all of his team had just given up on the biggest race event of the season. The reason for going back to the craft was simple. He had a headache, and wanted to see if there was anything in the medical quarters to help him out. Jaws stopped halfway back. In a brainstorm, he realized that he could look up the symptoms of the crew. Maybe if he found out what was wrong, he could fix it, and become a hero to his teammates.

  With a touch of conceit, Jaws continued back to put his plan into play. He felt more relieved, and altogether more physically well, once on the racecraft. Immediately, he went to the medical quarters computer to enter the ailments into the database. He typed in extreme happiness, lack of professionalism, giddy laughter, and complete disregard to all forms of reality. The result disappointed him. The computer said that the hypothetical being was suffering from brain malfunctions. The machine must have a glitch, thought Jaws, to come back with such a severe diagnosis.

  He decided to go take a nap, as all of his energy was drained. He thought this strange, for one of the effects of Purefection was supposed to be a sort of “charging” for all beings. Once the others were ready to leave, they would wake him.

  At the party, things were heating up fast for Freddie and Priscilla. Though he had pursued her from the moment he had met her, Freddie had no idea that he could feel as strongly for any individual as he did for Priscilla now. He felt as if he would do anything at all for only her happiness. His strongest desire was now only to please Priscilla, and not allow any sort of harm to befall her. He wished to know all of her dreams and make them come true. Nothing at all mattered anymore but to be with her. Priscilla was feeling the same way. She was overwhelmed with passion as soon as she stepped out onto Purefection. Some locals had taken to encouraging the new couple. Suggestions of marriage, children, retirement, and the buying of property for permanent residence were brought up through the night. Drake Judge was convinced the two should be married right away, and that he was to pay for their residence himself. Also, he announced, he would be retiring and residing here on Purefection, as well. In addition to all of this, Drake offered his own credits to pay for local residencies anywhere on the planet to any member of the number thirteen race team, as a reward. The team was now certain that they had won the Full Circle Six, and everything was as it should be. They all agreed to stay with Drake and the soon to be wed Freddie and Priscilla.

  Drake arranged with some locals to organize the wedding. Native flowers were to encompass everything. The pulpit was to be covered, the altar surrounded. Every guest’s seat should have flowers layered entirely over the chair. The path of the bride was to be made of Purefection flowers. The Purefectionists would cater the reception, with dishes prepared, as they would be by each of the couple’s home cultures.

  After making plans with the locals, Drake sought out Freddie, and with some work, managed to pull him aside to talk.

  “Freddie, my man, we’ve worked together for a long time now,” Drake started. “I’d even say we’ve become good friends. I wanted to ask you for the honor of being your best man.”

  “No, Drake,” Freddie replied, his eyes beginning to mist. “The honor would be mine.”

  The two long time teammates embraced shamelessly, both extremely grateful for Purefection at that moment. The Future Fuels crew believed they had been on the planet for weeks, and with the race victory, they were rich and famous. The planet’s inhabitants helped all of this.

  Priscilla and Freddie’s wedding was to be held after the full rising of the sun, which was much earlier than that of most planets. There was perhaps five hours between the sunset and sunrise, and during that time, Drake and his crew had lost all rationality or comprehension of reality.

  Jaws awoke feeling fresh and revitalized. Before going to sleep, he had removed the yellow cloth tied around the base of his abnormal proboscis. He felt much better in the atmosphere of the racecraft, than out on the surface. He thought that maybe there was something in the air that affected his sensitive no
se. Re-tying the cloth around his nose, Jaws resolved to go find the captain and figure out why they had not left yet. It was entirely against Drake’s character to waste so much time at one stop. He had to also find out what was happening to his teammates. They all seemed to be oblivious last night. Like the race was of no importance any longer. Maybe he could still save the crew and be a hero, gaining their recognition and respect. This was a prospect that Jaws could enjoy.

  As soon as he exited through the loading zone, several flowers were pushed into Jaws’ face. He began sneezing uncontrollably, despite the precautionary effort of the yellow cloth. Jaws ran away in the direction of the banquet table. He expected to find at least someone there, but the place was deserted. Several hundred yards away, he could see a tall, white structure with a massive group of beings around it. Approaching closer to the construction, he could hear faint music, slow and sweet, yet cheerful.

  Natives were everywhere, along with their horrible flowers. Jaws spotted his crew underneath the overhang of the white structure. They were all dressed in strange garb, and sporting native flower attachments. Upon closer inspection, he could see that it was a traditional joining ceremony for Freddie and Priscilla. Had the whole crew gone crazy, he thought. How could it be that they had just stopped the race for a wedding? He couldn’t go near the ceremony because of all the flowers around. His highly susceptible nose stopped him from getting too close.

  Suddenly, it was if a bell had gone off inside Jaws’ head. The flowers! Of course, how could he not have seen it sooner? It had to be something in the flowers that was causing his friends to act this way. His nose had been trying to tell him what was wrong all along; he just hadn’t been listening correctly.

  Feeling foolish, Jaws started making his way back to the racecraft in order to check the computer for information on the Purefection flowers. Hopefully, the computer would also know of something that would counter-act the effects of the flowers. Jaws tried to run, but found he did not have the breath. He did not feel well at all outside. The second that the loading zone door closed behind him, he caught his breath. Once he removed the yellow cloth, he felt himself again.

  The computer in the medical quarters seemed to take forever in coming back with a response to the inquiry. Jaws impatiently paced back and forth across the floor of the quarters. Finally, a page printed out of the console, and Jaws snatched it violently. As he suspected, the flowers of Purefection were the cause of the catastrophe. The flowers released a sort of poison, through the pollen of the flower, which affected a chemical in the brain to overload. Anyone who ingested the poison suffered from delusional delight, and loss of interest for previous matters in life. The only known antidote to these effects was a rare powder by the name of Curasol. It had to be swallowed by one affected by the poison, and worked by counteracting the poison. Unfortunately, there was none of this on or even around the planet Purefection.

  Jaws remembered hearing about Priscilla curing Drake when he was poisoned on planet Dooghin, but that was with a shot. He highly doubted that anyone, with the exception of maybe Drake himself, would allow him to inject them. He searched around in the medical quarters, and found many healing herbs and poison antidotes, but none of them were labeled Curasol. He was about to give up looking, when he spotted a small cabinet in a corner, hanging on the wall. Inside were little bottles and vials filled with varying colors of liquids and powders. Some of them were not labeled. Jaws was not educated in the medical field, therefore, he could not know what most of the drugs were used for, but a lot of them seemed to be little used, as there was a thick layer of dust covering these containers. The communications expert was forced to individually analyze each of the bottles of powder that were not labeled. The process took approximately four and a half hours, but the results were successful. The very last powder turned out to be Curasol, perhaps the scarcest form of medicine in existence.

  Jaws already had a plan as to how to get the crew to drink the antidote to what was poisoning them. On Purefection, there were many ingredients that the native would be happy to provide for him, in order to mix a special drink to offer in celebration of the recent joining of his teammates. Just before the mixture was complete, he would add the Curasol when nobody was looking, and serve the drinks himself. It would only take a small amount for each person. Once ingested, Curasol would knock out whoever drank it, resting the body while it went to work on the poison. He would then transport all of the unconscious back to the racecraft with the transporter from the medical quarters. It might be a flimsy plan, he thought to himself, but it was the best he could do given the situation.

  This time, before he left the craft, Jaws wrapped the entire length of his nose with strips of cloth, ripped from a pillowcase. He walked outside with his head held high, and a big smile on his face. He approached the first native he encountered and leaned in close to him, as if to tell a secret.

  “Excuse me,” Jaws said quietly. “I wonder if you could help me with a surprise for my friends. You see, on my home planet, we have a traditional drink for the union of a couple. I would like to mix this drink for my friends, and present them with it.”

  “That is simply wonderful!” The ecstatic native exclaimed this, relishing the romance. “Of course I will help you. Your friends won’t know a thing! Right this way, sir. We can get anything you need from the banquet kitchen.”

  While they were mixing the drink, the native had informed Jaws that his name was Forvan. He had come from the jumbo planet Fazeir, on vacation, but had loved Purefection so much; he just had to stay for good. Jaws nearly faltered in his good mood act when Forvan told him about Drake purchasing residences for the whole crew that day. Everyone was moved in. What was exciting about it, Forvan relayed, was the fact that they had all chosen homes on Purefection Place, the most beautiful and expensive places in all of Purefection. Jaws began to doubt his efforts to help the team. If Forvan had loved the place enough to stay, maybe the feelings of the Future Fuels team was the same. Maybe he was the one who was going to do the poisoning. When they were done, there was enough of the “punch” for not only the crew of the number thirteen, but also for at least a score of the natives. Jaws and Forvan carried the drink, and glasses out to a table set up for this special occasion. Forvan ran to get the team from Drake’s property, where they were gathered in celebration. Jaws mixed the small amount of Curasol that he had into the punch and waited. His nose was irritated at being so constricted, and was beginning to pulsate against the wrappings.

  Drake, Freddie, Priscilla, Sammy, Kraus, Juhaen, and Bruvold all came to the table laughing, and praising Jaws for such a sentimental act. They smothered him with affection, and Jaws did not quite know how to handle it. He stared at the racecraft, just six or seven yards away, as he made his toast to the newly weds.

  “For Freddie and Priscilla, I have made a special drink from my home planet. May it help the two of you unite in harmony for the rest of your days!” There was a general cheer from the crew and the crowd behind. Everyone present lifted their glasses in salute to the married couple.

  Three seconds later, the ground was layered in unconscious bodies. Looking closer, Jaws saw that not all of them were just knocked out. A few of the beings were tuning colors, choking, and dying on the ground. Jaws was horrified. He had intended to help, but it seems that the Curasol was too much for the systems of the true natives of the planet Purefection. They simply had too much of the pollen in their system. The result of the Curasol fighting the poison was the elimination of the host.

  Hysterically, he ran back to the craft, grabbed the transport from the medical quarters, cursing himself for not having prepared by leaving it closer to the entrance, and sprinted back to his teammates. Nobody noticed him piling the sleeping crew onto the cart and slowly pushing them back to the racecraft. As soon as he was inside, Jaws locked the door behind him by activating the lock-down procedure on the manual by the door.

  He fearfully tried to revive each of them, one by one, b
ut to no avail. He would just have to wait for the medicine to do its work and hope for the best. He went to the consuming quarters and prepared a tray with a mug of coffee for the team. He was sure they would want it upon waking.

  All of the crew woke up at the same time, and in the same way. They were groggy, and slow to rise. Most of them were moaning in either discomfort from being dragged around, or from disorientation. They all remembered everything that happened, and talked about it for a while, while they drank the coffee, provided by Jaws.

  “I can’t believe it,” Drake said in an incredulous tone. “I just spent nearly all of my credits on that blasted planet!”

  “Well,” laughed Kraus in response. “Far be it from me to turn down a free vacation house from the boss.”

  “That’s right, D.J.,” Sammy managed between guffaws. “It wouldn’t be polite to turn down a gift from the greatest commander of all time.”

  “I, for one, had the time of my life, and will never forget it!” Freddie turned to Priscilla in adoration. “I knew we were meant for each other, my love.”

  “Oh my,” Priscilla responded, remembering that she had married this man. “Whatever came over me at the time, it helped me to find my true feelings. I’m actually glad for the poison.” She walked over and put an arm around Freddie’s waist.

  Bruvold merely sat by himself, munching on bread and meat. He was not happy with the way the pollen had affected him, and did not want to face Drake.

  “In case you all don’t remember, we still haven’t won the race.” Jaws looked extremely proud of himself as he reminded the crew of their purpose.