Interesting idea, but thus probably not. And the idea appeared to be that ships that already were on deep space assignments in this direction would be directed even deeper in; odds then would be that those ships would be decades old at the time of the vectoring already, rather than cutting edge...
Of course, software could be upgraded across great distances, with one of the communications tricks employed by the VOY heroes. And holodecks as such would have been available to 2350s starships already, at least in theory (Flotter and all). But again, probably not.
Timo Saloniemi
My thinking too.
While ships can be upgraded on the go extensively (and usually are if they are not near a spacedock), it seems unlikely that the Protostar was one of the 2 deep-space vessels which were redirected by Starfleet to meet Voyager in 5-6 years.
Also, the Protostar doesn't seem specifically designed for deep space exploration.
The registry of the Protostar suggests the ship was built about a year or two after Voyager launched. So, its an NX class yes, but it was likely one of several NX class ships used as a testbed for technologies cooked up from Voyager's database since the ship returned to AQ (or when Voyager transmitted ships logs, crew reports, etc. when they established contact with Starfleet via Micro Wormhole that Barclay made).
At any rate, Starfleet would have likely had access to Voyager's advanced propulsion (and other) technologies since 2377 at the earliest... or a year later (at the latest).
I would think ships used as testbeds with highly experimental or new technologies would be staying relatively close to UFP space, so I don't think its one of the deep space ships.
Plus with Janeway being a hologram, it seems more likely Starfleet would do all of this to the Protostar in spacedock before launch.
Then they decide to test out whater faster than Warp technology they cooked up, and voila... an accident happens which brought the ship (and maybe its crew - if it had any) to the Delta Quadrant.
Although I'm curious as to how a Medusan and a Tellarite ended up in the Delta Quadrant - maybe another accident, stray wormhole, abduction, long voyage mission, or something else comes to mind.
