Actually, space is not a complete vacuum.
Apart from gaseous nebulae, there are many odd clouds of gaseous and weird cosmic debris lying around.

Higher speeds involved hyperspace.
No one really understood the nature of hyperspace.
There were no stars in hyperspace and physical laws were different.
Navigation did not tax the intellect.
The warp field 'warped' you into hyperspace.
You just pointed in the right direction and pulled the plug on the warp fields when you wanted to stop.
The thing was, of course, that you travelled much farther than you would in normal space with no detours for planets, supernovas, gymkhanas, traffic lights, whatever.

The student reasoned that if hyperspace was viewed as space compressed, then there would be more encounters with matter and, overall, it might be more gaseous, i.e.: more fluidic, than normal space.
Therefore, when a large object was passing through hyperspace, some speed would inevitably be lost to drag.
In addition, matter, dust, gas, whatever, not directly in the path of the object, will be attracted to the warp field.
This would be drawn into the 'wake' of the warp field thus producing a degree of 'tail drag'.

The student naturally postulated, therefore, and in total contradiction of current thinking, that if a space ship was aerodynamic, it would be faster. Further, it the warp envelope ran along the longitudinal axis of the space ship, this would decrease tail drag in hyperspace.

The thing about a warp field is that, when in contact with the human body, it will dissolve that body from the subatomic level up.
This is generally regarded as undesirable.
Warp fields, therefore, were generated around a space ship in a configuration which left a central safe area for the occupants.
This meant warp pods were mounted externally thus substantially increasing the cross-sectional area along the longitudinal axis of the space ship and thereby increasing any drag.

Of course, everyone knew that you could not have drag or a wake in vacuum but it kept this smart-ass busy and out of their hair.
It also considerably reduced the time he spent chasing eligible females on the campus.

Initial research completed, the only way forward was to prove or disprove the theory by building a prototype.
Now, a certain senior lecturer was getting very close to a certain 'heavenly body' of mutual interest to both student and lecturer.
The last thing the lecturer wanted was this smart-ass loose on the campus again.
Funding for a prototype of this nature would normally take a lot of argument, discussion and time.
In this case, however, it suddenly became available.

The prototype was a rather long, thin and elegant tube like structure with no external warp pods.
It achieved speeds far in excess of anything thought possible.
This upset quite a few apple carts. Where this happened the smart-ass became unpopular.
Elsewhere, and in the real world, the brilliant student became very popular.

The military implications were enormous.
If a warhead was built into the body, making it into a missile, it could penetrate any defence and explode before that defence could retaliate.
For survey work, it could survey planets at least ten times faster than conventional means.

The Senior Lecturer was promoted for his foresight.
He married the heavenly body who, as often happens, turned into a nagging harridan.

Everyone made a lot of money.
Except the student.
The military wanted this for themselves and so all publicity was curtailed for security reasons.
The student was drafted into the Space Corps ostensibly to develop a new series of Survey Drones.
In reality, and secretly, the drones would be able to double as missiles if and when required.

Next door to the Survey Drone department, was a new department created to find a defence against the deadly missiles.
This held a large percentage of ex-fellow students of the Engineer.
This brought them into the jurisdiction of the military and meant that they had to keep their mouths shut about the missile function of the drone.

There was, of course, much shouting, arguing and self-righteous indignation.
After a while however, that had to stop for a breather.
They retired to the local, on base, pub.
The beer was good.
They started to notice the many facilities provided, on the base, for having fun and to compensate for the security thing.
The more intelligent soon realised that life here would simply be a continuation of campus life.
With all the fun and a lot less restrictions on partying and bed mates.
Having a nice balance of male / female researchers kept everyone happy.
Life was good.