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.

The Rescue Party

Solarii Field Notes, Main Island: Brother John Briar's record: Tuesday, May 29, 2407, about 5 o'clock:

I left my post at the Communications Base to assemble a hunting party to assist Vamdar in tracking down the Outsiders, the three survivors from the latest crash that Father Matan reports are still on the loose. What followed was a disaster. Vamdar lost his temper and shot one of my men, and in the ensuing confusion both of the Outsiders he'd captured managed to escape into the ruins. We burned half of them down trying to flush them out, but the Ferengi was quick, and the girl…well, she's Starfleet. She somehow managed to kill Vamdar and at least two others. I cornered her in a ruin on the Terraced Ledge with Talar and the brothers of Sovar's party...and only I escaped with my life!

The girl's a monster, and going after her is pointless suicide. I've returned to the others to see what, if anything, I can salvage from this mess.

The man named John Briar stumbled into the lower ruins. It was almost dawn and the fires they'd set earlier that night were burning low. Most were already extinguished by the steadily falling rain. And what do we have to show for it? he thought bitterly. Nothing! Vamdar is dead, along with more than half a dozen others. All three Outsiders are still on the loose…this is a disaster! John swallowed. Father Matan didn't like disasters, and he would make sure that somebody took the blame for this. With Vamdar dead and his brothers close associates of Matan—who were sure to defend his honor—, that someone would most likely be John Briar.

Maybe if I run, he thought desperately, but he knew it was too late for that. The Solarii Brotherhood owned every centimeter of this island, every scrap of wood or bone or metal on this entire cursed planet. They say Chawera Glott managed to get away…that he's still living down in the sea caves somewhere. But those were just rumors. Besides, Glott had known the sea caves better than anyone. The only thing John knew well was the communications base on the Main Island.

"Brother John!" a voice called out. John recognized Sojvakar, the Nausicaan. He waved to John through the ruins. "Come! We have found the little Ferengi and cornered him under one of the huts. He won't come out, and there's not enough space for any of us to go in after him, but you might fit."

John nodded and followed Sojvakar to a partially collapsed and partially burned stone structure. He could hear occasional gasps and shrieks from underneath it as Brother Hrah'chet, the Ferasin, pounded on it with a large branch. Several other brothers stood around, weapons ready. "We've got you surrounded, Ferengi!" Hrah'chet roared. "Come out, and we'll make your death swift!"

John heard rapid breathing in the ruins and wandered for a moment whether the Outsider was deliberately trying to hyperventilate and pass out. Then he heard him speak. "Please…don't kill me…I'll do anything, anything you ask…"

"All I ask is for you to come out so I can sink my claws into that soft flesh of yours!" growled the Ferasin.

John shook his head. "Drop the branch and walk away, Brother Hrah'chet. You won't get anywhere that way."

Hrah'chet sniffed disdainfully and threw the branch down on the debris pile. "You try, then!"

John switched on his palm beacon and searched around until he found a little hole barely a meter across that led down into the bottom of the hut. It was the only way in or out of the Ferengi's hiding place. He knelt down and shone his light inside. The beacon illuminated the terrified muddy face of a Ferengi.

"Please!" the Ferengi pleaded. "I'm an archeologist…a professor! Please don't kill me!"

"An archeologist?" he repeated. This could prove interesting. "Is that a fact?"

"Yes!...yes, my name is Doctor Mor, professor of archeology, renowned throughout the Federation…my credentials, I had to leave them with some of my other luggage…notes and things…they're on the cliff where we came ashore."

John nodded absently, feigning disinterest. "Tell me, Doctor Mor—is it?—what do you know about an Earth culture called Japanese?"

"Oh, many things!" Mor assured him. "We actually came here to study them…the Jahpanese, that is. We believed that this could be Yamatai."

So he knows! John was impressed, but he didn't let it show. If I bring him in alive for questioning, it could be all I need to deflect Matan's wrath. "Yamatai?" he said. "Never heard of it."

"It…it was an ancient land in Jahpanese folklore, ruled over by a mysterious woman…the Sun Queen Himiko," said Mor.

This time John couldn't keep his eyes from going wide. "This little runt knows a thing or two," he announced to the others. "He's too valuable to kill or maim here. Father Matan will want to talk to him." He turned to the Ferengi. "You can come out now, Doctor Mor. I assure you, none of us will harm you."

Mor began worming his way out of his hiding place, squeezing back out through the tiny opening. Once he was out, he timidly got to his feet, looking around at all the armed men. "You, uh, you're sure I won't be harmed."

"I'm sure," said Brother John. "No one will touch you, my dear Doctor…at least until Matan is through with you." Hrah'chet laughed and the Ferengi whimpered.

USS Nautilus, Captain's Log, Stardate 81630.09:

Captain Sokar recording. In five minutes, shipboard time will be 06:00 hours. At that time, it will have been 31 hours and 9 minutes since our last sensor contact with Shuttlecraft One, lost during an intense ion storm in the Dragon's Head Nebula. While we hoped they had managed to crashland on an M-class planet in the nebula, we have been unable to confirm this with our sensors or those of a second class-5 probe, now in planetary orbit. The crew is under stress-as am I, I must confess. If we do not find some sign of Shuttlecraft One and its occupants soon, I shall be forced to declare archaeologist Mor, Lieutenants Carlin Agran and Samantha Hayashi, and my own trusted first officer Commander Antori Drel officially missing in action.

Captain Sokar sat down at the conference table aboard Nautilus, surrounded by his senior staff-or at least, what remained of them. The absence of Lieutenant Agran and Commander Drel was keenly felt, though Ensign McKensey seemed to be filling in admirably for the former. He sat to Sokar's left, with a coffee mug in one hand and a PADD in the other. Sokar turned to him. "You have new information for us, Ensign?"

McKensey blinked dark-rimmed eyes, startled. Then he shook it off and cleared his throat. "Right...yes, sir." He tapped his PADD and brought up an image of the M-class world where Shuttle One was believed to have gone down. "As you know, the replacement probe we sent in after the ion storm has been having trouble getting clear sensor readings on the surface."

"Yes," said Lieutenant T'Paie. "Due to the polaric radiation."

"Exactly," said McKensey. "Well, I may have found a source...and way to cut through the interference."

Sokar raised an eyebrow and sat back. "Please explain."

The Ensign stood and tapped another button on his PADD. The image of the planet began to rotate, surrounded by a randomly fluxuating field of energy. "At first we thought the energy field was random, possibly an unknown natural phenomon, until we ran a subspace resonnance scan and saw this." He tapped a quick sequence into his PADD and the energy field was replaced by a distinctive swirling pattern, centered over the North-Eastern hemisphere. An inset map appeared beside the globe, showing the archipelago on that part of the world in detail. "The pattern has a field density of nearly 30,000 milliCochranes and centers over the largest island in this archipelago. We've confirmed the presense of a large structure at the point of origin."

"In other words, the polaric energy field is being artificially generated by someone on the planet," Sokar interpreted. "Intreguing."

"It's also dangerous," said Lieutenant Commander Rejes Joslin, the ranking security officer aboard in Commander Drel's absence. "Whoever's generating it obviously has no regard for international treaty, or the safety of themselves or others. They have a secret to protect from the rest of the Quadrant, and they may not be too picky about how they protect it."

"Agreed," said Sokar. "Which means we must find a way to rescue our away team as quickly as possible."

McKensey nodded. "That brings me to the second part of my findings: penetrating the interference. I believe a subspace differential pulse should even out the distortions over a small area and allow our sensors to get a good look at whatever's on the surface, good enough for a transporter lock, even."

"What you're proposing would necessitate launching our remaining Type-11 shuttlecraft," Lieutenant T'Paie pointed out. "We have nothing else capable of generating the required pulses, except the Nautilus itself."

"The ion storm activity may have cleared for the moment, but I will not risk the ship in the Dragon's Head Nebula," said Sokar.

"With only a shuttle, the resolution size per pulse will be terrible," said Doctor Howard.

"Each pulse will allow us to scan an area only about two hundred meters in diameter." McKensey looked down at his PADD, and frowned. "We'll just have to fly low and make multiple passes over the areas where the away team is most likely to be found."

Rejes closed her eyes and massaged her Bajoran nose ridges. "It would be so much simpler to just take out the polaric field generator from orbit."

Sokar shook his head. "I cannot authorize such an action," said Sokar. "Polaric energy is extremely unstable and unpredictable. Firing on the generator, or destroying it could cause catastrophic damage to the planet, or to surrounding space."

"The shuttle it is, then," said Doctor Howard. "Any idea where we're likely to find our people?"

McKensey nodded. "That was the easy part." He keyed a final sequence into his PADD and a red line appeared on the wall display, arcing down toward the planet's surface and stopping just short of the main island on the inset map. "Our last known trajectory for Shuttle One has her heading straight toward the island where the polaric field originates. If Lieutenant Hayashi did manage to crash-land, that's the most likely spot."

"The island is nearly twenty kilometers in diameter with extremely mountainous terrain. I estimate a through search would take over two hours by shuttlecraft," said Sokar. "You will require an excellent shuttle pilot with good endurance. I recommend Crewman Maiava." He looked to McKensey. "Ensign, this is your idea, and I have confidence in your abilities. Will you see it through and join the rescue team on the second shuttle?"

The young man nodded. "I will, sir. I'll get them back for you."

"I am certain you will do everything in your power to do so," said Sokar, acknowledging him.

"The crew from the first shuttle may be injured," said Doctor Howard. "I should go as well."

"Of course, Doctor, your logic is impeccable." He turned to Rejes. "Lieutenant Commander, in the likely event that whoever is projecting this polaric energy field is hostile, I would like a security detail to accompany the away team."

Rejes nodded. "I don't want to over-crowd the shuttle if we're successful. I'll go, though, and I'll make sure everyone's well armed."

"Very well," said Sokar, rising. "You'll depart from Shuttlebay 2 as soon as possible. I recommend you complete this mission as quickly as possible, not only for the sake of our missing people, but also for our own. Astrometrics has informed me that long-range scans indicate a possible Klingon ship entering this sector. We must rescue our people and leave as quickly as possible."

Rejes nodded soberly. "Shuttlecraft Two will be ready to fly within the hour," she promised.

Author's Note: This is a sequence that didn't appear in the game, but I thought it important, to show that, yes, Mor was captured, and to explain why he wasn't just killed by the Solarii, per Vamdar's orders. In the game, no explanation is given, though one is heavily implied by later scenes with Doctor Whitmore. The scene also allowed me a little further character development for Brother John. For full disclosure the name and much of the character of John Briar is pulled from one of my unpublished original stories, a Western-horror story where John is the morally-ambiguous protagonist. My original intent was to have him just be there for that one cameo in chapter 5, but it turned out to be pretty convenient to bring him back in for these two chapters. I'm considering letting him live through to the end, but we'll see. A mook's future is never secure!

I have no idea what a subspace resonance scan is or what it's supposed to do: I made it up! A milliCochrane is a measure of subspace distortion. For reference a Federation Type-6 Shuttlecraft is said to be powered by warp engines which produce 1,250 milliCochranes each. The distortions around the planet are ten times as powerful and harnessing/caused by exotic polaric ions-which is my justification for them being able to do whatever the plot requires! A subspace differential pulse was used by the Enterprise-D to scan a quantum fissure in "Parallels," inadvertently destablizing the fissure and resulting in hilarity ("Captain, we are receiving 285,000 hails" and "At this rate, the sector will be completely filled with Enterprises within three days").

Firing at a polaric energy source, or even poking it too hard, is not a smart move, as demonstrated in the Voyager episode "Time and Again."

Two more game characters received story representatives in this chapter. The first was Joslin Reyes (replaced by Bajoran Lieutenant Commander Rejes Joslin), the second is Jonah Maiava (replaced by Bolian-as it shall be seen-Crewman Maiava). Mostly these are shout-outs to the game rather than full-on stand-ins for their characters. Really, I just needed names for extras...but we'll see. Their roles may develop...