Long Days of Exploration

13 November …

Today was the second day in the exploration of the lizardman shrine. Captain Higgins, Mr. Griggs, RSM Taggart and I searched the area around the statue. The statue is located only five miles from Fort Humid so it did not take long to make the journey. Yesterday we discovered three more statues, each facing in different directions looking outward from each other. We noticed upon further examination that the statues actually each faced a cardinal point on the magnetic compass, one each facing north, south, east and west. All four statues were identical, standing ten feet tall and mounted on a five foot high stone pedestal.

The more vines we cleared, the more anxious we all got as the very floor of the area was composed of blue granite flagstones that seemed to shine like a deep blue river with the sun reflecting brightly on its surface. Each of the lizardman statues was located at the corner of a giant square, approximately one hundred feet to a side. The square was geometrically perfect - I am sure the builders knew exactly what they were doing, but the measurements they used were obviously not the same as our standards. Directly in the center of the square lay a square platform, about twenty foot on a side and five feet high. Upon this raised platform were four smooth round pillars, one at each corner, and in the center of the platform was an altar-like stone, again square. I don't know what this square within a square within a square design means. We'll have to send a report to some scientist or archaeologist or architect or something to tell us that.

By this point it was late in the afternoon, so Captain Higgins decided it was time we should head back to camp. He appeared nervous about the possibility of being caught out in the jungle after dark on this strange planet. We barely got back to camp as the sun completely faded from the sky.

We were so tired after our discovery yesterday, I fell quickly to sleep and did not even give a thought to putting pen to paper. Tonight I am exhausted as well. I will not venture out to the 'temple' tomorrow as there is work to do in camp. The officers still plan on going back to the site and are going to document the discovery. Hopefully Taggart and I will receive some mention in their official report. I will be happy when we finally return to our full complement of NCOs, as we lost three corporals (Mendoza, Ferguson and Gonzales) to malaria a month before we left Earth on our journey. I know my two NCOs have done a great amount of work. Well, it is off to bed and tomorrow evening, hopefully, I will not be as tired as I have felt these last two days.