Hey, if some one has not already, I would like to introduce an (what I think) is an awesome fan fiction. It is about a deep space station (12 to be precise) in the briar patch that has more than meets the eye. It does not really conflict with STO vision of star trek (it is set after insurrection, and thus, somethings will not ave happened. But you can easily see how things would line up with some minor corrections), and I hope that they will use this as their approach to the tholians. It is sort of like a deep space nine, next generation take on things. It even has the long not seen admiral nichaeve.
Here is the link (hope you like it):
http://www.hiddenfrontier.com/episodes/indexhf.php
Here is the site(the people that made this made more than one fan fiction):
http://www.hiddenfrontier.com/