Susan's Gift — Roxanne Smolen

Seventeen-year-old Trace Hanson heads a rescue party to a failing colony and finds his estranged father is leader of the colonists. The people think him inept because he is a teenager, and his disgruntled teammates think he was named team leader because of his father. He can tell no one about his true mission to save only fifteen of the seventy people. Will he follow orders, leaving the rest of the colonists to die, or will he find a way to save them all?