“They have to go”, shouted the old man into the round. “I can’t bear them anymore.”

The old man was Captain van der Belt. Well, former captain. He was leading the group of twenty pioneers to this planet. That was twenty years ago. In the meantime the group had settled and created their home on this perfect example of a habitable world. They had been the first men to set foot on it and claimed it for themselves as conquerors and pioneers usually do. And in the meantime they grew older, formed families and produced offspring.

But not everything went smooth for our heroes. Right after they had landed and built their first settlement, a puppet appeared. A figure that resembled Captain van der Belt down to the last detail, with the exception that it didn’t move. It was just sitting (or better placed) in one of the lounge chairs in front of the breathtaking view at the lake near their settlements.

The shock was gigantic when the real captain stood behind them and they understood that it was a copy and not the dead body of their leader. It took them a full day until they dared to approach it and investigate what it was.

But that was not the end. It happened three more times. Then they found out that it had to be a form of communication. Every communication with an alien life form would start with mirroring or copying what could be observed. So that was it. Aliens on their planet. No, native inhabitants.

It continued without consequences. Every few weeks, a new lifeless mannequin appeared. After a while, the crew collected some of their precious resources and planned a discovery mission. The mission collected and mapped many things in their region, but they didn’t find anything that would point to an intelligence.

In all those twenty years it continued with more and more twists to the mannequins. Some looked human but significantly different than themselves. Some could even move a bit.

The settlers never got rid of the feeling that somebody was observing them while they were interacting with the puppets.

They were in paradise, but they were lab rats.