[ WP ] The first extraterrestrial lifeforms found by Humans , are Humans .

It had been explained to her a dozen times, but they always ended up lapsing into what she called math-geek-speak. Basically, this small spaceship with its four occupants would align itself in a particular way at a precise time, which was thankfully calculated on the computer watched over by Oshea ’ s wary eyes. Then, the “ engine ” would fire, encasing the ship in a Hydron-Alsace field, creating a pocket dimension which could then be manipulated through one or more of the higher order dimensions human ’ s couldn ’ t perceive and then plunk it back down in standard three-dimensional space thirty light years from Earth, hopefully within a few thousand miles of what scientists theorized was a rocky planet within the habitable zone of Luyten 194. Elapsed time from engine start to the decay of the Hydron-Alsace field was estimated to be around five seconds. 
 
 “ Five, four, ” Oshea ’ s voice droned. Jettis tensed although Sully, the pilot had assured her there was nothing to the transition if your brainwaves operated on the G4 band of the Alsace spectrum. Jettis had no idea what that meant other than that there was something particular about her brain function that supposedly meant she would neither die nor go insane during the transition. “ three, two, one. ” 
 
 Darkness, light, color, nothing. Suddenly, Jettis looked around. Nothing had changed. The four of them sat in their couches in the small metal canister they called a spaceship with all systems registering green both on their suits and on the monitors placed in front of each of them. 
 
 Grant Henderson was the first to speak. “ Let me welcome you all to the farthest point anything from Earth has ever been. We ’ re at Luyten 194 people! ” Grant, as he insisted the other members of the crew call him was actually a United States Representative, duly elected by the citizens of some portion of Kentucky. He enjoyed talking, and he always seemed to be campaigning. Jettis had half-hoped that he would be driven insane by the transition, but apparently his brain waves operated on the magic frequency. 
 
 Sully, the pilot began checking his instruments and flipping switches. Now it was his show. Oshea got them the first thirty light years and Sully took them the last few thousand miles to orbit around the planet that was supposed to be here inhabited by intelligent life that could project radio signals thirty light years strongly enough to be picked up by receivers that were state of the art twenty years ago. 
 
 While Sully brought up the propulsion systems, Oshea was running diagnostics on the computer system to make sure they had ended up at the correct destination and that the system would be able to get them home again. Jettis was happy to see that instead of giving a speech for the recorder, Grant was doing what he was supposed to be doing and running diagnostics on the communications system. Jettis, for her part was deploying the external cameras that would allow them to actually inspect the space around them at the visual level as well as ultraviolet and infrared spectrums. All of them worked at their assigned tasks calmly and without speaking for several minutes until Grant exclaimed. 
 
 “ Hey, I got signals coming in on all kinds of frequencies! ” 
 
 Jettis was immediately interested. “ Voice? ” 
 
 “ No, just beeps and boops, but I suppose it could be how the ET ’ s talk. I got ta get it all recorded for posterity! ” 
 
 Jettis turned back to her cameras. It was no surprise there was communications. Several of the scientists said it was more likely the ET ’ s were machines than actual life forms. Jettis hoped they would be able to pick up some voice communication. She was confident in her ability to communicate with life forms although face to face would be best. Language was her specialty but people were her talent. 
 
 The first of the cameras came online and Jettis started manipulating the controls to make sure the camera was fully functional. Dominating one side of the craft was the view of the planet. It was definitely not Earth. Blue seas in strange shapes covered about half the surface she could currently see while green covered what she assumed were landmasses. It appeared very similar to Earth in color and the shapes of things, but it was entirely alien. 
 
 She focused on a speck moving across the surface of the planet fast enough that it had to be a satellite in orbit. As she zoomed in, she realized it was big. It was very big. She caught her breath and keyed a few commands into her station. 
 
 “ Guys, I see a satellite in orbit that measures approximately three kilometers across. It has a very high metal content although it is not very reflective. ” Putting the image on the main screen, she routed the data her systems were gathering to scroll along the bottom as well. 

