The Little Winner Alone

This novel is the third of a series, which began by following the life of a young girl, Suzzara. The story is set a few centuries into the future. She was the overall winner of a competition to design a logo to commemorate the inaugural voyage of the Gandhi VII, for which the prize was to go on that momentous trip. The story followed her life and adventures as she matured in herself, made new friends, formed new relationships and experienced the wonders of the seven destinations. By the time the journey was nearly finished, her relationship with her new boyfriend had almost run its course, but she had determined to use the end of the flight to bring about a natural ending to what had been, in the main, a most enjoyable romance. However, the flight came to an abrupt ending when they were boarded by pirates as they celebrated with the crew and passengers joined by dignitaries from the planet Lupus, their last destination. Suzzara, due to her concealing nanocloak, was the only passenger able to escape, inside the shuttle belonging to Grizzly, one of the other passengers, with whom she had formed a very close bond. She and the Little Winner, the ship having been renamed in her honour, found themselves left behind in the system where the pirates had abandoned them, after the pirates left the system, and the Gandhi tried the risky manoeuvre of jumping on the very fringe of the sun into which the pirates had programmed the ship to fall. The Little Winner was damaged in its exit from the Gandhi, so Suzzara attempted to land on the nearest habitable planet, but crashed on landing.