Disclaimer: Star Trek and all associated characters and situations are the property of CBS studios. Star Trek Online is the creation of Cryptic and Perfect World. Tomb Raider and the situations therein are the property of Square Enix. All are here used by myself for entertainment purposes only, without permission or intent to profit. Stardates were calculated with the help of the TNG Stardate Calculator available on TrekGuide .com and may be slightly out of sync with those used in the game's lore.

Wolf Attack

Senior Science Officer Carlin Agran's Log, Stardate 81629.8:

I am alone! When I fell asleep a few hours ago, Sam was with me, and so was the Cardassian survivor I'd met: Matan. Now both of them have vanished. Where could they be? Have the Oni taken them, like in the old Dominion logs I discovered? I must find Sam immediately...

Carlin awoke to the sound of a thunderclap. The fire had burned down and scattered raindrops were hissing among the embers. It took her a moment to remember where she was, the horror of what she'd seen. She looked around quickly to see if Doctor Mor had arrived yet, but she saw no one…no one at all.

"Sam?" she said. "Mattan?" The Cardassian survivor's wooden crutch and Sam's bow and quiver lay by the firside, but there was no sign of their owners. Carlin scrambled to her feet. She was sure she'd given Sam enough sedative to keep her unconscious until morning! As for the Cardassian, he couldn't have gone far without his crutch—and why would he leave at all? Why would Sam? Neither of them should be gone unless…

The Oni! The Vorta's log had claimed the Oni had abducted a fully-armed Jem'Hadar while on watch outside a secret Dominion facility: it would be childsplay for such a race to abduct an injured Human and a Cardassian in their sleep. But why would they leave me? And where would they have taken Sam and Matan? She shuddered, then pushed the thought aside. No, there must be some other explanation. Maybe I just didn't give Sam as much sedative as I thought and she got up and wandered off…and Matan went after her…without his crutch… Carlin pulled at her hair, it was a shaky story, but it was better than hopeless abduction by an unknown alien race.

"Sam! Sam!" she called out, but there was no answer. She tapped her combadge, but it didn't even make a sound. There was too much interference. She moved to the far side of the fire and picked up the only available weapon: the bow and arrows Sam had brought with her. Sam had showed her once how to fire a bow, though at the time Carlin had thought it was nothing but a curious human martial art. She'd never thought that one day her life might depend on knowing how to use such a primitive weapon. Good thing I had an excellent teacher, then, she thought, drawing an arrow from the quiver and placing it on the string like she remembered from her Academy days. Thus armed, she called out again. "Sam! Sam, if you can hear me, please say something!"

She heard a rustling from somewhere in the darkness. It sounded like it was coming from the bottom of the hill. Maybe it's Sam or Matan! Maybe they've fallen and are hurt. Then again, maybe it wasn't. She raised the bow and hurried down the slope. "Sam! Matan!" she called out.

Suddenly, there was a metallic snap beneath her foot and her right ankle exploded into fresh pain. She cried out in pain and collapsed, dropping the bow. Something held her right foot in a vice-like grip. She felt for it. Her fingers met twin jaws of cold unyielding metal, clamped down around her ankle. She fought the urge to panic. I'm caught in some sort of primitive trap. I'm lucky it got my right ankle instead of my left because the splint is taking the brunt of the force and not my ankle, otherwise it might have amputated my foot just now. I need to think clearly and figure a way out of this before something worse happens.

Then, she heard the wolves. She had seen them in the San Fransisco Zoo once: large canines whose fierce predatory reputation had earned them a place in Human folklore. She had heard that they howled when they were on the hunt, and now a wolf was howling from the darkness less than a dozen meters from her. Her blood ran cold as the howl was answered by another, and another. All of were nearby.

Carlin tried to tug her foot free, to scramble back up the hill to the campfire. The trap held her fast though. All her struggles produced was more pain in her ankle, and a rattle of chains. The howling got closer then. Somewhere off to her right, a group of birds was startled into flight, cawing madly. Carlin reached for the only weapon available: Sam's bow. With trembling fingers, she put an arrow on the string. She drew the bow back about halfway, which was all she could manage in her position.

Her eyes scanned the darkness. The howling had stopped, but there was a rustling from the bushes around her. She hear twigs snap on rough fur, see the vegetation move as the animal passed it. It rustled to her left, then her right. She could see nothing. She heard a deep, animal snarl from somewhere up ahead—very close, less than three meters. Her breathing quickened as she aimed the bow at the source of the noise.

Then, a dark gray form leapt from the bush in front of her. All she could see was its gapping maw. Carlin loosed out of sheer panic. She was lucky. The arrow caught the wolf in the neck, killing it in mid-flight with little more than a whimper. The body hit Carlin anyway, knocking her flat on her back. She screamed, pushing it off of her. She quickly grasped the bow again, nocking another arrow. Three howls: three wolves, this isn't over yet!

As if to confirm her fears, the rustling of bushes around her intensified. Whatever was out there was running this way and that around her, looking for an opening. Carlin wanted to scream again, but forced herself not to. She tried to concentrate on finding a target for her arrow, on killing these wolves before they could kill her.

Just then, a wolf slipped out in front of her, trying to circle around to her left. She loosed. The arrow caught the wolf in its chest and it fell sideways. She had no time to feel relief. The other wolf moved before she could grab another arrow. It dashed straight for her immobilized right leg, seizing it in its jaws and twisting violently. She felt teeth dig into her flesh through the splint.

"No! Get off!" she screamed, kicking the wolf's head. It released her, only to spring on top of her, jaws snapping. She managed to get an arm up in time, pushing up on its head from beneath, keeping its fangs away from her face—but only by centimeters. Her right hand fumbled for something, anything she could use as a weapon. Her fingers closed on the shaft of an arrow. She gripped it and swung at the creature, stabbing into its side just above its shoulder. The wolf recoiled, but only for a second before renewing its attack. She swung blindly, stabbing the steel arrowhead into the wolf's body over and over as its jaws snapped at her. At last it withdrew a little and she saw an opening for its throat. She stabbed. The arrowhead penetrated the jugular and blood flowed freely. The wolf collapsed, falling on top of her. Carlin rolled it aside, onto the body of the first wolf, and she scrambled as far from it as her trapped leg would allow.

She could hear no more howling, and the bushes were still. She hugged herself and shuddered, though whether from horror at what she'd just survived or from what she'd been forced to do, she honestly couldn't say.

A moment later, she heard a scrambling noise and a muttered Ferengi curse. "Doctor Mor! Over here!" she shouted as he came into sight. She was so glad to see another familiar face that for the moment she could forget whose it was.

The Ferengi cocked his head at her and approached. "So you're the cause of all that ruckus I just heard. What were you doing and why are you-? " He fell silent and stopped short as he saw the bodies of the three wolves. "Are…are those yours?" he asked, pointing timidly.

"They almost killed me," she explained. "I got my foot caught in this snare and then…" She let her voice trail off. She didn't want to think about it. Right now, all she wanted was to get out of this trap, off of this planet, and find Sam and Antori again—though not necessarily in that order. "Help me get out of this trap," she said. "Do you still have your phaser?"

"Of course! What do you take me for, an idiot?" He paused. "Don't you have your phaser?"

"I lost it in a cave," Carlin admitted.

"Hmph, typical," said Mor. "You females should not be allowed to wander off unattended."

Carlin gritted her teeth. "Look, let's just focus on getting me out of this snare and finding Sam for now," she said, and held out her hand. "I'll need to borrow your phaser to cut myself loose."

Mor drew his phaser, but did not hand it over. "If it's all the same, I'd rather hold onto this. You've already lost one, and I can't afford to lose my only weapon in this savage wilderness."

Carlin bit back a sharp retort, a wave of fresh pain from her ankle reminding her she had other priorities. "Fine. You cut me loose." She examined the structure of the trap with her fingers and the half-light of the nebula, viewed through scattering rainclouds. "Fire here," she said, picking what looked like an essential part of the mechanism. Dr Mor pointed his phaser at her ankle and she pushed it aside quickly. "Not there! Here!" She grasped the emitter and moved it to within a few centimeters of the desired spot.

"I can aim my own phaser well enough, thank you," said Dr Mor, trying (and failing) to pull away.

"You were about to shoot my foot off," Carlin countered. What was it Sam would say? "If you hit me, I swear you'll end up like one of those wolves over there."

The Ferengi swallowed audibly and allowed her to finish aiming for him. When the phaser was in position, he obediently pulled the trigger. The yellowish beam sliced through the metal of the trap and the steel jaws relaxed. Carlin pried them apart the rest of the way and pulled out her foot.

"Can you walk, or will I have to carry you?" asked the Ferengi, sounding annoyed.

"I'll be fine, just help me up," she said. She grabbed his arm so that he had little choice but to oblige or be pulled to the ground by her. Fortunately for both of them, he chose the latter. Carlin's leg spasmed as she put weight on it, but she did not think the ordeal had crushed anything vital. It's probably just very, very badly bruised, she thought, though she would not be able to tell for certain until she could examine the leg. "Help me back up the hill to our camp," she instructed.

"Our?" Doctor Mor repeated.

"Well, mine," Carlin confessed. "Sam was there, and so was a Cardassian survivor named Matan, but they both vanished while I was sleeping."

Mor eyed her askance. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head?"

Carlin glared at him.

Fortunately, they arrived back in the camp a moment later. Doctor Mor knelt over the low-burning fire to warm himself while Carlin limped over to a nearby log and pulled out her medical tricorder to scan her injuries. As she suspected, she had a few minor puncture wounds and a lot of bruising. She gingerly removed the splint and ran the vascular regenerator over the bruises. "There," she said, watching the dark bruises lighten and fade. "It wasn't too serious."

"Good," said Doctor Mor. "Maybe in that case we can get serious about getting off this miserable planet."

"I'm all for leaving," said Carlin, shuddering at the thought of what had almost happened to her a few minutes ago. "But we still have to find Sam. She may be in danger."

The Ferengi huffed. "Just a minute ago, you claimed you'd found her already."

"I did, but she vanished."

"So you said."

Carlin gritted her teeth. "This is serious, Doctor Mor! Sam's gone missing again, and I think this time it might have been the Oni."

Doctor Mor burst out laughing at that. It took all of Carlin's self-restraint not to grab the little Ferengi's ears and twist. "Just what is so funny!" she demanded.

"The Oni?!" Mor laughed harder. "That's a good one! Very clever. I didn't realize you spoke Jahpanese, or whatever it was the hew-mons spoke on Yamatai."

"Why? What did I say in Japanese?" she demanded.

Mor stopped laughing. "The oni are that ancient culture's boogiemen: demons, devils, trolls, ogres…they sound a lot like Klingons to me, however the myths describe them." He paused at Carlin's blank expression. "You mean, you didn't know about them? You weren't joking about boogiemen in the dark?"

Carlin shook her head. "I heard about them from the log of a dead Vorta. He said the Oni were vicious, unstoppable race that inhabited this planet, eventually overrunning a Dominion base here during the war."

"That's impossible!" said Doctor Mor. "He must have been making it all up to frighten whoever found the log."

"I found his body," Carlin insisted. "He died a violent death, cut down with some kind of bladed weapon."

Mor shifted uncomfortably. "Well…that proves nothing! The Oni are a myth, pure and simple."

"I hope you're right, for Sam's sake," said Carlin. She stood, testing her weight on her right foot. There was still a dull ache, but she would be able to walk normally again. She pulled her boot back on, then flipped open her tricorder.

"What are you doing?" Mor demanded. "You're not trying to scan for Oni, are you?"

"I'm scanning for any trace of Sam or Matan," said Carlin. She moved to the spot where the Cardassian had laid, but she didn't pick up anything useful. She couldn't even find much of a trail away from the spot. What she did find, seemed to lead to the spot where Sam had laid. She moved there, scanning the area. "This is interesting," she said.

"Evidence of your phantom Oni?" Doctor Mor sneered.

She shook her head, adjusting the readout. "A more mundane threat, but one that definitely shouldn't be here," she said. "I'm picking up energy traces consistent with the use of a Romulan transporter beam."

Mor rose. "What's so impossible about that? Your Commander said there were wrecks on the planet from every era and every species."

"But none of them were showing power readings," said Carlin. "Of course, that could just be because they were powered down, or because the polaric energy masked it…but that same energy should prevent anyone from locking on to someone down here."

"Well, you said the energy was random, maybe they just waited for a gap," suggested Mor.

Carlin shook her head. "For a tricorder scan or a communicator signal, that might work, but a transporter is a different matter. Without a much higher degree of precision than even the 'gaps' allow, dematerializing and rematerializing a subject would be nearly impossible….unless…Unless they had spent long enough studying the polaric radiation to recognize some kind of a pattern and figure out a way to compensate." She nodded. It would have taken years, even for a fully equipped and trained science team, but if there were survivors down here and not just bodies and Oni, the survivors certainly wouldn't have any shortage of time.

"So they got beamed away," said Mor. "I don't suppose that tricorder of yours can tell you where they got beamed to?"

Carlin shook her head. "But why would they beam away at all? Sam wouldn't have known about the transporter, and besides she was still unconscious…that leaves Matan." Matan had left his spot by the fire to get closer to Sam. Had he been moving in to tag her for transport, or in an ill-advised attempt to stop her from being beamed away.

"Does it matter who took her? She's gone and we have no way of knowing where," said Mor. "We need to concentrate on getting ourselves off the planet. Is that so hard for you Starfleet types to understand?"

"We don't leave our people behind," said Carlin.

"And we'll die on this desolate rock without making any worthwhile discoveries if we go traipsing all over the planet looking for a your friend," Mor countered.

It galled her to admit it, but the Ferengi was right. Maybe Matan had betrayed her and abducted Sam in her sleep to be used by himself and other survivors like him for unknown purposes. Maybe they were handing her over to the Oni. Maybe the ones running the transporter were the Oni themselves. There was nothing Carlin could do. She squeezed her eyes shut against tears and straightened, closing her tricorder.

"We'll go meet up with Antori first," she said. "He should be waiting for us just a kilometer or so north of here. We should get started right away." Maybe Antori will have an idea on how to find Sam again. If he did, every second they waited could make tracking her more and more difficult, perhaps even impossible. Carlin couldn't let that happen!

Author's Note: I'm back! Thank you all for your patience. I was without a good internet connection for a while, but now I intend to continue working on the story. Again, thanks for your support.

Carlin has taken up the mantel of Lara Croft from the game. Her encounter with the wolves is based on two fights in the game. The first is Lara's own experience stepping into a trap and getting jumped by three wolves. The second is the wolf-boss Lara encounters later on while raiding the wolf den. Since I've decided to approach the fight in the den differently and since I thought three wolves leaping at her and getting shot in midair would be a little repetitive for a story, I combined the two.

What Mor says about the Oni is true. The origins of the name "oni" are never explored in the game though.