Consider: Your first match is set aboard a spacecraft travelling through the cosmos at the speed of light Run past one of the ship's many windows and you'll see stars whizzing by outside.

CNN: Unreal Tournament: Unreal multiplayer action

By some estimates, American navy ships spend 80% of their time travelling at half speed, which requires barely one-eighth of the power needed to propel a ship at top speed.

ECONOMIST: Electric ships

But despite its streamline design, the shark-shaped ship travels at an average speed of just 7.5 knots -- about that of a large ocean liner.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In much the same way that a surfer rides a wave, the bubble of space containing the ship and its passengers would be pushed at velocities not limited to the speed of light toward a destination.

MSN: Warp speed? Slowing down could be a real killer

Above a speed of about 10 knots, a right whale's encounter with a large ship would probably be fatal.

CNN: Plan to save whales strangling in red tape

Leveraging its superior inventory management skills, this year Borders opened a new fulfillment center to be used to ship orders made over the Internet and also to ship special orders to stores fast enough to match the Internet's speed of delivery on rarer books.

FORBES: Beyond the border

Working at a speed of two knots, HMS Protector broke the four-metre thick ice, which had trapped the cruise ship's bow, in two hours.

BBC: HMS Protector approaches MS Fram

The captain proceeded in the fjords at very slow speed, barely moving forward, by lowering an anchor from the bow to a depth greater than the hull of the ship.

FORBES: It's Not Reality But Perception That Counts