The Light by Jeff D. Jacques Page A

said, perched atop Sage’s alcove machine. With Stevens’s help, they had connected the Borg power flow regulator she had retrieved from the cube to the conduits leading from the wall to the machine itself. In theory, once activated, the power would be redirected in a circular loop, keeping it from the machine itself and causing it to release Gomez. Once that happened, they would allow the power to flow back into the machine, and everyone would be happy.
    Again, in theory.
    â€œPower is life!” Sage-Gomez called out once more.
    â€œShe certainly is unrelenting on that point, isn’t she?” Stevens remarked.
    Pattie looked down at her friend and crewmate and found it difficult to see Gomez in her present condition. The human looked so forlorn, locked in that vertical position and in her new state of mind. Pattie imagined that Gomez was aware of everything going on around her but was unable to break free of the machine’s conditioning.
    We’re coming for you, Commander, she thought, then said aloud, “She seems to know what we’re planning.”
    â€œShe does,” Corsi said. “This new Sage isn’t some elderly alien woman anymore. She’s a Starfleet engineer who has been listening to everything we’ve been saying. I have to believe Sonya’s rooting for us on some level. She dropped that shield after all.”
    â€œThe Light is all,” Sage-Gomez said in a quiet faraway voice. Pattie guessed she was preparing for whatever effect their plan was going to have on her.
    â€œAll right, Pattie,” Stevens said. “Let’s do this. Throw the switch.”
    Pattie flicked the toggle she’d incorporated into the regulator, and a low thrum emanated from the device as the power shooting into the machine was suddenly rerouted. Almost immediately the glowing modules in the machine began to flicker, and Gomez herself shuddered in place, her entire body wrenching to and fro against the metal arms and braces that held her.
    Across the room, the watching crowd of natives being held back by Corsi’s phaser became more agitated as their Sage convulsed and the machine banged and groaned. Gomez herself let out a wail of anguish that filled Pattie with despair and the hope that this wouldn’t last much longer.
    â€œSage!” cried Tey’sa and the rest of the onlookers. They jostled forward, and their slight advance began to worry Corsi.
    â€œStay back!” she shouted at them, then turned to look at Stevens. “I don’t think they’re going to restrain themselves much longer.” He threw her a worried look that represented what Pattie herself was feeling.
    Suddenly, the group of bars across Gomez’s chest snapped open, but since the neck spikes were still attached to her, they weren’t in a position to free her just yet.
    â€œGet ready, Doc,” Stevens said as he readied himself in front of Gomez. Lense moved into position nearby with her medkits open and a medical tricorder waiting in her grasp.
    And then the neck spikes popped away from her body, and Gomez crumpled forward like a rag doll into Stevens’s waiting arms. “Pattie, shut down the regulator,” Stevens called out as he lay Gomez down on the floor. Pattie did so, and the power once again flowed freely into the machine.
    â€œSage!” the crowd erupted again, then surged forward despite Corsi’s protestations. But the anxious natives didn’t attack or try to thrust Gomez back into the machine. They just stood around her and watched as Lense worked on her.
    As Corsi made her way around the crowd, she paused at the machine’s empty alcove and contemplated it for a moment. Pattie had a sickening feeling that Corsi might step inside herself, but then the security chief turned away, a thoughtful expression on her face.
    â€œTey’sa,” Corsi called. Pattie had no idea who Tey’sa was, but a moment later, one of the natives, a