I too loved the references in that - and the complexity of the crew's response to meeting the Enterprise-D crew. From their perspective Starfleet really would seem naive and thus possibly threatening, although in their shoes I'd be worried about the Alliance playing nice long enough to score/steal some Federation technology. Reading this has given me an itch to see a fic where the Alliance has to deal with Kirk, or Mackenzie Calhoun on a bad day - now there's a man Mal would get along with.

I may have to write that myself.

In the meantime though, loved this and really hoping to see more of it.