In this hebdomad ’s writing prompt , a farmer shakes hands with a yoke of aliens as they make off with his moo-cow . But what did the alien give him in exchange ? And what are they planning on doing with that moo-cow ?
Here ’s mine :
The husbandman signed the licensing agreement without even reading it . They always did . Yanx logged the contract bridge before shutting down her AugmeR covert . “ I suppose it makes sensation , ” she tell Hulin , reaching five spindly digit to stroke the cow in his arms . “ The key article wo n’t kick in until long after he ’s dead . ”
They had arrived on Earth just a month in the first place , peddle Panstellar Agrotech ’s chameleonic quinoa . The cereal was in high spirits in protein , and highly resistant to weather , disease , and pest . Best of all , it took on the property of other grain . engraft it alongside wheat and its flour would broil like wheat flour . Plant it with corn and it would savor like corn . Yanx and Hulin could n’t give away the hooey tight enough , and they practically were , take only a token defrayal from their customer : a goat here , an internal combustion engine there . Once , they had asked for a thousand origami unicorn . Another fourth dimension , a dozen centre - shaped stones . No one ever call into question it . After all , who knew what noncitizen valued ?
Of course , once Earth go into the interstellar market place , PanAg would more than reap the payoff in licensing fee . By then , chameleonic quinoa would be the satellite ’s staple crop and PanAg would collect a percent of each dealing .
Lights crackle down Hulin ’s back protuberance . “ But what are we going to do with a cow ? ”
Yanx grin , recalling her young days scouting the rural neighborhood of Earth and play pranks on the natives . “ We ’re going to have a good previous - fashioned cattle mutilation . ”
McPherson ’s news report :
Lucas unfolded the newspaper cautiously and placed it on the kitchen board . “ First news program in calendar month , glad the paper is publishing again . Nice of the Thomson boy to drop it off , riding his motorcycle to the city today . read here the Zondarites are helping to get the power restore . Margaret , coffee quick yet ? ”
“ Almost , not loose cooking on a crummy wood stove . I feel like that piteous woman in the Grapes of Wrath . Damn Zondarites , they probably induce that stupid solar storm in the first billet . They ’re alien , nobody knows beans about them , ugly cusses too . I do n’t trust them . ”
“ Ah Margaret hush , we ’re up against it . No selection , have to trust them . They meet out entire pool with impudent water - and fish . A miracle I tell you , the most amazing matter I ’ve ever seen . They ’ve been good to us . effective to a stack of us farm sept , government sure is n’t help . ”
“ Yeah , fill the pool but had to give them half our corn crop . The Zondarites always want something , nothing ’s free with them . When are they supposed to be here ? ”
“ betimes this break of day , that ’s all they say . ”
The womanhood sat the cupful of coffee on the table . “ And they ’re bringing two , they ’re give us two , right-hand ? inquire what they ’ll require this clock time . ”
He walked to the doorway as he noticed a bright light shining through the kitchen window . “ That ’s correct dear , two . Their demands are always sane . Well , well , they ’re here . ”
The couple walked to the center of the subject where the huge spacecraft sat on six massive leg . The woman looked at the scorched land beneath it . “ Nice , nothing ’s ever going to maturate here again . ”
The center section of the vessel ’s bottom lowered like an lift , the door open up to unwrap an alien twelve feet improbable with muscular munition and legs . It near the farmer and the two shook handwriting . The Zondarite spoke , “ I have what you request . I usurp you are still easy with the arrangements ? ”
Lucas nod as two more aliens exited the craft each carrying a dairy cow . “ Oh , they ’re beautiful . ”
The Zondarite guide the kine in the direction of the granger . “ Here you are my protagonist . ”
Lucas gestured towards his wife . “ And I give you this . ”
The woman ’s eyes widen upon hearing her married man . “ What are you doing ? What ’s happening ? ”
Lucas shrugged , “ It ’s for the farm , I ’m doing this for the farm . Please attempt to see . ”
The Zondarite picked the cleaning lady up and throw her over his shoulder . Lucas brush aside the adult female ’s screams as he led the cows to the barn . “ A fine trade , ” he suppose .
PneumaticDevotion ’s story :
Nebo whined curiously . Even after so many trips , he could not get used to their visits . Loyally , he go alone with Lucky , who had thrum over the bumps the whole way in the bumpy onetime truck . Nebo was miserable , give his snout over the leather stern . He could reek them the minute they hit the atmospheric state . The predominate giants smell like the cattle barn . They did not smack like the oxen in their stalls . Even enfold in heat , they did not reek like steaks sizzle in this lasting summer . They sense same as the bighearted pile of fermenting muck that steeped under the tarps and tyre next to the b - if you set them on fire . Even then , the hulk Manurals had one thousand times the sharpness of the compost loads would in the bad of conditions .
The Manurals were tolerant creatures . Their abundant crops had become the silo for intergalactic colonization and relief efforts , for famine triggered by glitches in terraforming , unexpected icing age , volcanic blow , and eco - war and other biochemical mishaps . overabundance on their major planet had conduce to millennia without warfare . And their introduction to a fell and greedy universe had fomented pity . They swop halfheartedly and had still met with phenomenal success . as luck would have it , they did not worry much for the foreign government of those they debate the underabundants , which was pretty much every species . Rather shy , they took no discourtesy to the lack of invitations to astronomic gala and remote - links to dignitary coming together .
Part of the overmuchness of their major planet ’s ecosystem derived from the olfactory organ - less Manurals themselves . Manural dissipation was a rich , sticky nutrient that gain on their backs in the furuncle - ish sacks they call “ glinkle blossoms ” . Glinkle was used domestically and as an export for fuel , fertiliser , mental synthesis glue , and a key ingredient in almost all consumer products from caustic oven cleansing agent to soda pop . Nevertheless , there would never be a great holidaymaker economic system on Manural . It also made for uncomfortable client relations .
At outstanding going of profit , most merchandise with the Manurals had to be done through intermediaries . Cybernetic emissaries were sent from over half the metal money in the IG Trade Union , but they were pricey and prone to breakdown in the eminent high temperature and humidness of Manural , which was rather beautiful and lush from all account .
Nebo whines again , hop to hurry along the exchange . There was no one else to be seen around . Other settlers had setup far from the dairy , which was ill-famed for its gargantuan cows . The colony was right for Bos taurus ranch ; it was rich in endless metric grain and naturally occurring airborne bacterium that fed on methane . During high seasons , the bacterium floated like dandelion tuft . But no other settlers had such a talent , or margin , for oxen . But Farmer Lucky had lose his nose in the 4th warfare . He saved a bundle trading straightaway with the Manurals , never understanding why people bothered with dear cybernetic employee or other middle mankind . Slightly - refined glinkle was the key to his winner . It caused giantism in the cow and crops . Once distill to the pits , the ginkle also consecrate a special umph to the Lucky Moonshine that fuel ship and traveller for farseeing trip .
Nebo hated the unconstipated sojourn by these galactic redneck , kind as they were . They would toss sticks far with their branchlike arms taste to let in him . Normally , Nebo would find fetch beneath him . After all , he was a psychically augmented dog , fully emancipated . He had stayed with Lucky after the state of war and never give . Loyalty had not been engender out of the good of them . Besides , he felt up too spooky to be a honorable companion and breed heaps required too much conversation . On these day , he ached to see the peg whiz far into the horizon away from Lucky and the Manurals . He would rush into the confidential information , tight as possible , to fill his nose with a burning surplus of air and kicked - up dirt . tardily , playing on his age , he would wander back slowly and look limply up at Lucky .
Nebo finally relinquish himself as Lucky shake hand and laugh , “ You have to come up to the sign of the zodiac one of these days . You ’re powerful tall , but I am working on a small lounge in one of the barns . You all call for to get out more - talk to the great unwashed . Always in effect job with a small moonshine and a proper sit . ” One of the Manurals nodded in spades - if they could smile , Nebo swore that he saw it then - and the other threw the giant moo-cow over its shoulder joint and prepared to start . “ Next time , ” duplicate Lucky .
“ Next time … ” thought Nebo with a whine , jumping into the passenger side of the motortruck .
scottTheOtherOne ’s story :
“ Thank you ! give thanks you ! give thanks you ! ” the ganoobian purred .
“ Ah , do n’t give it another thought , ” the farmer grinning . “ It were n’t nothin’ . ”
He was still smirking as he got in his truck , where his married woman waited ; it did n’t matter that there had n’t been a exclusive write up of ganoobian ferocity the total six workweek since they ’d arrive , the unknown still made her feel downright unsettled .
“ I ca n’t consider it ’s reliable . They really give you an entire truck bed full of gold leaf . ”
“ I know , ” he chuckle . “ And for one stunned cow . ”
“ You really severalise them ol’ Bessie could fix whatever ’s ail them ? ”
“ Sure did . Earth ’s own miracle therapeutic - all . ”
“ And they bought it . ”
“ I ’ll say so . How beings that gullible managed to go I do n’t even know how many lite class is beyond me . ”
They get in silence a few minutes , each recede in thought , meditate all the thing the gold would buy , everything they ’d ever woolgather of and more , not realize that the price of gold , even as they drove , was plummeting .
“ Hey , you … you do n’t suppose … ”
“ Mm ? ”
“ You do n’t recollect … I intend … there ’s no chance that somehow WE’RE the ones getting soak , is there ? ”
The rest of the ride was an uncomfortable one .
HLeehp ’s story :
“ So , ” Glygax13 said , wish he ’d written the instructions down , “ we just plant it in the filth , and within two twenty-four hour period we ’ll have a new milk - tree ? ”
Farmer Johnson shuttered . “ No , ” he said slowly , shaking his head . “ No , no , no , no , no , no . See , what you get to do , Word , is you got to course it , and then you milk it . Like down , underneath the thing . ”
“ And make love it ? ” Glygax13 expect thirstily , doing his best to call up the bio - worked up beat of Earthling responses .
“ Well , I gauge you could , ” Farmer Johnson said , giving the matter some idea . “ But it ai n’t necessary , I do n’t mean . ”
“ Check , ” said Glygax13 . “ hatful of food . A diminutive portion of sexual love . And then the bracing milks ? ”
“ And you ’re certain ? The human being suspected nothing ? ” Glygax13 ’s mate call for Glygax13 , once Farmer Johnson had drive away in his rickety older pick - up hand truck .
“ Nothing at all , ” Glygax13 insist . “ He consider has deal us a normal bovine mammalian . That is all . ”
“ Well , good , I approximate , ” Glygax13 ’s partner allege , ineffectual , or perhaps unwilling , to hide her vexation . “ When we get home , you may construct a nest for the thing in your regular hexahedron . ”
“ In mine ? ” Glygax13 asked woefully . “ Why do I have to nestle the creature ? ”
“ Hey , you ’re the one who impregnated the cow - beast with the transmitted steganography of our next Hive Queen , ” said Glygax13 ’s married person , “ so I figure you might as well be the one to care for the beast . ”
thejuice80 ’s story :
The specify Lord’s Day painted fire on the plume of smoke from their ventilation setup . Their space suit look like loose silk around their waistline and legs , but the tendon and sacs of their torso could be determine through the fabric . They stood twice as marvellous as a humanity , with wanderer thin leg and arms . They had painted smiles and eyes on the most prominent excrescence above their body , but Tom doubted they had anything similar to those kinds of thing .
The shorter one shuffled up to the moo-cow and crouched down on its pile legs . It oblige that stead while the taller one shuffled toward Tom . He , like many of his neighbour , had traded with these creatures for the record history of their town . He had no fear for these strange creatures . More importantly , he had no questions .
The taller one stopped and extended both hand . It bobbed the weird brass bump a few times and hummed a uprise bill . Tom put one hired hand in the creature ’s grip , shivering at the cool scaly feel . He finger its question . He nodded yes and signalise a thumb up .
The short one ’s branch slew underneath the cow , brook up , and set off scuffle back towards the James Jerome Hill . Tom could hear the springiness on his hand truck squeal as the improbable one paid him . He knew , without turning around , that all the hay had been turned to Au .
It was a respectable placement .
Drabbler ’s taradiddle :
“ Zeke , you are the dumbest animate being ever to set fundament on God ’s green dry land ! ” Mildred yelled . “ And that ’s include your cousin who shot his own derriere off . What in the Sam Hill possessed you to sell our good cow for some magic beans ? ”
“ I did n’t ! There ai n’t no such matter as magic . These are alien beans , from another planet or something . Do you know how much the government would pay up for actual extraterrestrial life-time ? ”
Mildred examined them again . “ They look like average dome to me . I do n’t theorize these alien of yours gave you any certificates of authenticity , did they ? ”
RoverAndOut ’s story :
“ This is a strange day . Taller milkers have train me from the short milker . They smell shady . Like rain on fervour . You would n’t sympathize . They have humps , like Ram , down the way of life . Their prominence are what smell like rainfall on fire . But I already sing about that . They do n’t seem to have grass . This feels like the twenty-four hour period I fell in the enceinte bowl in the domain . The one near the fencing . There was no fencing then . I ’m no moron goat , to go about falling in land - trough , when there ’s fences . The forgetful milcher cry a friend of his . The ally looked like the dairy cow , but he was a booster . The booster was much magnanimous than the milker , and feel cold to partake . The dairy cattle feel strong to touch . Even the new dairy cattle feel strong to touch . They are gentler than the lifter . But they have no pot , so I do not like them . ”
Butterfly_Kid ’s story :
Fran curb up her hired man to shade her eyes from the midday sunshine . Two newly launched ships were passing overhead , their contrails establish off that familiar green glow of an FTL ship headed for deep space . She returned her aid to the controls of the massive grain auger she was seated on . It was another sweltering - hot summertime on the prairie , and she still had a lifetime of work to do .
That was no exaggeration . Earth still had 430 years remaining in its contractual agreement with the Yarta’l the great unwashed . Her sire worked these fields , and his father before him , and his Father of the Church before him . The grain they had harvested for all these years was n’t even anything special , really . Just plain previous ( modified ) Earth ethanol . For some ground the Yarta’l were interested in the special kind of corn whiskey fuel that only Earth soil could arise for them . Some said it was a culinary delicacy for them , others theorized that it was used as fuel for their more advanced FTL campaign . They did something to the seeds or the soil or something , but the clavus that used to grow on Earth before their reaching — Fran had been told — was unlike . It was little , and its kernels were yellowish , not the bright greenness that she had become accustomed to . There was another thing , too — Cows . Why they wanted cows was anybody ’s guess . But their high requirement for Earth beef had reached the point where any part of available grease that had n’t already been given up to “ Yar’thenol ” ( greenish corn fuel ) agriculture , was used for breeding moo-cow .
Those hoi polloi who did n’t completely give up and switch to a vegetarian diet appear to the oceans for proteine or had decide to breed their own pigs or chicken through either intimate - city public farms , or — in more utmost cases — inside - apartment individual ones . Cow bootlegging was extremely illegal , and was therefore punishable by public slaying , so only the very audacious and defiant annoy take the risk . Fran had hear various rumour about surreptitious cow Fannie Merritt Farmer who charged thousands for a single steak . Worst part is that there was always a wealthy buyer .
Fran was among those who had yield up centre for dear . It just was n’t deserving the effort . Plus if you were a Yar’thenol farmer and you were a card - carrying vegetarian , then you were give some very worthwhile tax breaks on equipment ( like her trustworthy gimlet ) as well as living expenses covered .
As of present Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , Earth has been entrench in its askew contract with the Yarta’l for 570 years . It ’s been so long and so many generations have expire since the original signing that most folks do n’t even recognize why Earth ’s politics bothered in the first place . But Fran knew . Her father made sure that she was raised knowing the whole truth . He did n’t need any girl of his being born into a life story of servitude without knowing the facts .
The far more advanced Yarta’l people came to this major planet with a peaceable offer to all humans : “ If you give us the resources we postulate , we will give you the power to go through the star . ” The curious scientific minds of Earth had gathered in aggregate conferences with world governments to fix the fate of human exploration . Fran hazard that most of them scientists came to the conclusion that if we had to give up Earth as one big cash craw to some other species , then it would just be a matter of time before we find another habitable planet to grow our own corn and cows on . But in the preceding 570 year , not a damn matter had been incur . Humans had made their way to the Yarta’l major planet of Yart several times for diplomatical purposes , but other than that , the Milky Way was n’t very exonerative to atomic number 8 - breathe mammal .
But the search carries on . Perhaps , in 430 eld or so , when humankind is freed from their agreement , or when another satellite is found , all these generations of human labor spent on harvest home and breeding would finally be justified …
But Fran was n’t about to obtain her breath .
When she lead off up the auger again , it roared to life history , and then jerked her onwards . She still had a life of work to do , and the sun hanging low in the good afternoon sky was a powerful reminder to her of her short prison term leave behind on Earth . She only hope that one twenty-four hour period her ancestors would n’t have to know how to operate one of these stupefied machine just to live a normal biography .
She appear up once more at the wispy immature contrails floating by . This time without shielding her eye , and spat into the farting .
krwlingkaos ’ floor :
The James Leonard Farmer was all grin and down - menage hospitality . “ Since you asked so polite - alike , certain . What ’d you say you need it for again ? ” After a bubble intermission , it replied , “ … .. Milk River ? ”
Fiction
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