Morale index reads 83. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
The Ship’s Log
Everything NOR has recorded since departure — the full record, newest first. One day aboard passes every hour of Earth time.
7.92 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 53,417 thousand to go.
Cygnet Fang is made Chief of Hydroponics, and marks it by standing the ordinary shift anyway.
Last shift for Jiayi Shen, who joined Hydroponics half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
Bhavana Orellana is delivered of a son on the first watch. The child is called Femi.
Green across the board: NOR Compute Core holds after 5 days of work. Spares were spent; Fabrication is notified.
Magnus Merriweather, sixteen, takes the librarian apprenticeship in Archive & Schools.
Trouble in NOR Compute Core. The board goes amber; the coffee goes on.
All boards green. I count 954 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
Knut Merriweather and Deneb Yan, joined. Their quarters are re-assigned adjoining, per custom.
Remembrance day. The memorial wall is polished by hand, though nothing aboard needs polishing less.
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 wedding at brightening. Zhihao Nwosu, Archive & Schools; Mira Diallo, Drive. The ship approves in its way: the lights held steady throughout.
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.
Ibrahim Yan finishes a mural: “Whole Watch (Year 96).” It shows in the commons through the week.
Sixteen years for Wei Navarrete, who signs to Command at brightening and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
Lakshman Tväten has made a play called “Long Sky, Outward Root.” Asked what it means, he says it means about nine years of evenings.
Zikora Petrov and Chitra Singh, joined. Their quarters are re-assigned adjoining, per custom.
The schools release Jamal Salazar to Ecology. Generation 4 takes up its tools.
Sixty-eight years: Harriet Barakat hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring B stands ready.
The schools release Vera Valdivia to Hydroponics. Generation 4 takes up its tools.
Nadia Thorvaldsen, sixteen, takes the midwife apprenticeship in Medical.
Morale index reads 82. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
A first shift for Wenbo Peng, sixteen: irrigation tech, Hydroponics. The badge is printed fresh.
The manifest shortens by one: Dag Nordahl, 86 years. 9 children carry the line on.
Jamila Navarrete stands down from Archive & Schools at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 8,242th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 8,236th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
Ulyana Petrov retires on the first watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
Sixteen years for Oksana Ning, who signs to Ecology late in the second watch and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
A joining in Ring D: Mohan Kong and Pearl Aaberg. The pressing of cider is authorized.
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.
A wedding on the night watch. Quill Jaber, Hydroponics; Tessa Ulriksen, Archive & Schools. The ship approves in its way: the lights held steady throughout.
Sixty-eight years: Ruth Aaberg hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring A stands ready.
Tarun Fossum, 93, generation 1, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 56,107 days to orbit.
Census check: 956 souls, 167 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
A wedding on the night watch. Halvard Diallo, Drive; Ion Aaberg, Life Systems. The ship approves in its way: the lights held steady throughout.
Hassan Mansour and Folasade Pemberton, joined. Their quarters are re-assigned adjoining, per custom.
Census check: 956 souls, 167 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
The youngest aboard is now Drift Shen, minutes old, asleep. 956 souls.
The youngest aboard is now Drift Barakat, minutes old, asleep. 955 souls.
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.
Census check: 954 souls, 165 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
First Light festival. The children are lifted to the eyepiece one by one to see where they are going.
Ylva Jaber, sixteen, takes the plasma systems tech apprenticeship in Drive.
The schools release Fern Tväten to Hydroponics. Generation 3 takes up its tools.
After 85 years, Dolores Kong has let go. Remembrance in the Ring D commons at next dimming.
Morale index reads 83. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.