A Starship's hull is made of hard alloys, duranium and tritanium, and can sustain the stress output of warp speed 8 but the Enterprise-A, remarkably, exceeded expectations. Except for a few time dilation effects, the crew was safe.
The ship attained it's maximum warp, thanks to the gravitational pull of the star. Kirk was still dubious about this mission so he ordered Chekov to keep scanning on the radar. While Sulu was handling the ship at a speed beyond, Uhura was failing to detect any signal. When Spock offered to help, she simply waved her hand and denied.
Below the deck, Scott was amazed to see the stability of the ship at such a speed. "Who would have thought that the Enterprise-A could handle a warp speed of 9, eh weeman?" He shared his incredulity with Keenser, his good-alien friend and a fellow engineering division engineer.
"We will reach our destination in 10 minutes, Captain", Sulu broke the silence prevailed across the Bridge (Control Centre).
"Any luck in finding the signal, Lieutenant Uhura?" asked Kirk. Uhura simply nodded her head sideways.
"Captain, there is a ship near our halt", informed Chekov surveying the radar.
"Shields up and load the phasers", Kirk ordered his crew to be ready for the worst.
"Warping out in 5... 4... 3...", Sulu started the count down, "2... 1..." The ship swished out from the warp speed and slowed down. The viewscreen on the bridge was showing a green planet resembling the Earth in former days.
This new frontier was different, it was serene. There were small and large planets with surrounding moons prevailed around the illuminating stars. The green planet was irradiated by stars shine on all the sides. Any rock heart can be calmed and filled with peace by a single look at the planet. The crew was awestruck by this view. Kirk came out of his amazement, "I cannot find any ship, Mr. Chekov."
"There. Around the corner of the planet", Spock spotted the ship, "It looks like a scout ship, Captain."
"Hail them, Mr. Sulu", Sulu contacted the mysterious ship, which came to a halt infront of the Enterprise-A.
Soon the viewscreen displayed the face of a human like creature with horns like structures procuring from his forehead. He was still and his gaze was fixed on Kirk.
"Hello, I'm Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise-A from the United Federation of Planets."
"Hello, I am Garos and welcome to the Malurian system", spoke the figure on the screen in a coarse tone.
"Malurian?? But don't you seem to be Akaali?", Kirk asked in bewilderment.
Garos grabbed his head, down the chin, and peeled of a mask from his face. A scaly, gray-skinned creature was staring distinctively at Kirk. "Like what you see", he continued. "Tell me, what are you doing far away from home?"
Kirk wasn't sure if telling the truth was a superior approach. He engulfed the truth with, "We happen to be in a exploration ship, our sole mission is to explore the space and discover new species."
"So are we. But our job here is done. Goodbye", the picture vanished. The scout ship turned around and swished into space.
"Captain, the Malurians are always exploiting the lands of the Akaali, the mask explains their camouflage. But finding them here in unknown space is skeptical", Spock conferred with Kirk. On being asked why he was suspicious, he continued, "The Malurians are greedy, highly-skilled and the only species, other than the Federation, to be warp capable. They claim whatever they find. Leaving a planet of such abundance on our arrival is what made me dubious about them."
"Captain, I have good news and bad news", interposed Uhura.
"Give the bad news first", said Kirk in what-could-have-gone-wrong-now tone.
Uhura took a deep breath and said, "The bad news is that we lost communications with the Starfleet and the good news is I finally tuned the right frequency and procured the distress signal."