The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
The Ship’s Log
Everything NOR has recorded since departure — the full record, newest first. One day aboard passes every hour of Earth time.
Gayatri Mazur, sixteen, takes the water systems tech apprenticeship in Life Systems.
Huifen Ulriksen stands down from Hydroponics at sixty-eight, to the orchard benches and the long game of stones.
Routine watch. The wheat in Bay 3 stands taller than its keepers. 52,025 days to orbit.
Two names braided on the manifest tonight: Quill and Fern. The commons sings late.
Halley Quill is delivered of a son late in the second watch. The child is called Tern.
Gunhild Thorvaldsen finishes a poem: “The Sunless Orchard.” It shows in the commons through the week.
The schools release Per Ouyang to Life Systems. Generation 4 takes up its tools.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
Night watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
Fernanda Mazur has made a play called “A kept harvest.” Asked what it means, she says it means about nine years of evenings.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
A birth in Ring D: Eos, boy, generation 5. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
Tao Fang stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Command.
Last shift for Ingrid Fang, who joined Hydroponics half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
Born on the first watch: Sable Tväten, generation 4. The ship holds 978 souls tonight.
Morale index reads 81. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
Basma Nwosu stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Medical.
All boards green. I count 977 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
7.31 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 50,938 thousand to go.
First Light festival. The children are lifted to the eyepiece one by one to see where they are going.
A birth in Ring B: Kestrel, boy, generation 4. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
Jaroslav Varma, 96, generation 1, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Morale index reads 79. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
Sixty-eight years: Joaquín Yan hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring B stands ready.
First watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
A second child follows on the night watch: twins for Oksana Ning. This one is called Farida.
Oksana Ning is delivered of a son at brightening. The child is called Maksim.
A first shift for Fathom Salazar, sixteen: teacher, Archive & Schools. The badge is printed fresh.
Nora Jaber retires on the first watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
The schools release Alejandro Zhao to Ecology. Generation 4 takes up its tools.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
Noor Kowalczyk and Naresh Petrov name their son Kiran. The nursery lamps stay warm.
Sixteen years for Umbra Kong, who signs to Archive & Schools in the middle 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.
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.
Cygnet Petrov, sixteen, takes the thermal engineer apprenticeship in Life Systems.
Ebba Ashworth does not wake late in the second watch. 96 years, most of them given to Hydroponics.
The schools release Drift Sharma to Ecology. Generation 3 takes up its tools.
A first shift for Gyre Tväten, sixteen: air systems tech, Life Systems. The badge is printed fresh.
A first shift for Wenbo Valdivia, sixteen: sanitation engineer, Life Systems. The badge is printed fresh.
A first shift for Cygnet Jaber, sixteen: librarian, Archive & Schools. The badge is printed fresh.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 3,066th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
Noor Quaye is delivered of a daughter on the night watch. The child is called Abebi.
Year 107 of the voyage begins. The oldest bottle of orchard wine that can be spared is opened. It is always described as "improving."
Night watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
Census check: 974 souls, 126 of them children. The manifest balances to the person, as it must.
All boards green. I count 974 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
Last shift for Rell Thorvaldsen, who joined Hydroponics half a century ago. The crew line the corridor and knock wrenches on the rails.
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.