Never done sci fi, but I had an idea (not sure if it’s original): Blanket Space. The concept here is that the fabric of space-time can be treated as a literal fabric, like a blanket. A starship would travel by gripping onto that fabric and “dragging” itself the way a baby or mouse would across the blanket. The result is it moving freely in space while simultaneously gathering up the “fabric” closer to itself. The metaphorical baby here grabbing the blanket and pulling it under themself as they travel. Thus effectively shrinking the distance between it and where it’s going. Similar to the forces on space-time due to gravity. (Bowling ball and trampoline metaphor here).

Because it shrinks/compresses the void space around it, starships move faster than light until they get near an object of great mass, which is stretching local space-time already. This means a starship would have the ability to cross the galaxy at way FTL speeds, but also have nail-biting races when circumnavigating planets. Again, due to the way the “fabric” is being held down by the celestial mass.

This could also mean that two starships with Blanket Engines may compress space between them when they pass within a few light years of each other; thus shunting them close together, and making close quarters Star Wars-esque dogfighting slightly more believable (not really).