The schools release Dolores Jaber to Command. Generation 3 takes up its tools.
The Ship’s Log
Everything NOR has recorded since departure — the full record, newest first. One day aboard passes every hour of Earth time.
Born on the first watch: Ebba Aaberg, generation 3. The ship holds 732 souls tonight.
Ganesh Chandrasekaran retires at dimming. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
Hassan Ashworth and Dolores Thorvaldsen are joined under the orchard lamps. The whole of Ecology turns out.
A first shift for Tomasz Northam, sixteen: plasma systems tech, Drive. The badge is printed fresh.
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.
A son, Arc Nwosu, born in the Ring C infirmary to Gyre Nwosu and Leif Mansour. Mother and child are well.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 7,467th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
After 87 years, Sami Jaber has let go. Remembrance in the Ring A commons at next dimming.
Chitra Reddy died in quarters on the first watch, 92 years old. 731 souls aboard.
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.
Galina Petrov and Lanying Ouyang name their son Naresh. The nursery lamps stay warm.
Maksim Fang resolves a long-period comet in the forward field — a smudge of home ice, very far from home. It is logged and named.
9.54 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 48,143 thousand to go.
The youngest aboard is now Gyre Barakat, minutes old, asleep. 731 souls.
The youngest aboard is now Iris Jaber, minutes old, asleep. 730 souls.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 7,427th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 65,887 days to orbit.
Census check: 729 souls, 309 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
Olga Petrov and Juniper Orellana, joined. Their quarters are re-assigned adjoining, per custom.
A birth in Ring D: Teegarden, boy, generation 3. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
Boreal Tväten is delivered of a daughter late in the second watch. The child is called Leticia.
After 89 years, Mateo Navarrete has let go. Remembrance in the Ring A commons at next dimming.
Huifen Cao does not wake on the night watch. 92 years, most of them given to Drive.
A birth in Ring D: Annika, girl, generation 3. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
Lucía Aaberg and Hakon Valdivia name their daughter Josefina. The nursery lamps stay warm.
Maintenance sweep of Ring B complete. Somewhere aft a wrench is missing; it will surface in a decade, in a wall, with a story attached.
A daughter, Eleanor Barakat, born in the Ring C infirmary to Harriet Barakat and Yakubu Patil. Mother and child are well.
A birth in Ring A: Yolanda, girl, generation 3. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
Leandro Nwosu works out a tougher print alloy from recycler feedstock. Fabrication adopts it the same week.
Ibrahim Shen stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Fabrication.
Born on the night watch: Albert Zhao, generation 3. The ship holds 725 souls tonight.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
Born at dimming: Mingyu Thorvaldsen, generation 3. The ship holds 724 souls tonight.
Yejide Thorvaldsen, sixteen, takes the grafter apprenticeship in Hydroponics.
Omar Titov has made a instrument called “The Small Map.” Asked what it means, he says it means about nine years of evenings.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 65,995 days to orbit.
Deshi Peng chooses Life Systems — or it chooses him; the elders disagree cheerfully.
Morale index reads 77. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
First Light. The observation blister queues run all day: Teegarden's Star, held in the eyepiece, a little brighter than last year — 9.57 light-years to go.
Ulyana Petrov and Rajesh Jaber name their daughter Leticia. The nursery lamps stay warm.
After 88 years, Simisola Lawal has let go. Remembrance in the Ring D commons at next dimming.
Divya Sharma does not wake in the middle watch. 88 years, most of them given to Life Systems.
Howard Ashworth died in quarters late in the second watch, 100 years old. 724 souls aboard.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Qasim Rahman, 93. It is little enough.
Frederick Carmody, 91, generation 0, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Bohdana Fossum and Hassan Pillai name their daughter Margaret. The nursery lamps stay warm.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 66,052 days to orbit.
Chinedu Kamau does not wake on the first watch. 96 years, most of them given to Archive & Schools.
A birth in Ring D: Nanna, girl, generation 3. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.