Swamped

You and Lex step out of the line. First step is to fill him in. You figure it's probably best to go somewhere a bit less crowded, though.

"So what happened over at the kitchen?" Lex asks.

You explain that you managed to talk your way in, and discovered a printing press. You also show him the burnt onion.

"Hmm." He looks concerned. "The thing is, you have to burn them about that much to get the most out of boiling them for the gas. So it wouldn't have much left to benefit from boiling."

"There were about a dozen of these in the trash. You think maybe he was cooking up the gas, then?"

"A dozen wouldn't be enough for that. It'd take about three dozen to get a significant amount." Lex looks thoughtful. "But now that I think about it... boil more than you need, stop partway through, burn a dozen all the way while mixing in the other stuff, which is less edible but needs to be added while at least some onions are boiling. Then you can still use the onions for cooking, as long as you get rid of them fast."

"By putting them in the stew," you realize. "But why do it at all? It can't be for Donnie's benefit, or he'd have just told me that's what it was."

Lex frowns.

"I can only think of two answers, both worrying. Either he knows someone who's been hit by glaxin gas and he's trying to keep that fact hidden... or it's to get rid of evidence. Clear all traces of glaxin from whatever place it was prepared in."

"Well, let's not get carried away. We can't actually prove he did that, rather than what he said about burning them by mistake and not wanting the whole ship gossipping about it."

"Right, right," Lex agrees. "So we should proceed carefully. Maybe it'd be best to just tell the captain what we found out and let him handle the investigation, while we get back to just cleaning up the gas. That's where this started, after all."

He's got a point there. It's not really your job to find out what's going on, even if what you've already stumbled onto has made you curious.

You should give some thought to what to do next.