Thanks for the good word
I feel a little sheepish cuz the story is an edited version of something I did 3 years ago... The part about extraterrestrial life draws much from Seth Shostak's "Sharing the Universe." Seth makes a good case for that idea that the first intelligent E.T.s we're likely to encounter would be robot scouts ... and if you've ever seen the movie "Star Trek I" (or the episode titled "The Changeling"), you'd know the trouble that could get us into!
best, alan, msnbc