Holding the p-com in his hand, the thought of using the comatose ambassador's finger to unlock the device goes through his head. Duncan also dismisses it instantly. The chances of finding anything worthwhile to the investigation is negligible, and the thought of even holding it already makes him uncomfortable, given the likely-hood of state secrets on the device.

A moment later, he returns the items where they belong and reaches for his comm device. Setting it to the crew-wide channel, he states, <<< Comm "Duncan here with a quick status update. While I have been able to rule out some of the more unlikely scenario's, the origin of his condition is still unknown to me. I would suggest we convene to discuss our options." Comm Over >>>

It felt like failure to state that, but it needed to be said.

With that he left the room and locked it. He made his way towards the common room and looked for mr. Ley, and walked up towards him. "Hello mr. Ley.", Duncan asked in a serious tone, "I was wondering, do you perhaps know the ambassador's previous posting". A moment later, the doctor added another question, asking, "Also, how long did he stay on Collage between his previous and the current posting?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:00, Thu 30 Jan 2020.

"I know he just returned from a long journey, but I'm not sure where.  Do you think he contracted something on his trips?" Juan replied.

Teddy perked up at that, a possible clue!

"I'm not sure yet", Duncan stated with a sigh, "I was mainly hoping that this could exclude an unknown disease...", he continued, "But if he travelled that much..."

The doctor hesitated a moment, then decided to go for it.

"Also ...", the doctor asked almost hesitantly, then continued with his hands lifted, "Now, I don't want to the specifics unless you think it is relevant..". The ex-marine then continued with his voice lowered in an attempt to shield the conversation from prying ears, "But in your assessment, is it even remotely possible that the diplomatic cargo is related to this incident?". Duncan cocked his head and continued with a follow-up question, "Did mr. Marin even had contact with it?"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:19, Sun 02 Feb 2020.

"I only saw him watch the loading, not helping in any way." Teddy whispered in reply.

"Did you check his comms or computer? It might give a clue."

"What?", Duncan asked in surprise, continuing in a defensive tone, "No! Of course not." "I would never betray the trust of my patients that way.", he said emphatically, "Especially not an ambassador. There could be state secrets on that device for all I know."

"The answer to his life or death state could be there too. Look is my vote."

The doctor let out a deep sigh, switched his frowned gaze from the steward to the ground, and then at the staffer. "What do you think?", he asked mr. Ley with a torn tone, "I am trained in the absolute importance of secrecy, but in this case..."

He gazed upon the staffer for another moment, the spark of an idea forming, "Or you could check the device,", he asked in a more hopeful tone, "I assume you are more familiar with diplomatic habits, and are probably privy to a good chunk of the information..."

"That's a good idea.  Let's check it together.  If there's any blow back, well, like I said, I'll do anything I can to help.  If they ask, I'll say I authorized it.  That way no one here will get in trouble," Juan replied.  "Hopefully it won't come to that though.  If we can save him, I suspect all sins will be forgiven."

With a serious frown upon his face, Duncan dips a short nod in agreement, "Let's do that.". While moving to the ambassador's stateroom, he turns towards Juan again and states, "If we do not get the information we need from the p-com, he is stabilized and should survive until we reach a hospital on Tarsus."

Reaching the stateroom, Duncan unlocks the room and moves over to the ambassador to retrieve the p-com. "Go ahead", the doctor states while holding the p-com in front of Juan, "Just one tip, don't read the folder called 'Tax Returns', that could very well be his 'private' folder.", he states with a half-grin, masking his own discomfort.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:51, Wed 05 Feb 2020.

Aelasaid had't had much time to slow down, she'd calmed down the passengers as best she could linger to chat as if nothing was wrong before excusing herself to go and confer with Teddy and Duncan.  Just after passing out of eyesight of the dining area, she virtually sprinted down the hall to the crew common area where she expected find the other crew members.

"What'd I miss." she panted between breaths as the others came into view.

Neither pharmacology nor toxicology was her specialty.  Honestly, her formal medical training was a CPR refresher more than a decade ago.  However, coming in on the tail end of discussion that included some thing that was more related to virtual breaking and entering.  Well, that Ally was quite interested in.

Travis shows up, wearing his work coveralls along with a respirator and rubber gloves. He taps the respirator. "Just in case it's an airborn pathogen."

Accessing the initial p-comm files and applications was relatively easy - the first layer of security relied on biometic thumbprint.

Stored in this security container were basic contacts, photos, travel information, itineraries, and such.  Looking through these, a few very interesting details emerge.  Marin had most recently come from a posting on Gram, in the Sword Worlds.  His travel documents showed that he took a series of J-4 and J-3 liners back to Collace two weeks ago.

Gram
Sacnoth
Biter
Caladbolg
Dawnworld
Forine
Dallia
Collace

Most of the information was in Galangic, but there was an e-invite in a very unusual language:

"በቀድሞው እራት ኤምባሲው በሚያካሂደው የቀድሞ እራትዎ መግለጫዎ እርስዎ እንዲጠየቁ ተጠይቀዋል ፡፡ እኛ ለእርስዎ ክብር የቪላኒ ምግብን እናገለግላለን። የመከላከያ የጆሮ ማዳመጫዎችን ለመልበስ ከወሰኑ መደበኛው አለባበስ ያስፈልጋሉ እና አይሰናከልም ፡፡

Aelasaid's translation program chews on it for a few microseconds, then spits out the following text:

Language module not installed.  Security license required.  Contact customer support for more information - p-comm 2C2B-B178
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:13, Fri 07 Feb 2020.

"Hey, that's Zdetl" Travis says when he sees the language. "Spent a little time on a Zhodani ship a while back. Interesting times... Imagine having a girlfriend who always knows what your thinking, talk about a double edged sword.... Anyway, let me take a gander."

He leans in and reads the missive, wiping the respirator goggles with his sleeve first.

"It's an invitation to a formal sit-down, about three months past. Can't quite figure out the location code. It mentions Vilani cuisine. Is the sick guy a Vilani?"

"Hmmmm, most Vilani food stuff was inedible and could make people very sick due to micro-toxin, missing amino acids, and other issues. Food poisoning possibly? I CAN cook Vilani, but did not for the meal. In Zhodani at that, was he compromised?"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:31, Sat 08 Feb 2020.

With new information, Duncan redoubled his efforts.  Over the course of the next few hours, he was able to isolate the problem to a buildup of a previously unknown toxic organic compound, which as been binding with kainic and domoic acid, preventing them from being metabolized properly.  Over time, Laurent Marin's body has been building up dangerous levels of the three compounds; interesting, the previously unknown compound masked the build up of the two known toxins in the body, rendering them undetectable to the Doctor's mediscanner.

From what Duncan could surmise, the unknown compound was a a by-product of whatever improper method of food preparation was used. Given the distance to Vland, it's possible the Zhodani used a few ingredients from their home-world, which could explain why it wasn't in the Imperium's databases.

After trying a few formulations, Doctor Halleck was able to administer a catalyst that started to break down the unknown compound and allowed Marin's body to rid itself of the other toxins.  Within a few hours, Marin's vital signs were such that Duncan was able to administer the Fast antidote.

"What happened?  This hangover feels much worse than normal," Marin said as he tried to sit up in his bed.

"Dr Halleck, he's awake! Thank the gods for that."

Aelasaid had been about to say that the encryption on the translator was locked with a key that required actual official authorization.   But then apparently their new engineer was authorized.  Or something like that.  Which meant something else - Ally wasn't entirely sure what that something was, but she cataloged the fact away and was simply thankful that Travis knew Zdetl somehow.

As for being Vilani... "Pretty much everyone's got some Vilani in them..." she muttered, given that the first Imperium was Vilani.  Just like most people could trace some Solomani heritage in their genome from the Second Imperium.  But, apparently, not enough people had the proper enzymes to digest all of the Vilani delicacies.

Far too wild.  It had been a good catch by the doctor, and Aelasaid made sure that the noted such in her crew assessments - as well as Teddy and Travis' actions.  Once it was known that Laurent was conscious again, Ally when to visit him.  She summoned Juan as well to ensure that all of the parties were assembled.  "Ambassador Marin," she started cordially, "I am glad to see you recovering.  Timely intervention by Dr. Halleck," and she pointed to Duncan, "has ensured that you are none the worse for wear.  He can, of course, explain in more detail what exactly happened to you physiologically, if you like."

"However, it does seem that you were inadvertently poisoned by an exotic foodstuff, probably of Vilani origin." she noted simply, watching Marin's reactions to the information very carefully, "It took a while for the inedible portions of toxins to build up.  Months, in fact."

"Does any of that make sense to you?  Perhaps you can fill in some additional detail as to when you might have come in contact with such cuisine?  I am sure that a man of your diplomatic stature must find themselves in all sorts of exotic situations..." the young Captain of the Loire Valley innocently prompted her passenger.  She was mostly just looking for confirmation; they hardly had clearance for anything that was an actual state secrets: like encrypted Zhodani invitations.  Part of Aelasaid didn't want to know.

Unless, not knowing was going to get her killed.

Duncan nodded sagely at Aelasaid prompting, "Miss. Aelasaid is exactly right. While you were drinking wine, you suddenly fell into a coma.", he said motioning to the captain.

"With the help of mr. Ley", and he motioned at the assistant, "we have been able to ascertain that this was probably caused by you ingesting Vilani food".  With a calm voice the doctor continued his explanation, "Now most Vilani food is inedible for us humans and in this case it they might even have been improperly prepared or perhaps they got creative with their ingredients."

"Either way, or which your body could not metabolized it properly.", he continued, using his arms in smoothly movement to support his explanation.

The explanation done, the doctor went on to current order of business. "How are you feeling now, any dizziness, headaches or extremely thirsty?", Duncan asked his patient, "These are symptoms to look out for in the coming hours." "Now, You should make a good recovery, but you should keep to your bed for now", Duncan continued while motioning him to stay in bed, "Also, I would suggest to leave the bottle for a while to avoid complicating your recovery."

The last while not strictly necessary in this case, was good advice any time. Mentioning that they used his p-com was something he would mention at a later date.

Turning around, he turned to the rest of the crew and made explicit eye-contact with each of them, thanking them silently with a nod. He had screwed-up by ignoring vital information, and it was thanks to them the ambassador had recovered that quickly. This was a learning opportunity and he knew it.

"Damn Zhodani.  I should have known to steer clear of that food," Marin said.  He managed to reach over for a cup of water and took a few long sips.

"Hard to just say no in this profession through.  When your hosts offer you something, you generally have to eat it - to be polite of course.  I was with the Foreign Minister at a dinner on Glisten and the belters served up some pastries filled with mushrooms they had grown in old mining shaft.  Well, the FM hates mushrooms but neither of us knew they were in there.  He spit those mushrooms out faster than you can say Ziru Sirka.  We were there to trade for ore and we ended up paying quite a bit more than we wanted, because the belters took some offense - all because of mushrooms." Halleck took it at as good sign that his patient was felling well-enough to regale everyone with yet another diplomatic service story.

"You know, I don't even like most Vilani food.  Too many things pickled and curried.  French cuisine has always been my favorite," he added before taking some more water.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:42, Thu 13 Feb 2020.

"My favorites are Chinese, Italian and German, and American of the old Solomani and Terran schools. Sword World is quite good as is Darrian."

Aelasaid had thought about saying something about haggis; as she found it traditional comfort food herself.  But given the company, decided that might not be the best topic for now.  The oft-maligned Scottish fare was not always a welcomed topic.  So, the red-haired pilot decided to keep her mouth shut, simply nodding amicably with regards to the various cuisines espoused and then excusing herself to head back to the bridge for a bit.

Before Aelasaid left, Teddy told everyone he was willing to make their favorites for them on occasion too.