Gom Jabbar
A needle tipped with instant-killing poison. The Bene Gesserit use it to test whether someone counts as human.
The name comes from an old Fremen phrase for 'high-handed enemy.' It fits a needle whose poison drops a victim in seconds. Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam pressed one to young Paul Atreides' throat during his childhood trial at Castle Caladan. Her hand stayed steady. She waited for the instant his composure broke or his fingers slipped from the pain box. The needle supplies the stakes that make the whole ordeal matter. Only someone who can master raw animal instinct earns the right to pull back a hand and keep breathing. That is a human by the Sisterhood's unforgiving definition. Paul survived with the needle still at his neck, and that told Mohiam something unsettling. He might be more than just another heir waiting his turn.
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