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.

Shantytown Shrine

USS Nautilus, Shuttle Two Crew, Junior Science Officer Alex McKensey's Log, Supplemental:

Our rescue mission hasn't exactly gone as planned. In fact, that's a bit of an understatement. Our shuttle was hit by polaric ion discharges that came out of nowhere and we crashed. We barely beamed out in time and the polaric radiation that covers this planet scattered us across the island.

I'm not sure where the others are. I'm in a cavern of some sort, with ancient Japanese sculptures and signs of recent activity from scavengers. This was once a sacred place, and from the markings a cult still worships here...but they've also defiled the shrine with bodies: either execution victims, or human sacrifices. It's insane! I have to find the others and help them free Sam - I mean, Lieutenant Hayashi - before these people do anything to her...

The transporter effect faded and Ensign Alex McKensey fell forward into cold, knee-deep water. He managed to catch himself before his face went under, but the splashing soaked him completely nonetheless. He sputtered and got quickly to his feet. "Rejes! Maiava! Doctor Howard!" he called, but there was no answer.

He blinked water out of his eyes and looked around. He was at the bottom of a large pit: which was about five meters across and a dozen meters deep, judging by the sunlight filtering in from above. Thin streams of water cascaded down the steep stone sides of the pit, flowing over twin statues of human women in ancient Oriental robes (though from what period, he could not tell exactly). He was alone.

He tapped his combadge. "Ensign McKensey to Lieutenant-Commander Rejes! Rejes, please respond!" There was no answer. "McKensey to Maiava! McKensey to Agran? Commander Drel?" He paused, trying to remember the name of the pretty new helmswoman with the dangerous smile. "Lieutenant Hayashi? Sam?" There was no response at all.

It must be the polaric radiation, he thought. The same effect had no doubt scattered the crew of Shuttle Two across the main island. I just hope the subspace differential pulse cleared the interference enough to allow everyone to beam in at safe coordinates. There was no way to check that now, though. He pulled out his tricorder and locked it into a continuous scan for polaric radiation. He set it to notify him when the radiation levels dropped below 10 C/g. That should be low enough to allow a transmission to get out, he thought. In the meantime, he needed to find a way up out of this pit, since even when he did get in touch with the rest of the crew they were unlikely to be close enough to rescue him.

At first glance, getting out of the pit didn't look too hard. There was a makeshift elevator rigged to one wall, where a steel cable ran through a pulley ten meters up and joined a counterweight of cobbled-together junk to a crude car. The car itself was no more than a duranium plate for a floor and a rough titanium frame to which large four burlap sacks were tied. It sat just above the surface of the murky water, and it looked like it led to a tunnel in the side of the pit. He would have preferred something leading straight to the surface, but this looked like the only way out. It would have to do.

He clambered up onto the car and nearly gagged from the stench. The whole pit smelled foul, but the smell was especially strong here. It seemed to be coming from the burlap sacks. He drew his phaser and carefully used it to cut one of the bundles open. A humanoid skeleton fell out, clattering off of the duranium floor and into the water below. Alex recoiled. Are all of them bodies? Judging from the way they stank, they were. Who would do such a thing?! From studying xenoarchaeology at the Academy, he knew that some cultures had...unusual ways of dealing with their dead, but this was different. This doesn't strike me as burial. Could it be an execution? Is this what the hostile group of survivors Lieutenant Agran warned us about is really like? It was sickening to think about, and a very, very troubling possibility when he considered that Lieutenant Hayashi and the Ferengi archaeologist were even now in these survivors' clutches. If they were capable of doing this to executed victims, there was no telling how they would treat prisoners!

But Alex could do nothing for them from the bottom of this hole. The best thing for me to do is focus on getting out of here as quickly as possible, he told himself. He looked about for a way to raise the car and discovered that there wasn't one. The winch to operate the pulley was mounted eight meters up in the tunnel mouth. Obviously, whoever had built this elevator had meant for it to be operated only from there. It looks like the only way up is to climb the cable, he thought and shrugged. I guess placing third on the ropes course at the Academy is good for something after all.

He climbed the frame and from there made his way up the cable. The steel was rough and rusty - a far cry from the smooth ropes at the Academy - and it bit into his palms every time he gripped it. He forced himself to keep climbing. The prospect of falling into the pit and breaking his back on the frame of the elevator proved to be a much better motivation for climbing than trying to impress the cute Asian cadet in his Spectral Analysis class had been (especially considering she'd wound up choosing his roommate over him anyway). Before long, he was over six meters up and close enough to the floor of the tunnel to reach over and pull himself up over the lip. He was breathing hard by the time his feet were back on solid ground, and his palms were pretty scraped up, but he was going to be alright.

Suddenly, his tricorder beeped an alert. The polaric radiation levels were dropping. He silenced it and tapped his combadge. "McKensey to Rejes," he said, but there was no response. "Ensign McKensey to anyone, please respond!"

Static burst through his combadge. "Mc...nsey! This is Rejes. Can you here me?" said the gruff voice of the security officer.

"Yes! I can hear you!" Alex answered, laughing with relief. "Are the others with you?"

"Doctor Howard is here...me, but Maiava is...missing. Have you heard from him?"

"No, ma'am," said Alex

"The correct form of address...superior officer is sir, Ensign, regardless of...gender," Rejes corrected.

"Sorry, sir."

"That's all right. ...Howard and I...come and get you...What's your position?"

"I'm in a cave of some sort, in a tunnel about four meters beneath the surface." He ran a quick scan. "I'm pretty sure the tunnel leads to an exit, but where to I don't know."

"That's not much to go on," said Rejes.

Alex ran another scan, this time trying to triangulate the com signal he was receiving. "I think I can do better," he said after a moment. "According to these readings, I'm half a kilometer south-southwest of your position."

"Got it." There was a pause. "Ensign, there's...Romulan warbird and the shantytown we saw...directly over your position. If...do find a way out, be careful. We read a lot...lifeforms there while we were in the shuttle. They could...hostiles Lieutenant Agran warned us about."

"Judging from what I've seen so far, there's a pretty good chance that's the case," said Alex, remembering the bodies.

He waited for a response, but there was none. He checked his tricorder. The polaric radiation levels had increased again. He shut off his combadge. Well, I know where Rejes and Doctor Howard are now, but I'm still alone and their coming to get me won't help if I can't find a way out of this cave. He turned his attention to the tunnel. It continued straight back for a few meters, then ended at a rock face several meters high. He approached it, sure that there must be a way out. The light filtering in from the roof of the pit faded behind him, but was replaced by torchlight from up ahead. Someone had anchored a ladder made from sections of an old Jeffrey's tube to the rock wall, leading up to a smaller passageway above. A torch mounted to a bracket at the top of the ladder provided light. Alex climbed the ladder and retrieved the torch. The passageway beyond was low, but seemed to lead upward. He crouched under the low-hanging rock and continued onward. The passageway twisted and turned. Crude white paintings decorated the walls and ceiling. There were sun-symbols, mountains, and simple handprints. Lots of handprints, he noted.

Before long, he could see daylight again, filtering in from ahead. He soon found himself beneath a low metal grate inside some sort of structure made from mismatched hull plates. He set down the torch and pushed off the grate, climbing up onto the main floor of a ramshackle hut. No, not a hut, he corrected himself. There were still ritual markings all over the place, accompanied by words this time: "She will rise again," "Fear the demons," and "Embrace the flames." This last was particularly disturbing, considering the three charred bodies that were bound to stakes near the back wall. This isn't a tomb, it's a temple of human sacrifice! The thought was sickening, but a cult so depraved they left executed victims hanging in sacks off of their elevators was certainly capable of it. I have to find the others and set Sam - I mean, Lieutenant Hayashi - free before something happens to them, he thought. But he could do nothing until Lieutenant-Commander Rejes and Doctor Howard arrived. Please hurry, sir, he urged silently, then prayed, God, please let them find me!

USS Nautilus, Shuttle Two Crew, Senior Security Officer Lieutenant-Commander Rejes Joslin, Stardate 81630.7:

It's been over an hour since the crash. I've managed to find Doctor Howard and contact Commander Drel and Lieutenant Agran. They told me about Crewman Maiava's death. We'll get those Solarii bastards for that, but first we have to rescue the rest of our people. I know Ensign McKensey is in the Solarii settlement up ahead, and Drel seems to think Lieutenant Hayashi and Doctor Mor are being held there as well. Drel and Agran managed to take out the Solarii communications and boost our own with a theta-band carrier, so we have the advantage for now, but that won't mean anything if we don't seize it. It's time to get moving!

Lieutenant-Commander Rejes tapped her combadge to close the channel with Commander Drel and turned to Doctor Howard. The lean old man was resting under a nearby tree while watching the Solarii shantytown below. "You heard that Doctor?" she asked. "Commander Drel thinks we have the advantage if we act now. He's disrupted their communications."

"It won't last long," said Howard. "They've already got to be working on a way to restore communications. In fact, if I had to guess, I'd say that's what so many of them are doing in that old warbird."

She walked over to where he sat and looked down with him. She was the chief of security under Commander Drel and the Trill trained his people rigorously. Still, she had never been in actual ground combat before, she had to respect the experience of those who had. "According to your files, sir, you and Sokar were part of the first group of on the ground at Chin'toka. You've seen ground combat before," she said. "Do you see any openings?"

Howard glanced at her. "That was back in the Dominion War. Thirty-three years is a long time, and ground combat has changed significantly. We didn't have personal shields or battle armor or any such things back then."

"Well we don't have any of those things now either, and neither do the Solarii. We're just gonna try to shoot each other and not get shot the old-fashioned way." She smirked briefly. "So, any ideas?"

The old man looked back toward the shantytown and pointed. "That gate there. It's not more that a hundred meters off and they've left it open."

"There are two guards on it," Rejes pointed out.

"One of them is drunk," said Howard, he pointed to the nearest of the pair, who snuck a bottle out from under his coat, took a swig, and tucked it away again so quickly Rejes almost missed it.

Rejes gave the old man an appreciative look. "Now how did you know that?"

He shrugged and smiled. "There's an old Human expression: The more things change, the more they stay the same."

"Doesn't make much sense to me, but if it works..." She shrugged and drew her phaser. "We'd better get moving."

They headed down the hill, taking a switchback route that kept them hidden among the rocks and trees until they were within a dozen meters of the gate. From here, a pair of large rocks provided cover. Rejes could hear the guards talking, and it sounded like the other one had caught on to the bottle his friend was nursing. There was a brief scuffle as the sober guard tried to take the bottle away only to be shoved back. "Hey, watch wha' you're doin'," the drunk man slurred. "This is the good stuff!"

"If you show up to the ceremony drunk, Father Matan will cut your throat," the other warned.

"Well, I can hold my liquor as long as you hold your tongue," said the drunk. "Besides, I need a little bit to get me through the ceremony."

"I heard Matan picked up a new girl from the latest crash personally," said the other Solarii. Rejes realized he must be talking about Lieutenant Hayashi. "Do you think she'll be the One? Maybe we'll finally get off this rock!"

The drunk spat and glared at his companion. "Don't get excited: it always ends the same way. Some poor girl burns, then its business as usual."

Rejes felt her hackles rise. These bastards think they can just take a member of my crew and burn her alive as a part of their messed-up religion?! Not on my watch! She raised her phaser, pointing it at the sober Solarii who posed the greater threat.

But before she could fire, Doctor Howard, laid his hand on hers and shook his head. He pointed instead to the drunk, who was standing beside some kind of cranked device. "Civil defense alarm," Howard whispered. "The Cardassians used them to summon Jem'Hadar reinforcements during the war. They don't require power or a comm network to function, but one crank of that handle and every Solarii within five kilometers will know we're here."

"Good call," Rejes whispered back. She shifted her aim to the drunk and waited until he took another swig from his bottle - taking his hands away from the crank in the process. Then, she fired. An angry red-orange beam lanced out and the drunk Solarii toppled. The other man took a step back and drew an ax. He started to shout for help, but a shot from Doctor Howard silenced him.

"They'll be out for a few hours," said Howard.

"We need to move quickly, before any of their friends notice," said Rejes. Together, she and the Doctor rushed through the gate. Beyond it, a shantytown of shoddily-constructed huts sprawled with no apparent rhyme or reason. The only landmarks appeared to be the crashed Romulan warbird and the Japanese ruins on top of the mountain that overlooked this mess. She tapped her combadge. "Rejes to McKensey! We need to know exactly where you are, and we need to know now!"

There was static, then the Ensign's voice came through faintly. "...Kensey here! I'm in a temple...shrine of some kind just above...was earlier. There are...in here, human sacrifice...horrible..."

"Ensign, you're breaking up! Adjust your combadge to transmit in the theta band, frequency 6.02 Gigahertz," Rejes ordered.

"Theta...6.02...yes, sir!" There was silence for a few moments, then the Ensign's voice returned, clear and free from static. "Much better, sir!"

"Great, now where are you?"

"I'm in a cult temple on the hill just beneath the warbird's starboard wing," he said. "Sir, I have reason to believe Lieutenant Hayashi may be in danger. The cult on this island seems to practice human sacrifice..."

"We know all about that, Ensign," Rejes said, angling their path toward the hill McKensey had indicated. "They call themselves the Solarii. We overheard a couple of them talking about burning Lieutenant Hayashi alive in a ceremony that was supposed to happen soon. Commander Drel believes she's being held in a cavern beneath the old palace."

"With all due respect, sir, is that really enough?" asked McKensey. "I mean, they could have already moved her for the ceremony. If we show up at her cell and nobody's there..."

Rejes vaulted over a pile of trash and helped the Doctor struggle through it behind her. "Do you have a better idea, Ensign?" she asked, wishing she could glare at him in person.

"Actually...well, sir, now that I know theta-band signals can cut through the radiation, I think if I modify my tricorder to emit a theta-band pulse, I could use it to locate Sam - I mean, Lieutenant Hayashi's combadge," he said. "It would only take a few minutes, and it should give us her exact position."

"It'll also give the Solarii our exact position," Doctor Howard pointed out. "In war, sensors always work both ways."

"It won't matter if we find Hayashi and get her out of here before they get their communications back up," Rejes answered, then said to McKensey, "Do it, Ensign, and hurry. We may not have much time."

Several minutes later, those words turned out to be uncannily accurate. A blaring siren sounded from somewhere nearby, followed quickly by shouting. "That's the civil defense alarm," Howard said. "They're on to us!"

"Then we need to move!" Rejes said, grabbing his arm. She could see the ramshackle temple up ahead. McKensey was standing in the doorway, fiddling with his tricorder. "Ensign, get down!" she shouted.

He gave her a startled look, then ducked. He was just in time, as a trio of blue-white energy bolts passed over his head. Another trio slammed into the wall of the hut next to Rejes, showering her and the Doctor in sparks. She fired her phaser blindly in the direction of the shots and took the last stretch of open ground between herself and the temple at a dead run, pulling the Doctor along behind her. Another pair of bursts sent sparks flying off of the duranium door frame of the Solarii temple, but none of the shots hit their mark. Rejes flattened herself against the inside wall while the other members of the away team found shelter around her.

"Those are Jem'Hadar rifles," Howard said. "One hit and we're bleeding out."

"Good to know," said Rejes. Another burst came through the door, shattering a charred corpse that was staked against the back wall. Rejes leaned out and fired at the shooter. He dropped, stunned, but another Solarii simply picked up the fallen man's rifle and resumed firing. Rejes pulled herself back under cover and frowned as another pair of bursts slammed into the doorframe, followed quickly by a third. "We're pinned down in here. Ensign, you said you got in here from a cave?"

He nodded and pointed to an open grate in the middle of the room. "It's through there, but we need to get to Lieutenant Hayashi. I've isolated her combadge signal and-"

"We're not going anywhere while the Solarii are swarming all over the place outside!" Rejes interrupted. A crude fire-bomb shattered against the outside wall and though the flaming fuel didn't penetrate, she could still feel the heat on her back. "We need to escape into that cave!"

"But it's a dead end!"

"Are you certain, Ensign?"

"Well...no, I mean, the water going into the pit has to drain out somehow, but the drain can't be more than six centimeters across," he said.

"We'll widen it with our phasers," said Rejes. "Into the cave, everyone! I'll cover for you."

She was just about to swing out and make good on that promise when she noticed that the shooting outside had stopped, though she could hear even more Solarii footfalls than before. A split-second later, green swirls of energy appeared in the center of the temple and resolved themselves into the shapes of a half-dozen Solarii. They were armed with a mix of modern weaponry - including two Dominion battle-rifles, a compression phaser rifle, and a Romulan disruptor - and all of them were aimed at the away team.

A Cardassian in tattered robes drew a phaser from his sash and stepped forward. He pointed it at Rejes. "Drop your weapons, Starfleet," he said. "You're not going anywhere."

Author's Note: Much of the inspiration for this chapter comes from the Tomb Raider game's "Well of Tears" optional tomb. Of course, in the real tomb you start out in the shrine and have to make your way in and the pit with the elevator is the final obstacle to reach the end of the tomb rather than the end of the tomb itself. Also, the elevator is a physics problem, not a ropes course. However, when I presented the problem to Alex, hoping he would at least make a basic physics problem out of it using the counterweight...but he came up with the obvious solution: climb the rope! In fact, considering how much rope-climbing Lara does during the game, I'm kind of surprised that she had to mess around with weighted containers to make this one work for her. Of course, there's also the ambush at the end. While Lara is ambushed coming out of the shantytown temple, she of course overcomes it.

C/g is a modification of the real unit Coulombs/kg, which is the derived SI unit for radiation exposure. Rejes' correction of Alex's form of address is based on a moment in the pilot episode of Voyager where Janeway tells Kim that she prefers not to be addressed as sir even though regulations require it. Rejes is much more of a stickler.

Chin'toka is a Cardassian system that saw heavy fighting during the Dominion War, with two major space battles taking place there as well as a protracted ground campaign (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets," "The Seige of AR-558," "The Changing Face of Evil," and "When it Rains..."). We know that Starfleet put boots on the ground there on several planets. Making Doctor Howard and Sokar two of those boots was just an idea that occurred to me on the spot. Hopefully it gives Howard more depth, since I feel like his character has been underdeveloped.

The personal shields and battle armor are references to the personal equipment shown and used in the Star Trek Online game. The guards' conversation is another except from dialogue among the Solarii mooks. Civil defense alarms (or some kind of crank-operated alarm) are used frequently in Shantytown by the Solarii. There's even an achievement associated with finding and disabling all of these alarms. Compression phaser rifles are the larger types of phaser rifles seen in some Voyager episodes.

In the game, Rejes, Alex, and company are captured by the Solarii after infiltrating shantytown, though its never specified how or why they were taken alive. There is also a Solarii ambush waiting for Lara just outside the ramshackle temple that conceals Well of Tears in the game, but of course she defeats it pretty easily (the wind up taking shelter near a fuel can...bad plan). I decided to combine them, thereby creating a situation where, hopefully, their capture was plausible. More of that to come in the next chapter.