On planet 2,345,563

2pm local time. This one’s moon is very symmetrical, no sea on it, even the craters are almost evenly spaced and sized.

Big grass field sloping down towards the ocean. This clone-Earth’s ocean is a western one but is more like the Atlantic on Earth than the Pacific.

We’re just here to stake a claim. We’ll be leaving in 24 hours after the drones finish the initial survey.

Unknown location, of course. The stars here are also less random than on earth, so it seems. We saw them and the moon this morning around 5 am. Hope to see them again tonight before we leave.

The sun is normal, as it almost always is on earth-clones. Yellow and warm, looks just like Sol.

This one is perhaps a bit larger, or so the initial astronomical survey said.

I head inside the main tent to get something to eat. My work is really done at this point.

“Hey Sarah, you want to walk down to the beach?” I asked as I walked by her towards the refrigerator.

“Nah, I really want to finish this analysis. One of the largest variances on clone-earths is the salinity of the oceans. I want to know why it doesn’t affect the evolution of the animals.” She scratched her head under her messy, curly brown hair.

“OK. How about you Richard? Would you like to come?”

Richard was a servant robot. He was sitting, staring out the window of the tent towards the distant mountains.

“I was thinking about the mountains, actually Bob. But if you need me to go with you…”

“No, I don’t *need* you to go with me, Rich. I just thought you might want to.”

“I really don’t! Thanks though Bob.” Richard resumed staring out the window at the mountains.

It had been 5 years that the servants had been with humanity since the coup, and yet Bob wondered if he would ever truly get used to them. Sure they were friendly enough, more friendly than any human would be to another, at least at first meetings. And they were so honest and reliable. In some ways, they made Bob feel ashamed at his own occasional irresponsibility: they were too good an example for any human being to live up to.

They were also so human in their personalities, at least superficially. They looked, of course, nothing like a human except in the general form of head and 4 limbs.

The had rounded screens for faces and were all a gleaming white. Only the icon displayed on the sides of the Servant’s head and chest, and their voices and personalities, were distinguishing features. Otherwise they were all the same height and looked identical. But of course they did because the mind of a Servant could easily move between bodies or go without one at all.

Except when the gateway is closed. Which it now was. For some reason the company wished for initial stake claimings to be shut-off.

There was really no reason for it, but it was what the higher-ups wanted.

So their gateway was closed...and it made Bob feel a little uneasy.

This was maybe why he needed to get away for a bit.

He got a nutritional supplement drink out of the fridge and grabbed a standard survival backpack, “I’ll be back in like 2 or 3 hours. Call me if anything comes up.”

“OK” came the simultaneous reply from Sarah and Richard, neither one looking away from their tasks and distractions.

Bob smiled a little and went through the tent flap out onto the fresh grass and began walking down the gentle slope towards the ocean.