Victories Greater Than Death

"Tina Mains seems like any normal human teenager – except for the interplanetary beacon stuck in her chest. Pursued by alien assassins, she escapes (along with her best friend, Rachael) aboard an understaffed, broken-down spaceship called Indomitable and becomes the ultimate prize in a battle between two galactic superpowers. Since neither really wants to go back to Earth, Tina and Rachael join the Indomitable’s crew, recruit a super-team of teenage Earth nerds to round out the wildly diverse crew of misfits, and run off across the galaxy to try to save themselves, the Royal Fleet (and everyone else) from the evil Compassion. Victories begins as a kind of Midwestern, geeks-vs-bullies high school drama, ends as a modern re-skin of a classic, pulpy space opera, and in between Anders gets to spin a heartfelt and action-packed coming-of-age story about friendship, acceptance, loyalty and finding your own way in the world, all dressed in the spaceships-and-alien-assassins trappings of YA science fiction."