Years ago I fell into conversation with an active-duty U.S. Air Force general at a social function, and we started talking about extraterrestrial life, though in the context of UFO’s and so on, no microbial. I asked him if there was any sort of plan in place he knew of should we actually encounter visiting aliens, at least at a distance. He thought about it, and said there wasn’t, as far as he knew, but then he asked me to assume I was him for a moment and he was a reporter. Then he said, “General, there are reports, widely confirmed by law enforcement personnel, other ground observers, airline pilots, etc., that unknown craft are shooting down our best fights. Comment?”

I got his point immediately. How in the WORLD do you acknowledge such news? Who wants to tell the world, “Yeah, there are critters out there coming into our skies, and there’s not a darned thing we can do to stop them”?

But getting back to the scientific search, as evidence came in that other places in the Solar System might have or had microbial life, I thought about that conversation again. No, microbes aren’t going to man the fleet and invade Earth — but the shock factor alone for a great many people would be just as bad.

Were it my call, I might very well sit on it. But *I* would want to know every single detail!