Star Trek Hunter
Episode 12: Prisoner in the Ice Castle

Scene 15: The Study of Sin

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The Study of Sin

Dr. Sif and Dr. Napoleon Boles set about conducting an autopsy in the large surgery with an audience - the representatives from the three royal houses and the three imperial guardsmen attended, watching closely on the forensic monitors. Before they were finished, the blind andorian joined them, along with Lt. Tauk, 2nd Lt. T’Lon and Lt. Cmdr. Mlady. 

“Please forgive us for walking you through the evidence step by step,” said Dr. Sif in her light, girlish voice. “We want to make the case thoroughly. First, there is no doubt that the Dauphin, Sin th’Ravonet, was poisoned. However we also have evidence that he was held prisoner in the infamous Ice Hole, owned by House Shav.”

“Your lies will not be…” started the House Shav representative, starting to draw his knife only to find the blind andorian’s hand grasping his wrist. 

“We are guests in this place,” he said. There was a forcefulness in his precise enunciation - an echoing sound to his voice even when speaking quietly. “A royal representative interrupting a Star Fleet scientist and accusing her of lies is an unacceptable breach of protocol. I must be able to assure all of the houses that their representatives behave appropriately. Do you not agree?”

The House Shav representative looked at the blind andorian with a mixture of awe and terror. His antennae seemed to droop in deference. “Yes, Dauphin. Please forgive me.”

Lt. Tauk slowly removed his hand from the hand phaser at his belt.

“Please continue, Dr. Sif,” the blind andorian said. “There will be no further interruptions.”

Sif seemed considerably shaken. “At this time, I would like to turn the presentation over to Dr. Boles.”

Napoleon Boles put his hand on Sif’s shoulder, squeezed gently, then turned to the andorians. His skin was much darker blue than theirs. 

“We sent a team to the Ice Hole. It had been recently shut down and has now been destroyed. But one of our team members had the presence of mind to collect samples of the aglimoss growing in the hole. As you know, andorians digest aglimoss slowly and it leaves a residue in the upper liver that gradually becomes toxic unless they are also consuming oroins, which counteract the aglimoss toxins. Aglimoss produces unique toxins depending on where it is grown and the toxins from the samples we collected in the Ice Hole are identical to those found in the Dauphin’s upper liver."

“However, we also found partially digested oroins in his stomach," the half-bolian epidemiologist continued. "These were not the varieties commonly found growing in the polar regions, but were imported from offworld - the colony of Avradega, which is largely under the control of House th’Ravonet. This seems to indicate that the Dauphin had somehow recently been recovered by House th’Ravonet.”

“Finally, the poison that killed the Dauphin was pardo - a poison commonly used by House zh’Ithirith. However, the dosage and the ingredients are not consistent with plants commonly available to House zh’Ithirith. This pardo was made with race seed instead of srakin seed. Race seed is grown only on Corvin Island, which is th’Ravonet territory. And race seed is not as effective an ingredient, requiring a much larger dosage - which would be consistent with the amount of pardo we found in the Dauphin’s blood stream.”

The blind andorian turned his antennae toward Dr. Boles. “What are your conclusions?”

“You just heard them,” Boles responded flatly. “However, we can surmise, based on this evidence, that the Dauphin was clearly the prisoner of House Shav until no more than 15 days ago, at which time it appears he returned to his territory, only to be poisoned no less than 11 days ago by a poison made from materials local to th’Ravonet territory.”

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