I wish Ripley had asked Ash how the company knew about the xenomorph

I'll answer it for you: [i]"We decoded the transmission, and others like it, many months ago".[/i]

well for one no one seems to be very emotionally close to ash, he had his objective and didn't owe the crew any explanation(from his perspective). maybe growing an emotional attachment to a person like david was doing to shaw, he may have loosened his lips to be more open and honest because he would actually care about someone in the crew. even being human, we have jobs and objectives and dont tell anyone who asks us everything we know. hell, ive had minimum wage jobs were ive answered people with "none of your business". i dont have a super important mission to carry out, but many individuals dont feel like we need to explain our actions to certain people under certain circumstances.

It would've been better to know what the transmission said. I thought that the eggs on the derelict ship were the last ones, and it shows even just a few can destroy everyone .

zz all we know about the transmission is that it was a warning but not how specific the warning was. There is no evidence that it mentioned xenomorphs. Belladonna Ash at the end said I can't lie about your chances but you do have my sympathies, suggesting that he may have been aimiable enough to answer one more question. I think if Ripley had asked him he would have answered as it wouldn't effect the outcome or contradict his programming. He was convinced they stood no chance and could not destroy the xenomorph so there would be nothing stopping him from answering. I personally am really curious how Weyland corp got ahold of that information in the first place. Prometheus was supposed by most to be the bridge that would explain just this connection.

The transmission was believed to be a warning by Mother. But it wouldn't be much of a warning if it had no detail. Mother was still working on it during the [i]Alien[/i] crew's sojourn, and only had it partially decoded. If a flight computer could do that, there's every reason to think that the many supercomputers available to The Company would be able to work out the much bigger picture. Although not strictly canon, the vitals indicate that The Company is aware of other transmissions.

Could be zz. Sure would be satisfying if further information in this area came out in Paradise. Not that I want a seamless tie-in with Alien but just the suggestion of a hint as long as it doesn't spoil the movie or Canon. I got a kick when i was watching Alien resurection - my least favorite Alien movie and they said Weyland-Yutani had been taken over by Walmart! God wouldn't that be the worst! Walmart is like a growing plague of a corporation. My nephew just got a job there for the season and they put him in the sporting goods department where he sells bullets to gangster looking kids for totally illegal automatic guns all day long!!! And 9mm and 22's. What a vile company!

it's a great talking point, but who knows unless Prometheus 2 holds the question and answer, i would guess that at some point after the ship crashes on lv426 that, may be a deep space probe picked it up sent the singal backto earth they then decoded it and sent ash programmed on the way back to do what he did

If memory serves in early Hill & Giler drafts as Ripley questions Ash about Special Order 937 Ash informs them that the company had picked up the transmission themselves and had interpreted most of it. Can't remember if by another ship or a probe/satellite of some kind. Through the luck of the draw the Nostromo was picked to be re-routed and Ash placed on board before they set off from Thedus. In the end most of the extra dialogue was trimmed.