Another Day of Rain

15 November …

The rain never stopped today as it went from heavy downpour to a light drizzle and back to a heavy rain. The men kept working and we were happy to have the pole barn to work on the walls and rafters for the SET Huts. I will be happy when the last tent is taken down and put in its box as the fabric only keeps out the rain partially. It is good to hear the men in the galley talk of how happy they are to have wooden floors and that they are out of the mud when they sleep. It makes you feel better knowing that the job you are tasked with helps the morale of the troops.

Captain Higgins, Mr. Landowski and Mr. Griggs again went to the temple and they said they were disappointed with what they saw, or more accurately, did not see. It seems the mysterious effect of the lightning is gone today, almost as if the 'magic' of the temple is only existent in the lightning storms. They did say there was only a slight feel of static in the air and the stone itself showed no mark of a lightning strike. Mr. Griggs said the stone was cold to the touch, which in the constatnt heat and humidity of this jungle is strange enough to make your hair stand up.

Well, tomorrow is Sunday, our day of rest and like usual I am looking forward to a relaxing day.

The Temple

14 November…

This morning the sky was a fiery red as the sun rose above the jungle landscape, though it was only a matter of hours before the sky changed to a bluish-green color we have come to recognize as stormsign. The wind blew in, cold and hard. The clouds broke loose with a fantastic light show and the rain came down in sheets of massive, dollar-sized drops. Lightning struck in the middle of camp with the blinding fury of God; luckily, no one was in the open or they surely would have been killed. There was also a streak of lightning that seemed to hit near the temple as the white lightning turned a bright blue. After a few hours, the freak storm passed and the cold wind and driving rain was replaced by the more usual 85 degree heat and drizzling rain. The force of the brief storm was devastating, and we are lucky we did not lose anything.

We finished ten more base structures today, so the count is now up to fifty-two. We will start erecting the walls and roofs alredy prepared by our fabrication crew working at the pole barn. Their work is not easy using older methods of construction, and I know that Lance Corporal Jones will be happy to have the steam sawmill when it arrives. I talked to Mr. Griggs last night about promoting Jones, as he has sufficient time in grade and is the most senior of the lances we have with us on Venus. Mr. Griggs says we will wait on the RTS Santa Fe to see if replacement NCOs arrive, and if an insufficient number arrive to fill our command structure properly, Jones will be promoted on the spot. Sergeant Garcia and Corporal Cromwell have also been doing a great job as usual and catching the things I do not, as it is easy to forget some details when you are as short-handed as we.

The officers went to investigate the blue lightning after Mr. Griggs and I were finished making our rounds and discussing the plans and schedules of the fort. Mr. Griggs and the other officers headed out on their mounts shortly after the drizzle began. Mr. Griggs returned prematurely a few hours later and was filled with much excitement and almost dragged me by the collar to go with him. I let Sergeant Garcia take over supervision of the construction, and hurried off with Mr. Griggs and RSM Taggart. Taggart and I mounted our Pachysaurs and tried to follow Mr. Griggs, who was pushing his mount to run as fast as it was able through the thick undregrowth which still flourishes far too near our walls. Upon arrival at the temple, RSM Taggart and I understood the haste in which we had traveled.

The flora and fauna had a static charge and the air crackled with electricity. The four guardians' eyes and spear tips were glowing, and the whole temple was cast in an eerie blue light as if the stone had come to life. The hair on my neck and my arms stood up, and I readied my carbine as did RSM Taggart. The ID disc and holy crucifix that I wear on a thong around my neck seemed to jump from my chest, as everything made of metal seemed to be pulled toward the central platform surrounded by the columns.

We could not believe our eyes. Was the place alive? Did the lightning awaken something? Did the magnetism have something to do with the guardians that stood at the four points of the compass? These were just a few of the questions we had. We were ordered not to set foot on the blue stone. Captain Higgins had already tried, but the stone shot a blue arc to his foot before it touched the stone floor. The electricity sparked through his thick leather boot and burned his foot badly. As we left the temple area, we were sure that we really needed an archaeologist or scientist assigned to our expedition as soon as possible.

Once we returned to camp, Mr. Landowski sent one of the repawks the Brits gave us to carry a message to Camp Trafalgar. The message was a standard personnel request for two scientists or archaeologists to explore the region around Fort Humid. It should go outbound on their next ethership headed to Earth, due to depart in a few days.

Well, what a day! After all the excitement, I am glad it is time to turn in.

[Editor's Note: Repawks (or more correctly, Pteranodon venustica buteo) are small, carnivorous flying reptiles approximately the same size as the Earthly red-tailed hawk (B. jamaicensis). The first British exepedition discovered by accident their ability to act as homing or carrier pigeons, and have begun keeping the creatures in replacement of the terrestrial birds, who have difficulty on Venus. No carrier pigeon has ever safely arrived at its destination on Venus; it is assumed they have fallen prey to the large number of pterosaurs of all sizes that rule the Venusian sky.]

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.

Anniversary!

Gentleman,

While I know that in the last week or so the hard news coming from this journal has been rather scanty, I hope you have enjoyed the ongoing exploits of our valiant Texican friends as they explore the Veiled Planet.

We have, nevertheless, reached a very important milestone: this journal is, today, one year old.

So, Mustafa, it is again time to break out the port and cigars for a celebratory snort and smoke. Gentlemen, we convene at the billiards table in five minutes. See you there.

[OOC] Salute

Gentlemen and ladies,

Today of all days I would like to express my profound gratitude to our veterans, of all our conflicts and our peactime forces.

Without your sacrifice, and that of our remembered fallen, this nation - this world - would be a much different, and I think, lesser place.

I would especially like to mention my family and friends who I know have served:

Jimmy Womack, Vietnam
George Womack, WWII
Sherman Loyd, WWII
their brothers (all seven of them) WWII
my grandmothers' brothers (again, six served), WWII and Korea
Jim Stewart, USN
Susan Stewart, USN
Kristian Pfeiffer, USMC
Patrick Fitzgerald, USMC
James Blanton, US Army

There are others I know I am forgetting to mention, as well as many more ancestors, stretching back to the American Revolution (Jesse Womack, Burke Co., Georgia militia). Please don't take it as a slight.

Ladies and gents, the (virtual) beer's on me.

Sincerely and respectfully,

James L. Womack