I can see it now... In the earlt 25th century, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Empire combine forces to eradicate the Cardassians, who, after the Dominion war, were never able to fully recoup their losses, and therefore are considered easy pickin's...except for the fact that the Federation has extended the hand of friendship and has vowed to come to the aid of the Union if attacked. By the mid-25th century, the situation has deteriorated to the point that there are incursions into Cardassian space, and subsequent battles, at least once a week. The Union, being extremely weakened, asks for more aid from the Federation; they, meanwhile, not wanting to make the situation worse, ofers to build ships for them. The Union sent engineers and designers to help make the ships more compatable with their remaining ships. This is a look at the 1st prototype...
A whole new set of possibilities with this scenario.