Adrián Cárdenas does not wake on the night watch. 99 years, most of them given to Drive.
The Ship’s Log
Everything NOR has recorded since departure — the full record, newest first. One day aboard passes every hour of Earth time.
All boards green. I count 769 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
Born at dimming: Jiayi Nwosu, generation 4. The ship holds 769 souls tonight.
Usman Peng has made a song called “Whole Furrow, Patient Field.” Asked what it means, he says it means about nine years of evenings.
Fern Diallo stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Archive & Schools.
Morale index reads 80. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
Departure Day, year 74. The founders' roll is read from the first name to the thousandth, and the young ones try to stay solemn.
A joining in Ring A: Kestrel Aaberg and Ibrahim Shen. The pressing of cider is authorized.
All boards green. I count 768 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
Nneka Aaberg, sixteen, takes the librarian apprenticeship in Archive & Schools.
The youngest aboard is now Ishaan Ulriksen, minutes old, asleep. 768 souls.
Haoran Tväten, sixteen, takes the quartermaster apprenticeship in Command.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Jiayi Quill, 55. It is little enough.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 73, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Oscar Yan stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Fabrication.
Carmen Valdivia is delivered of a son on the night watch. The child is called Yusuf.
Bernard Pemberton stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Ecology.
Agnieszka Quaye and Nils Nwosu name their daughter Amparo. The nursery lamps stay warm.
Night watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
A daughter, Xiulan Orellana, born in the Ring D infirmary to Altair Orellana and Yamini Salazar. Mother and child are well.
The manifest shortens by one: Walter Standish, 94 years. The line rests with the ship now.
9.30 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 49,305 thousand to go.
Remembrance day. The memorial wall is polished by hand, though nothing aboard needs polishing less.
Morale index reads 76. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
Noemí Barakat and Renshu Kong are joined under the orchard lamps. The whole of Life Systems turns out.
Sten Quill finishes a mural: “What the Watch Remembers.” It shows in the commons through the week.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 73, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Meilin Fang stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Hydroponics.
Sixteen years for Kestrel Ouyang, who signs to Drive on the night watch and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
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.
Zofia Dragunov, 95, generation 0, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Hull & Shielding back in service. The old hands say it sounds better than before; the instruments say it sounds the same.
After 93 years, Zofia Mazur has let go. Remembrance in the Ring C commons at next dimming.
A child in Ring A asks the corridor speaker what Earth smelled like. I play the rainstorm recording. It is the best answer I have.
Jamal Raghunathan retires on the night watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
Walid Yacoub died in quarters on the night watch, 95 years old. 768 souls aboard.
Hull sensors flag a fault in the shielding lattice. Crews suit up on the first watch.
Josefina Barakat, sixteen, takes the mycologist apprenticeship in Hydroponics.
Marzena Quill is delivered of a daughter in the middle watch. The child is called Cora.
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.
Sixteen years for Octavio Singh, who signs to Fabrication on the first watch and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
All boards green. I count 768 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
Leticia Zhao and Cygnet Fang name their son Ikenna. The nursery lamps stay warm.
The circle has answered. The evenings belong to Earth's archive. Rain and orchestras down every corridor at dimming, and the old world stays a neighbor.
A first shift for Ghada Petrov, sixteen: water systems tech, Life Systems. The badge is printed fresh.
Huifen Ulriksen is delivered of a son at brightening. The child is called Cedric.
Census check: 766 souls, 302 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
All boards green. I count 766 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
A birth in Ring D: Kofi, boy, generation 3. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
First watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.