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.
Last shift for Opal Northam, who joined Archive & Schools half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
11.06 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 66,679 thousand to go.
Beatriz Fang isolates a repeating radio source in the wake. Natural, almost certainly. The word "almost" keeps the commons busy a month.
Chief of Ecology falls to Uday Reddy, who accepts with a nod and a full docket.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Carmen Cárdenas, 66. It is little enough.
Xingyu Chen finishes a quilt: “Fields of Year 44.” It shows in the commons through the week.
Dagny Merriweather is delivered of a daughter at dimming. The child is called Vasanti.
Night watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
A first shift for Bohdana Fossum, sixteen: pharmacist, Medical. The badge is printed fresh.
“Watch for the Inward Map,” a poem by Erik Gundersen, is unveiled late in the second watch to the particular applause of Life Systems.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Amir Antoun, 64. It is little enough.
Anton Tereshkova stands down from Drive at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Kayode Abiodun does not wake on the night watch. 76 years, most of them given to Hydroponics.
Yolanda Orellana died in quarters at brightening, 64 years old, once broadcast keeper. 889 souls aboard.
Josefina Herrera died in quarters late in the second watch, 77 years old. 890 souls aboard.
Sixty-eight years: Margaret Kingsley hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring A stands ready.
Departure Day, year 44. The founders' roll is read from the first name to the thousandth, and the young ones try to stay solemn.
Census check: 891 souls, 144 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
Raymond Ormsby stands down from Ecology at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Sixty-eight years: Beatrice Fenwick hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring A stands ready.
The council confirms Abebi Diallo as Chief of Archive & Schools on the first watch.
Signe Ulriksen retires at dimming. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
Last shift for Lubna Maalouf, who joined Command half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
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.
Sixty-eight years: Stanley Cavanagh hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring D stands ready.
Lakshmi Pillai stands down from Fabrication at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Jiayi Quill is delivered of a daughter on the night watch. The child is called Paloma.
Wanrong Yan stands down from Life Systems at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
Ananya Yan and Dag Nordahl name their son Emeka. The nursery lamps stay warm.
Modupe Okafor stands down from Medical at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Last shift for Dmitri Morozov, who joined Hydroponics half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
11.08 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 66,946 thousand to go.
Sixteen years for Theodore Quaye, who signs to Archive & Schools on the night watch and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
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.
Nora Salazar is delivered of a son late in the second watch. The child is called Walid.
Morale index reads 67. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
Hydroponics Bays hums again. Kiran Hegde is stood a round of orchard cider by the off-shift.
Green across the board: NOR Compute Core holds after 38 long days of work. Spares were spent; Fabrication is notified.
Trouble in Hydroponics Bays. The board goes amber; the coffee goes on.
Born in the middle watch: Hernán Pillai, generation 2. The ship holds 888 souls tonight.
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.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 75,345 days to orbit.
11.09 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 66,833 thousand to go.
Sixty-eight years: Gunnar Sandvik hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring D stands ready.
Sixteen years for Hernán Thorvaldsen, who signs to Medical late in the second watch and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
Chitra Reddy finds an unrecorded microbe thriving in the water walls. Harmless, industrious, ours.
Sixty-eight years: Wenbo Jiang hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring A stands ready.
Last shift for Stanley Iverson, who joined Ecology half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.