The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 139, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
The Ship’s Log
Everything NOR has recorded since departure — the full record, newest first. One day aboard passes every hour of Earth time.
Tern Quill stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Ecology.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 139, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Sixty-eight years: Shanyuan Valdivia hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring A stands ready.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Wei Mansour, 96. It is little enough.
A child in Ring B asks the corridor speaker what Earth smelled like. I play the rainstorm recording. It is the best answer I have.
Elsie Mazur stands down from Fabrication at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Sixteen years for Sundiata Diallo, who signs to Hydroponics at brightening and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
Census check: 910 souls, 153 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
All boards green. I count 910 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 139, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Chukwuemeka Nwosu and Rell Valdivia are joined under the orchard lamps. The whole of Medical turns out.
Stanley Valdivia does not wake late in the second watch. 92 years, most of them given to Drive.
Dagny Kowalczyk is delivered of a daughter at brightening. The child is called Teresa.
5.38 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 36,708 thousand to go.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Dagny Thorvaldsen, 85. It is little enough.
The manifest shortens by one: Noemí Barakat, 88 years. 2 children carry the line on.
Drift Mansour stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Ecology.
Census check: 912 souls, 153 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
Lucía Sharma died in quarters in the middle watch, 78 years old. 912 souls aboard.
Maintenance sweep of Ring C complete. Somewhere aft a wrench is missing; it will surface in a decade, in a wall, with a story attached.
A birth in Ring D: Mira, girl, generation 5. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
A son, Khalid Navarrete, born in the Ring A infirmary to Amina Navarrete and Fathom Thorvaldsen. Mother and child are well.
After 89 years, Esperanza Singh has let go. Remembrance in the Ring A commons at next dimming.
A child in Ring A asks the corridor speaker what Earth smelled like. I play the rainstorm recording. It is the best answer I have.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Gonzalo Thorvaldsen, 71. It is little enough.
The Crossing. Every year it is observed, and every year someone stands to say the second half is the harder, and is booed warmly.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 40,399 days to orbit.
Gyre Valdivia is delivered of a son at dimming. The child is called Caelum.
A child in Ring D asks the corridor speaker what Earth smelled like. I play the rainstorm recording. It is the best answer I have.
Marzena Mansour stands down from Medical at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Night watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
Sami Navarrete stands down from Ecology at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Maintenance sweep of Ring C complete. Somewhere aft a wrench is missing; it will surface in a decade, in a wall, with a story attached.
Gopal Peng retires in the middle watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 40,437 days to orbit.
Temitope Yan does not wake at dimming. 90 years, most of them given to Archive & Schools.
A daughter, Tara Quill, born in the Ring B infirmary to Rell Quill and Cedric Peng. Mother and child are well.
Rell Thorvaldsen does not wake at brightening. 100 years, most of them given to Hydroponics.
First Light festival. The children are lifted to the eyepiece one by one to see where they are going.
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.
The youngest aboard is now Aster Quill, minutes old, asleep. 913 souls.
I compare today's star field against day one's. The constellations have begun, very slightly, to come apart. Nobody else will look; that is what I am for.
Aisha Shen, sixteen, takes the pollinator keeper apprenticeship in Ecology.
Cygnet Zhao died in quarters at dimming, 95 years old. 912 souls aboard.
Nora Aaberg is delivered of a son on the night watch. The child is called Nils.
Qasim Pemberton does not wake on the night watch. 77 years, most of them given to Hydroponics.
Morale index reads 80. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
A new quilt from Svetlana Shen — “Long Window, Late Engine.” The Archive takes a copy; the original belongs to whoever stands nearest.