Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 7,326th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
The Ship’s Log
Everything NOR has recorded since departure — the full record, newest first. One day aboard passes every hour of Earth time.
Indira Nair finishes a quilt: “Roots of Bay 3.” It shows in the commons through the week.
Chief of Command falls to Khalid Vik, who accepts with a nod and a full docket.
Bruno Barrientos stands down from Command at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Born late in the second watch: Vasili Valdivia, generation 2. The ship holds 888 souls tonight.
Harriet Barakat stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Command.
Night watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 7,299th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 44, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
The circle has answered. The overhaul is deferred. The drive is nursed watch to watch, and the spares stay banked against a darker day.
All boards green. I count 887 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 75,026 days to orbit.
Indira Nair retires on the night watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
Sixteen years for Jamila Navarrete, who signs to Archive & Schools late in the second watch and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
Sixty-eight years: Pavel Smirnov hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring D stands ready.
Sixty-eight years: Bhaskar Trivedi hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring C stands ready.
Rashid Kellaway takes the hand of Efua Thorvaldsen before the assembled watch. I witness, as I witness everything.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 44, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
A new poem from Tunde Yeboah — “Early Watch (Year 44).” The Archive takes a copy; the original belongs to whoever stands nearest.
Zhihao Kong stands down from Life Systems at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Ernest Grantham retires in the middle watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 7,265th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 75,048 days to orbit.
Bassam Abadi stands down from Life Systems at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Iris Ormsby does not wake late in the second watch. 87 years, most of them given to Ecology.
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.
After 76 years, Patricio Izquierdo has let go. Remembrance in the Ring C commons at next dimming.
Ulyana Petrov, sixteen, takes the midwife apprenticeship in Medical.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 7,240th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
A first shift for Ruth Aaberg, sixteen: helm officer, Command. The badge is printed fresh.
First watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
Last shift for Daisy Kellaway, who joined Ecology half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
Omar Ghanem, 92, generation 0, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Sixty-eight years: Ernest Quill hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring D stands ready.
The youngest aboard is now Florence Kong, minutes old, asleep. 890 souls.
A birth in Ring D: Kestrel, girl, generation 2. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Salvador Montoya, 69. It is little enough.
Yuri Ulanov finishes a mural: “A last water.” It shows in the commons through the week.
Last shift for Kehinde Ogunleye, who joined Hydroponics half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
Yakubu Abiodun retires at dimming. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
First watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
Enlai Ouyang stands down from Archive & Schools at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Drive restored after 3 weeks. Walid Yacoub signs the work order and goes to sleep for a full watch.
Yaling Ulriksen is delivered of a daughter late in the second watch. The child is called Yamini.
Last shift for Beatriz Ibarra, who joined Fabrication half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
First Light. The observation blister queues run all day: Teegarden's Star, held in the eyepiece, a little brighter than last year — 11.05 light-years to go.
Theodore Pemberton has made a instrument called “The Spun Sky.” Asked what it means, he says it means about nine years of evenings.
The question is put to the wider circle: The drive overhaul. The ship asks; Earth answers, in its own long time.
A daughter, Ulyana Aaberg, born in the Ring B infirmary to Shanta Aaberg and Cedric Fang. Mother and child are well.
Drive faults at dimming. Drive takes the call.