Ok.  Here is a simple shape with a square pattern used for highlight  (mapping is object - spherical).

You can see that on the right side that there is a seam where the two ends of the square pattern meet.  Kind of messy.

This shape is UV mapped.  If I were to use a JPG texture map of a square pattern for highlighting with, it would turn out a lot better than what Vue can generate without putting more effort into the function editor.

Is your object UV mapped and is your NCC-1701 a JPG texture or is it generated somehow at render time?

www.youtube.com/user/ShawnDriscollCG