Kaczynski, Heather

Cassandra and others were chosen for a mission in space, but she wasn't prepared for the war between two alien civilizations. With the war coming closer to Earth, and Cassie the only one with information on how to stop it, she must decide on who to trust and who she's willing to sacrifice to complete her mission.

"Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Gupta's entire life has been leading up to this--the opportunity to travel to space. But to secure a spot on this classified mission, she must first compete against the best and brightest people on the planet. People who are as determined as she to win a place on a journey to the farthest reaches of the universe. Cassie is ready for the toll that the competition will take; the rigorous mental and physical tests designed to push her to the brink of her endurance. But nothing could have prepared her for the bonds she would form with the very people she hopes to beat. Or that with each passing day it would be more and more difficult to ignore the feeling that the true objective of the mission is being kept from her. As the days until the launch tick down and the stakes rise higher than ever before, only one thing is clear to Cassie: she'll never back down...even if it costs her everything."--Dust jacket.