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.