Luke stepped through the folding of space-time into a world that was remarkably similar to Earth. 2000 other teams were distributed across the planet. He didn’t understand any of the science behind faster-than-light travel. He also didn’t understand how the astronomers had found this planet and determined it was hospitable to humans. He was a soldier and an elite one at that. His job was to determine if there were threats to humanity on this planet. Could this planet be a second home to humanity? Give Earth a little break to heal and allow humanity to be a multiplanetary civilization. His two-man team was hampered because the scientists couldn’t send vehicles yet. 

Luke asked James, “Are you picking up any radio signals?” Part of their mission was to determine if there was an advanced civilization already on the planet. 

“No.” James said, “Just static.”

There were 2000 pairs of soldiers on the planet, spread out assessing the risk to the emigrants waiting on Earth to come and settle. So far, they found no evidence of an advanced alien species living on the planet. 

“If there is an advanced civilization, maybe they don’t use radio signals.” Luke suspected.

“How else would they communicate?” James asked.

“Telepathy?” Luke posited.

“Impossible,” James stated matter-of-factly. 

“Let’s check in with the other teams and see if anyone else is picking up any signals,” Luke commanded.

“Copy that.” cueing his mic, asking, “Team 8 checking in with any teams in radio contact, has anyone come across radio signals or physical evidence of natives?” 

There was no response for some time. The odd thing about this world was how similar the animals were. He saw a coyote and a crow. At least they looked exactly like the ones he had seen in America. Maybe life tended towards certain types of species. 

“Team 111 here.” 

“Go ahead, team 111.” 

“No radio signals. But the wildlife looks exactly like our wildlife on Earth. Strange.” 

“Same here,” James said. “Weird that it’s not weird.” 

“Team 15 here.”

“Go ahead, team 15.” 

“We’re picking up a signal, but it’s faint, and it is a lot like Morse code.” 

“Have you triangulated the signal?” James asked.

“It’s closer to you than it is to us.” Team 15 responded. “I’m surprised you haven’t picked up the signal.” 

“Send the coordinates,” James responded.

“There’s a mountain between us and the source of the signal; no wonder I couldn’t pick it up,” James told Luke.

 “How many klicks to the source of the signal?” Luke asked.

“60 K. We could cover that distance in a few days,” James answered. 

“Well, let’s get to it,” Luke commanded. “Inform the other teams we are heading to check out the signal’s source.” 

“Copy that,” James said.

Luke wondered, Why do the animals look the same as on Earth? What will the creatures that made the radio look like? His thoughts spun as he hiked toward the radio signal. Things were strange because they were familiar. He checked his rifle again; all was good.  

Luke and James arrived at the radio tower, if you could call it that, after a long hike. The antenna was made of some type of metal, perhaps copper.