Deaxter immediately saved the data and then made a backup copy. Deaxter frowned.
(What could have caused the signals to disappear? Was it a short energy peak and my timing was just good? Maybe the signals were shielded by something.)
Deaxter thought for a while about what could block such signals. Then he remembered that the report on the planet explained that the planet is not a massive object. It consisted of dozens of perhaps hundreds of plates. The size of the plates varied a lot. Between 500,000 and 50,000,000 square kilometers. These floats above and next to each other and apparently all have a stable orbit around the core. How and why these floats Deaxter did not know. But he was sure that the research directors had more information. They usually hide the information when they are not sure. This is to prevent false information.
(It could be that there are just too many plates between me and the signals. This could shield them.)
His eyes widened as a much worse idea came into his head.
(Maybe it was the planet's defense system! The core of the planet is the main generator and the other signal is the weapon. No, that's bullshit. On the other hand I can't rule it out...)
He sighed
(maybe I should take care of some acute problems. Like looking for a water source.)
"Antenna, what do you think? Do you think there's water here?"
He looked at the antenna for a while. He didn't expect an answer.
Deaxter made the computer analyze the data in detail, maybe the computer notices something else. Waiting for the results, he began to examine the caves more closely. These turned out to be surprisingly boring. No hidden monsters. No treasures. No virgins to rescue. No baby monsters to adopt.
Back from the caves, full of dust and a painful back, he decided to take a look around. The goal: Find out how far this canyon goes and where it leads. Now he has the choice between right and left.
(Left)
So he set out to explore the left side of the gorge. He walked for half an hour when the gorge ended abruptly. The end is of natural origin and nothing else aroused Deaxter's interest.
(Wow, 2 Nieten? Please don't tell me I've really used up my luck.)
On the way back the sky became increasingly darker. When Deaxter stood in front of the capsule again, it was already quite dark.
(Looks like the first day is over)
Deaxter sat on one of the seats. Checking the data bored him to sleep in a short time. Which caused him to fall asleep in an incredibly uncomfortable position.
When Deaxter woke up again, he noticed two things. First, a red blink was visible on the screen. Second, the pain in his beck awful. The latter, which is obviously more important than reading a possibly dead-avoiding warning from the computer. He decided to loudly complain about his pain with wordless noises. He started massaging his neck.
"Ok, that has done well. So, little one, what do you want to tell me?"
He immediately regretted leaning down to the computer. Not because of the alert, but because of the back pain it caused. What the computer showed was not irrelevant either. The two signals were not only back. A third signal has now appeared.
(oh!)
The signal in the core did not move any further. The other one is now more than 200km further away than it was at the beginning.
(It's moving, that's kind of cool but also damn alarming. But it moves away from me, so it is allowed to move further).
The third signal was not only on the same level, but also only 20km away. Compared to the other two, it was an reachable destination.
(Hopefully it doesn't want to kill me. Do you also move?...Apparently not... proceed)
It didn't take long until he decided to investigate the signal. Especially since it lies in the same direction as the Right Path of the Gorge. With a full stomach, fully equipped and after a muscle relaxation massage. Headed towards signal C.
The canyon that way was much more interesting.
(Of course what else)
The prints of the cave animals were visible again. Still without their creators. But the most eye-catching were the plants growing on the edges. It is a moss? At least it was very similar. It has an unhealthy pale green colour. The longer he wandered, the more of this moss could be seen. He decided to keep an eye on it.
After 2 hours of march he discovered something. Now actually two things. That he doesn't have a shower and his feet will stink terribly when he comes back and there's water! He quickened his walk, the small stream became increasingly thicker until it spread into a long lake. The water lay still and was like a shapeless block of glass. The wide of the lake made it impossible to continue walking here. But that didn't bother Deaxter at all. The water itself was the greater discovery. Deaxter took a few samples with him. He trusted his water filter, but he wanted to make sure that the liquid was really water.
With the water sample in his backpack, Deaxter started climbing up the wall. He took some of the moss with him. The walls here were not as soft and clayey as near the capsule. Deaxter liked this kind of climbing wall much more. At the top Deaxter was again surrounded by the Yellow Landscape.
His breath stopped. (A bridge!) Raised his thumb, estimated the distance at roughly 200 meters. He made his way.
(Someone built it up. That means! I could make the first contact with an unknown civilization! How cool is that!?!)
With too much anticipation in the muscles, the bridge was reached in no time. Deaxter noticed now also that the canyon makes a bow. Which meant he couldn't see the bridge when he was down.
It consisted of a solid grey stone. The stones were heavily worn, but you could see that they used to have smooth and sharp edges. Deaxter immediately felt reminded of pyrite as he looked at them.
(What kind of tools do they use for making tham?)
While examining the bridge, an interesting stone came into sight. The Right Endstones, at each bridge end were monoliths. These went up to the belly and were so thick, that one could not grasp them completely. The most interesting were the symbols carved on them. One was a square with a dot. Underneath was a triangle, it was clearly smaller than the square. The tip pointed away from the bridge.
(In this direction it goes to square point?)
The other stone showed a large square with another square, but rotated 90°. Together they formed an eight-pointed star. There was also a point in this square. Underneath again a triangle. The point pointed in exactly the other direction than the other triangle.
(In this direction it goes in eight-star-point?)
(Then up to eight-star point!)