travel between star systems

Ok, for starters I'm willing to conceed that I'm a moron so it won't be necessary for anyone else to point it out. That being said, I have a problem,  I cannot figure out how to travel from one star system to another. I'm playing a massive single player game (as the Vasari) with 6 different star system. My Allies and enemies congegate at  stars and quickly jump to another star constantly, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to do it. I have the majority of techs researched a huge fleet and have pretty much mastered every aspect of this game save one...I can't exit my starting star system! Please help! Thanks.