From: jamesbs@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (JJ Glamma)
Subject: Re: Natives Down the River (was re: ALIEN^3 Eggs on Sulaco)
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 14:11:52 GMT

jsbell@acs.ucalgary.ca (Joshua Bell) writes:

>In article <9223212.11090@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU> jamesbs@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (JJ Glamma) writes:
>>jsbell@acs.ucalgary.ca (Joshua Bell) writes:
>>
>>>Anyone see any problems with this sceme?
>>
>>1) The Sulaco was a military transport. I can (just) by Weyland-Yutani tapping
>>into its telemetry in the third film, but I certainly don't buy them being
>>able to issue orders to the military hardware.
>Good point. I was under the impression that WY (1) owned the
>colony, and (2) pretty much owned most colonies, and likely
>owned, in a sense, the USCMC. I doubt that governments are more
>than figureheads in a world run by megacorps.

I think that it is doubtful that WY is a megacorp in the government owning
sense. Certainly they rule with an iron fist in the environments which they
own (Nostromo, LV-426, Fury 161) but in Aliens, they have to cover up the
events of Alien from the prying eyes of ICC and CA, among others. There is
also the mention that WY would be unable to get the Alien past ICC
quarantine. It seems, then, that WY is not Ultimate Power, at least not on
Earth. Since the Colonial Marine Corps seem to originate from the United
States, it is my informed guess that they are independent of WY.

>>2) Even if they could, by the time they realised what was happening and issued
>>the orders, the Sulaco would be two weeks closer to home at FTL speeds. The
>>Marine Corps might notice if one of their ships started acting strangely.

>I figured it was planned - part of the programming from the
>beginning, not tacked on afterwards. If the logs indicated the
>marines encountered resistance from xenophobes, send down a dropship.

An AI sophisticated enough to do this on its own is inconsistent with Aliens. If
the computers on the Sulaco could do this, they could easily have sent down the
second dropship to pick up the team once radio contact was lost. ("The
transmitter was on the APC") Certainly no-one was expecting the dropship to come
down on its own... Bishop even states that it needs a pilot to take it down
remotely... "I'm the only one qualified...")

>I also assumed that Jorden's mission was followed up by
>subsequent excursion to the Derilect. As a source of eggs, the

Why? The colonists would (unless they were terminally stupid) quarantine the
derelict, and the aliens would not (I think) know where the ship was. What I
think happened was that Jorden's alien hatched, and followed the same MO as the
alien that attacked the Nostromo followed... kidnapping its first host (Brett)
and turning him into an egg... until the queen was produced and she started
laying the eggs.

>Failing all of that, any helpful suggestions for either this
>theory, or any others?

My personal theory is the dream theory... (Ripley is having a very vivid
nightmare.) Actually, the more I think about the entire film (not just the
egg problem) the more sense that makes.

Your theory is probably the best that I've heard, though I think personally that
it is impossible to construct a kludge that explains why the egg is in the
hypersleep chamber.


-- 
-----------------------------------+-------------------------------------------
JJ Glamma                          | "Doctor, I can have an airstrike here in 
aka James William Patrick Bennetts |  minutes."
jamesbs@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU         | "That won't do any good, Brigadier!"
-----------------------------------+ "No, I didn't think so."
A bird in the hand is messy.	   | 	-- Doctor Who:Battlefield
-----------------------------------+-------------------------------------------

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