The usual jerking and whirling motion met the crew as the disrupter began to initialize. There was a feeling of being ripped away from everything. Colors flew about in a circular motion in the same manner as loose object flew about the interior of the navigation center. The sun’s light was still visible, but warbled and sporadic. The missile had hit the sun, and it was imploding itself. Before the blast could reach halfway from the sun to the racecraft, the number thirteen disappeared.
One month earlier, Drake Judge and his crew in the Future Fuels racecraft, appeared in precisely the same spot. Through his holochart gazers, Drake could see the sun blazing brightly. He allowed a tiny measure of satisfaction to himself. It wasn’t every race that a sun and entire planet was destroyed, even if it was slightly off course of the race.
Drake ordered the engines powered back up, and then took over manual control, once more confident that they had a good chance at victory. They had covered a good portion of the distance to the other side of the planet, so that they could get back on course, when Jaws broke the silence with a report.
“You’re going to love this, sir. The number fifteen racecraft is directly in front of us. It has no idea that we’re here.”
“He’s not even on course, what is he doing over here?” Drake was already planning which method he would use to take the rookie out of the race.
“Check and load all cannons,” Drake said quietly, with a smirk. The foggers weren’t going to help the arrogant amateur this time, and he was also plainly visible. Drake was not one to underestimate anyone, and it occurred to him that this kid was the only craft to make it out of that five craft battle unscathed. He took relish in his planning so that he could teach the kid how a real commander takes care of business.
“Ice cannon will be ready in four minute, cap. I thought it might be a good idea to start it up and have it ready to go, just in case,” Kraus reported proudly. “Shield de-stabilizer is charged and ready.”
Drake maintained his current distance behind the number fifteen. He planned to hit the fool with the special weapon shield de-stabilizer first, making the ice capsule fully effective in freezing the rear of his craft. Third, he would blast the number fifteen with all cannons at once.
“Ice cannon ready.” Kraus was itching to fire.
“Fire shield de-stabilizer.” Drake began speaking even before Kraus was finished reporting.
The number fifteen visibly slowed when the shields went down. The ice capsule was already flying through space and hit the stern of the racecraft, exploding in glacial blizzard of perfect cold. The following onslaught of cannon fire caused the rookie commander to halt all engines, signifying the number fifteen submission. It took under six minutes from start to finish, a new Judge record.
“A visual contact from the number fifteen. Should I put it on your screen?” Jaws announced.
Drake passed by the enemy racecraft a good deal, before giving a short, harsh “On.”
“A disappointing and extremely unexpected surprise. I will probably never figure out how you tracked me down this much off course. You truly are the greatest racer of your era. My stealth mechanism had only four minutes to charge (the reason I was off course to begin with), you ‘re calculations are superb. I will learn from this mishap and maybe even catch up to you again this time around. If I am correct, and often I am, you have not made all of your necessary planetary stops. I hope to greet you someday and if you accepted this contact know that I honor your racing.” Only Drake read the contact and he told no one of its contents despite a couple inquiring glances apiece from Freddie and Jaws. It pleased him to have his superior skills revered by a young racer with so much cunning and resolve.
Over the next three months, the crew began to become more and more impatient with each other. The tempers were short, and everyone’s patience was running thin. Priscilla had taken to diagnosing individuals with rare inflictions and even non-exist sting ailments, such as “space brain.” Freddie had stopped his incessant singing and almost never talked to anyone, including Priscilla. Sammy was barking orders and being unnecessarily verbally brutal to those lower in the chain of command. Bruvold challenged anyone he saw to a fight, and was virtually unmanageable. Juhaen had gone from being a soft-spoken, friendly type to furiously screaming at any who made any messes or mistakes in the consuming quarters. Jaws surprisingly started smiling more and was disgustingly sweet to his teammates, which made them all the more unsettled.
During an ordered inspection of Jaws’ personal quarters, Bruvold, who had upset Drake by arguing over the best plan of surprise attacks, came upon a brochure for a planet along the path of the Full Circle Six. The planet’s name was Purefection, and it was widely known, and advertised as a party planet. There was a slogan printed on the front page, saying “Smell our flowers, stay for hours!” He found no more contraband during the search, maybe because he was only thinking of the possibility of a much-needed planetary stop.
Before bringing the subject up to the commander, Bruvold approached Jaws about the brochure he had found. He wanted to learn about the planet, and since Jaws had the pamphlet, he was the best source to ask.
“What is for?” Bruvold asked Jaws, puzzled.
“I’ve never seen that before!” Jaws was nervous in admitting to possessing such an apparently questionable item. With the way things have been, he didn’t know if it would just be one more thing to get him in trouble.
“Is in your room … is yours, no?” The craft security officer was beginning to become irritated.
“Some acquaintances of mine, from my home planet, gave it to me before I left. They said it was the greatest place in space. No one who visits the place ever wants to leave, because it’s so fun and beautiful. Since I’m skeptical, I wanted to see the planet for myself. I just never worked up the courage to bring it up to the captain,” Jaws replied, fearfully.
“You are weak on inside and on outside … I am for keeping.” Bruvold ended the conversation by walking away, in his usual strut, head held high.
Bruvold shoved the paperwork into his jacket pocket and marched to the consuming quarters, which was the closest place to look for Drake. He wanted to report back that no contraband was found during an inspection. He also planned to suggest to his commander that the planet in the brochure was the perfect place to stop for supplies and much needed rest for the crew.
Before the security officer could get into the consummation quarters, an announcement came across the craft broadcast system.
“Every crew member report to the navigational center for an important announcement.”
Freddie was already in the navigation quarters when the announcement was made, but the other six team-members were all there and accounted for in less than three minutes. Sammy and Kraus were the first to make it back, and simultaneously, so they caught the end of Freddie’s whining complaint, or so it sounded by the tone of his voice. “ … The perfect cause for celebration …”
“Since everyone is here, I’ll tell you what this is all about,” started Drake. “We just received a contact from the league. It states that we are now running in first place, and it’s dated a week ago.”
“I think we should have a party on our next planetary stop.” Freddie voiced his opinion despite his uneasiness about how Drake would react.
“Oh that’s a splendid idea,” chimed Priscilla. “We could do with a rest,” said Kraus.
“I am for knowing good stop,” Bruvold proclaimed loudly.
“I don’t think we should be stopping now that we’re in first. We should go as long as possible!” Drake was not yelling, but was close to it. It had crossed his mind that he did not want to prove the rookie correct in assuming that he had yet to make another stop.
“Bruvold is winning many races … I am knowing … is good for stopping when crew is angry. When in space for more than year, is good for break.” Bruvold pulled out the pamphlet while he was talking. He handed it over to Drake when he was finished.
“What do you think, Sammy?” Drake was hoping that his closest friend would back him up to save face, but the rest of the crew was staring at Sammy so hopefully and expectantly, the ship and shield technician couldn’t find it in his heart to do anything but agree that a rest would be a good idea.
Drake looked around at each member of his team, individually. What he saw in each of their faces was fatigue and stress. With a heavy sigh, he silently conceded that the best thing to do was to let them have their party for a few hours while the race-craft was being re-stocked and refueled.
“All right,” he finally approved. “I’ll set course for this Purefection, but in return, after your celebration, every one of you will understand that this is our last stop until we pass all three benchmarks.”
The number thirteen was in a much more jovial mood during the week and a half that it took on the route to the planet. As it turned out, Jaws knew quite a bit more about the planet than he had let on to Bruvold during the inspection. By this time, the brochure about planet Purefection had been passed around and studied by every member of the crew. Jaws was also telling anyone who would listen everything he knew about the planet. So, by the time they arrived on the surface of their last planned planetary stop, the entire crew knew a little about the place, and their expectations were as great as the relief of this well deserved vacation.
The pamphlet explained that Purefection was the perfect planet for any species. With their “purefect” air and “irresistible” flowers, most visitors decided never to leave, the three-page advertisement informed each reader with enthusiasm. It was always a party on Purefection, with many varieties of amusement games, rides, sporting events, banquets, and much more. Free drinks, free native food, and free flowers for all were another benefit of visiting this paradise, according to the brochure.
Jaws, being a natural skeptic, and a rare enthusiast of anything at all, had collected other stories related to the “perfect planet.” His tales were a little more extravagant. Jaws had heard that nobody that had ever visited the planet had ever left. It wasn’t a matter of force, but of free will. They just simply didn’t want to leave. Another account that was passed along to the self-proclaimed supremely knowledgeable Zarocostas Jozwiak was the legend that stated the perfect planet put a curse on everything that embraced anything on the planet. The more one partook of all of the pleasures, the more cursed that one would become, until they were frozen in time for eternity on Purefection.
However, Jaws did not believe either of his stories or even the brochure about Purefection, nor for that matter, did anyone else. The only reason he had even kept the pamphlet is because he had forgotten all about it after tossing it aside. His nose was telling him that something was amiss, and to be alert.
Soon after the initial announcement, Bruvold decided to take a large bin of food to Uciferi so that he would not starve while they were out partying on a paradise planet. Bruvold did not care for the prisoner, but could not starve the guy out of hunger.
Drake was reluctant at first to leave the craft, locking himself in his quarters alone. In the end it was, of course, Sammy who finally convinced Drake to come see the place. Merely mentioning that corn was a part of the food did much of the convincing. Even though Drake was still against the whole stop in the first place, he did love corn, and never was able to turn it down, but he was also a little curious about whether or not it was stupid to believe in some relaxing, joyful planet that supposedly would fully recharge any individual of any species, along with full league-approved fuel supply and back up, spray off the thrusters and boosters, not to mention a fresh supply of Mandatory Meats. Drake noted all of this with mild interest at the time he had read it, but now was feeling a lot stronger on the subject.
Again, Drake got the sensation that something was guiding him toward all this, a rude infringement of destiny upon his natural decision making abilities. Nobody he knew, excluding Samelak Riordin knew how much Drake prided himself on that attribute.
The first thing everyone noticed as they were de-boarding the racecraft were the huge flowers everywhere they looked. Some were larger than Drake himself. Natives were evidently ecstatic to see racers from the renowned Full Circle Six. Drake was an icon here. Kindly, the Purefectioners offered beautiful flowers to each of the crew in turn, ending with Jaws, who sneezed uncontrollably and had to hold one hand while wrapping a yellow cloth around the base with the other hand.
Jaws looked reproachfully at the human native who had offered him the allergy-ridden plant. He had already chosen not to trust any of these people. His nose was never wrong when it came to instinctual survival.
“Oh my,” Priscilla exclaimed breathily “That is the most wonderful scent in the universe. It’s so beautiful here. Everything is so amazing!”
“Wow, I can’t believe this place,” laughed Sammy. “Just look at all of these intoxicating flowers! They’ve even started on the ship already! Ha ha, I think this first place team is going to keep its path to victory!”
Kraus and Bruvold wasted no time in finding the outdoor banquet table. They immediately dug in to any food they could find that they had never seen or tasted before. Then, they made a game of choosing one another’s next dish to experiment. Freddie led Priscilla away to pick a bouquet of flowers. Sammy and Juhaen had found the amusement games and were trying their luck at a challenging affair in which they tried to break open large hanging fruits by throwing a fruit of the same size at it. There were numbers inside each of the hanging fruits. If one of them was lucky enough to find the number one inside the first broken fruit, then they would get a second throw to find the number two, and so on. There were ten numbers in all. The numbers also corresponded to how many prizes they were awarded from the prize wall. The highest number found in consecutive throws was the number of prizes to choose from.
Drake noticed a chain of boxes that was speeding around on a high metal track. There were beings inside of the boxes and all of them appeared to be having a great time. Not just that, they all seemed to be having the time of their lives. Elation and raw joy shone through every set of eyes, and all of the grins were enormous and sincere. Though he had never seen such a contraption before, Drake could not resist going to find out how he could get in one of those boxes. He had the uncontainable urge to feel the speed and the air rushing at him. He started to smile like a child as soon as he stepped up to the platform where the boxes would stop and let people off and on. His heart was pounding in exhilarating anxiety. The boxes started climbing a steep incline that must have been at least fifty meters. When the first box in the chain had crested the rise in the hill, with Drake Judge inside, the laughing and screaming began from all of the other patrons of this magnificent ride. None of it was as loud as Drake’s deep, booming laughter and sheer blissful enjoyment. Not even Drake himself knew if he had ever laughed so hard or had so much fun. He returned to the ride twenty six times before stopping to go help himself to some exotic food and drink. He was already grateful that Sammy had convinced him to come and take a rest. They were in first place and everything was wonderfully right.
Jaws found a secluded place in the banquet section where he could reasonably block himself off from the overwhelming flowers. He was taking advantage of the situation by having some cold drinks, but was by no means having near as much fun as anyone else. He glanced over at Kraus and Bruvold laughing heartily, clapping each other on the back and enjoying themselves. From where he was sitting, he could also see Sammy and Juhaen, now battling one another, stealthily, with weapons that fired little globs of different colored paint. He had seen Drake riding the metal thing, with a child-like, elated face. Nobody had seen Freddie or Priscilla since a few minutes after they had disembarked on this party journey. He would just wait here until this ironic nightmare was over. Hopefully, it would only be for a couple of hours.
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 nose. 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, but 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.
“All right, everyone,” Drake barked. “Party time is over. Get back to your stations or work, and let’s win this thing for real.”
Every one of the crew was refreshed after the sleep and coffee, and they were all equally happy to get back to the Full Circle Six. They all were excited, knowing that they still held first place, as the delay was only two total days.
In the navigation center, the team worked smoothly. They all felt a little closer to each other after their experiences, and all of the tension had been alleviated. Drake set course, and they took off, once again sure of themselves and their victory. The journey was almost over now.
Drake was still flustered from the events on Purefection. He still could not believe that something as simple as a flower had held him under such complete control that he would spend his entire savings on property. Perhaps he could retire there, and rent out the other properties, he thought to himself. It seemed strange that a wedding had occurred. Drake had never heard of a man and wife on a team before, but did not have any objections to it, so long as the personal relationship did not hinder the professional one. Besides, he thought that the closer the team was to each other, the better their chances were of not only winning the race, but of having a winning record even after Drake was gone.