Morale index reads 72. 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.
Halley Quill chooses Life Systems — or it chooses her; the elders disagree cheerfully.
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.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 54,465 days to orbit.
The schools release Mikhail Kowalczyk to Drive. Generation 4 takes up its tools.
All boards green. I count 966 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
A new song from Yaw Fang — “Seven Roots Sleeping.” The Archive takes a copy; the original belongs to whoever stands nearest.
A first shift for Raymond Fang, sixteen: instrument maker, Archive & Schools. The badge is printed fresh.
Census check: 966 souls, 138 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
Green across the board: Drive holds after 3 weeks of work. Spares were spent; Fabrication is notified.
Kestrel Navarrete is delivered of a son at brightening. The child is called Fadi.
Elsie Navarrete, 96, generation 1, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
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.
Trouble in Drive. The board goes amber; the coffee goes on.
Gunhild Thorvaldsen is delivered of a daughter on the first watch. The child is called Opal.
Vikram Diallo stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Medical.
7.70 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 52,626 thousand to go.
Hydroponics Bays hums again. Xavier Thorvaldsen is stood a round of orchard cider by the off-shift.
Too soon, at 7: Mohan Thorvaldsen. The commons fills on the night watch with those who knew him.
Hassan Pillai has made a mural called “What the Ladder Returns.” Asked what it means, he says it means about nine years of evenings.
A wedding at brightening. Percy Quaye, Drive; Vera Valdivia, Hydroponics. The ship approves in its way: the lights held steady throughout.
A wedding at brightening. Jagdish Kong, Fabrication; Huda Thorvaldsen, Fabrication. The ship approves in its way: the lights held steady throughout.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 100, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
A first shift for Vasanti Sharma, sixteen: quartermaster, Command. The badge is printed fresh.
Divya Aaberg and Howard Aaberg name their son Knut. The nursery lamps stay warm.
The food reserve crosses its caution line. Portions hold for now; the conversation in the mess does not.
Devendra Pillai retires in the middle watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 100, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Hydroponics Bays goes down. I reroute what can be rerouted and wake who must be woken.
Ion Barakat takes the hand of Anastasia Fang before the assembled watch. I witness, as I witness everything.
Daisy Jaber confirms a new wheat cultivar in Bay 3 — shorter stalk, fuller head. It will be called what the children already call it.
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.
Census check: 965 souls, 138 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
Vera Kong chooses Medical — or it chooses her; the elders disagree cheerfully.
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.
The circle has answered. The evenings belong to the ship's own voices. The commons learn each other's songs, and the applause is for people with quarters three doors down.
Census check: 965 souls, 139 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
Teegarden Barakat and Adrián Diallo are joined under the orchard lamps. The whole of Drive turns out.
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.
Tao Navarrete chooses Archive & Schools — or it chooses him; the elders disagree cheerfully.
A first shift for Yusheng Nwosu, sixteen: plasma systems tech, Drive. The badge is printed fresh.
Abena Navarrete retires at dimming. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
Howard Orellana and Fern Tväten are joined under the orchard lamps. The whole of Medical turns out.
A wedding in the middle watch. Wenbo Thorvaldsen, Fabrication; Astrid Fang, Hydroponics. The ship approves in its way: the lights held steady throughout.
Census check: 965 souls, 141 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
Kavita Nwosu and Domingo Thorvaldsen are joined under the orchard lamps. The whole of Ecology turns out.
All boards green. I count 965 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
7.72 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 52,776 thousand to go.
First Light festival. The children are lifted to the eyepiece one by one to see where they are going.