| abstract | - The Grebulons are a sapient species. A colony of Grebulons is located on a trans-Neptunian planetary body nicknamed Rupert; they are monitoring Earth television and radio broadcasts, but do not know why. As it turned out, the spaceship which was carrying the dormant Grebulons with their minds and memories stored for some reason within the spaceship's computer; was unfortunately hit by an asteroid at the precise point containing the apparatus built to detect and warn its systems in case of the ship getting hit by an asteroid. Said computer files were destroyed during the collision, and thanks to the confusion of the ship's computers and robots, so were the backups. After the confused Grebulons awakened, they managed to recover only the slightest bits of information about their mission; which told them to "land" somewhere and "monitor" something. With limited options available, they landed on the first planet they found and started monitoring the first thing of interest they detected; which happened to be Earth's transmissions.
- The Grebulons are a race that are observing the Earth, but do not know why. During the centuries-long spaceflight the Grebulons were all in suspended animation with their memories saved to the ship's computer (which was struck by an asteroid influenced by Guide Mark II). With the loss of the backup, after the robots carrying it also fell out of the hole made by the asteroid, the Grebulons awoke with no idea where they were going or who they were. What little instructions they could extract from the wrecked computer told them to "land" somewhere and "monitor" something, so they landed on Rupert and monitored the television transmissions from Earth. Trillian later reveals that the Grebulons are a missing reconnaissance fleet from the war that she was meant to cover (which never happened because the Grebulons never arrived with their respective army).
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