I keep thinking of Larry Niven's "Known Space" stories where the Martians (in unison) rise up out of the sands just far enough to spearpoke (far too many) holes all the way around the circumference of the soft plastic colony "bubble"... *shudder* *grimace/grin*
Then I think about "The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight."
"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
>
> On Sat, 4 Dec 1999, Robert Owen wrote:
>
> > Assume, Jeff, that the Mars Polar Lander is catastrophically
> > damaged and operationally disabled. What would be your
> > interpretation of these mission failures?
> >
> I'd assume some aliens sub-SIs are using the South pole of
> Mars as a vacation get away spot and get a little bit testy
> about having their privacy invaded.<G>
>
> But I don't suppose that will come up in any discussions
> if it turns out the probe(s) are lost and NASA convenes
> a review panel...
>
> Robert