Read Online The Legacy of Lehr by Katherine Kurtz - Free Book Online Page B

been nearly the same every day since Jacob Carvan had come aboard.
    â€œYou think I’m joking, don’t you, Doctor?” the voice went on. “Well, I’m not. He has poisoned me!”
    â€œNow, Mister Carvan, why would Mister Verley do anything like that? I’m sure you just have a hangover.”
    â€œA hangover? Doctor, do you think I don’t know what a hangover feels like? I tell you, I was poisoned! I want you to put the medical findings in my records.”
    â€œDrink this, please, Mister Carvan.”
    A slight silence. Then: “This isn’t going to do any good, you know. I’ve been poisoned, and I know there isn’t any antidote. If I should somehow manage to survive, I intend to press charges against—get him out of here!”
    The sound of an outer door closing was followed by the voice of the chief steward himself, not at all amused.
    â€œI found this in his cabin, Doctor Deller. According to the serial number, he bought the bottle from ship’s stores only yesterday. If he drank it all last night, no wonder he thinks he’s been poisoned.”
    â€œNow, see here, young man!” That was the passenger. “If you’re trying to imply that I can’t hold my liquor, then you’re a liar as well as a poisoner! I felt fine last night until you brought me that Tauci toddy. You tried to poison me, and you can’t wiggle out of it that easily!”
    â€œFurudite whiskey and a Tauci toddy?” the steward mumbled under his breath. “Well, no wonder. Doctor, we had no way of knowing he’d be foolish enough to mix the two. He’s still not sober.”
    â€œI am as sober as—as …”
    Abruptly the voice trailed off, followed by the unmistakable sound of a body slumping to the floor.
    â€œOrderly,” Deller called.
    Shaking her head slightly, Shannon leaned back far enough in her chair to peer into the next treatment room, where Deller and the steward were holding up an unconscious Jacob Carvan. A heavyset orderly was bringing in an antigravity floater from the outer corridor.
    â€œEverything all right, Doctor?” Shannon asked, grinning a little as Deller glanced in her direction.
    Deller sighed and made a wry face. “When are you going to start covering morning sick call again?” he said as he helped lift Carvan onto the floater. “Yesterday, it was Darroweed and Tejat brandy, and he was convinced he was going to dissociate on the spot. Today—well, I guess you heard. And tomorrow, who knows what new combination he’ll dream up? One of these days, he is going to poison himself.”
    â€œYou have to admit, though, it’s good training for you .”
    â€œYeah, I get all the luck,” Deller said ruefully, though he started chuckling as he watched the unconscious Carvan taken out of the treatment room. “You don’t suppose he likes having his stomach pumped, do you?”
    Shannon was still considering the amazing ill judgment of some of their passengers a few minutes later, when Mather and Wallis arrived.
    â€œWell, good morning,” she said, switching off her log as she motioned them to seats. “Should I assume, since you’re here so early after last night’s little escapade, that you’ve come up with some more ideas about our Aludran friends? You can close the door, if this is apt to get complicated.”
    Mather closed the door, but he shook his head. “It isn’t complicated, and it isn’t even directly about the Aludrans,” he said, taking a seat beside Wallis. “We’ve come up with a theory we’d like to test on the cats.”
    â€œWell, they’re your cats.” Shannon paused a beat, then added, “What kind of a theory?”
    â€œMore like a conjecture, actually,” Wallis said, giving Shannon a folded piece of paper from her jumpsuit pocket. “This is a list of equipment we’d like to borrow,