What can you do? - A Short Story of Terror and Change

By Scott Anderson

An aggressive alien race known as the Colar have deposited thousands of carnivorous creatures to spread terror and disruption throughout the world.
Aggressive and hungry, the human civilization has been damaged in a way that would allow the Colar the ability to land, strip-mine the planet for forty years, and then leave. The humans would then be abandoned in place.
Following the deposit of the carnivorous beasts, a group from the Moara homeworld land on the blue-water planet to feed their own animals. Clearing parts of the planet, the owner of a successful trading house discovers that the human world should be protected by a distant race that is unaware of the recent invasion.
Ambitions follow needs, and the people of Earth are caught between the desires of others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781312353091

Scott Anderson

Scott Anderson is a veteran war correspondent who has reported from Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Northern Ireland, Chechnya, Sudan, Bosnia, El Salvador and many other war-torn countries. His previous book, Lawrence in Arabia, was a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the US National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.

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What can you do? - A Short Story of Terror and Change

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

© 2023 by Scott C. Anderson. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-312-35309-1

Where to start?

Donna Westwood quietly sat in the shade as she rested from working through the morning.  Tending the fields on an abandoned farm located near the City of Santa Paula, California, she listened for the sounds of anything new or unfamiliar.  At this moment, she was working with a man who was also displaced by the chaos of the world, and watching for movement in the area.

For the past two months Donna, along with her daughter and son, had moved into the converted concrete storage bunker of a local produce grower.  Her husband was dead.  He had been torn apart by an alien creature while protecting his family.  She had heard the rumor that reports indicated that only two-hundred million people were still alive in the United States.

Offworld creatures, hunting humans by sound and movement, had decimated the population of this world.  These events started over a year ago.  She felt isolated, and was on her own and alive with her two children.

The storage structure, built into the ground and constructed of cinderblock and concrete, was temperature controlled for specific varieties of produce.  Also, the structure could be sealed against theft.  Mushrooms and other perishables, the most valuable of the luxury crops, were stored within these permanent structures and had at one time been tightly controlled.  Located within the sheltered valley, this farm and the City of Santa Paula were bordered by mountains to the north and south.

Scott Burns, an older man and experienced foreman for the growers, helped keep his thirty-seven workers safe and fed within the compound.  Their families had also moved in, adding another fifty to the group.

A second group of fifty-six travelers were comprised mostly of individuals.  Many were either younger, older, or those with disabilities who were unable to outrun or hear the beasts that replaced the human race as the dominant species.

Two of the travelers were Travis Bailey and his wife, Linda.  They were experienced mechanical and electrical engineers dealing with solar technology, and had been working miles away at the time of the initial attacks.  The pair worked hard to keep the air circulating and the lights on within the closed and sealed environment.

Cautious, and scanning the area, Donna heard the sounds of something new, loud, and unusual.  She was outside with Scott Burns harvesting and loading vegetables into baskets.  Their work was almost done.

Off in the distance, a vehicle could be heard.  The two glanced in the direction of the noise but for the moment dismissed the distant sound.  They continued to keep vigilant and moved quicker.  Scott finished his work and silently nodded to Donna.  The two were preparing to move to the compound in silence, but stopped suddenly and crouched low.

An offworld ship, a true flying saucer, lowered through the clear blue skies of Ventura County.  The vehicle was five-levels tall and approximately 1600 feet, or 488 meters in diameter.  From above, the offworld saucer was painted a gloss-black with stripes of red.  The leading edge of the saucer appeared as a band of pure gold. 

The underbelly, painted a gloss cobalt blue, extended tripod landing gear during its approach.  Within moments, the upper section of the saucer altered to a bright white.  The underbelly also altered to match the brilliance of the white hull.

Landing on the hard ground that was once tended farmland, two broad sections of the golden leading edge lifted on massive hinges.  Extending up and locking into position, the structure created a canopy that offered shade to those inside.  Glass panoramic windows, visible for the first time, altered from a deep black to a light-green tint.  Light from the noonday sun flooded the interior living quarters.

Throughout the area, the meat-eating alien creatures heard the landing and quickly ran to the scene.  Finding the saucer, the creatures slowed to hide behind a row of trees and large bushes bordering the fields.

Standing on the patio and in the shade, Jon Park, the male heir to the Bolo Salon Trading House, and his life partner Jasmine Bullock, felt the breeze as it blew through the valley.  Jasmine had been scanning the empty fields while combing her flame-red hair.  The couple enjoyed visiting blue-water worlds that were sparsely populated and strategically valuable, but also infested with the Ralachan.  In Earth terms, both appeared to be in their early-thirties, but were in fact much older.

The well-dressed couple were joined by Noka, their pet dog.  He was a large dark-brown male who weighed over 250 pounds.  Their two cats, Tikka, was female and puma or tiger-sized with light beige and tan stripes, and weighed roughly 162 pounds.  Bonn, a similar breed male cat, was a dark grey and weighed approximately 175 pounds.

Looking over the edge of the patio, their car for the day had lowered from the rear parking garage, and drove itself to the front of the saucer.  Stepping into the sunshine of the patio, Nicholas and Faberge worked for the trade house, and worked well with the flight staff of two, Raul and Aaron.  The four would ensure Jon and Jasmine’s safety.

The car had parked to the front of the saucer.  The flexible walkway would extend only when needed.  Jon and Jasmine stood in the shade of the patio and looked out onto the once fertile farmlands.  What was odd were the patches of fresh vegetables, as most of the fields were overgrown with untended corn and wild grasses. 

Jon was then alerted to the movement of creatures within the fields and near the line of trees.  In the distance, Jasmine then spotted a saucer flying low to the ground and coming towards them from the east. 

Jasmine said casually, He’s always a little late.

He’s busy Jasmine.  Jon then looked to the east and the horizon filled with deserted fields and rolling hills carpeted by tall grasses. 

Oh, he’s always busy.  Shall we?  Jasmine indicated the waiting car.

The selected vehicle was a large open two-seater with a pickup bed in the back.  On Earth the car appeared as an Art Deco museum piece from the 1940s.  There were no wheels, but plenty of chrome, and the vehicle floated a foot off of the ground.  The color could be called a dove grey that had been pinstriped in white.  The smooth lines of the twenty-two-foot vehicle appeared immaculately clean and luxurious.  The matching light-grey upholstery blended with the paint color.  Manufactured on the Moara homeworld, the couple owned several vehicles.  This one was chosen as it was a bright sunny day and temperatures were in the low seventies. 

Walking down the flexible walkway, Noka was the first out the door as he ran down the stairs.  Tikka and Bonn, as uninterested large cats, followed at a leisurely pace.  As Bonn stepped from the bottom rung, the walkway instantly retracted.

The three pets then jumped into the open bed of the vehicle.  Jon barely glanced in the direction of the approaching saucer and then sped off towards the small town of Santa Paula. 

As the much larger saucer closed on the group, the ship began its scan for surface stability and lifesigns in the area.

The City of Santa Paula, and the neighboring small communities between this area and the Pacific Ocean, were currently deserted.  The three sizes of the alien creatures would migrate through the area towards the more densely inhabited sections of California.  From there, they would be on the move