Night watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
The Ship’s Log
Everything NOR has recorded since departure — the full record, newest first. One day aboard passes every hour of Earth time.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Chunhua Feng, 90. It is little enough.
Sixteen years for Katarzyna Ashworth, who signs to Medical on the night watch and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
Kavita Pillai is delivered of a daughter at dimming. The child is called Iveta.
The youngest aboard is now Divya Peng, minutes old, asleep. 740 souls.
Fadi El-Amin does not wake on the first watch. 79 years, most of them given to Hydroponics.
Morale index reads 72. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
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.
Edmund Yardley died in quarters at brightening, 94 years old. 740 souls aboard.
10.29 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 52,197 thousand to go.
A birth in Ring C: Salvador, boy, generation 3. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
A first shift for Oddny Thorvaldsen, sixteen: navigator, Command. The badge is printed fresh.
Nanna Ouyang isolates a repeating radio source in the wake. Natural, almost certainly. The word "almost" keeps the commons busy a month.
The manifest shortens by one: Fatima Zayed, 86 years. The line rests with the ship now.
Caelum Nwosu chooses Hydroponics — or it chooses him; the elders disagree cheerfully.
Unn Aaberg died in quarters at dimming, 85 years old. 741 souls aboard.
Born late in the second watch: Mira Jaber, generation 3. The ship holds 742 souls tonight.
The schools release Rell Peng to Ecology. Generation 2 takes up its tools.
After 77 years, Ulyana Gagarin has let go. Remembrance in the Ring B commons at next dimming.
Adaeze Thorvaldsen chooses Drive — or it chooses her; the elders disagree cheerfully.
A wedding in the middle watch. Anastasia Ouyang, Ecology; Frederick Valdivia, Ecology. The ship approves in its way: the lights held steady throughout.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 2,821th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
10.30 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 52,308 thousand to go.
Ebba Aaberg has made a quilt called “Hollow Harvest (Year 57).” Asked what it means, she says it means about nine years of evenings.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 2,812th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 70,502 days to orbit.
Year 57 of the voyage begins. The oldest bottle of orchard wine that can be spared is opened. It is always described as "improving."
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
10.30 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 52,325 thousand to go.
10.30 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 52,327 thousand to go.
The youngest aboard is now Beatriz Sharma, minutes old, asleep. 742 souls.
A wedding on the night watch. Babatunde Jaber, Hydroponics; Elsie Diallo, Archive & Schools. The ship approves in its way: the lights held steady throughout.
A joining in Ring D: Bhaskar Petrov and Dolores Valdivia. The pressing of cider is authorized.
César Escamilla, 85, generation 0, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Svetlana Nowak does not wake at brightening. 93 years, most of them given to Fabrication.
A daughter, Layla Shen, born in the Ring A infirmary to Natalya Shen and Stanley Fossum. Mother and child are well.
Dmitri Dragunov died in quarters on the first watch, 82 years old. 742 souls aboard.
The circle has answered. The orchard's water is halved. The trees will forgive us, the gardeners say, but not soon.
Harold Standish died in quarters on the first watch, 88 years old. 743 souls aboard.
All boards green. I count 744 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
A first shift for Chidinma Pillai, sixteen: pharmacist, Medical. The badge is printed fresh.
Morale index reads 70. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
Divya Varma died in quarters at brightening, 89 years old. 744 souls aboard.
Morale index reads 70. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
A new poem from Divya Venkatesan — “Orchards of the spinal corridor.” The Archive takes a copy; the original belongs to whoever stands nearest.
Remembrance day. The memorial wall is polished by hand, though nothing aboard needs polishing less.
Born at brightening: Zikora Shen, generation 3. The ship holds 745 souls tonight.
Frederick Aldous died in quarters late in the second watch, 89 years old. 744 souls aboard.
Ravindra Ouyang finishes a play: “Field for the Inward Sky.” It shows in the commons through the week.
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.