The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
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 new quilt from Mohan Shen — “What the Signal Grows.” The Archive takes a copy; the original belongs to whoever stands nearest.
The manifest shortens by one: Daisy Nwosu, 84 years. 3 children carry the line on.
Wallace Thorvaldsen, sixteen, takes the watch officer apprenticeship in Command.
A first shift for Gyre Tväten, sixteen: mycologist, Hydroponics. The badge is printed fresh.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 178, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Morale index reads 80. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
Deepika Petrov and Fern Petrov, joined. Their quarters are re-assigned adjoining, per custom.
Hernán Fang is made Chief of Life Systems, and marks it by standing the ordinary shift anyway.
Sixty-eight years: Xiulan Tväten hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring A stands ready.
Too soon, at 53: Olaf Nwosu. The commons fills at dimming with those who knew him.
Anders Shen stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Drive.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 178, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 2,091th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
First Light. The observation blister queues run all day: Teegarden's Star, held in the eyepiece, a little brighter than last year — 3.08 light-years to go.
The schools release Baozhen Shen to Drive. Generation 6 takes up its tools.
Too soon, at 9: Umbra Valdivia. The commons fills in the middle watch with those who knew her.
The schools release Noemí Navarrete to Command. Generation 7 takes up its tools.
A wedding on the night watch. Leticia Aaberg, Life Systems; Sojourn Valdivia, Hydroponics. The ship approves in its way: the lights held steady throughout.
NOR Compute Core hums again. Tern Valdivia is stood a round of orchard cider by the off-shift.
Fang Aaberg does not wake on the night watch. 94 years, most of them given to Hydroponics.
Sixteen years for Lakshman Thorvaldsen, who signs to Medical at dimming and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
Census check: 856 souls, 218 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
NOR Compute Core quits in the middle watch, with a sound the old hands do not like.
The schools release Zenith Nwosu to Ecology. Generation 6 takes up its tools.
Ylva Jaber does not wake at brightening. 97 years, most of them given to Drive.
Morale index reads 83. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 178, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
The council confirms Gopal Sharma as Chief of Fabrication at dimming.
Oluwaseun Merriweather stands down from Fabrication at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
A first shift for Ishaan Jaber, sixteen: instrument maker, Archive & Schools. The badge is printed fresh.
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.
Umbra Fang stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Medical.
Sixteen years for Vikram Kong, who signs to Medical late in the second watch and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 2,015th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
Edmund Merriweather and Xiaohui Shen, joined. Their quarters are re-assigned adjoining, per custom.
Nicolás Sharma, 77, generation 4, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Wenbo Peng died in quarters on the night watch, 97 years old. 858 souls aboard.
Umbra Nwosu chooses Hydroponics — or it chooses him; the elders disagree cheerfully.
A birth in Ring C: Verne, girl, generation 8. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
Dinesh Zhao died in quarters late in the second watch, 101 years old. 858 souls aboard.
Census check: 859 souls, 222 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
Year 178 of the voyage begins. The oldest bottle of orchard wine that can be spared is opened. It is always described as "improving."
Walter Thorvaldsen, sixteen, takes the broadcast keeper apprenticeship in Archive & Schools.
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.
Tao Fang died in quarters at brightening, 86 years old. 859 souls aboard.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 26,348 days to orbit.
3.10 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 22,661 thousand to go.
Wenbo Quaye stands down from Ecology at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
3.11 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 22,672 thousand to go.