Repair complete on Water Reclamation within the day. I run the test cycle twice, out of respect for history.
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 failure in Water Reclamation. The duty crew is roused; tools move down the spinal corridor at a jog.
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.
Shanta Aaberg and Cedric Fang name their son Amir. The nursery lamps stay warm.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 5,106th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
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.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Walter Standish, 78. It is little enough.
Jinghua Fang stands down from Hydroponics at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
June Pemberton does not wake on the night watch. 59 years, most of them given to Archive & Schools.
Rocío Juárez retires late in the second watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
The youngest aboard is now Dinesh Merriweather, minutes old, asleep. 931 souls.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
Cora Aldous, 80, generation 0, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Paloma Nwosu and Omar Titov name their son Ayodele. The nursery lamps stay warm.
Last shift for Carmen Salazar, who joined Life Systems half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
Sixty-eight years: Konstantin Lebedev hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring B stands ready.
Darya Dragunov does not wake at brightening. 82 years, most of them given to Life Systems.
Morale index reads 73. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
All boards green. I count 931 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
Qiaoyun Quaye and Jamal Raghunathan name their son Gilbert. The nursery lamps stay warm.
The youngest aboard is now Sten Quill, minutes old, asleep. 930 souls.
Last shift for Ifedayo Okonkwo, who joined Ecology half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
11.40 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 71,793 thousand to go.
After 81 years, Beatrice Hartley has let go. Remembrance in the Ring A commons at next dimming.
Last shift for Bogdan Ivanova, who joined Drive half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
After 76 years, Lärä Yeboah has let go. Remembrance in the Ring B commons at next dimming.
A birth in Ring B: Boreal, girl, generation 2. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
All boards green. I count 930 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
First Light. The observation blister queues run all day: Teegarden's Star, held in the eyepiece, a little brighter than last year — 11.41 light-years to go.
Iman Dagher retires on the first watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
Gayatri Yadav died in quarters on the night watch, 72 years old. 930 souls aboard.
Fabrication Shops back in service. The old hands say it sounds better than before; the instruments say it sounds the same.
Zaid Wahba retires in the middle watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
Cora Bexley died in quarters at dimming, 86 years old. 931 souls aboard.
A failure in Fabrication Shops. The duty crew is roused; tools move down the spinal corridor at a jog.
Sixty-eight years: Pranav Yadav hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring B stands ready.
“A turning garden,” a quilt by Dawud Jaber, is unveiled at dimming to the particular applause of Medical.
Nandini Patil stands down from Drive at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Jagdish Rao stands down from Medical at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Ingrid Fossum stands down from Fabrication at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
The manifest shortens by one: Peng Wu, 78 years. The line rests with the ship now.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 38, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Vasanti Pillai, 82. It is little enough.
Yakubu Patil stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Hydroponics.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 38, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 38, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
A joining in Ring B: Tao Ogunleye and Jiayi Quill. The pressing of cider is authorized.
Huifen Aaberg and Sten Han name their daughter Lucía. The nursery lamps stay warm.
Sixty-eight years: Enlai Ouyang hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring B stands ready.
The schools release Clifford Barrientos to Hydroponics. Generation 1 takes up its tools.