Big Red

By Linda Griggs

This is a story of a girl named Alex, who is raised on a planet called Heaven, but it was more like hell. Its a hard life, and when she gets the chance to find a husband, she marries a space trader who turns out to be anything but kind.
She learns how to survive by becoming valuable to the crew of the ship they travel in by becoming a good cook. Because she is unhappy, she eats and gains a lot of weight. When her husband has something terrible done to her and has her hair dyed a bright red, she is called Big Red.
When the trade ship they are in is taken over by the crew, she accidently becomes a hero, and her husband takes over the ship. When trade doesnt go well, they end up on a new planet called Paradise where they open a bar and restaurant.
Big Reds life is hard and unhappy, but when the people arrive, things change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Apr 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781490788579

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© Copyright 2018 Linda Griggs.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-8858-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-8857-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018942477

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Trafford rev. 04/26/2018

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CHAPTER

1

T he sun was getting lower in the sky, so I decided to take a moment to sit up and stretch. It had been a long day, and I was hoping the waiting would be worth it. I picked up my bow and placed the arrow in readiness. I didn’t think it would be too long before a thirsty animal would come down the trail I had staked out. There was a small freshwater spring at the bottom of the hill. I hoped it would be the elusive freaker I had been tracking. The meat from a freaker was better than any of the other animals here, and the hooves made great glue. Unfortunately, it was the hardest animal to track and kill. It had a fantastic sense of smell and was very cautious, freaking out at any hint of danger and fleeing.

I wished I could have had Father’s rifle. It was easier to use, and my accuracy was better, but the rifle wasn’t in good shape, and the few bullets we had left were degraded and unstable. Father hoped to be able to replace it when the next trader ship came; however, for now, the bow would have to do. Father had spent a lot of time finding the right wood and carving it for me to use, and I was pretty good with it. I had to be because my family had to eat.

I sensed movement on the trail, and I drew the arrow back on the bow. It was the freaker, all right. It was moving slowly and sniffing the air. There was no breeze, so I didn’t think it could smell me, and I barely breathed. Just as I was ready to release the arrow, the freaker jumped straight into the air, and before I knew it, it was gone. I would go home empty-handed tonight.

Disgusted, I gathered my things and started off back to the farm. I looked up at the darkening sky, and there were a few stars coming out. I watched one that had zoomed across the sky. I knew it wasn’t a star but a trader ship that had finally come and was orbiting the planet. I thought about being on that ship and leaving this awful place. I hoped I would soon get that chance. Oh, to be so young and naive. I didn’t know that life could be hard everywhere.

My name is Alexandra Mae Buckford, but my family called me Alex. I was born on this awful planet called New Heaven, and how it got that name, I don’t know because New Heaven was more like hell. It had to have been named by someone with a real twisted sense of humor. It was a horrible place to live. Why my father brought my mother and me here, I never really knew for sure, but I had my suspicions. He was probably wanted by the law because New Heaven had just been opened for colonization, and the Earth Coalition would take anyone who would go with no questions asked, so he signed up and brought us here when I was about two years old.

The New Heaven colony was founded on a recently discovered planet, which meant it had an oxygen atmosphere and gravity that could support human life. It had been explored and tested to verify if it was inhabitable for a colony. It barely passed muster, but because the coalition was in a hurry to get more people off Earth, they went ahead and approved it.

The reason for the rush was because the population on Earth had grown to astronomical proportions. It was a chaotic time in Earth history, and there was a lot of pressure to reduce the population. The United Nations appointed a committee called the Earth Coalition to come up with ways to find a solution to the earth’s population problems. We had been going into space for some time, and with the discovery of a new jump technology, the exploration of nearby solar systems was now possible. The prime objective of the Earth Coalition was to find livable planets to send people to live in and eventually the colonization of other galaxies when planets were discovered that could be inhabited.

Obviously, it didn’t matter for how well or for how long a colony was expected to survive. The coalition didn’t really care. A lot of the people who volunteered to go either didn’t care or didn’t know what they were getting into. The coalition wasn’t too good about telling the people what they were getting into when they left Earth. Many people were living in poverty and in overcrowded conditions. There were few jobs, and most of those didn’t pay well. Most people hoped that the new world they were going to wouldn’t be any worse than what they had. Not too many cared when they were told they had little chance of coming back to Earth once they left and that to be a colonist was going to be a one-way trip. Most chose to believe they were going to something better.

Unlike Earth, New Heaven had little water, and there was a lot more desert. The seasons were longer. Summer was hot, winter was less hot, and the nights were always cold. The soil had a reddish cast, and the plants looked like they could be cousins to the cactus on Earth. The only saving grace was there were a lot of small natural springs of water surrounded by lush vegetation. The colonists were assigned land near the springs, and that was where they set about building their homes and trying to farm the land.

When we had come to New Heaven, it wasn’t too bad at first. We had plenty of supplies, and my parents had what they thought was a nice place to settle, and they started to set up their farm. The first year, they built a small house and plowed the land. They planted the seeds they were given and waited. Nothing happened. They finally found out the seeds the government had sent were not compatible with the soil. In fact, nothing from Earth was compatible with New Heaven. Seeds died, as did all the plants and most of the animals they had brought with them. Metals quickly rusted, and most other materials decayed. The plastic covers and components of technical equipment like computers had to be carefully protected.

Most of the colonists survived because they were lucky that one of the items my mother, who was technically trained, had brought with her. It was a computerized analyzer/synthesizer or an A/S machine. Using it, she was able to take anything organic, slice it up into small pieces, and put it into the analyzer. It would give her the chemical makeup of whatever it was so she could tell if it was toxic or edible. Sometimes it could even synthesize a toxic plant into something less potent that could be used for medicinal purposes. It was this machine that had saved a lot of the colonists’ lives. They would have starved or been poisoned without it.

Supplies or anything from Earth were nonexistent. The colony would have perished without the A/S machine and my mother being able to find things we could eat. There were plenty of different kinds of animals, and some of them turned out to be edible, so we were able to get our protein. She was able to find some plants that we could eat for vegetables. Nobody got fat, but we didn’t all starve either.

There was one animal we called a geeker, which was the most prolific on New Heaven. Father said it reminded him of an earth rabbit because it had long hind legs and it hopped. It didn’t have long ears, but like a rabbit, it bred quickly. It made a noise that sounded like geek, so that was where it had gotten its name. The meat from the geeker was okay to eat, and my mother learned to fix it in many different ways.

There was one other thing Father had discovered about the geeker, and that was its fur was beautiful and luxurious. Each family had been supplied with a computer containing survival information, so he researched on