Two voices rang out simultaneously.
"Sergeant, hold your fire!"
"Worf!"
Worf immediately snapped to attention, lowering his Type 2-A pistol. Sergeant Schlock was more reluctant, but did slowly lower his gun.

Picard took a moment to analyze the newcomers: The one who had given the order to hold fire was a tall, well-muscled blond man wearing an orange shirt, with a lightning bolt-shaped device floating over his shoulders. Picard didn't know what that meant, but he guessed that they were indicative of rank, similar to the pips Starfleet officers wore. There was a small maraca-shaped object floating next to him, the function of which Picard could only guess at. Flanking them were two of the largest humanoids Picard had ever seen, both wearing sky-blue shirts of the same design as the smaller man, but lacking any devices hovering over their shoulders. One was black, and wore something that resembled Geordi's VISOR, though that didn't necessarily indicate its function, while the other was white, and looked entirely normal for a human, save for his gigantic muscles. Behind them was a short, bald man wearing a dark blue shirt, small round objects by his head, and what appeared to be old-style Terran sunglasses. The being who had been threatening Worf appeared to be made of manure sporting a pair of eyeballs, but almost certainly wasn't.
All this flashed through his head, the result of years of diplomatic experience, as he politely greeted the newcomers "Greetings, and welcome aboard the USS Enterprise. I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard." He watched the arrivals for signs of leadership, not wanting to commit a faux pas by accidentally addressing the wrong person.

To Picard's surprise, the small floating maraca spoke up. "I'm Ennesby, the AI you talked to earlier. This is Captain Kaff Tagon, and that's Commander Kevyn Andreyasn." It flicked its eyes toward the man with the orange shirt and the bald man, respectively.
"A pleasure to meet you. I take it this is the honor guard you mentioned?" Picard queried.
"Yes. That one's Shep," Ennesby indicated the black human, "That's Nick," indicating the white one, "and the pile of crap is Sergeant Schlock."
Picard replied "This is my bridge crew. Commander Riker, Lieutenant Commander Data…"

Tagon and Kevyn had both taken advantage of the conversation to scan the bridge for any threats, and were having a short subvocalized conversation, transmitted by their armor.
"Well, Kevyn, I don't see any major threats. They have those guns, but our armor ought to protect us from bullets if worst comes to worst."
"You weren't looking right, sir. Those guns don't have to use bullets. I suspect they also incorporate some kind of directed energy weapon, but I've never seen anything like them before."
Tagon briefly wondered how Kevyn knew that, but he quickly recalled that Kevyn's glasses let him see other spectra, so he could see stuff others didn't.
Shep, who had been listening over his own armor's comm. system, chimed in, "I agree, sir. I dunno what they got, but they sure ain't like ours."
"Okay, any suggestions?"
"I would suggest that Ennesby try to get the designs, then we can send them back to the Touch-and-Go to fab up and test on our armor. In the meantime, let's try not to get into any shooting with these people."
"Alright. That's the plan."
The conversation snapped off, to be replaced by Ennesby's translation of the conversation going on

Seconds later, a chime sounded on the bridge, and Worf announced that Picard had an incoming message, Captain's eyes only.
"I'll take this in my ready room, if you don't mind, sirs. Commander Riker, you have the bridge."
"Yes, sir."
Picard entered his ready room, and quickly went to his desk, and sure enough, there was a small light blinking, indicating an incoming call. Picard hit the button to acknowledge, and smiled as the Starfleet logo on the screen was replaced by the visage of Jason MacKenna, a friend from the Academy, whom Picard hadn't seen in years. However, Admiral MacKenna had more pressing matters on his mind than simply catching up.
"Picard, we have a problem. Two days ago, a Romulan scout ship was destroyed. The last image it transmitted back was of a massive Borg fleet, coming this way. Starfleet believes that the Borg are planning a large-scale invasion of the Alpha Quadrant. Course analysis indicates that they plan to use this sector as an invasion corridor." Picard tried to say something, but the Admiral wasn't done. "The Romulans realized what a threat this would be, and alerted every group with any sort of armaments that could get here in time. We estimate we have another twelve hours, at most, before they arrive. You've already detected the ships with me, but there are going to be more. A lot more. The Roosevelt is an hour and a half away from your position, along with 6 other ships, the Romulans are sending four Warbirds, another Scimitar-class, and numerous smaller ships, and the Klingons have an armada of Birds-of-Prey en route. The Romulan ships should start arriving within two hours, and the Klingons three hours after. Several less influential warp-capable races are also sending ships, they'll be arriving at various times."
Picard finally managed to get a word in. "Admiral. I know a Borg fleet was coming through here. We detected them almost an hour ago. We've already engaged them."
That got MacKenna's attention.
"And you survived?! But how? The report indicated at least forty-five ships! There's no way the Enterprise could have survived that encounter alone!"
"Precisely my point. We didn't survive alone. We were out here investigating a temporal anomaly when the Borg came. That anomaly collapsed in the midst of the battle, leaving a ship behind."
The admiral retorted "So instead of one ship fighting a Borg armada, you had two? I don't see how that helped you."
"Were it a Federation ship, it wouldn't have. However, this ship is far beyond anything we have. As soon as the Borg detected it, they attacked it. I imagine they wanted the technology aboard. They didn't get it."
"It fought back? Was it crewed?"
"Yes. In fact, we have representatives of the ship onboard now. The ship's name is the Touch-and-Go. They're mercenaries."
The admiral was horrified. "Mercenaries? But they're illegal!"
"Considering that their single vessel possesses enough firepower to destroy the entire Borg invasion fleet, I wouldn't tell them that if I were you."
"An excellent point. I'll see if we have any personnel with the appropriate training in the fleet. I'll see you soon, Jean-Luc."
"Yes. Perhaps once we get this settled, we can catch up."
"I would enjoy that."
The communication terminated, and Picard got up to inform the crew and guests of this new development.