The Auxiliary Control Centre of the Enterprise-A was quiet, Uhura was engaged in tuning the precise frequency of the signal, Sulu busy in plotting a course, Chekov trying hard to minimise the time for the voyage, Spock and Kirk were discussing why the Federation hid the message from them, silently.
Chekov seemed to be tensed about something his monitor showed him. "Captain, we have a problem, sir." Both Spock and Kirk stopped their conversation and looked at Chekov. "To reach the location sooner, we have to attain a warp speed of 9.9. That speed is not recommended, sir", finished Chekov.
Kirk clicked his comm, "Scotty, can we achieve warp speed 9.9?" Montgomery Scott is the chief engineer aboard the ship, his tactical plans for the technical capabilities of the ship has helped Kirk attain the unattainable. "Nothing is impossible, eh Captain? But warp factor 9 is unsafe. I don't think the ship can stand the pressure of that output", replied Scott over the comm.
"Can you or can you not?"
"I can, sir. But it would result in overloading the warp drive core, it could strand us in the middle of nowhere."
"How much velocity can we attain without overloading the core?"
"Say, 8.8."
"Be on it."
"Mr. Sulu, take us around that star", Kirk indicated a point on the screen, " we will slingshot using it's gravitational pull." Sulu steered the ship towards the star.
"Captain, the pull on that star is powerful. We will never make past it if we got caught in the pull", stated Spock.
"We don't need to make past it, we just need a nudge."
Below the deck, Scott was trying hard in the dilithium chamber to attain the warp speed. He placed two dilithium cores into the warp drive core when his comm buzzed 'Scotty, you need to hurry on that speed'. "What do you think I am doing here? Dancing eh?" he hurled.
The Enterprise-A was approaching the star, "On my mark, Mr. Sulu", Kirk uttered. The pull was powerful than Spock has anticipated. As per the Captain's order, Sulu was steering the ship at maximum velocity towards the star. The comm buzzed 'Captain, we are ready'. They needed a little more acceleration, Kirk took his time, everyone was waiting anxiously.
Spock implied, "Captain, a little more and our ship will be caught in it's atmosphere."
"Now, Mr. Sulu"
Sulu pushed the warp drive lever, at the right time, the ship drifted through the space. Chekov was amazed to see the ship attaining a warp speed of 9.98 without instigating any damage to the engine and on the crew. He informed the captain that they would now reach the location in about 3 hours.
Kirk asked Uhura to open a ship-wide channel, then spoke "Attention, crew of the Enterprise-A, earlier today we received an order from the Federation to investigate over an unknown signal in the uncharted space beyond the Malurian star system. We may lose communication with the Starfleet, but we have one thing that no other ship in the fleet has, you. And as we all know there is no such thing as unknown, only temporarily hidden. Kirk out."