Free Valkyrie Rising (Warrior's Wings Book Two) by Evan Currie

the likes of which the richest oil barons of the twentieth and twenty-first century could never even dream.
    Not this place, though. S9X-53P was a wasteland; the system had never really had a chance, as at some point in its early development, the large gas giants that formed in the outer system had destabilized in their orbits and began to spiral inwardly at incredible rates, effectively bulldozing the entire system clean of anything that might support life in the process.
    Given the system’s limited value, even scientifically, when the couriers’ emergency contact hit their FTL receivers, the members of TF5 were understandably taken off guard. That didn’t prevent them from rallying quickly as the situation was uncovered, and their new orders delivered.
    “We’re three jumps from Atlantis, ma’am. No chance we get there in time.” Vincent McDermott was the captain of the Shilo Warrior, and while Nadine Brookes didn’t much like his opinion on the matter, she couldn’t find a way to refute it.
    “Fine. That means we probably get there a day late and a dollar short,” she said grimly, shaking her head. “Well. Good news is that any survivors probably won’t tax our life support.”
    Which was about as cold a comfort as she could imagine, but it literally the only good news about the whole situation.
    “We can do it one jump.”
    All eyes snapped to focus on the screen occupied by Jane Mackay, captain of the HMS Hood.
    “Impossible,” several voices opined.
    “Explain.” Nadine cut them down with her tone.
    “Cheyenne and Longbow class ships have a lot more power than the Los Angeles and older classes,” MacKay said calmly. “We can supercharge the drive as we jump, get between two and three times the range and speed. Getting there isn’t the problem. If we slip up our entry coordinates, however, we could punch through space-time inside the heliopause.”
    Several hissed at that, and Nadine understood why. For a brief moment, when a ship punched through space-time to return to the gravitational influence of the “real” universe, it was actually still traveling much faster than light, relative to the space it was entering. The duration of this period was infinitesimal, but the destruction potential of slamming into solar winds at those speeds was…incalculable.
    “If we do that,” MacKay said, “we all know what happens. We’d have a better chance running a shuttle through a sandstorm at Mach Five, but the navigation problem isn’t insoluble.”
    Nadine frowned thoughtfully, trying to make a decision. Unfortunately, while her specialties included gravitational physics, specifically jump point dynamics, she knew just enough about navigation to know that if they missed it wouldn’t be pretty. She leaned back from the screens for a moment and looked over to where Patrick was sitting.
    “Thoughts?”
    He muted his display with a flick of his finger and shrugged. “Risky. She’s right, though. We’ve got the power to launch clear of space-time long enough, and fast enough, to make it to Atlantis in one jump. Problem is, accuracy at that range is going to be spotty. Safest option would be to aim for a jump point well outside the system. There’s usually one or two caused by rogue planetoids beyond the heliosphere. Problem with that idea is that it’ll take us almost as long to get deep enough in-system to do any good as if we took the long way round.”
    Nadine nodded. “Right. Well, you have any opinions?”
    “On whether we try or not?” he shrugged. “Go for it. Last I checked, there were four million people on Atlantis.”
    Nadine nodded grimly, shifting back into view of her screens.
    “We’re already en route for the Beta Jump Point. Is this the same point you think we can make a single hop run to Atlantis with, Captain Mackay?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Good. Calculate your navigation numbers,” Nadine ordered. “If you can convince me we’ve got a reasonable chance of not ripping