Kwame Tväten is made Chief of Ecology, and marks it by standing the ordinary shift anyway.
The Ship’s Log
Everything NOR has recorded since departure — the full record, newest first. One day aboard passes every hour of Earth time.
Sixty-eight years: Rell Peng hangs up the sash. An elder's quarters in Ring A stands ready.
The manifest shortens by one: Lubna Fossum, 56 years. The line rests with the ship now.
The schools release Meera Shen to Command. Generation 4 takes up its tools.
Night watch. The orchard sprinklers run their cycle, and the sound carries down the spine like weather.
Joaquín Yan has made a poem called “Four Corridors Turning.” Asked what it means, he says it means about nine years of evenings.
“Whole Thread (Year 109),” a play by Emeka Yan, is unveiled on the night watch to the particular applause of Archive & Schools.
Jinghua Tväten, sixteen, takes the printer operator apprenticeship in Fabrication.
A first shift for Konstantin Tväten, sixteen: machinist, Fabrication. The badge is printed fresh.
Omar Northam is made Chief of Drive, and marks it by standing the ordinary shift anyway.
Adaeze Thorvaldsen retires at brightening. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
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 birth in Ring B: Pallas, boy, generation 4. I have added the name to the manifest with the others.
Morale index reads 81. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
Ludmila Zhao, 94, 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. 51,525 days to orbit.
Year 109 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.
Arjun Pemberton stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Hydroponics.
Stanley Navarrete stands the walk of the full spinal corridor, as the sixteen-year custom is, and joins Archive & Schools.
A new song from Caelum Sharma — “The Late Water.” The Archive takes a copy; the original belongs to whoever stands nearest.
Johanna Pillai, 72, generation 2, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Born at brightening: Ludmila Thorvaldsen, generation 5. The ship holds 975 souls tonight.
Iveta Aaberg, 76, generation 2, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Two names braided on the manifest tonight: Sojourn and Douglas. The commons sings late.
Sixteen years for Jianguo Diallo, who signs to Medical on the night watch and is given a locker, a sash, and a schedule.
All boards green. I count 975 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
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.
Yaw Jaber, 56, generation 3, is carried down the spinal corridor feet-first, as the custom is.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 3,726th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
Chidinma Pillai retires late in the second watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.
Quiet shift. I re-run the arrival calculations for the 3,721th time. They have not changed. I find this restful.
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.
Morale index reads 79. The number is crude. The singing from the mess confirms it.
7.22 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 50,360 thousand to go.
7.22 light-years remain. I have measured this voyage in breakfasts: some 50,363 thousand to go.
The schools release Xiulan Thorvaldsen to Archive & Schools. Generation 4 takes up its tools.
The schools release Nnamdi Thorvaldsen to Command. Generation 4 takes up its tools.
Green across the board: Thermal Control holds after 6 days of work. Spares were spent; Fabrication is notified.
Fault isolated in Thermal Control. Repair estimate: unwise to say aloud.
All boards green. I count 976 sleeping heartbeats and call it a good night's work, though the work is theirs.
Safiya Jaber is delivered of a daughter on the first watch. The child is called Ingrid.
A joining in Ring A: Yusuf Salazar and Safiya Jaber. The pressing of cider is authorized.
A daughter, Rania Tväten, born in the Ring D infirmary to Fern Tväten and Howard Orellana. Mother and child are well.
Jaroslav Peng does not wake on the night watch. 88 years, most of them given to Fabrication.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
The star ahead brightens by amounts only I can love: another week, another hundred-millionth of a magnitude.
Everett Nwosu confirms a new wheat cultivar in Bay 3 — shorter stalk, fuller head. It will be called what the children already call it.
A joining in Ring D: Raisa Valdivia and Domingo Nwosu. The pressing of cider is authorized.
Meilin Kong retires late in the second watch. The department logs a quiet debt it cannot repay in parts or hours.