After 63 years, Stanislav Northam has let go. Remembrance in the Ring D commons at next dimming.
The Ship’s Log
Everything NOR has recorded since departure — the full record, newest first. One day aboard passes every hour of Earth time.
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.
A daughter, Widad Thorvaldsen, born in the Ring D infirmary to Umbra Thorvaldsen and Torsten Jaber. Mother and child are well.
A birth in Ring A: Xenia, boy, generation 6. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 7,586th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
All boards green. I count 820 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
The schools release Fern Fang to Life Systems. Generation 6 takes up its tools.
Sixteen years for Tern Fang, who signs to Life Systems late in the second watch and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
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.
“What the Hymn Holds,” a instrument by Xavier Shen, is unveiled at dimming to the particular applause of Fabrication.
A birth in Ring C: Keel, boy, generation 6. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
Juniper Nwosu has died at 10, far too early. the ship stands down a shift in grief.
Alejandro Zhao does not wake in the middle watch. 77 years, most of them given to Ecology.
Clara Ouyang has made a mural called “Kept Engine, Standing Lantern.” Asked what it means, she says it means about nine years of evenings.
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.
The Crossing. Every year it is observed, and every year someone stands to say the second half is the harder, and is booed warmly.
The youngest aboard is now Helm Jaber, minutes old, asleep. 821 souls.
Born on the first watch: Ragnhild Thorvaldsen, generation 7. The ship holds 820 souls tonight.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Orrery Nwosu, 89. It is little enough.
Efua Nwosu is delivered of a daughter at dimming. The child is called Altair.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
Maintenance sweep of Ring A complete. Somewhere aft a wrench is missing; it will surface in a decade, in a wall, with a story attached.
Valentina Peng is delivered of a daughter late in the second watch. The child is called Gantry.
Fuhua Sharma, sixteen, takes the entomologist apprenticeship in Ecology.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
The schools release Meridian Sharma to Drive. Generation 6 takes up its tools.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 7,461th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
All boards green. I count 818 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
A birth in Ring D: Ifeoma, girl, generation 7. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
Born at brightening: Yueqin Aaberg, generation 6. The ship holds 817 souls tonight.
Deneb Fang stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Command.
Arc Nwosu does not wake at dimming. 98 years, most of them given to Fabrication.
Rocío Aaberg is delivered of a son on the night watch. The child is called Zaid.
First Light festival. The children are lifted to the eyepiece one by one to see where they are going.
Drift Barakat retires on the first watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
A son, Ulf Petrov, born in the Ring B infirmary to Oksana Petrov and Emeka Valdivia. Mother and child are well.
Zemin Thorvaldsen and Teresa Zhao, joined. Their quarters are re-assigned adjoining, per custom.
Nicolás Sharma retires at dimming. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
A daughter, Samira Fang, born in the Ring B infirmary to Alice Fang and Wren Thorvaldsen. Mother and child are well.
The manifest shortens by one: Shanyuan Valdivia, 96 years. The line rests with the ship now.
Orrery Sharma chooses Drive — or it chooses her; the elders disagree cheerfully.
Gantry Petrov, sixteen, takes the midwife apprenticeship in Medical.
Edith Thorvaldsen recovers a corrupted Earth archive block: forty minutes of a rainstorm, recorded through an open window. It plays in the commons on a loop.
Green across the board: Hydroponics Bays holds after 4 weeks of work. Spares were spent; Fabrication is notified.
Karim Petrov stands down from Medical at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Harini Navarrete is delivered of a daughter on the first watch. The child is called Sable.
Chinedu Valdivia died in quarters at dimming, 94 years old. 814 souls aboard.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.