NEBADOR - the incredible journey of five young adults from poverty and oppression to respected citizenship in the wide universe ... Ilika and his crew discover there are much harder jobs in the universe than flying a deep-space response ship, such as living to witness the end of your civilization. Even just as rescuers during a simulation, they find themselves deeply attached to creatures who no longer have a place to call home. - With many new insights, the crew, together with Ashley's Education Service team-in-training, is sent to listen to a story of planetary transition told by the last two of their kind. The listeners find that the story catches up with them, and they become witnesses to a new transition, greater than the first. - These stories are filled with wit-sharpening and skill-honing challenges - mental, emotional, and spiritual - for both the characters and the reader. It is truly a grand adventure in which the characters come to understand a beloved saying of the Nebador Transport Service: Personal power is the ability to stand on your own two feet, with a smile on your face, in the middle of a universe that contains a million ways to crush you. - This book includes the short story "The Magic Needle" by Kathleen Tully, winner of the 2013-14 Nebador Writing Contest. - This is the PAPERBACK GLOBAL edition in 10-point type.