This hard sci-fi novel is the seventh book in the Stasis Stories series of optimistic tales of technological innovation in the near future. This one is about Kaem Seba’s daughter, Zaii, a young woman who, like her father, has extraordinary math talents.

Eager to do her part in the war against the aliens from Epsilon Eridani, she becomes a Space Force ROTC cadet. Soon after that, she’s proving to be a superb young officer. However, as she studies potential warfighting strategies that might be used against the Eridanis, she realizes that the defenders of Sol system have a problem.

The humans won the first battle against the Eridanis by using the technical advantage afforded by the invulnerability of stasis. But the Eridanis jump and biowarfare technology could easily allow them to wipe out the human race on Earth and thus win the war.

Offered the opportunity, she sets out to study the wreckage of the Eridani ships from the first battle. She hopes to figure out how jump works, thus appropriating that technology for human use and evening the playing field. Can she figure this out in time to keep the Eridanis from exterminating homo sapiens? It turns out to be a lot harder than she’d hoped and to require help from someone she tries to avoid asking.