SLOW FREIGHT

Synopsis

The freighter Meridian Rest takes ninety-four years to reach the colony at Anselm. The crew sleeps in rotation, one engineer awake for a year in every eleven. This year it is Imre Dalca. She is thirty-three. Reading the old logs for the long hours of her watch, she finds the entry. The colony's beacon went dark thirty years ago. Every engineer since has seen it, and each of them has left the log as it was. She can wake the captain, and four thousand people will learn they are flying toward silence. She can sleep. Eleven years from now the next engineer will read her entry and decide what to do.

Who this is about

Imre Dalca is the single waking engineer on a ninety-four year freight run, on a rotation of one year awake in every eleven, and she has just turned thirty-three.

What goes wrong

Reviewing the old logs on her watch, she finds the colony's beacon went silent thirty years ago, and every engineer before her chose not to wake the crew with the news.

What's at stake

Turning back costs the crew the only home they have. Continuing means delivering four thousand sleepers to a world that may have nobody waiting.

Why it keeps going

Eleven years of sleep until the next watch, a captain who must be woken to decide, a log full of entries from people who each chose to carry it alone.

Takeaway

There is a kind of loyalty that is just everyone agreeing not to say it first.

Shelves

Themes

Story, in the creator's words

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Style

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Characters

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Tech stack

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Schedule

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Production plan

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