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 th1e 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.
Tomb of the General
USS Nautilus, Shuttle One Crew, Sam Hayashi's Log, Stardate 81633.5:
We're headed to the tomb of an important general that Carlin discovered in the Dominion research database. Once there, hopefully we'll find the location of our ultimate goal: the Star of Yamatai, the legendary focus of Himiko's powers. Carlin thinks if we can find and destroy it we'll end the storms that are keeping us trapped on this planet. I'm not so sure it'll be that simple—with all the weird stuff we've seen on this planet—but it's definitely a step in the right direction.
And, to provide a step in the wrong direction, Mor is back. The little Ferengi weasel came crawling back to us just as we were trying to leave the old research base. He claims to be fleeing the Solarii, but I'll believe it when pigs can perform unassisted flights...in high-gravity environments...with no atmosphere...
The shuttle ride turned out to be about as unenjoyable as Sam had predicted. With Carlin and Doc Howard both preoccupied and Alex unconscious, the company was terrible - consisting mostly of Doctor Mor asking stupid questions of Sam and Crusoe, who both did their best to ignore him. The shuttle itself was worse. Atria's shuttle was state-of-the art for a Ferengi Na'Far class...which was not saying much since the Ferengi had never considered building a good shuttle an art worth learning. The Na'Far class looked like a brick and flew about as gracefully as one in the air. Sam found herself longing for the SS Kurobe, the Starfleet-surplus Danube-class runabout she'd bought when she was fifteen and spent years modifying and customizing. Now there was a work of art, she thought to herself. Unfortunately, it was halfway across the quadrant from here, parked in the Hayashi family's secure hanger on Risa. I guess I'll have to make do with this—annoying, but not hard. It's hardly the first inconvenience I've had to deal with in the past three days, she reminded herself, touching her side and wiggling her toes in her ill-fitting boots.
Fortunately, even long shuttle rides had to come to an end. This one ended on a braod ledge near the top of a white cliff, overlooking the gray sea. Sam could see a thermal concrete structure set into the natural stone of the cliff. "This must be it," she said. "This is the excavation site for the tomb."
"Assuming your friend gave us the right coordinates," said Atria.
"I did," said Carlin, pointedly not looking out the windows as the shuttle set down. Instead, she checked her weapon. "Sam and I will need to go in, as before, and I assume Ursan is coming as well?"
Atria looked from Ursan to Carlin and pursed her lips. "Actually, I think I'll go myself this time," she said.
Sam smirked. "What's the matter, afraid your boyfriend will let us keep the prize again?" The Orions ignored her.
They opened the hatch and started out, but suddenly Doctor Mor sprung forward and grabbed the skirt of Sam's kimono uncomfortably close to her bottom. "Wait!" he cried. "You have to take me with you!"
Sam whirled on him and slapped his hand away. "We certainly do not," she said. "And you do not touch me there, ever!"
"But you need another archaeologist! I know this planet better than anyone. I've seen the information the Solarii have on it," said Mor. "Please! This is the discovery of a lifetime..."
"He could be useful," Carlin said. "We know the Solarii have studied this place for decades, and they had access to the full Dominion databases. That information may be crucial in sorting out the location of the Star from whatever we find inside the tomb."
Sam sighed, but she had a point. "Fine," she relented. "You can come. ...But my other point stands: no touching!"
"Of course not. You have my word," said Mor with a toothy smile.
Sam got the feeling she was going to regret this. Nevertheless, she readied her bow and took the lead.
The entrance to the excavation site was guarded by blast doors set into the thermal concrete. Some incredible force had knocked them in and forced them open scattering pieces of thermal concrete across the approach. Inside it was even worse. By the light of their palm beacons, Sam could make out a number of desiccated corpses strung up by their necks in the corridor.
"By the Blessed Exchequer! What are those?!" asked Mor.
"Most people call them bodies," said Atria.
Sam was sorely tempted to laugh at that one, but their surroundings restrained her spirit. "We've seen them before, at an ancient monastery on the north side of the island. They're the Oni's way of marking their territory."
"You have such charming friends, Starfleet," Atria remarked.
"They...they aren't here, though...are they?" asked Mor, clutching his disruptor tightly.
"No way to tell," said Carlin, shutting her tricorder. "The polaric radiation is interfering with scans beyond ten meters, and even if it wasn't the Oni don't produce detectable lifesigns."
Mor shuddered visibly and began to whine a little, under his breath.
"You know, if this is too much for you, you can always go back and wait in the shuttle," said Sam. "The last thing we need is a panicking Ferengi on our hands."
Mor shook himself and straightened. "No, I'm fine," he insisted. "I'm just...anxious that's all. It's not every day you make a...discovery like this. Lead on!"
Sam nodded, though she didn't believe a word of it, and they continued into the darkness of the excavation site. Their lights scanned the darkness for any sign of the Oni who'd ransacked the place, but they saw none. There were only more bodies, along with broken weapons and abandoned equipment lying about. Sam saw several Jem'Hadar rifles, but passed them up in favor of her bow. After all, we've seen what the Jem'Hadar rifles do to the Oni, and it isn't much, she reasoned. Sometimes it's best to stick with the classics.
With the yumi in hand, she led the way to the center of the Dominion complex, where an old cargo turbolift waited in the skeletal frame of a hastily-assembled shaft. The lift was waiting in front of them and with no door it was easily boarded, but its controls were dark and powerless. "Think you can get it working again?" she asked Carlin.
Drel nodded. "If I transfer power from my tricorder, I should be able to get the controls working - maybe enough to give us a ride down and a ride up...There!" The control screen lit up, Dominionese script crawling across it.
"Is it supposed to be flashing red like that?" Mor asked.
"No." Drel frowned. "According to this the shaft is blocked. The Dominion scientists tried to seal off the lower levels from the other side during the attack in order to save themselves. Now that they're gone, there's no one to open the doors."
"And let me guess: our tomb is on the other side of those doors," said Atria.
"It looks like it." Carlin ran a scan with her tricorder. "There's a set of duranium blast doors set into the concrete of the shaft directly below us. There's no way around it. I detect a large opening in the natural stone just below that."
"No stairs?" asked Sam.
Drel shook her head. "The Dominion disliked the idea of having multiple access points to sensitive sites, for security reasons. Given the speed with which this site facility was constructed, you can be sure they weren't included."
"Which leaves us with exactly zero good options," said Atria. "And I thought Starfleet was supposed to be clever."
"And I thought Orions were supposed to be good and breaking and entering," said Sam.
"Better than just being good at breaking," Atria shot back.
"It's not a bad skill to have in a pinch," said Sam, then an idea occurred to her. "Speaking of which, Carlin, do you remember how we broke the grate in the monastery?"
Carlin nodded. "As I recall, you dropped a big brass bell on it."
"Think we can do something similar here?" asked Sam. "We've already got a big cargo elevator ready to drop."
Carlin consulted her tricorder again. "It could work," she said slowly. "The doors and their tracks have been heavily damaged. We'd still need to load the elevator as heavily as possible...and we'd need more than a 47 centimeter drop."
"Well, I can't read Dominion, but by the number of big buttons on that control panel, I'm guessing there's more than two floors," said Sam.
"It's Dominionese, and yes, there are buttons for five levels," said Carlin. She looked to Sam and a small smile came to her face. "I think we can do this," she said.
Sam smiled back. "Let's go back and grab anything and everything heavy."
For the next few minutes, the survivors gathered cargo containers, weapons, equipment, and (in Atria's case) even a few bodies and piled them into the cargo turbolift, until Carlin warned them that the lift was near its maximum safe load. Then she began manipulating the controls. "I'll program it for a simple accent to the top floor, followed by a timed release of its safety clamps. That should give us the drop we need." She entered a final sequence then stepped quickly out of the lift as it began to ascend, groaning as it did so.
Sam listened as the sound faded slowly into the distance, then stopped. She gripped her bow and ducked behind a support beam, waiting for the crash. Several seconds passed, but still there was nothing. "How long was that countdown again, Carlin?" Sam asked, concerned.
"Four seconds," said Carlin.
"It's getting close to forty," said Atria. It was an exaggeration of course, but the point was made.
"Something must be wrong with the clamps," Drel stood and very carefully made her way to the turboshaft, tricorder in hand. Sam followed her. "The lift's secure on the uppermost level."
"And why's that?" asked Sam, poking her head into the shaft and looking up with her light.
Carlin cautiously followed her gaze. "Well, if I had to guess, I'd say its the emergency safety clamps on the shaft itself."
"I thought you disabled them," said Sam.
"Only the ones on the turbolift," said Drel. "Judging from the design of the ones in the shaft, they're pretty much impossible to disengage."
"Well, then, I guess we blow the door with our weapons...right?" asked Mor.
"Duranium is highly resistant to small-arms fire, Ferengi," said Atria. "Even I know that, and I'm just a slave."
"And I'm the king of England," Sam muttered.
No one seemed to notice but Carlin, who rolled her eyes before refocusing their discussion on the matter at hand. "Our original plan should still work. If we disable the clamps with weapons-fire, the lift should fall and knock the doors loose from their housing."
"Whatever you say, Starfleet," said Atria. She took aim at one of the clamps with her disruptor. "Get ready to duck!" She fired at the same instant as Mor and Carlin - each of them targeting a different clamp (though Mor missed). Everyone jumped back away from the shaft as debris rained down. Then nothing happened. Atria and Sam both looked to Carlin for an explanation.
"There are three clamps," Drel explained. "I didn't think just one of them would be strong enough to hold the turbolift by itself, but obviously I was wrong."
"I'll get it," said Sam, taking Carlin's phaser and climbing back into the shaft. "Though I'd like to say for the record that this is a ridiculously well-designed turbolift."
"I'll make sure to note it in my log," said Carlin.
Sam nodded and aimed up at the last of the clamps (the one Mor had missed). "Alright, everybody take cover," she said. Then she fired. Sparks flew as her shot tore through the clamp...then more sparks came as the turbolift began to fall, shearing off what remained of the clamps as it came. Sam leaped to the side and rolled. The turbolift roared down the shaft and past her, hitting the doors with a resounding crash. Debris were thrown up out of the shaft, clattering across the floor, but when the settled all was still again. The survivors came out of hiding and found the blast door caved in and the debris at the bottom of the shaft making an easy ramp between this floor and the entrance to the tomb itself.
Sam returned Carlin's weapon in exchange for her own and they scrambled down through the debris and into the tomb. Mor slipped and fell a couple times, apparently bruising his ear, but everyone else made it down alright. The transition to the tomb was immediately apparent. Thermal concrete gave way to natural stone walls, interspersed with carefully chiseled reliefs, most of which depicted warriors in battle. A few of them looked unfinished. The only signs of modern activity were the powered-down floodlights standing here and there in the tunnel and the thick cables that connected them to a large generator in a side chamber.
"I don't see any bodies," said Mor, eyeing the shadows warily while massaging his ear with his free hand. "I thought you said the Dominion scientists sealed this place from the inside."
"According to the control panel in the turbolift that's exactly what happened," said Carlin. "Of course, that was over thirty years ago. The scientists probably found another way out."
"Either that or they slowly starved to death and we'll find their bodies later," suggested Atria. Mor whined and Sam swore she could see the Orion woman's lips twitch upward in a smile.
Sam shook her head at the exchange and turned her attention to the generator. "Any chance you can get this working again? It'll be a lot easier to see what the Dominion found here if we can power their equipment back up."
"I think so," said Drel. "The generator's a fairly standard design, and it looks like it's in good condition..." She opened an access panel and reached in, adjusting some of the components before pulling a manual restart lever. The generator hummed to life and the floodlights flickered on throughout the tomb. Sam turned off her palm beacon and tucked it away. The others did the same.
"See? No bodies," said Sam, gesturing at the empty passageway. "The Dominion scientists got out and everyone lived happily ever after - until they ran into Matan or the Oni anyway."
"Of course...I can see that now," said Mor, straightening. "This will really be a fascinating opportunity not only to study ancient human burial rites but also the methodology of Dominion archaeological teams. I've always wondered how such a warlike society managed to make so many profitable scientific discoveries," he said to himself, taking the lead.
Sam was about to quote the 34th Rule of Acquisition, War is good for business, but managed to stop herself. There was no need to let the Ferengi know she knew that much about his culture.
They continued down the passageway until it opened up into a large chamber. Mor gasped at the sight before him, and Sam made an effort not to do the same. Ultimately, she failed. It was just too spectacular. The tomb was fantastic, with a central dais flanked by two massive bronze statues of Stormguard warriors. In the center of the dais, a life-size statue sat with his back to them, dressed in what looked like actual period armor. A mural spread above him. It was incomplete, as were the bronze statues (one of which was still surrounded by wooden scaffolding), but that was a part of its charm. "You have no idea how important this find is, Carlin," Sam whispered. "No one has ever found an ancient tomb like this preserved during the act of construction. Generations of archaeologists have puzzled over how people without even the most basic motors or replicators managed to create such massive monuments in such short periods of time. This is a direct glimpse into a frozen moment of history."
"Well don't lose our future in this planet's past," Atria warned. "Remember, we're here to find the location of the Star."
Sam nodded, stepping forward. Mor was already halfway up the steps to the dais. Sam used her longer stride to catch up with him. "Those statues...they're Stormguard. The traditional guardians of the Sun Queen Imego," he was muttering to himself.
"Himiko, yes," said Sam. "That's her in the mural, in the upper right hand corner."
"It could be another goddess figure," said Mor.
Sam shook her head. "That's her. It's exactly like the murals in the tomb Carlin and I found at the monastery. And see that jewel around her neck? That's the Star of Yamatai."
"And where's our hint to its location?"
"It could be represented by the location of the Sun Queen in the mural relative to the general," suggested Mor, pointing to the figure with the sword in the center of the mural.
"That's not much to go by," said Carlin.
"And how do we know where the general even is in that mural? If that represents him in life, he could have been anywhere," said Atria.
Sam shook her head. "The general's wearing white robes, seated and everyone around him is wearing black. Black is an almost universal color of mourning in ancient Earth cultures, and in ancient Japan white was worn only by priests, brides, the dead, and the dying. This is either the end of his life, or some very great tragedy...possibly both." She gazed up at the mural. The frowning image of the Sun Queen stood atop a building that looked familiar. Sam was certain she could place it.
She laid her hand on the shoulder of the life-size statue as she thought—only to have the statue buckle under her hand. She looked at it, startled, and saw the face of the statue for the first time...only it wasn't a statue. It was the mummified face of a human corpse. Sam cried out and recoiled. Mor squealed and took cover behind a rock. Drel and Atria trained their weapons around the room, searching for a threat.
"It's alright! It's alright!" Sam assured them. "Sorry, I was just...startled, that's all." When Carlin and Atria had calmed down and Mor had emerged from hiding, Sam pointed to the armored corpse. "Everybody, meet the general."
"They embalmed him sitting up?" asked Carlin, wrinkling her nose.
"They might not have embalmed him at all so much as left him where he died," said Sam. "If the Tomb was dry enough when the builders left it, he would have been preserved."
"So are you saying he died in his own tomb?" asked Atria. "That sounds a little too convenient to be true."
"It is the most likely explanation," said Sam. She pointed to a blade lodged in the corpse's stomach, where his armor had deliberately been removed. "He committed seppuku."
"What kind of crime is that?" asked Mor.
"It's not a crime. It's traditional Japanese suicide," Sam explained. "Samurai who were defeated or had suffered a grave dishonor would often commit suicide by cutting their own stomachs in order to die with dignity."
"Sounds almost Klingon," said Atria.
"It's not," Sam insisted. "The real question is why did this general commit seppuku?"
Carlin scanned the remains with her tricorder. "According to these readings, the general died about 2,100 years ago."
"Five hundred years after the corpse we found in the monastery," said Sam. "That puts him at the very end of the Yayoi Period."
"The time when Yamatai's civilization collapsed," said Mor. "This general's death may have been related to that... Wait, Sam, what are you doing?"
"Looking for answers," Sam said. She gripped the elaborate, leather-wrapped hilt of the blade and tugged it free. It came out easily. The blade was short, only about 20 centimeters long. "A tanto, a traditional Samurai dagger..." She cradled it in her hands and felt a prick as her hands touched the edge. She gasped, not in pain, but in awe. "It's beautiful...still sharp too, after all these years."
"Yes, I'm sure it's a very nice knife," said Mor. "But unless there's a suicide note attached to it or something, it's getting us no closer to learning what we need to know—and it's disturbing archaeological evidence!"
Sam ignored him. "Traditionally, when someone committed seppuku, they would leave a poem or a letter explaining their demise...and sometimes a tanto had compartments that could be used to store such things, to make up for the absence of pockets in traditional Japanese dress..."
"What? No pockets?" Mor was agast. "Where did they keep their money?"
"Hush," said Sam. She fiddled with the hilt and after a moment the pommel opened, revealing a secret compartment in the hilt, and inside, a scroll. Her hands trembled as she removed it. She carefully closed the compartment and tucked the tanto away under the back of her obi, then she unrolled the scroll. Ancient Japanese calligraphy unfolded before her. She read it aloud.
"I have failed my Queen. The Ritual was corrupted. The priestess knew only death could save her, and so she took her own life. Now the first and last Queen lives a half life, a soul in a decaying body. Her rage became the storms and will not stop while her soul is tied to this earth. My Stormguard are sworn to protect her. By her power, they must continue...but I cannot."
Sam lowered the scroll and rolled it up carefully. "That's it," she said. Realization dawned on her and sent a chill down her spine. "The story was true."
"What's it? What story? That makes no sense!" Mor protested.
"The story of Himiko's fall," Sam explained. "The story of Hoshi, the priestess who discovered Himiko's true identity as a koh: a demon who passed herself from one body to the next through the generations. Hoshi was chosen as the koh's next victim and she knew only death could save her. She stole a dagger from the general of the Stormguard—from this general—and used it to commit suicide during the Ascension Ritual. The story was true! The proof is right in front of us! The only difference is that in the story Hoshi's sacrifice banished the koh forever from Earth, whereas in reality all it did was trapped Himiko in her old body here on Yamatai."
"Are you saying Himiko is causing these storms?" asked Carlin. "Sam, we were in her tomb. We scanned her body. Himiko is dead!"
Sam shook her head. "Her body may be dead, but her spirit is still alive somewhere in the monastery," said Sam, finally recalling what the building in the mural looked like. "She's not human, maybe not even a natural creature. She's a koh, and death can't stop her from using her powers to keep us here."
"So...an immortal spirit is keeping us all trapped on this planet?" Atria asked. "Sorry, I usually go in for the weird, but that's a bit of a stretch even for me."
"It's the truth!" said Sam. "You've got to believe me. It's the only explanation!"
"If that's true, what do we do about it?" asked Carlin.
"We go back to the monastery, we find Himiko's latest body, and we destroy both it and the Star. Without them, we should be able to successfully banish the koh once and for all."
"But where do we find the body?" asked Carlin.
"It should still be in the ritual chamber, in the Chamber of the Sun," Sam turned to Mor. "Where is it? Did the Solarii ever find it?"
"Well...they didn't find it, per se, but with my expertise, they were able to determine that it must be the highest point of the old monastery," said Mor. "Naturally, with all of the sun imagery and the religious overtones of Himiko's rule—"
"A long and pointless explanation!" a voice boomed from the shadows. Sam flinched and reached for her bow. Matan! A moment later, the man himself stepped out of the shadows, his weapon drawn, flanked by more than a dozen Solarii. "It would be so much simpler if you'd just let me take you there, Samantha!"
"Matan and the Creepy Scavenger Society of Yamatai," Sam hissed. "Don't you guys know how to knock?"
Drel skipped the small talk. She trained her rifle on the Solarii with one hand and tapped her combadge with the other. "Drel to Howard! Doctor, if you can use Sam's modification to the transporter signal, we could all really use an emergency beam-out right now."
There was static from the other side, then Howard's voice came back, breathy and fearful. "Drel! We're taking fire up here! The Solarii have got a plasma minigun trained on the shuttle and they've blown through the canopy! Ursan and I can't reach the controls and Crusoe's been wounded. Recommend you do not - I repeat - do not return!"
"Surely you didn't think I brought all of my men here, did you?" Matan asked. He fished a slim transponder beacon from his sash. "Give me the Chosen One, and I'll signal my men to cease their attack."
Mor reached for Sam and she felt a touch at the small of her back. Even in their present crisis her reaction was instinctive. She whipped around and seized the offending hand. "What did I say about touching?" she asked, then froze as she realized the hand she was holding was, in fact, Mor's battered disruptor pistol. "Oh, you did not just try to do that!"
"It's the only way the Solarii will let me or any of us live!" said Mor. "I'm sorry, Sam!" Though he did not sound the least bit sorry he'd done it, only sorry she had a hold on his gun right now and she was stronger than him.
"Listen to the Ferengi," Matan urged. "The only way any of you are getting out of here alive is if the Chosen One is given to us!"
Over the open comlink Sam could hear the sounds of the minigun whine. She heard panels and consoles exploding as someone cried out—whether from surprise or pain she couldn't say. They're all trapped in there, Sam realized. Alex, Doc Howard, Crusoe...even Ursan. They're pinned down and they'll die if we don't surrender...If I don't surrender! "You have to give me up," she said, releasing Mor's weapon.
"We are not giving you up!" said Carlin.
"Carlin, they have our shuttle under their guns, and they have us outnumbered and outgunned down here," Sam said, hating the part of her mind that could give a dispassionate tactical analysis at a time like this. "There's only one way out of this for us."
Carlin squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and a tear ran down her cheek. "Sam, if you're right...if they're putting you through the Ascension Ritual to free Himiko...doesn't that mean..."
"I'll be the next host of the koh...yes," Sam said. She shivered a little at the thought of having an ancient evil spirit inhabiting her body, overpowering her soul. "I'd gladly damn myself to that living hell to save all of you, though."
"You won't be saving anyone," said Atria. "The moment they have you, the Solarii are going to slaughter all of us!"
"They won't," said Sam, turning to lock eyes with Matan. "You won't, because you need me alive for the Ritual." She drew an arrow from her quiver and pressed it into the hole in her kimono's breast, right over her heart and held in such a way that if she fell she'd be impaled. "The last Ritual was corrupted because Himiko's chosen victim killed herself, and she's been trapped here for over two thousand years waiting for a suitable replacement. Let my friends go or I'll kill myself, and your precious demonic queen can start the whole process all over again!"
"I'm not a fool, Samantha," said Matan. "If I let the others go, what's to keep you from sabotaging the Ritual right then?"
"Well...I don't particularly want to die," Sam admitted. "And if I killed myself, I'd be condemning my crewmates to death on this planet along with all of you."
"That's not good enough, I'm afraid," said Matan. "I can't risk a repeat of Hoshi's sin—such a disappointment to the Sun Queen cannot be borne again."
Sam gritted her teeth. "Fine. Call of your men at the shuttle and let my friends beam up. Once they're up you keep having your men back off and I'll keep moving this arrow away from my heart. If either one of us changes their mind, the other one can still retaliate. Happy?"
"It will suffice," said Matan. He pressed a button on the transmitter and the lights on it stopped blinking.
There was silence over the comlink. Then Doc Howard's voice came on. "They've stopped shooting...everyone stay down. It could be a trap."
Sam tapped her own combadge with her free hand. "Hayashi to Howard! Doctor, is the transporter still working?"
"I...I think so," said Howard. "The cabin's been damaged, but the console is still operational. The Solarii are withdrawing. I'm not sure why."
"It's part of the deal we made with Matan. I'll let Carlin explain," said Sam. "For now, I need you to use a theta band carrier to lock on to my signal and Carlin's. Standby to energize on my order."
Matan raised the hand with the transmitter threateningly, and Sam nodded. She unpinned her combadge and handed it to Atria. "Take it." The Orion accepted it with wooden fingers, looking stunned.
Carlin grabbed Sam's arm before she could let go of the combadge though. "I can't let you do this, Sam," she said.
"And if you don't, the Solarii will kill us all," said Sam.
Carlin clenched her teeth and tears shown in her eyes. "Please, Sam! I...I am ordering you not to do this!"
"Sorry, Carlin, but you and I are the same rank...and I have more seniority," she said. "I'm ordering you to let me do this."
Carlin sniffed. "As the only present...medical officer, I could have you declared unfit for duty and relieved." She shook her head and a tear slid down her cheek. "Please, Sam! You're my best friend! I've already lost Antori, don't make me lose you, too!"
"I don't mean to," said Sam. Her eyes narrowed and flicked toward Matan. "I mean to kill that bastard and Himiko. At the very least, I mean to take out the Star."
"By yourself? Unarmed?" said Carlin. "Sam we both know—"
"Doctor Howard to Lieutenants Hayashi and Drel," said the Doctor's voice, interrupting. "I have a lock on your signal and the Solarii are still pulling back. I'm ready to energize."
"Let go of the combadge, Samantha, or we all know how this will end," said Matan, pointing his phaser at Carlin and holding the transmitter high.
Sam nodded, then looked to her friend. "Forgive me, Carlin. This is the only way." Then she pulled free of her grip, leaving her combadge in Atria's hand. "Energize!" she said.
A look of horror and grief crossed Carlin's face as she dematerialized, then she was gone, and without her combadge Sam had no way to contact her, and there was no way for them to beam her back. Either I die here, or I play along and get a chance at saving myself and my friends by taking out Himiko, she thought, though she had no idea how she could fight such an ancient evil. She looked to Matan. "Keep that transmitter where I can see it," she said. "I'm going to give my friends some time to get that shuttle off the ground, or get out of it, and then I'll lower the arrow."
"You'd better be true to your word," said Matan. "You have two minutes!"
Sam nodded. "One one-thousand, two one-thousand...," she said, counting down the seconds out loud. Mor meanwhile stood awkwardly beside her, his disruptor trained in her general direction, but completely ignored by everyone present. When Sam reached 120, she slowly lowered the arrow.
"Take it!" Matan ordered. Mor stepped forward and grabbed the arrow. Sam let him take it out of her hands. "Take her other weapons as well!" Mor grabbed her quiver of arrows, and her bow, as a pair of Solarii advanced to take hold of Sam. They took her arms and bound them behind her, then dragged her over to where Matan stood, by the entrance of the side tunnel.
"You've been far too difficult to catch, Chosen One, but this time there will be no escape until you've freed our Queen," said Matan. He turned to the Solarii. "Brothers, we ride to the Monastery, to the main gates. Our Queen awaits! We will free Her, and She will free us all!"
"Father Matan will free us all!...Father Matan will free us all!" the Solarii chanted, leading Sam away to her fate.
Author's Notes: This chapter is a combination of the general's tomb and research base in the Tomb Raider game and, obviously Sam's capture. There are major differences, however. In the game, the tomb is infested with Solarii, the same as everywhere else on the island. There is even a Solarii mook down below the elevator puzzle who asks aloud, "What the hell am I even doing in this place?"—which is a very good question, seeing as how (1) the Solarii really have no strategic reason to guard an ancient, possibly-Oni-infested (it isn't, but the Solarii mooks believe it is due to all the dead bodies from a previous attack) tomb, and (2) it's a mystery how he even got down there in the first place, since the only known entrance was sealed by a physics puzzle previous to Lara's opening it. Here I decided to leave it Solarii and Oni free, though again the bodies from a previous Oni attack put the characters on edge.
Another change involves how much the characters know of what's going on. At this point in the Tomb Raider game, Lara has known for some time that Himiko is behind the storms, but does not sort out until later what Matthias wants to do with Sam. Here, Carlin and Sam have the opposite: while they're initially unsure that Himiko is behind the storms, their visit to the tomb leaves at least Sam convinced that she is and knowing full well why Matan wants her.
The biggest difference, of course, is how Sam's capture plays out. As I've said before, one of my reasons for writing this was to make Sam a stronger character and loosen her grip on the "distress ball." In Tomb Raider, Sam's recapture takes place while Lara is away: wherein Whitman (predictably) kidnaps her while a bunch of Solarii make a frontal assault on the survivor's camp. While Sam Nishimura was established as basically helpless and was even asleep during the attack, Sam Hayashi is not and I can't believe she'd make the mistake of letting her guard down around Mor. Even if she did, she's demonstrated enough skill in close combat that I can confidently say that the only thing Mor could accomplish by trying to kidnap her himself would be to significantly shorten his life expectancy. So, instead of doing a kidnapping which I didn't like and you wouldn't believe, I decided it would be more meaningful to set up a situation where Sam has to sacrifice herself and turn herself in for the good of her friends.
Like all Danube-class runabouts, the Kurobe is named after a river: in this case, the Kurobe River in the Toyama Prefecture, on the main island of Japan. That Sam has private ownership over a runabout and a small exploration ship (the Aerie-class mentioned in chapter 35) should come as no surprise to anyone aware of how fantastically rich she is (see chapter 3) and how much she loves small spacecraft.
The Na'Far-class is the name given in Star Trek Online for the standard Ferengi shuttle seen in several episodes of DS9 and TNG. In game, it is a pretty decent shuttle actually, with good defensive abilities, but Sam would definitely prefer something like the Delta Flier—a shuttle build more as a hot-rod for enthusiasts like herself than a sensible mode of transport for businessmen. Speaking of Ferengi, the Blessed Exchequer is the closest thing the Ferengi have to a god: a supernatural accountant who reviews their profit/loss statements from life in order to determine their fate in the afterlife (DS9: "Little Green Men"). Ferengi also pray to him (DS9: "The Emperor's New Cloak"). The 34th Rule of Acquisition—part of the Ferengi code of conduct—was mentioned in the DS9 episode "Destiny"...which also revealed that the 35th Rule of Acquisition was "Peace is good for business."
The elevator puzzle appears in the game, but is much more complex. In order to drop that elevator, you must stop it at three different floors and climb around to access four different gears attaching it to the walls of the shaft, and pop them loose. Even with only one gear in one corner holding it in place, the elevator is completely stable and can be raised and lowered endlessly with no ill effects. While I understand that this is due to it being a physics puzzle in a video game, I would also like to join Sam in saying that—were it real—it would be a ridiculously well-designed elevator!
In the game, there is no mention of a science team trapped in the tomb. I added that to present a reason why that turbolift shaft was blocked (no reason in the game) and to establish early the possibility of a second entrance for the Solarii to use. In the game also , the mural is different, much simpler, with two warriors, one with the sun shining around him and the other down lower. To provide more obvious visual clues of what had happened to the general (since the characters—unlike Lara in the game—already knew he was a general), I made it a depiction of the general's seppuku. Regarding that, the scene followed the game pretty closely. 2,100 years ago is indeed the close of the Yayoi Period in Japanese history, and the sword Lara removes from the corpse is (judging from the size of her hands on the blade) roughly 8" or 20-and-some-change centimeters long - which is around average length for a tanto according to the Wikipedia article on them. Blades of this length could be carried concealed under an obi (the kimono's broad sash) and were used by some women for self-defense. The tanto was also the traditional blade for ritual suicide. The tanto that Lara finds also has the suicide note concealed within, and she previously finds a collection of inro—Japanese carrying cases—and in commenting on them remarks that Japanese clothes traditionally lacked pockets. Of course, Mor points out the ire that any real archaeologist would have toward any fictional archaeologist—who are forever rummaging and smashing their way through ancient sites with no regard for the careful recording of where and how everything was found that marks actual excavation work.