Mirage

"Come again?" Theroux asked, the perplexed expression firmly fixed on her face.

"We are picking up life signs at the landing coordinates," replied Hensley, his own expression no less perplexed.  "More to the point, we're picking up a carrier wave which corresponds perfectly to our own."

"Gil, if you're trying to prank me, this is not funny in the slightest."

Hensley scowled at Theroux.  "You think I'm able to pull off that kind of prank?  Look at the sensors," he said, pointing to the screen.  Theroux leaned in and examined them.  Life signs, two individuals.  Carrier signal, right at 95.403GHz.  "Lea, I don't know what's going on, but the sensors are not wrong."

"Run a diagnostic, make sure this is not some overly elaborate glitch."

Hensley tapped in the commands and waited.  A few moments later, his console beeped as the diagnostic cycle completed.  "Sensors are functioning normally. "  He looked over at Theroux.  "Well, what do we do now?"

"Can we get them on the horn?"

"I've tried several attempts, both verbal and with code," answered Hensley, shaking his head.  "No response.  We're picking up the carrier, but we can't seem to get their attention."

"We set down," Theroux said instantly.  "Just like we planned."

"Uh, not to be a killjoy, but that plan is going to have to be modified."  Theroux arched an eyebrow inquisitively at Hensley, and he shrugged in reply.  "Think about it.  If somebody's down there in our landing spot, we can't exactly set down on top of them.  We'll have to shift our landing point over at least a short distance."

"How close can you set the boat down to whatever they've got down there?"

Hensley tapped more commands into his console, examining the readouts.  "One hundred meters.  Anything less than that, we've got too much chance of kicking up debris.  Any further, and there's a good chance we'll miss encountering the lifeforms, since there's not another good landing zone that can accommodate us both in a twenty kilometer radius."

Theroux nodded and moved over to her seat.  "Make it so.  Take us in nice and easy, Gil, and get us down next to them as soon as you can."

*     *     *

The two astronauts stood outside the landing craft, the bubbled helmets unable to conceal their shock.  One hundred meters away sat an exact duplicate of their landing craft, right down to the tail number.  Hensley felt an itch between his shoulder blades as he considered the possibility of what else might be there which was also duplicated.  The same minor hydraulic leak on the forward landing strut, the scuff marks along the bottom edge of the pantry shelf, the pictures stored each of their personal databanks, who knew?

"Where are the lifeforms, Gil?" asked Theroux, her voice overly controlled.  She couldn't quite escape a feeling of deja vu, even though she was certain she'd never been here before.

Bringing up a sensor unit, Hensley swept the area.  "They're moving north-east.  Over that ridge," he said, pointing the way.

Theroux nodded and set off at a brisk pace, cresting the ridge within a few minutes.  She stopped dead as she looked down, almost causing Hensley to bump into her and knock her down the slope.  "Lea?" he asked cautiously.  "You OK?"

"Take a look," she replied, her voice unexpectedly hoarse.

Hensley moved up next to her and looked down.  Two figures seemed to be far ahead of them, walking towards a cliff face with a large cleft in it.  He brought up the suit's built-in visual magnification controls and zoomed in, sucking in his breath sharply.  The two figures appeared to be wearing the same environment suits he and Theroux were wearing.  Not simply the same model, but the exact same suits.  The names "Theroux" and "Hensley" were even stenciled on the back of the life support modules mounted on the back of the shoulders.

"Lea," Hensley began slowly, feeling for all the world like he was about to say something which would change his entire life, "what should we do here?"

"We have to make sense of this.  We gotta get down there and ask...them what the hell happened here."  Theroux took off, sliding down the slope before beginning to run after the figures, Hensley close behind.  Within ten minutes, they had reached the cleft.  Hensley looked at the sensor unit, puzzled that he was no longer detecting the lifeforms.

"Where'd they go?" he muttered.

"In there," Theroux said, pointing to the cleft.

Hensley shuddered.  Just past the threshold, his helmet mounted lights didn't seem able to pierce the stygian blackness.  "I don't think we should go in there."

"We don't have a choice.  Their tracks lead in there.  Come on."  Theroux walked into the cleft, shoulders squared back.  Hensley hesitated for a moment, then followed her.

*     *     *

"Come again?" asked Theroux, the perplexed expression firmly fixed on her face.

"Sensors are picking up a ship sitting one hundred meters off from our projected landing point," Hensley replied, shaking his head a little.  "For a moment there, I thought I picked up a pair of life signs also."

"Very odd, indeed.  This planet's not supposed to be inhabited."

"Yeah.  Weirder still, I'm getting a carrier wave from that ship.  Same freq as ours."  Hensley peered closer at his display.  "Also picking up some sort of anomaly about two klicks north.  Computer's classifying it as 'unknown quantum phenomenon,' but that's just one of the standard 'damned if I know' responses built into the software."

"Guess we better go check it out, then.  We'll head for our original landing point.  Get us set down there nice and neat, Gil."

Hensley nodded, fingers already punching in the flight path, a tiny quiver passing through them briefly.  For some reason, he felt like he'd done this before, but he brushed the feeling aside as ridiculous.  Doubtlessly, there was some perfectly rational explanation waiting for them down on the surface.