Nightshade - Laurell K. Hamilton [26]
Picard placed his hand atop hers, giving comfort to the counselor.
He was still too numb by the quickness of it all to believe it. Alick had been talking to him, had been fine. What in blazes had happened?
The doctor chased the Torlick guards back and bent over the still form of General Alick. She checked pulse, respiration, then ran a small scanner over the still form. She looked up at the waiting people, and very clearly in the utter silence of the room her voice carried. “His heart has burst.”
‘What do you mean, his heart has burst?” Basha asked.
‘I am scanning for vital functions. His heart has blown apart. There is no repairing it, or reviving him. He is gone.”
‘He was as healthy as I am,” Basha said.
‘Yes,” another voice said, “but now he’s dead and you’re alive.” It was a Venturi in red and white.
‘What treachery is this?” another voice called.
Picard pushed himself to his feet. He was so numb his hands tingled. It had all been so sudden. The peace mission was in shambles before it had begun. War was going to break out while he stood helpless. No, there had to be a way. “General Alick wanted peace, believed in it. He gave his life because someone here was more afraid of peace than of war. Would you dishonor General Alick’s memory while he lies barely dead at your feet?”
The Venturi averted his eyes and could not look directly at Picard. “I want no dishonor on our general.”
‘Good. Then we must continue with the talks as your general would have wished.” Even as Picard said it, he wasn’t sure he believed it was possible. It was only the initial shock and the fact that he seemed to be the only calm person in the room, that was saving everyone from pointing fingers.
‘The ambassador is right,” Basha said, “but, by the dead world, I cannot understand what has happened.”
The doctor said, “I need to speak with the leaders, please, in private.”
General Basha looked surprised, then nodded.
A slender woman in crimson and white stepped forward. “I am the next in command. I will speak for the Venturi now.”
‘Fine. If the ambassador will join us out in the hallway for a moment.”
Audun stepped forward in his unadorned blue. “This affects us all. As speaker for the Greens, may I be included?”
‘By all means,” Picard said.
Basha closed his mouth on the words he was about to utter, frowning at Picard. “Of course,” he said finally.
The leaders and their sentinels followed the doctor out into the hall. For the first time Picard didn’t think all this guarding nonsense was funny. It was almost comforting.
‘Gentle people,” the doctor began, “General Alick was poisoned.”
‘But that’s impossible,” Basha began.
‘I know all precautions were taken, but nevertheless it was poison.”
‘How long ago was it administered,” Picard asked.
‘Minutes, no more. Death was nearly instantaneous.”
‘But we were all standing right there,” Basha protested. “How?”
‘What was the last thing he drank or ate?”
‘Tea,” Troi said.
‘Did any one else drink it?” the doctor asked.
‘Yes,” Basha said, “I did and the ambassador.”
‘Then find General Alick’s cup. It must be that.”
They trooped back inside and found a nearly silent room. All eyes were on them as they knelt by the two spilled cups of tea. One was Picard’s, one was the dead general’s.
The doctor pulled a bulky object from one pocket. It had a slender handle and a hand-sized square mounted on the top. Multicolored buttons decorated the square. She touched a button and a faint bluish light pulsed over the cups. The doctor waved the scanner over the cups five times before she sighed and stood up.
She gathered the four leaders around her. “It was poison in the cup.”
‘What sort of poison?” Basha asked.
‘It was a plant alkaloid. There are minute bits of plant fiber in the cup. It is not tea leaves.” She shook her head. “The plant fragments contain a thousand times more alkaloid than any naturally occurring plant.”
‘Are you saying,” Basha