All boards green. I count 899 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
The Ship’s Log
Everything NOR has recorded since departure — the full record, newest first. One day aboard passes every hour of Earth time.
Esha Fang finishes a poem: “Twelve Anchors Standing.” It shows in the commons through the week.
A wedding at brightening. Gilbert Ning, Life Systems; Lubna Fossum, Hydroponics. The ship approves in its way: the lights held steady throughout.
8.43 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 53,077 thousand to go.
Basma Ning confirms a new wheat cultivar in Bay 3 — shorter stalk, fuller head. It will be called what the children already call it.
A first shift for Guadalupe Diallo, sixteen: mycologist, Hydroponics. The badge is printed fresh.
Ruth Orellana chooses Archive & Schools — or it chooses her; the elders disagree cheerfully.
A first shift for Zemin Navarrete, sixteen: nurse, Medical. The badge is printed fresh.
Jorgen Thorvaldsen and Uma Sharma, joined. Their quarters are re-assigned adjoining, per custom.
A wedding on the night watch. Sable Thorvaldsen, Fabrication; Verne Fang, Life Systems. The ship approves in its way: the lights held steady throughout.
Yuri Aaberg chooses Command — or it chooses him; the elders disagree cheerfully.
A son, Radomir Thorvaldsen, born in the Ring B infirmary to Ylva Thorvaldsen and Ayodele Salazar. Mother and child are well.
Hedda Ulriksen is delivered of a son in the middle watch. The child is called Emilio.
First Light festival. The children are lifted to the eyepiece one by one to see where they are going.
Yelena Shen chooses Ecology — or it chooses her; the elders disagree cheerfully.
Ebba Ning is made Chief of Drive, and marks it by standing the ordinary shift anyway.
Last shift for Howard Orellana, who joined Drive half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
Morale index reads 78. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
Noor Thorvaldsen and Dominika Navarrete, joined. Their quarters are re-assigned adjoining, per custom.
Fabrication Shops hums again. Lakshmi Ning is stood a round of orchard cider by the off-shift.
A new play from Deshi Peng — “The Outward Orchard.” The Archive takes a copy; the original belongs to whoever stands nearest.
Trouble in Fabrication Shops. The board goes amber; the coffee goes on.
Last shift for Natalya Pemberton, who joined Drive half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 5,204th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
A first shift for Noor Quaye, sixteen: printer operator, Fabrication. The badge is printed fresh.
All boards green. I count 897 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
Census check: 897 souls, 218 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
A first shift for Everett Petrov, sixteen: pollinator keeper, Ecology. The badge is printed fresh.
A child in Ring D asks the corridor speaker what Earth smelled like. I play the rainstorm recording. It is the best answer I have.
First watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
Two names braided on the manifest tonight: Arjun and Dalia. The commons sings late.
A first shift for Farida Quaye, sixteen: air systems tech, Life Systems. The badge is printed fresh.
Rocío Ning stands down from Life Systems at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
A first shift for Fernanda Nwosu, sixteen: midwife, Medical. The badge is printed fresh.
Departure Day, year 88. The founders' roll is read from the first name to the thousandth, and the young ones try to stay solemn.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
A first shift for Yaw Fang, sixteen: plasma systems tech, Drive. The badge is printed fresh.
Sixty-eight years: Jaroslav Peng hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring B stands ready.
A child in Ring B asks the corridor speaker what Earth smelled like. I play the rainstorm recording. It is the best answer I have.
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.
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.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 87, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Eos Orellana stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Life Systems.
A wedding late in the second watch. Faisal Orellana, Fabrication; Baozhen Valdivia, Archive & Schools. The ship approves in its way: the lights held steady throughout.
Remembrance day. The memorial wall is polished by hand, though nothing aboard needs polishing less.
Ifeoma Thorvaldsen chooses Medical — or it chooses her; the elders disagree cheerfully.
A first shift for Shanyuan Valdivia, sixteen: recycler, Fabrication. The badge is printed fresh.
Sixteen years for Elsie Mazur, who signs to Fabrication in the middle watch and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
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.
Ebba Peng and Nicolás Navarrete are joined under the orchard lamps. The whole of Medical turns out.