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.
Chamber of the Sun
USS Nautilus, Shuttle One Crew, Carlin Drel's Log, Stardate 81633.9:
Matan has taken Sam into to the Chamber of the Sun, at the heart of the Oni monastery. If she was right about the nature of the threat on this planet, then his plan is to use Sam as the next host to Himiko, the Sun Queen. I can't let that happen! While Atria, Howard, and the other survivors hold off the Solarii at the canyon, I'm following Matan in a side entrance. If I can reach Sam and destroy the Star of Yamatai that gives the Sun Queen her power, maybe I can put an end to this madness once and for all...
Carlin Drel slid down into the ravine. She scrambled quickly to her feet and started jogging west along the ravine floor. She'd seen the lone Dominion ground vehicle parked in the ruins of a small village nearby. This was the only route from there that even seemed to go towards the monastery, so she figured Matan must have taken it. She hoped she was right. Sam's life depended on it.
She rounded a corner and skidded to a halt suddenly. There were three bodies lying in the sand in front of her. Doctor Mor's body was at the bottom, impaled on a curved sword, his eyes and mouth still wide with surprise. Two Oni lay on top of him, their armor scored by phaser burns. One of their helmets had fallen off, revealing a face that—for all its deathly pallor—was distinctly human. She pulled out her tricorder and ran a brief scan. Here eyes widened at the results. According to this, he is human, or at least once was. The warrior had been exposed to extreme levels of polaric radiation, far above the background levels for this planet. The polaric ions had suffused his cellular structure, putting him in a state of temporal flux. Carlin pondered the implications for a moment. Such an individual would be effectively immune to old age, but at the cost of having a confused sense of the passage of time that might leave him vulnerable to coercion or suggestion. A perfect way to gain an immortal, obedient army, if you can pull it off, she relflected. Is this Himiko's doing? She could not know for certain. At least it did explain why the Oni were immune to polaron-based weapons and why their lifesigns were masked from sensors. It also meant that the Oni were not immune to phaser-fire, and that was a great comfort!
Carlin left the bodies behind. She could learn nothing further from the Oni, not with Sam's life counting on her coming quickly. As for Mor, his death was unfortunate, but she couldn't say he didn't have it coming. At the moment, Drel considered it just one less enemy standing between her, Sam, and the Star of Yamatai.
Beyond the bodies was a rope bridge, stretching across the chasm to a collection of ancient stone and wooden buildings. The monastery! Carlin hurried across and snuck in through the nearest doorway, conscious that she was in enemy territory, out in the open. Once inside, she found herself in a torchlit corridor. She could hear the sounds of marching men and shouts. The Oni were active, preparing for war. No doubt the Solarii's bold frontal assault had gotten their attention. Carlin hoped it stayed there.
She snuck forward on tiptoes toward an intersection with a broad hallway. As she reached it, there was a shout from nearby, accompanied by the approaching sound of heavy footfalls. She ducked behind a fallen statue. Don't make a sound! she urged herself. A moment later, the Oni marched by. She could hear their footfalls just on the other side of the statue. The steady beat of marching feet was broken by the heavy tread of something truly massive. She peeked around the corner to see the big Oni who had pursued her and Sam from the monastery yesterday, escorted by scores of other Oni of normal human size. The big Oni was unarmored, wearing little more than padded breeches. He was over two meters tall with broad shoulders corded with muscles. His skin was deathly pale, but there was nothing to indicate that he wasn't as human as the dead Oni Carlin had seen outside—though in his time he must surely have been a giant!
Carlin crouched, waiting for the Oni to pass on, only to have them gather in a chamber at the end of the hall. The big Oni stood in the center while two others strapped on his armor. Meanwhile all the others gathered around and began chanting in a Japanese dialect Carlin couldn't understand. Somewhere nearby a large bronze bell began to sound, the deep repeated notes giving rhythm to the chanting. It must be some kind of ritual, preparing for battle, Carlin thought, and couldn't help but wonder whom the Oni were getting ready to attack: the approaching Solarii, or the other survivors who'd taken up position nearby. Then she shook her head to ward off the thoughts. Howard, McKensey and the others were as safe as they could be, and they might at this very moment be fighting to give her a chance to reach Sam and the Star of Yamatai. She couldn't allow the opportunity to be wasted.
She searched the hallway for a way around the chamber full of Oni. She noticed a set of stone stairs just before the chamber that led up to a balcony. Since the Oni's full attention seemed to be focused on the giant in the center, it was unlikely they'd see her up there. She decided to chance it. She snuck up the stairs to the balcony and then across it to a wooden door. Unfortunately, when she tried to push the door open it didn't budge. She didn't dare try to force it in front of so many Oni...and yet without the door, there seemed to be no way around the chamber. She gritted her teeth. An old Earth author Perciv had developed a fondness for had once written that in an investigation when the impossible was eliminated whatever remained, however unlikely, was the truth. Perciv had adapted the philosophy to structural design: When you've eliminated the options that are impossible, whatever remains, no matter how difficult, is what you have to do! Drel reminded herself of that now. She couldn't go around the chamber and she certainly couldn't fight her way through. What remains, though it's certainly difficult, is sneaking through right under their noses. She surveyed the chamber, then amended her choice of words as an idea occurred to her. On second thought, why not sneak by right over their noses?
Like all planetbound societies, the Oni seemed to have an ingrained habit of observing their world in only two dimensions, almost completely oblivious to the z-axis. It made a certain amount of sense: why waste time looking up at the sky when your species had no natural airborne predators and the largest threats all came in from along the plane of the ground? Of course, it also had significant weaknesses. In this instance, although Carlin had very little cover on the balcony, none of the Oni had yet spotted her because none of them had thought to look up. She could use this to her advantage. There were decorative engravings along the walls and there was another balcony nearby, where a group of Oni where busy beating a large bronze bell with a suspended log. Beyond that balcony, there was a window where part of the grating had fallen out, leaving a hole large enough for her to squeeze through. She thought she could plot a climbing route along the walls, from her balcony to the other, and from there to the window...and best of all, she thought she could follow the route without getting caught.
Carlin slipped carefully over the edge of her balcony, making a secure foothold by wedging her right boot into an ancient relief and placing the other on a statue's head. She picked her way across the wall to the other balcony, climbing slowly so as not to make any noise or stir up any dust that might filter down and cause one of the Oni to look up. When she reached the other balcony, she grabbed the edge of it's railing with her hands but was careful to stay below it, using arms and legs to move sideways across the wall. The steady beat of the bell and the uninterrupted chanting below let her know that she remained undetected. Once she reached the far side of the room, she reached over and used a nook as a handhold while she repositioned herself. Then she grasped the window ledge and pulled herself up. As she did, her boot scraped across the wall, scattering a few loose pebbles. Carlin froze, horrified and looked back into the room. None of the Oni seemed to have noticed, though. Carlin slipped through the gap in the grating and dropped down on the other side.
Her landing left something to be desired as she accidently slammed her knee up into her own abdomen. It hurt and for a moment she thought she was going to vomit, but dealing with the airsickness had taught her a good deal of endurance. She managed not to puke or cry out, and after a few minutes of lying still on the floor, she was satisfied that her stomach was just bruised, not seriously injured. Meanwhile, she heard the chanting and ringing in the next chamber end. The big Oni roared commands and she heard the sounds of marching feet, taking the Oni away from her.
She stood and surveyed her surroundings. She was in a circular chamber where the walls, floor, and ceiling were gilded. Around the perimeter of the room stood fourteen golden statues of human women in royal robes. At the center of the chamber a sunburst was inlaid on the floor, surrounded by four circular reliefs. They seemed familiar, and after a moment, Carlin realized why. They were the same scenes she and Sam had found in Himiko's tomb, scenes of the fire ritual, the pilgrimage to the monastery, the transference of power, and the reign of a new Sun Queen. Carlin noticed something new about the images this time, though. With them right next to each other, she could see how one flowed into the other, round and round, endlessly, an unbroken cycle of initiations which always lead to the same woman ruling as Sun Queen: Himiko. Carlin looked to the statues around the room and noticed how all of them seemed eerily similar. What was it the General called Himiko? "The First and Last Queen?" Carlin shivered. What if Sam was right and Himiko is somehow transferring her consciousness from body to body, so that all these women are really just...her? She looked to the largest and most prominent of the statues and knew in her gut she was right. And now you want Sam as your next host...Well you can't have her! she thought, clenching her fists and narrowing her eyes.
Just then her combadge chirped. "Howard to Agra...to Drel," Doctor Howard's voice said.
She tapped her combadge. "Drel here," she said, overlooking the slip. She was still getting used to the transition herself.
"The Oni are coming out and the Solarii have engaged them," he reported. "Looks like a lot of their weapons are ineffective, but some of them aren't. They brought a plasma minigun and its ripping through the Oni!"
Carlin heard a noise from the other chamber, but she ignored it. "Try to take it out," she said. "Concentrate on keeping the Solarii back and let them worry about the Oni. We can't allow them to break through!"
"Got it," said the Doctor. She heard him shout, "Open fire!" Then the background noise of phaser and disruptor fire filled the channel, continuing as the battle unfolded.
Carlin's awareness of the noise, however, cut off abruptly as a roar sounded from the next chamber. She turned to the doors just in time to see them knocked inward off their hinges by a gigantic club. She scrambled back in surprise. Apparently when the Oni had moved on, one of them had stayed behind as a guard. Carlin stared in terror as the big Oni thundered through the door, his weapon in hand, clad head to toe in armor. Drel forcibly reminded herself that his armor would not stop her phaser, and drew it. Before she could fire though, the Oni swung his club, smashing and toppling statues. Carlin cried out and ducked, but fragments of gilded stone still pelted her. She scrambled back through a door and into the open air.
Outside the cold was a shock. The wind was howling like a maddened thing and snow was swirling down around her. Drel forced herself to ignore it, concentrating on her opponent. She fought down panic. You've fought a Gorn hand-to-hand before, she reminded herself. He was bigger and stronger than this giant! Of course, the Gorn had also been injured and unarmed - whereas the Oni had a large, bladed club. More importantly, he'd been slower than any human. The big Oni was also slower than Drel, but only by a narrow margin.
She aimed her phaser at the doorway just as the big Oni came through, club crashing through the stone and mortar of the doorpost. He charged at her, club swinging. She fired, but the beam hit the club, throwing sparks but little else. The Oni swung. Carlin ducked, shielding her head. One of the club's steel blades clipped her phaser, sending it flying. Then the Oni cuffed her with a backhanded blow. She rolled, landing in the snow a few meters away.
Drel scrambled quickly to her feet. Her left arm ached from where the Oni's blow had connected, but the snow had padded her landing and she was otherwise unarmed. The worst of the exchange was that her phaser was now somewhere on the other side of the Oni. She grabbed her climbing ax. Looks like it'll be hand-to-hand again, she thought, though she had no idea how she'd win this time against an armored opponent. The Oni was also clearly more intelligent. After she'd evaded him twice he stalked toward her carefully, club raised, breath steaming from the nostrils of his scowling iron mask. They began circling. Alright Drel, look for weaknesses, she told herself. The giant Oni didn't seem to have any that could be exploited by a titanium climbing ax. His armor was primitive, but she bet it was strong enough to withstand any attack she could make. Alright anything you know about him. Anything that could give an advantage! She wracked her brain. She knew he had been human at some point, Japanese, and with the exception of the polaric ions in his biology, he probably still was. That wasn't much help though. Everything Carlin knew about Japanese culture came from having Sam as a roommate for four years and watching primitive 2-D animations with her. Only one fact from that time stood out. The Japanese have a strong warrior tradition, or they did in the past. She remembered Mor's comment on the general's suicide. Mor was right about one thing, it is an almost Klingon tradition...and if the Japanese warrior tradition is anything like the Klingon's... That was a good deal more helpful. Klingon designers had a tendency of armoring only the fronts of their ships, completely neglecting the back, since only a coward would turn their back on an armed opponent.
Carlin knew what she had to do. The Oni swung, this time aiming low, but Drel was ready for him. She tucked and rolled, moving closer to the Oni, under his swing. Her roll stopped as she bumped into his leg. She grabbed it with her left hand, using her momentum and the leverage of her grip to throw herself around to her opponent's backside. She smiled grimly when she saw she'd been right. Whether from hubris or lack of time, the Oni had left his back completely bare and unarmored.
She swung her ax. The blade bit into corded muscles. The Oni roared, falling down on one knee. Carlin knew it would take more than that to kill him, though. She swung up, hooking her ax under the helmet and tearing it off. The Oni dropped his club and reached back for her with his right hand. Carlin grabbed his left shoulder though and pulled herself out of the way, directly behind him now. She knew she had only a second before he began to turn. She had to use it well. She swung her ax at the Oni's head, aiming for the temple—a major weak point in human anatomy. The ax sunk in. Crimson blood sprayed across the snow as the Oni's body slumped. Drel pulled her ax free and the giant toppled forward, dead at last.
Carlin wasted no time cleaning the ax. There was a broad set of stairs under a line of gilded archways nearby, leading up to a large wooden structure half-masked among the clouds. If Sam was right, this was the Chamber of the Sun—and if she and Matan had made it this far, that was where she was being held. Carlin found her phaser quickly and started up the stairs.
Suddenly, a bolt of lighting slammed into the ground a few meters from her, shattering stone and splintering one of the archways. Carlin recoiled. Up above the storm intensified. A whirlwind threw open doors and shutters all around the Chamber of the Sun, ripping many of them from their hinges and sending them tumbling through the air. More lightning came then, bolts crashing into the stairs above her, ripping through the arches. The path ahead was soon blocked with debris and Carlin retreated. This can't be natural, she realized. It's like the storm that took down the rescue shuttle or the bird-of-prey. Something or someone is using the weather to block my path...and if Sam's right, it's Himiko. If that were true, her final confrontation with the Star's owner might be a lot harder than fighting the big Oni.
Just then Howard's voice came through on the open comlink again. "Carlin! The Oni just turned around and the Solarii are in pursuit. We held them off for as long as we could but they're ignoring us. They're headed your way, all of them!"
"Understood!" said Carlin. Here eyes darted around, searching for another way to the Chamber, and out of the path of the Oni and Solarii. "Get everyone back to the shuttle! When this is over we may have to leave in a hurry," she instructed Howard. Once the Star was destroyed, there was no telling what would happen to the polaric energy it controlled.
"If you'll pardon my saying so, sir, the shuttle looks about as useful as my legs right now," McKensey's voice said.
"The human's right!" said Atria. "The shuttle isn't going anywhere. We barely made it here!"
"Well we have to try and the shuttle's our only hope right now," said Carlin. "Get back to it and stand by to beam me and Sam back, if possible. Drel out!"
Just then, she spotted her opening. There was a ragged patch of cliff just to the right of the stairs. If she could climb that, it would put her in position to climb in through one of the now-gaping windows. It would be a fairly easy climb too, if not for the overhang, she thought. Suddenly, lightning struck, blasting the overhang to rubble and leaving a much more climbable crevice. Carlin blinked. I'll take that, she decided, not about to reject her good fortune from her opponent's bad aim at a time like this.
She holstered her phaser, pulled out her climbing ax, and began the climb. The rock was rough and well fractured, providing plenty of grips even without her climbing ax. With it she made very rapid progress. Her only hindrance was the constant lightning strikes. Many of them hit off to her right, reducing the stairs to an impassible pile of wood and stone rubble. Others however hit above her, blasting fresh scars into the rock face and raining rocks down on her. Carlin hugged the rock face as debris tumbled past her. I don't know whether this lightning is trying to kill me or help me, she mused. It seemed to be hitting all of the most difficult sections, but it also seemed to be trying to brain her with falling rocks. Maybe whoever's controlling it doesn't know themselves, she thought as she resumed climbing. After 2,000 years the Star could be malfuctioning...or Himiko could be conflicted. Who knows what kind of psychological impact that could have!
As she approached the top, she heard Oni shouting at her from below. She looked back to see a couple of archers in ancient armor drawing back their bows. The arrows flew at her, but a gust of wind batted them aside. Moments later bolts of disruptor fire cut the Oni down. Solarii rushed to take their place, but Carlin had already reached the lip. She pulled herself over and through the open window. Disruptor fire scored the rock face behind her, but she was inside.
She was far from safe, though. She could see a blue white light blazing at the center of the chamber. She shielded her eyes, squinting at it. She saw two women in the center of the chamber, linked by patterns of light. One of them was faceless, flaking and peeling away. The other was Sam. "Sam!" Carlin cried out. Sam didn't answer, though. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her mouth was open, screaming. Whatever she was experiencing was far too intense for her to respond. Carlin looked from one woman to the other. Sam was right! It is Himiko! Maybe she's an energy-based lifeform, or maybe she is a demon. It doesn't matter. I have to save Sam!
She heard a voice over the wind, then. It was Matan's! "Through the storms, I have brought you life!" he shouted, arms raised. "Pour forth, Great Queen! Fill up this mortal vessel!"
The Cardassian was kneeling on his knees with a dark spot spreading across his side, but he was still very much alive. Carlin drew her phaser and fired at him, but the beam's path bent, striking the stone several meters away. With this much polaric energy around, the subspace distortions must be strong enough to refract the nadion particles in a phaser beam, she realized. She couldn't risk firing again, not when she might hit Sam. She tucked her phaser away and drew her climbing ax.
Matan saw her and pushed himself to his feet, drawing his phaser. He strode past Sam and the Sun Queen. "You will not interfere in this, Outsider!" he said. He fired, but the beam refracted off a distortion and hit the wall behind Carlin. Carlin charged at him, ducking. Matan got off two more shots. One blasted a hole in the stone half a meter to her left. The other hissed by mere centimeters from her ear. She straightened as she reached her opponent, raising her ax for a strike.
Matan's left cross caught her off-guard, slamming into her jaw hard enough to make her head whip around. She tasted blood. She turned back, expecting another powerful attack, but Matan's injury had slowed him and he was still off balance. Drel's ax was still raised as well. She swung down. The notched blade lodged in the Cardassian's back, just behind his right shoulder. Matan screamed in pain, but did not go down. Instead he crouched and drove his shoulder into Carlin, knocking her over. He landed on top of her, pinning her with his weight and muscle. "This...ends...now!" he shouted.
Drel caught sight of the hilt of the Cardassian phaser pistol, tucked in Matan's belt. She reached up for it, but before she could touch it, Matan jerked back. He reached up and pulled the climbing ax out of his own shoulder. Then, gripping it with both hands, he made a lunge for Drel's throat, attempting to use his weight on the ax to either impale or crush her windpipe. She managed to get her hands up in time to stop him, but just barely. This man already killed me once! I can't let him do it again! She against him with all her strength. Slowly, muscles trembling, she pushed the ax back. Once she had a little leverage, she shoved sharply against his right side. The shoulder injury betrayed Matan. He cried out and fell back, but still holding the climbing ax and still with his knees pinning Carlin's. It was all she needed though, the brief opening gave her enough time to grab the phaser from his belt and fire it at point-blank range.
There wasn't exactly time to aim, so the shot hit Matan in the left shoulder. He screamed and recoiled, scrambling back and nursing the wound. Carlin pushed herself to her feet. She had a clear line of sight on him now, with Sam and the Sun Queen behind her and to her left. She switched the Cardassian phaser to her left hand and drew her battered Bajoran phaser with her right. A phaser in each hand, she opened fire, alternating shots. Red-orange beams lanced out, refracting off of unseen distortions and blasting holes in wood and stone wherever they struck. Through sheer numbers, however, some of the beams struck flesh. A beam creased Matan's scalp, blowing back his hood and exposing his balding head. Another hit his upraised arm as he scrambled back. A third hit his left leg, knocking him to his knees at the back of the chamber, just in front of the edge. Carlin bared her teeth and stepped closer. "This is for Antori, you bastard!" She fired both phasers at once. The beams crossed, but still hit their mark, catching Matan in the chest. He screamed as his body tumbled over the edge, fading into the wind only to cut off completely a second later.
Carlin tried to slow her breathing. Matan was dead, but she still had to rescue Sam from an enemy far more powerful than anything she had encountered before. She tucked away the phasers and turned back to the center of the chamber, where energy was still pouring from the Sun Queen into Sam. Carlin saw a jewel at the center of the vortex of energy, glowing brightly. The Star of Yamatai! If I can destroy that, maybe I can stop this madness and free Sam! She stepped toward the center of the chamber. The way nadion particles were refracted all around the chamber she doubted she'd be able to destroy the Star with a phaser, but she had to try.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a trio of Solarii climbing up into the chamber, using the same route Carlin had used. "There's the Outsider!" one of them shouted.
"Kill her!" shouted another, drawing his weapon. "The Ritual's almost complete! We have to protect the Queen!"
Just then lightning arced out from the center of the chamber, striking a ceiling beam. The heavy wooden beam crashed down in front of the Solarii, then a powerful gust slammed it into them, knocking two of them over the cliff and pinning the third between the beam and one of the chamber's support columns, crushing him. Carlin looked back to the center of the chamber and realized the arc had come from the energies nearest Sam. Somehow the transference was granting Sam access to Himiko's power, and her friend was taking full advantage of that. But she doesn't have full control, and neither does Himiko, Carlin realized, remembering the near misses she'd experienced on her climb to the chamber. Himiko wants to kill me, Sam wants to help me, and they're fighting for control of the Star's powers...and Sam's body. With no offense to her friend, Carlin could not imagine a fight between Sam and a powerful polaric-energy creature that had been stealing bodies for hundreds of years ending well. She's fighting, but I have to intervene before Himiko takes her over completely!
She saw a short sword on the ground, the tanto Sam had retrieved from the tomb of the general. She picked it up and charged forward. She had no idea what the Star was or what would happen when she struck it, but Drel knew that sometimes there was no time to think: only to act. She rushed toward the exchange of energies, raising the blade high over head to strike. The old queen raised a hand to stop her, but Sam's hand inched out as well. Lightning flashed from the Queen's hand, but it arced around Carlin, blasting craters into the stone floor on either side. Then, Carlin struck.
The crystal shattered under the impact. Sparks sputtered between its fragments, then they began to fall. The stream of energy between Sam and the Old Queen cut off, arcs of power looping back into the rotting woman's chest. Every exposed centimeter of flesh burst into flame as Himiko screamed. The air sparkled and warped around her, then the body burst into a million embers and a vortex swept them away.
A moment later, the wind stilled. The storm died down and the clouds overhead began to clear away. Sam's body fell to the ground in the Chamber of the Sun. Carlin rushed to help her friend, pulling open her tricorder and scrambling to see if she still had her medkit. Before she could open it though, Sam's eyes opened of their own accord. "Carlin?" she said weakly. "Oh, thank God!"
"I couldn't let them take you Sam," she explained. "I came to rescue you. Matan and Himiko are dead. We're safe now."
"I...thank you for saving me, Carlin," Sam said, but shook her head. "And don't take this the wrong way, but we are so, so far from safe."
"What do you mean? Himiko's dead, Sam, and..." Her voice trailed off as she caught a glimpse of her tricorder. The scan showed nothing, only static. Even only a few centimeters from Sam and Carlin it could read neither them nor their environment. "That doesn't make any sense. The polaric energy should be dissipating. Instead it seems to be getting stronger, concentrating..."
"Carlin, look behind you," said Sam, her voice hoarse.
She turned to the spot where the Queen had stood moments ago, the spot where she had finally died. There the air seemed to shimmer and warp as lightning crackled within it, trapped within some invisible pocket. "A subspace nexus," Carlin whispered. "And it's rapidly destabilizing. With that much polaric energy..." Her voice trailed off. With even a little polaric energy, you could wipe all life from the face of a planet. With that much energy it would be possible to rip up subspace and kill every living thing inside the nebula.
"We need to get off this planet," said Sam. "Now!"
Author's Note: Here at last, at the beginning of the chapter, is the explanation for why the Oni are still alive after thousands of years, are immune to polaron weapons, and do not register on tricorder scans—they've been "touched" by the koh's polaric-ion based power (as alluded to in chapter 46). Since all the Dominion's weapons and most of the Solarii's are polaron-based, it makes sense that the Oni would pose a significant threat to them, while still being vulnerable to the mixed bag of weapons the other survivors are using. The explanation, of course, is my own invention. In the Tomb Raider game Lara asks at one point how the Stormguard can still be alive after all these years but no explanation is given. The closes thing we get is their deathly pallor and its implication that they might be some kind of zombies.
The author Carlin is referencing, who first said, "when you have eliminated the possible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The quote is, of course, from Sherlock Holmes himself, in The Sign of Four. It was first quoted by Spock in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and again in the 2009 Star Trek film (quoted by the alternate-universe Spock). This makes the second reference to the line in this story, since Sokar already quoted it in chapter 20 while deducing that Himiko was alive. Here Drel takes a distinctively pragmatic, engineering slant on the quote.
The "primitive 2-D animations" Carlin is referring to are the anime episodes Sam forced her to watch per chapter 24 (and with a nod to chapter 2 of "Airborne," where Sam indulges in some episodes during forced downtime). The temple is a famous weak-point in the human skull because it is thin and relatively fragile, with a major artery directly beneath it.
This chapter is a compressed version of Lara's climactic struggle through the monastery and the Ziggurat (here represented by the Chamber of the Sun. I cut out a lot of scenes of sneaking and struggling through physics puzzles in the monastery (which made for good gameplay, but repetitive and confusing prose). I also cut out the scene where, in one of Lara's crowning moments of awesome, she takes on a whole army of Oni singe-handed. The scene and gameplay there are awesome, but I just couldn't see it as believable for Carlin to do the same. I kept the proceeding scene involving sneaking past the whole Oni army, but had Carlin succeed in sneaking past where Lara failed in order to avoid triggering a Carlin vs Oni army fight which she could not win. Also cut out is the fight with a big Solarii army at the top of the ziggurat, mostly to save time and because there's not really a good explanation for how so many people could have followed Lara or Carlin so easily. The trio of Solarii who die at the end are the only allusion to that army, and in the game there is indeed a group of Solarii who meet a similar fate due to "friendly fire" from Himiko.
I kept the fight with the big Oni as close to the boss battle in the game as possible. Obviously I had to change it a little because steel or iron armor meant to protect from sword blows isn't going to provide any protection against a phaser capable of vaporizing a person whole (by the same token it shouldn't do much to stop Lara's bullets, but...well, that's another story). I had to change the boss battle with Matan/Matthias even more. Nadion particles are what make up a phaser beam and explain why it doesn't act quite like a laser (VOY: "Time and Again" and others). The idea that a subspace field can refract a phaser beam is made up by me: a convenient excuse for why Carlin and Matan had to face each other in melee and why Carlin wound up finishing him with phasers akimbo—which in any other situation would have been ridiculous in the extreme.
In the Tomb Raider game Lara kills Himiko by stabbing her with a torch—which makes for nice narrative symmetry since the torch is also the first piece of equipment Lara discovers on the island. Carlin doesn't have a torch, so I went with the tanto. Since the general's tanto is also the weapon that stranded Himiko in her present state, there's some symmetry there as well.
Hang on, everyone! There's still more to come!