Can 'combined' speeds exceed the speed of light?

No you won't keep on accelerating and going faster unless an outside force that was already going at the speed of light was continuing to push you forward, if nothing was pushing you forward then you would gradually slow down. Also as you have mass then you could never reach the speed of light, and as NOTHING can move faster than the speed of light then you could never exceed the speed of light. If any of your ideas were possible then space exploration would be so much easier, but at least you are using your brain to think.

I don't know what country you are from but if your from the U. K and you are interested in what is actually possible with space exploration the royal institute's Christmas lectures on bbc 4 are all based in space exploration this year, they have three lectures starting on 28 December at 8 pm.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.