During battle, an officer sees on the screen something which is surely
an armed ship closing in at warp 3 and something else which seems to
be a ship which is more heavily armed closing in at warp 7.

Is there a reason why we couldn't say the following ?

DujHey Qob law' Dujna' Qob puS
the apparent ship is more dangerous than the definite ship

In the past, we've discussed the noun(s) of a law'/puS construction
being {-meH}ed nouns, {-bogh}ed nouns, even noun-noun constructions,
but I don't remember having ever discussed whether the noun(s) of a
law'/puS construction can take suffixes.

Suffixes on nouns in comparative and superlative sentences? Why not? Noun-noun constructions, too! Relative clauses! Adjectivally acting verbs! If it's a noun phrase, it's fair game.

'IwwIj jeD law' 'IwlIj jeD puS.
targhlIj yab tIn law' no'lI' Hoch yabDu' tIn puS.
DujvamDaq tlhIngan nuH tu'lu'bogh pov law' Hoch pov puS.
DujvamDaq 'op SuvwI' tu'lu'bogh po' law' tlhIngan yo' SuvwI' law' po' puS.
tlhIngan qorDu' pong potlh law' Hoch potlh puS.
HIq ngeb qaq law' bIQ qaq puS.
and so on.

I don't think -Hey and -na' have ever canonically been the sole difference between the two nouns being compared, but there's nothing ungrammatical about it.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name