17. Communication - Speculations about the alien species (Movies: Alien)
Description
This article is from the Alien Movies FAQ, by Darryll Hobsonand Eelko de Vos E.W.C.deVos@TWI.TUDelft.NL with numerous contributions by others.
17. Communication - Speculations about the alien species (Movies: Alien)
Variation in the surface morphology of the head seems to indicate
a sensory function. Lone adults have uniform smooth reflective heads,
while adults functioning in a nest have distinct anterior and posterior head
sections; the posterior region being covered in a ribbed pattern with a
sagittal crest, and the anterior region being characteristically smooth with
a pair of pits on either side of the head. This morphology in social
organisms may be used in sonic and chemical communication. That this
ribbed pattern is visible in the neck regions of the lone adult may indicate
that the smooth reflective surface of the heads serves as a canopy covering
more complex structures.
This smooth canopy is reminiscent of the smooth surfaces of the
queen's headpiece sheath. This sheath is comprised of at least three
independent pieces, the largest of which possesses several overlapping
flanges. Various sized holes are visible between these flanges, and the
entire sheath may serve as a production organ for chemical signals. In the
transformation from imago to queen-imago (see the discussion of ancestral
types below), the adult canopy may develop into the sheath. Once this
transformation has been accomplished, the new queen would issue
chemical signals destroying the canopies of any nearby adults.
If the ribbed structures beneath the canopy corresponded to modest
versions of the signal production organs beneath the queen's sheath, and
were used for communication between nestmates, the canopy might serve
to isolate a lone adult from foreign signals. Canopied adults would in
effect be "deaf" to most nest signals. If all nestmates are progeny of the
same queen, then the canopy destroying signal produced by a particular
queen might be genetically specified. A canopied adult which found itself
near a foreign nest or a foreign queen would not be susceptible to that
queen's signals, and would develop into a queen. An adult which found
itself near a related nest or queen would lose its canopy and join the nest.
A dead queen would be replaced by a young canopied adult. It could be
assumed that an uncanopied adult would be utterly subservient to the
commands of a queen, in which case it might be possible for one queen to
kill another and steal the uncanopied members of the nest. The canopy
must allow limited communication, as a valid queen must be able to order
its destruction. Possibly, canopied adults would be capable of identifying
hosts harboring embryos as well, and could act to protect related embryos
and possibly destroy unrelated ones.
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