Sami Quill stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Life Systems.
The Ship’s Log
Everything NOR has recorded since departure — the full record, newest first. One day aboard passes every hour of Earth time.
Census check: 954 souls, 130 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
5.88 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 41,419 thousand to go.
Water Reclamation restored after 3 weeks. Eleanor Barakat signs the work order and goes to sleep for a full watch.
Born late in the second watch: Wallace Nwosu, generation 5. The ship holds 954 souls tonight.
Water reserve dips below the line. Showers go to ration timers; nobody sings in them, briefly.
Last shift for Dalia Aaberg, who joined Command half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
Opal Pemberton does not wake late in the second watch. 84 years, most of them given to Drive.
The question is put to the wider circle: Water discipline. The ship asks; Earth answers, in its own long time.
A child in Ring C asks the corridor speaker what Earth smelled like. I play the rainstorm recording. It is the best answer I have.
Fault isolated in Water Reclamation. Repair estimate: unwise to say aloud.
Suyin Thorvaldsen is delivered of a son on the first watch. The child is called Uday.
Domingo Ashworth retires in the middle watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
Arthur Barakat stands down from Medical at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 131, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Bohai Quill chooses Life Systems — or it chooses him; the elders disagree cheerfully.
Halvard Diallo does not wake in the middle watch. 72 years, most of them given to Drive.
Sixty-eight years: Bjorn Nwosu hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring A stands ready.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 2,822th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
Alejandro Zhao finishes a instrument: “Quiet Garden, Last Season.” It shows in the commons through the week.
Sixty-eight years: Peizhi Jaber hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring B stands ready.
Alejandro Zhao resolves a long-period comet in the forward field — a smudge of home ice, very far from home. It is logged and named.
A first shift for Rell Quill, sixteen: machinist, Fabrication. The badge is printed fresh.
Departure Day, year 131. The founders' roll is read from the first name to the thousandth, and the young ones try to stay solemn.
Chiamaka Pemberton, sixteen, takes the printer operator apprenticeship in Fabrication.
5.90 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 41,508 thousand to go.
5.90 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 41,512 thousand to go.
Umbra Orellana stands down from Life Systems at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
A new poem from Elin Yan — “What the Watch Holds.” The Archive takes a copy; the original belongs to whoever stands nearest.
A joining in Ring D: Wenbo Quaye and Oluwaseun Merriweather. The pressing of cider is authorized.
Born at dimming: Khalid Fang, generation 4. The ship holds 954 souls tonight.
The youngest aboard is now Chidinma Shen, minutes old, asleep. 953 souls.
Last shift for Uzoma Aaberg, who joined Archive & Schools half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 43,562 days to orbit.
Remembrance. All names read since the last one — held in silence in every ring at the same hour. I keep the lights low until it is done.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
A daughter, Opal Petrov, born in the Ring C infirmary to Cygnet Petrov and Fadi Yan. Mother and child are well.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 130, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Sixty-eight years: Florence Thorvaldsen hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring A stands ready.
Sixty-eight years: Oluwadamilola Diallo hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring C stands ready.
A first shift for Drift Valdivia, sixteen: nurse, Medical. The badge is printed fresh.
Mikhail Thorvaldsen and Shanta Fang are joined under the orchard lamps. The whole of Drive turns out.
A first shift for Zenith Ouyang, sixteen: historian, Archive & Schools. The badge is printed fresh.
Sable Valdivia retires on the first watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
Zofia Kowalczyk, 82, generation 2, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
A first shift for Baozhen Aaberg, sixteen: sanitation engineer, Life Systems. The badge is printed fresh.
Mariam Petrov stands down from Ecology at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Born in the middle watch: Theodore Nwosu, generation 6. The ship holds 952 souls tonight.
Mahesh Nwosu, 82, generation 3, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Last shift for Sable Thorvaldsen, who joined Fabrication half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.