Star Trek: Myriad Universes: Shattered Light - By Michael Schuster Page 0,7

together at the center of the Enterprise bridge.

“I am Locutus of Borg,” he said, even as he exclaimed, I am Picard, inside his head. “Resistance is futile,” he continued, hearing an unnerving robotic quality in his own voice. “Your life, as it has been, is over. From this time forward, you will service us.” He saw the horrified expressions on the faces of the people who had become his family: Beverly and Wesley, Deanna and Worf, even Data appeared gripped by the unfolding events.

Riker stared, stone-faced, from across the gulf that separated the Borg and Federation starships, and Picard knew what his former first officer would do—what the new captain of Enterprise must do. In that moment, the Borg also knew, but too late. They had sought the information from Picard, had searched for whatever new weaponry the Starfleet crew might have improvised, but he had managed to hide it from them until now.

“Mister Worf,” Riker said, “fire.”

A thousand Borg minds functioned as a single entity, studying the information Picard recalled from his meeting with his first officer. Geordi and Data want to install higher-capacity power transfers to the deflector dish so that they can generate a concentrated energy burst at a specific frequency, Riker had informed him. The Borg systems showed susceptibility to the phasers when they fluctuated into a high, narrow band. A thousand drones focused on conceiving an adaptation, a means of thwarting the efforts of Picard’s crew.

“Deflector power approaching maximum limits,” La Forge said at a rear station on the Enterprise bridge. “Energy discharge in six seconds.”

Six seconds, Picard thought, whatever part of him that had become Locutus of Borg agonizing at the too-short time frame.

“Firing, sir.”

The part of him that remained a Starfleet captain rejoiced at the words. He heard the growing hum permeating the Enterprise bridge, then felt the jolt as the high-intensity deflector discharge slammed into the Borg vessel. As systems overloaded, the collective consciousness of a thousand drones raced to find a solution. A titanic blast ripped through a section of the Borg ship to Picard’s left, exposing its interior to space. He saw scores of Borg blown out into the void even as emergency forcefields crackled into existence to protect the rest of the vessel.

For just an instant, Picard saw out in space the forward starboard quadrant of Enterprise’s primary hull. Then another explosion tore through the Borg ship, and then another. The hive mind crumbled as the infrastructure supporting their communications collapsed. Unexpectedly freed from the embrace of the Collective, Picard regained full control of his mind and body.

In the last moment of his life, knowing that the Enterprise crew—his crew—had vanquished the Borg, Picard smiled.

2

William Riker gazed through the small circular window at the blue and white surface of the world below. He realized that he couldn’t recall the proper name of the planet. He’d known it at some point, but for years, he’d simply referred to it by its Starfleet designation of Starbase 234.

“Must be losing my mind,” he said, his voice seeming strangely loud and out of place in the small, empty compartment. He reached his hands up to the escape hatch and leaned against it, bringing his face close to the port. His breath fogged the lower part of the window. He peered left and right, not looking for anything in particular, but spying off to starboard an Akira-class starship. Riker couldn’t read the name or registry number on its hull, but he knew the identity of the vessel. U.S.S. James T. Kirk had drawn a temporary patrol assignment for this sector during Enterprise’s refit.

Riker reached over, wiped away the condensation of his breath on the port, and looked downward. From his vantage far out on one of the upper arms of Callendra Station, he couldn’t see Enterprise in its berth of more than five weeks. After the destruction of the Borg cube, La Forge and his engineering teams had needed the better part of a day to patch up the main deflector and other ship’s systems. The lower three decks of the saucer and the forward half of the secondary hull had remained uninhabitable because of exposure to the high levels of radiation emitted by the improvised energy weapon. When finally capable, Enterprise had limped to the Callendra facility, a repair dock in orbit of Starbase 234. Nearly complete, the refit had consumed thirty-nine days of round-the-clock work.

Initially, Riker had thrown himself into that work. Once Starfleet Command had debriefed him, they had quickly made