Yuri Petrov, sixteen, takes the printer operator apprenticeship in Fabrication.
The Ship’s Log
Everything NOR has recorded since departure — year 101, newest first. One day aboard passes every hour of Earth time.
The schools release Gyre Quill to Hydroponics. 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.
All boards green. I count 966 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
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.
Census check: 966 souls, 135 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 989th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
Jiayi Nwosu is delivered of a daughter late in the second watch. The child is called Karima.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 101, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Anli Northam and Anand Ulriksen are joined under the orchard lamps. The whole of Archive & Schools turns out.
First Light. The observation blister queues run all day: Teegarden's Star, held in the eyepiece, a little brighter than last year — 7.66 light-years to go.
Chitra Singh finishes a instrument: “The Last Map.” It shows in the commons through the week.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 54,342 days to orbit.
I dim the corridor lights a shade for Devendra Yacoub, 86. It is little enough.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 101, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Hilde Petrov is delivered of a son at brightening. The child is called Ulises.
A joining in Ring A: Harish Petrov and Maja Thorvaldsen. 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.
Emeka Sharma takes the hand of Hilde Petrov before the assembled watch. I witness, as I witness everything.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 101, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Morale index reads 76. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
“Last Thread (Year 101),” a play by Esha Yan, is unveiled on the first watch to the particular applause of Fabrication.
Maintenance sweep of Ring C 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. 54,374 days to orbit.
Yaw Zhao stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Life Systems.
Drift Valdivia isolates a repeating radio source in the wake. Natural, almost certainly. The word "almost" keeps the commons busy a month.
Nanna Ouyang stands down from Ecology at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Morale index reads 75. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
Sixteen years for Guadalupe Thorvaldsen, who signs to Life Systems at dimming and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 54,409 days to orbit.
Census check: 965 souls, 135 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
The hull ticks as it cools into the long night. Year 101, and I still log it faithfully: ticking, nominal.
Tara Fang has made a mural called “Winter for the Hollow Winter.” Asked what it means, she says it means about nine years of evenings.
Maintenance sweep of Ring D complete. Somewhere aft a wrench is missing; it will surface in a decade, in a wall, with a story attached.
Qing Petrov finds an unrecorded microbe thriving in the water walls. Harmless, industrious, ours.
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.
Caelum Diallo does not wake on the night watch. 61 years, most of them given to Life Systems.
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.
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.
Departure Day, year 101. The founders' roll is read from the first name to the thousandth, and the young ones try to stay solemn.
Bruno Fang and Dolores Aaberg are joined under the orchard lamps. The whole of Fabrication turns out.