Day 14 (our goal is near!)

Today, around 5AM by Earth time (this is the time our ship clock is set on) everyone, who was asleep, has been awaken by an emergency call from our deckhouse, where our monitor that is connected to the probe is located. As usually, it was surrounded by a crowd, somewhere around eight people, and everyone, except for Phil, archeologist, whose duty was at that time, was looking at the screen, glancing at the door from time to time. As soon as we entered, they started talking all at the same time, so it was simply impossible to understand them, and I didn't even try. I went straight to the monitor, to see the record because of which we were all here. It was done two minutes before we arrived, meaning, that Phil called to us as soon as he noticed. At the record we could see some creature coming out from the right of the probe, looking at it for a while (at least that's what I thought; I was unable to spot any eyes) and then hurries back.
Right now, many people are trying to understand reaction of this thing to our probe. It was seemingly scared of it, which is why our main theory is that the planet holds a civilization developed enough, because it is familiar with machinery. Another, less likely theory, suggests that we accidentaly recreated a local predator. Right now we've sent the probe back into desert, to pick a landing spot. Since this planet has multicellular animals, we are extremely likely not to cause too much damage by landing: our main worries were related to the fact that we could've disturbed a developing microcosmos. Also, because we have a chance of facing an intelligent life, we have to be careful: it is unknown, how we will be greeted here. I gotta say, I have very good feeling about this. It is likely that, since we could be carrying similar ways of evolution, we might as well have close society, and the way we think, and even physiology.
According to our captain's order, we begin our descent immediately: it is a painstaking process that requires a lot of effort from our team as well as our onboard computer.

Day 13

Scanning of local terrain gave as some results, even though they weren't exactly what we were expecting. We found a pond, and we were able to get water samples. Well, the good news is that it is actually water, and not, for instance, mercury. Its' chemical composition, in general, corresponds to our expectations, based on what we saw before in the local soil. It can be considered an indirect proof of the fact that we should've seen a living creature before, but this is not enough. Until we face anything that doesn't look like a spot, the ship stays on the star's orbit. This decision was made because we still can't be sure that our landing won't cause too much damage to a local ecosystem, provided that it actually exists. If we will not face anything during next week, we will commence our landing with a purpose of founding a colony here. Personally, I would take that as a major disappointment, because I flew here hoping to face life forms that originated outside of the Solar system.
I am also really tired of all that surrounding scannings. It affects me psychologically — I am getting less and less sure about the success of our expedition. Today I plan on getting a good sleep and seeing our therapist to, hopefully, get better. But first I'll go to our swimming pool, I wasn't there for several days now.

Day 12 (?)

Now we're witch hunting. Our turn of duty never came into place — the shift before us noticed some movement on the screen, which couldn't be explained by the dust. For the last twenty hours, I think, all of us were sitting in front of the monitor, rushing for a coffee or a tea every once in a while. I haven't been able to close my eyes yet and got very tired, so I decided to go into my room, make notes and sleep for a couple of hours.
We've re-checked the tape for a thousand times, I guess. It was a nighttime on the planet, which makes it more difficult for us. Adding lights onto the tape didn't really help — the colors on moving object are similar to those of the local ground. We stop can't be certain, whether it's some geological effect or a living creature. Of course, we've already established a circle with two kilometres long radius, which we're scanning through. So far we went through the central part, but we didn't find anything, except for those weird bubbles, that are now almost trying to get on to of each other.
I'm going to bed now; John promised to wake me up in two and a half hours, if I won't get up on my own. I hope if something happens before that, he won't feel sorry for me, so that I won't miss anything.

Day 10

Today the probe has finally reached the soil after this desert, but so far it's been the only good news. Analysis didn't show any organic materials, only a higher amount of phosphor and sulfur, like it was at the landing zone. In this new area the landscape is pretty odd — the surface is covered with some kind of partially bursted balloons, like it used to be a place of volcanic activity, that just freezed in a few instances. Not even our specialists can tell right now what it is. Until we can be sure that those things are safe to approach we will keep our distance.
We keep on looking around the probe through its cameras. Sociotherapist separated us into teams, two people each, so that we could keep track of probe's movement for four hours straight. I was accompanied by my assistant, which means, that I won't be able to, most likely, become friends with the guy — all the teams were made in a way that there will be no conflicts as well as no other forms of behavior that will distract is from the task. It's a bit sad, really: I was hoping I will be able to get to know Chen better on the surface at least, during our work — after all, who knows how long we're going to stay here, and working in silence all the time seems to me as extremely boring perspective.

Our shift starts in four hours, so I'm going to see John, while I still got time. We can always find something to talk about.