Trouble in Hydroponics Bays. The board goes amber; the coffee goes on.
The Ship’s Log
Everything NOR has recorded since departure — the full record, newest first. One day aboard passes every hour of Earth time.
Sixteen years for Lyra Orellana, who signs to Fabrication at brightening and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
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.
Sixty-eight years: Dmitri Tväten hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring B stands ready.
Enlai Thorvaldsen does not wake on the night watch. 101 years, most of them given to Medical.
Year 168 of the voyage begins. The oldest bottle of orchard wine that can be spared is opened. It is always described as "improving."
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
A new poem from Anand Ulriksen — “Seven Gardens Sleeping.” The Archive takes a copy; the original belongs to whoever stands nearest.
Green across the board: Water Reclamation holds after 1 weeks of work. Spares were spent; Fabrication is notified.
A first shift for Boreal Petrov, sixteen: fuelwright, Drive. The badge is printed fresh.
Fault isolated in Water Reclamation. Repair estimate: unwise to say aloud.
Carmen Valdivia chooses Ecology — or it chooses her; the elders disagree cheerfully.
First watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
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.
Verne Nwosu takes the hand of Josefina Northam before the assembled watch. I witness, as I witness everything.
Radhika Ouyang, 85, generation 4, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Night watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
Ember Barakat stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Archive & Schools.
A first shift for Zenith Quill, sixteen: arborist, Ecology. The badge is printed fresh.
3.71 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 24,546 thousand to go.
Keel Ulriksen does not wake at brightening. 86 years, most of them given to Ecology.
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.
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.
A joining in Ring A: Wren Thorvaldsen and Alice Fang. The pressing of cider is authorized.
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.
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 Howard Orellana, 91. It is little enough.
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.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Cygnet Nwosu, 93. It is little enough.
A daughter, Leticia Quill, born in the Ring B infirmary to Cygnet Quill and Mohan Shen. Mother and child are well.
The schools release Xavier Aaberg to Archive & Schools. Generation 6 takes up its tools.
Ulf Jaber stands down from Life Systems at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Bernardo Thorvaldsen, 69, generation 4, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Census check: 820 souls, 228 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
Aster Shen, 80, generation 4, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Ion Aaberg, 96, generation 3, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Two names braided on the manifest tonight: Pearl and Ravindra. The commons sings late.
Kavita Ouyang stands down from Hydroponics at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
The schools release Beatriz Sharma to Life Systems. Generation 6 takes up its tools.
A son, Nnamdi Tväten, born in the Ring A infirmary to Safiya Tväten and Magnus Nwosu. Mother and child are well.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
Maintenance sweep of Ring D complete. Somewhere aft a wrench is missing; it will surface in a decade, in a wall, with a story attached.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 7,163th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
Node Aaberg stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Hydroponics.
Sixty-eight years: Xenia Orellana hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring A stands ready.
Ember Jaber stands down from Ecology at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Nils Thorvaldsen is made Chief of Drive, and marks it by standing the ordinary shift anyway.
Pranav Yan retires on the night watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
The youngest aboard is now Boreal Quill, minutes old, asleep. 821 souls.