Survivors of Yamatai

"Survivors of Yamatai" is the third story in the Star Trek Online: Valkyries fan fiction series. It features main characters Carlin Agran (Drel) and Sam Hayashi from the stories "The Best Revenge" and "Airborne" respectively, as well as many of the characters from those stories. It is a novel-length story which is still being written. Currently new chapters of the story are available every Monday. This article is up-to-date through chapter 35.

Much of the plot, setting, and characters of this story is based on the 2013 Tomb Raider game by Square Enix, as often referenced in the author's notes at the end of each chapter.

Teaser
When Sam, Carlin, and Antori Drel crash-land on an uncharted planet ruled over by a murderous cult of hardened survivors who worship the Sun Queen of ancient Japanese legend, they must discover the secrets of the mysterious world or be trapped on it forever.

External Link
"Survivors of Yamatai" on Fan Fiction.net

Summary (through Chapter 35)
The story begins with Admiral Jorel Quinn of Starfleet Command assigning the USS Nautilus (NCC-31910) to investigate an archaeological find made by a celebrity Ferengi scientist, Doctor Mor. Mor has found a rare isotope in pieces of ancient Japanese pottery that point to an origin somewhere in the impassible Dragon's Head Nebula, near the borders of Klingon, Romulan, and Federation space. Lieutenant Sam Hayashi and Doctor Mor are both transferred to the Nautilus for the duration of this mission.

Later, as Nautilus approaches the Dragon's Head Nebula, Sam and Carlin meet. They are old friends and roommates from Starfleet Academy, and they catch up on all the changes in their lives since then. Carlin has been promoted to Lieutenant and has been dating Commander Antori Drel for two years (since the events of "The Best Revenge"). Their relationship has become serious and she is considering proposing marriage. Sam, meanwhile, has mellowed somewhat, becoming less of a troublemaker, though she is still not ready to settle down. Their conversation is interrupted by the ship's arrival at the Dragon's Head Nebula and a call for a meeting of the ship's senior officers, which includes both of them.

At the meeting, Doctor Mor details his find. The pottery is roughly two thousand years old and belongs to a period of ancient Japanese history when it experienced many sudden advancements under the reign of a legendary figure, the Sun Queen Himiko. Himiko was worshipped by the people and is said to have had magical powers, including the ability to control weather, and to have reigned from a place called Yamatai, which has never been discovered but which some of the legends indicate could be interstellar space. Doctor Mor gets several details of the legends wrong, including the pronunciation of Japan and Himiko's name, but Sam corrects him, revealing the legends to be her favorite childhood stories and the search for Yamatai to be a longstanding dream of hers. Based on the legend, the find, and scans of the nebula, it is determined that Yamatai could be an Class M planet located inside the nebula. A probe is launched to study the planet, and the following morning it reveals that the surface of the planet is mostly water and that some of its islands show signs of ancient ruins and spaceship crashes from every race and every era in the quadrant. Captain Sokar authorizes an away team consisting of Antori Drel, Carlin, Sam, and Doctor Mor to take a shuttle into the nebula to investigate the planet.

The shuttle reaches the planet, but on achieving orbit it is caught in an ion storm. Sam desperately takes the shuttle down into the planet's atmosphere in hopes of evading the storm, but a thunderstorm in the atmosphere of the planet itself downs the damaged shuttle, causing it to crash just off the shore of the main island. The away team manages to swim to shore safely, but Sam is separated from the others and knocked out by an unknown assailant. Meanwhile, Brother John, a member of the Solarii--a violent cult of previous crash survivors--observes the Federation shuttle crash via a sensor and communications network installed in an abandoned Dominion communications base. He alerts Father Matan, the leader of the Solarii, so he can investigate the newcomers himself.

Meanwhile, on the beach, Carlin and Antori realize that Sam, although lost, is most likely still alive. They decide to move inland and begin searching for her, taking Doctor Mor with them. Mor attempts to take along a large variety of useless luggage, but is eventually forced to abandon it. In order to convince him to do so, Carlin repacks the contents of their two medkits into one, leaving behind the case of one medkit and (accidentally) a loaded hypospray as well. The away team makes it to a hilltop overlooking a forested valley and camps there, deciding that they will split up and search the valley the next day before reuniting at some ruins on the cliffs on the other side of the valley. Antori believes this is their best chance of finding Sam, but is nervous because he believes they are being watched.

In the morning he makes sure that Carlin and Doctor Mor are both armed, even though it means he himself must go unarmed. High levels of polaric radiation prevent the away team from making more than intermittent communications with each other via combadge, and limits the range of their tricorders to a few meters, hampering their search efforts. However Carlin is able to discover the remains of a Vorta and his log, which reveals the presence of a secret Dominion base/bases on the planet during the Dominion War and further states that the Dominion forces on the planet were wiped out by a sword-wielding enemy they called the Oni. Following a combadge's emergency transponder, Carlin finds the body of a young woman in a 24th Century Starfleet uniform who was burned at the stake in ancient Japanese ruins preserved by polaric radiation. She also finds the bodies of human and a Romulan dumped in a swamp. On her way out of the swamp she falls and twists her ankle, attracting the attention of a Cardassian crash survivor who claims to be there to help. He reveals that his name is Matan.

Elsewhere Sam regains consciousness and finds herself hanging upside down in a cave. She manages to break free, but in the process she is impaled through the side with a piece of rebar. Unable to contact the others due to the polaric radiation, she wraps the rebar to immobilize it while she attempts to escape from the cave and find medical attention. She discovers several bodies during her attempt to escape, including that of a Bajoran female who's corpse was hung up as a sort of shrine. She is temporarily stopped by a gate made of scavenged materials and rigged with explosives, but she manages to set off the bombs, destroying the gate and also starting a cave in. As she runs through the tunnels to escape the cave in, a Bolian scavenger attacks her from behind and attempts to persuade her to return with him in exchange for a quick death, which "they" will not give her. She refuses and escapes the caves to a cliff above the beach, while the Bolian is killed in the cave in.

Still in desperate need of medical attention, Sam stumbles upon the rest of the away team's trail, finding the abandoned medkit case and hypospray, which is loaded with an antibiotic. She then falls and, unable to follow the away team further in her weakened state, makes camp at an abandoned fire ring in the forested valley. While there she treats her own wound by cauterizing it and injecting herself with the antibiotic. She also finds a quiver of arrows and a makeshift longbow on a decaying body. Due to her kyudo training, she is able to use the bow to hunt and kill a deer for food. Later while attempting to cook the meat she receives a brief communication from Antori. He has already reached the rendezvous point and tells Sam to join him and the others there. On her way, Sam comes upon the camp where Carlin and Matan are staying. Matan introduces himself as a harmless teacher and to prove it he has made a splint for Carlin's leg while the muscular regenerator repairs the sprain. He asks about the mission that brought them to the planet and Sam tells him the legend of Himiko until Carlin sedates her in order to more properly treat her wound.

Matan takes advantage of this, waiting until Carlin has fallen asleep and then using a hidden communicator to call for the Solarii to beam away himself and Sam. When Carlin awakes in the middle of the night, she is alone. She searches for Sam and Matan but in the process becomes caught in a trap and is attacked by wolves. Having lost her phaser just before meeting Matan, she is forced to fight off the wolves using only the bow and arrows Sam found and brought to camp with her. Soon after, Doctor Mor comes upon her and Carlin uses his phaser to release herself from the trap. She returns to the camp and finds traces of energy from a Romulan transporter where Matan and Sam were beamed away. She and Mor then begin heading immediately for the rendezvous point to meet with Antori and determine their next course of action. While on their way, they discover a shrine with scavenged modifications and signs of recent use, indicating that someone on the island is still worshiping Himiko.

Shortly thereafter, they run into a Solarii hunting party led by a Klingon named Vamdar. The Solarii trick Doctor Mor into disarming himself and then subdue him and Carlin, tying them up and dragging them into the ancient ruins of a mountain village, where they are still searching for Antori. Vamdar shows signs of wanting to rape Carlin and one of the other Solarii objects. Vamdar shoots him and in the ensuing chaos both Mor and Carlin escape into the ruins. The Solarii hunt for them and manage to corner and recapture Doctor Mor. Vamdar manages to find Carlin, but she fights him off and kills him with his own disruptor. Thus armed, Carlin heads for the rendezvous point killing or sedating any Solarii she cannot sneak around. She is eventually reunited with Antori, who has killed several Solarii himself and took some of their weapons and equipment before being attacked and bitten badly in the leg by wolves. Carlin manages to drag him back to a hidden camp and treat him there.

The next morning, Sam awakens inside a Solarii prison cell made from the gutted hull of a Starfleet shuttlepod suspended from the roof of a cave. She manages to jury rig the engines to fire automatically some time later that evening by powering them with her tricorder. She is then confronted by Father Matan and Brother John who hold Doctor Mor hostage--despite his pleas that he will help them. Matan demands to know why Himiko's reign came to an end and Sam tells him the only story she knows that relates to the end of Himiko's reign. The story tells of a young priestess named Hoshi who was chosen to be the Sun Queen's successor, but found that Himiko was not human but instead an evil face-stealing spirit called a koh. When the koh tried to transfer itself to Hoshi, she thwarted it by killing herself, trapping the koh in the decaying body of the former queen. While Matan rejects certain elements of the tale as blasphemous, he seems to believe others and proclaims that Doctor Mor will help him find the Chamber of the Sun while Sam will endure the Ritual of Fire

Meanwhile, Carlin and Antori have found the Dominion communications base the Solarii are using. They raid it in an effort to disrupt Solarii communications and get out a distress signal. The Solarii sabotage the control room and Antori's leg is injured, but Carlin manages to reach the maintenance panel at the top of the communications tower and broadcast a distress signal. A rescue shuttle from the Nautilus--crewed by Doctor Howard, Ensign Alex McKensey, Lieutenant-Commander Rejes, and Crewman Maiava--picks up the signal and comes to prepares to beam up Carlin and Antori. Before they can, however, a sudden unnatural storm fueled by polaric ion discharges strikes down the shuttle. The crew beams out in time, but the polaric radiation scatters them across the island. Crewman Maiava beams down near Carlin's location, but is quickly killed by the Solarii.

The crash is observed by Sokar aboard the Nautilus and by an outdated Klingon bird-of-prey being operated by the Orion Syndicate: the OSS Cluros. The Orions believe they are witnessing an altercation between Starfleet and a group of natives with advanced polaric ion energy weapons and decide to kidnap any Starfleet survivors they can find in order to learn about the natives and steal the weapon for themselves. Sokar observes the Cluros heading for the planet and determines to allow it to approach the planet in hopes of learning from its success or failure whether the forces that brought down the rescue shuttle would be able to destroy the Nautilus as well.

Meanwhile, Carlin meets back up with Antori and they together go to the wreckage of the crash site, interrupting a Solarii attempt to scavenge the wreck. They retrieve damaged phaser sniper rifles (Antori believes he can get one of them working again) and the shuttle's sensor logs, which they combine with Solarii communications logs to locate where Sam is being held: in a shuttlepod in the caves beneath a Solarii-occupied ancient palace, near a downed warbird and a ramshackle Solarii city. They hear from Rejes who has reunited with Doctor Howard and is just outside the Solarii city. Rejes decides to mount a rescue effort before the Solarii re-establish communications. She reunites with Alex McKensey inside the city, and he managed to confirm the exact location of Sam, but the Solarii find and capture them before they can rescue her.

Matan decides to try to use Sam as bait to lure Antori and Carlin away from the Solarii city and into a trap at an ancient monastery. He has Sam taken from the shuttlepod-cell with the excuse of preparing her for the Ritual of Fire. Rejes attempts to stop the Solarii from taking her, but is killed, and Alex and Doctor Howard are imprisoned in the cell in Sam's place. Sam is unable to warn them about her escape plan before she is lead away, to the downed warbird which the Solarii have made partially operational. Sam acquires a traditional Japanese bow and is allowed to escape to an arid canyon south of the monastery, but Brother John and another Solarii team are sent to trap and kill her and anyone who should come to rescue her.

Sam contacts Carlin and Carlin immediately goes to rescue her friend, ignoring Antori's warnings and leaving him to continue to the Solarii city alone. She is ambushed by the Solarii, but with help from Sam, she is able to escape into the canyon. Sam and Carlin fill each other in on what's happened to them in the past 24 hours, including the capture of Doctor Howard and Alex McKensey and the fact that the shuttlepod they're imprisoned in is in danger because of Sam's juryrigging, which would only have provided a survivable escape for one person under ideal conditions. Shortly afterward, they reach the monastery and are ambushed by Brother John and his party. Sam is stunned and Carlin hits her head and loses consciousness. However, the Solarii are prevented from killing her when the Oni--inhuman figures in Samurai armor--attack and kill many of them.

When Sam regains consciousness she finds herself in a room full of bodies, including several Solarii. She finds Carlin nearby and, with her friend's help, manages to treat her and get her back on her feet. Sam then reclaims her bow and escapes the room with Carlin before the Oni return to find them missing. Sam and Carlin attempt to escape the monastery. They find the remains of an unsuccessful Dominion assault on the monastery and discover an ancient tomb. They identify the remains in the tomb as belonging to Himiko, the first Sun Queen and find murals describing the process by which she chose her successor, starting with a fire ritual. Leaving the tomb, they meet a group of Solarii under Brother John who are also trying to escape the Oni-infested monastery. After a brief stand-off the Starfleet officers and the Solarii agree to a temporary truce in order to help each other escape the Oni. Most of the Solarii are killed when a giant Oni general attacks them, but Carlin, Sam, and Brother John manage to make it to a covered bridge leading away from the monastery. While the Oni collapse the bridge, John uses his communicator to call for the Solarii to beam him out, leaving Sam and Carlin to fall alone.

They manage to survive the fall, however, and wind up back outside the Solarii city. They sneak in through the sewer, intending to rescue Doctor Howard and Alex, who are still held prisoner, but Brother John and a group of Solarii under him attack. They take Sam from behind while she's up on a tower and separated from Carlin. They threaten to kill her unless Carlin surrenders, but Sam breaks free and manages to kill most of her captors. She then tackles Brother John and falls off the tower with him. They beam out at the last second, but Carlin is unaware of this and mourns Sam's loss. She is nearly killed by one of the surviving members of Brother John's party, but Antori shoots her attacker using a phaser sniper rifle he's set up on the ridge overlooking the city. He then gives her covering fire as she makes her way to and across the bridge that provides access to the Solarii palace and the caves beneath.

Meanwhile, Sam is forced to strip and change into an ancient blood-stained kimono. She attempts to break free by using Brother John as a human shield, but Matan shoots him. Sam is then taken into the caverns and bound to a stake for the Ritual of Fire. Carlin arrives just in time to witness Father Matan ordering his men to burn Sam at the stake. She manages to kill the men, but the other Solarii present attack her, most notably the two Klingon brothers of Vamdar, who want revenge for his death. Matan stops them from beating her to death and has her brought to him, to watch as he lights the fire beneath Sam himself. As the fire rises, a sudden gust of wind blows down into the caves and extinguishes the flames, saving Sam. Matan interprets this as a sign from Himiko that Sam is "the Key" they've been seeking, who will free Himiko and all the Solarii by undergoing the Ascension Ritual in the Chamber of the Sun (which he is very close to finding, thanks to Doctor Mor). He has Sam taken to the throne room of the palace above, while he gives the Klingon brothers permission to execute Carlin.

The brothers bicker over how and where to kill Carlin, and as they fight she breaks free and falls into a chasm, landing in an area the Solarii call the Pit: a prison where they starve new recruits into submission, often driving them to cannibalism and insanity in the process. The brothers are unable to find Carlin after her fall and she escapes into the Pit, healing her injuries before continuing on. She comes into contact with several of the prisoners in the Pit, most of whom are cannibalistic and insane, but a recent human prisoner, the captain of a downed civilian transport who identifies himself as Crusoe. Carlin and Crusoe manage to escape the Pit by setting off a gas explosion and make their way to the chamber where Doctor Howard and Alex are being held. They release them from the shuttlepod just before the engines go off, slamming it into the wall and causing a chain reaction that ignites pockets of volatile gas throughout the palace.

While Howard, Alex, and Crusoe use the explosions as an opportunity to escape, Carlin goes into the palace after Sam instead. Sam manages to break free just before she arrives and kills the Klingon brother who was guarding her. Carlin and Sam then run into Doctor Mor, who is saving his research from the fire. He promises to help them escape by distracting a guard, but when he returns Matan and a contingent of Solarii are with him. Sam and Carlin manage to escape through the burning palace, killing the final Klingon brother in the process. They run out onto the bridge hoping to escape the Solarii city and rejoin Antori and the others on the ridge opposite the city. However, Matan has beamed back to the warbird and uses its weapons to destroy the bridge in front of them. The newly-arrived Cluros then decloaks, beams up the Starfleet officers, and fires on the downed warbird, destroying it and wrecking the Solarii city, but not before Matan and an unknown number of other Solarii are able to escape.

Aboard the Cluros, Carlin insists on being taken to see Commander Ursan, the commanding officer of the ship. She believes that the polaric ion storms that brought down the rescue shuttle will bring down the bird-of-prey as well. She tries to persuade the Orions to land, but they try to flee the planet's atmosphere instead. Powerful polaric ion discharges disable the ship before it can leave, however, causing it to crash. Atria D'blae, the ship's handler for the Syndicate takes command and orders an emergency separation of the "head and neck" of the bird-of-prey, hoping for a survivable landing but the storm is too powerful. The ship crashes and Carlin is critically injured, going into cardiac arrest. Antori manages to revive her and carry her out of the wreckage but is then attacked by Matan and a group of Solarii. With the help of the Cluros ' Nausicaan tactical officer, he manages to kill several of the Solarii, but then Matan kills the Nausicaan and throws his ax, intending to kill Carlin with it. Antori shields her with his body. Mortally wounded, he nonetheless manages to fight off the remaining Solarii, injuring Matan with a bolt from a Jem'Hadar rifle in the process. He and Carlin profess their love for each other and then he dies in her arms.

Meanwhile Sam and the others tried to come up with their own plan to escape the bird-of-prey as it went down. They attempted to beam off, but Alex became trapped in the engineering section with the crazed and violent Gorn chief engineer when the ship separated. Sam and Doctor Howard found the transporter in flames after the crash and were unable to locate Carlin or Antori. They managed to rescue Atria and the commander of the Cluros from the wreck and Sam briefly-re-established communications with Alex, confirming his desperate situation. When the Solarii attacked, the sound of the fighting drew Sam and the others to where they found Carlin hugging Antori's body. Doctor Howard scanned the remains and announced that, while Antori was dead, the Drel symbiont was still alive. He could save it, but only by joining it immediately with the only available host: Carlin. Carlin eagerly volunteered, fully aware of the risks of the procedure. Atria left the Starfleet officers to complete the procedure while she and Ursan headed to the wreck of the engineering section of the Cluros several kilometers away, in hopes of retrieving her personal shuttle and using it to escape the planet.