1.This is set in the nebulous time period between Killashandra and Crystal Line for Trag, and somewhere within the missions of the Enterprise prior to Kirk's Admiralty the first time around.
2.Taygeta IV and its inhabitants are borrowed from Tears of the Singers by Melinda Snodgrass (19 in the Pocket Book series).
3.The closing paragraphs are a supposition on how the Warp Factors exponentially increased by the time of TNG.