Worst Case SETI Scenario, by James Bean

Say we find a habitable planet that’s virtually an earth-twin in orbit around a nearby star… like maybe Barnard’s Star. We come to see this “Barnard’s Star C” as an “Earth 2.0”.

If an ET civilization similar to ourselves (a military power with a thirst for real estate and resources) happens to reside there, they too might be looking at Earth through their end of the telescope and say to themselves: “Hey! Barnard’s Star C 2.0” and have the very same ideas about star-shot probes, exploring and eventual colonizing that we would have.

At only a distance of six light-years, our obnoxious colonizing Klingon neighbors bearing beads and blankets claiming to own the land according to their self-proclaimed superior economic system might figure out a way to get here one day. Oops! Oh well!