Nice story, but there is one not so rare technicality that mars the reading experience a little bit and that the authors of Star Trek also seem not to be aware of:
A galaxy is a tremendous mass of stars (billions of them) with sometimes surrounding planets. To reach the star nearest to us, Proxima Centauri, it takes 4 years with the speed of light or several months with 10 times the speed of light. To reach the next nearest galaxy, Andromeda, light needs about 2,5 million years. When you write about galaxies you probably mean sun systems. Sorry. 😉