The beacon
published Her last working throat
'Two generations of message on one patient emitter, crying into the dark on the Kindred's last working throat.' (Wide Sky, chapter 15). The old woman's plea — '…to whoever opened the road: we are still here.' — and under it Odai's warning — 'If this reaches Earth: do not open the road wider.' (Wide Sky, chapter 4,:125), on a loop, with 'a run of numbers, one word that kept returning' (Wide Sky, chapter 3) — the word is Ostry. Old hardware kept old habits: 'the handshake carried its reference fix — the brightest reliable neighbour, position and magnitude embedded in every cycle so a listener could true the bearing' (Wide Sky, chapter 3), in 'a format so old the decoder went to deep archive for the protocol' (Wide Sky, chapter 3). The Dawnward's mast had it for four years before anyone believed it: 'Forty-one log entries across four years and two refits: within tolerance' (Wide Sky, chapter 3). Played back in the hall from 'a hand-sized speaker grille … wired into the old spine' (Wide Sky, chapter 4); recorded 'under the main rib' of the yard (Wide Sky, chapter 15); kept alive on the cells (Wide Sky, chapter 15).
- Reference fixBrightest reliable neighbour, position and magnitude, every cycle
- Housekeeping stampEmitter health and sky brightness in every send since landfall — 'Founder spec — a navigation aid nobody ever used.'
- Heard earlyFour years on the Dawnward's mast floor, logged as noise
- ⚠ SPOILER — after the lift (2312–2314)'carrier up, nothing riding it, a lit window in an empty house' (The Widened Road, chapter 16); then 'KEEL GENERAL DISTRESS. ALL STATIONS. ASSISTANCE IMMEDIATE. REPEAT UNTIL ANSWERED.' — originator block KINDRED (The Widened Road, chapter 16–153); eleven sends in a fixed rotation, then twelve (The Widened Road, chapter 17,:73)
Wide Sky, chapter 15; Wide Sky, chapter 3,:107,:131,:169; Wide Sky, chapter 4–125; Wide Sky, chapter 10; The Widened Road, chapter 17,:23
The cells
published Forward; one removed to the plant-house at landfall, still serving
'Forward cells at eleven per cent and falling.' (Wide Sky, chapter 15) on Day 106. The one that survives hums in the town's plant-house 'on a bed of dressed stone … squat, patched, older than everyone alive on the planet, still turning out current for a town that had planned its whole shape around the reach of that hum' (Wide Sky, chapter 5); 'The hum of the Kindred's cell came up through the floor, the loudest thing on the world' (The Widened Road, chapter 20). Its endurance is why the town exists and why the mast is still up. It is a valley over from the hull and is not drawn aboard; the town's grid runs from it 'shoulder-high on timber poles, sheathed in woven fibre and lacquered dark' (Wide Sky, chapter 5), and the town 'banked its power at dusk like a fire' (Wide Sky, chapter 5).
- Day 106 after landfallForward cells 11 % and falling
- 2312One cell on dressed stone in the plant-house, running — and set to 'run without hands'
Wide Sky, chapter 15; Wide Sky, chapter 5; The Widened Road, chapter 20,:95
Drive, spent
published Never to turn again; quarried for iron
'the ship would never rise again' (Wide Sky, chapter 15). What is left of the drive section is the speaking-iron — 'a metre of ship-metal, drive-section stock, worn bright at the grip' (Wide Sky, chapter 15) — which is what a people uses for a gavel: 'The iron came down butt-first on the plating, one strike, like a gavel.' (Wide Sky, chapter 15). Flight profile, as the founders sang it to their children: 'Ten for the burn, nine for the road, eight for the long fall, seven for the quiet' (Wide Sky, chapter 15).
Wide Sky, chapter 15,:55,:65
The four keels
published Cut from her bones, five generations old — one drawn on its cradle beside her
'Keels didn't climb so much as commit. Five generations old, cut from the Kindred's bones for a heavier world, they went up the ascent corridor on a pillar of thrust with the grace of furniture and all the mass in the world behind the decision.' (The Widened Road, chapter 19). Ferren-built, Ferren-flown: 'Our own keels fly … Ferren hands on Ferren helms. Your corridor; our ships.' (Wide Sky, chapter 11). One is drawn small on its cradle beside the hull: 'a grain hauler with five generations of Ostry weather in her plates and six days of Silva's new steel underneath' (Wide Sky, chapter 13); a lift jet that 'went amber, edged red' (Wide Sky, chapter 13); 'The keels take ground power from the cradles until the last lift.' (The Widened Road, chapter 20); 'The cradle feet iced in the night. My cells cold-soak faster every hour she sits.' (The Widened Road, chapter 21); a hatch whose 'dogs went over one at a time, another pair of hands helping his on the wheel', webbing rows, a port, 'the keel's old frame ticked and knocked' (The Widened Road, chapter 21). Four, not five — the count that closes the evacuation ledger (Wide Sky, chapter 20).
- CountFour
- Age at the liftFive generations
- Loads, 2312Sixty-eight aboard the third keel up, forty-one of them children; 1,140 on the four keels at the mouth
- ⚠ SPOILER — 2314'her flanks carried two years of new patch-plate over the old' (The Widened Road, chapter 21); Keel Three a hundred and nine aboard (The Widened Road, chapter 19); forty-nine on the last keel out (The Widened Road, chapter 21)
The Widened Road, chapter 19; Wide Sky, chapter 11; Wide Sky, chapter 13,:7,:93; Wide Sky, chapter 17; Wide Sky, chapter 20; Wide Sky, chapter 26; The Widened Road, chapter 17; The Widened Road, chapter 20; The Widened Road, chapter 21,:11,:131
The log-core
published A grey cylinder, a polished band, a year
'a grey cylinder as tall as Vale's collarbone, its casing polished bright in a band where five generations of hands had touched it in passing. Under the polish the maker's stamp survived: an Earth yard's mark, a build code, and a year. 2189.' (Wide Sky, chapter 12). 'landfall survey, 2192, authenticated down to the instrument serials' (Wide Sky, chapter 12); 'Landfall survey, and forty years of log besides.' (Wide Sky, chapter 12); the arrival fix 'took its bearings from three bright stars' (Wide Sky, chapter 6); 'the Kindred's clock had run alone for a hundred and twenty years' (Wide Sky, chapter 6); 'The Kindred's log had listened as well as spoken: generations of traffic marks' (Wide Sky, chapter 12). A Ferren machinist passing it 'laid two fingers on the band' (Wide Sky, chapter 18). Kept in the shelves; carried up in 'a sealed ship's case with the Kindred's registry still legible on the lid' (Wide Sky, chapter 5). Title-block inset, standing, with the stamp.
- Built2189
- Landfall survey2192
- Log keptForty years after landfall
- Arrival fixThree bright stars
Wide Sky, chapter 12,:11,:39,:89; Wide Sky, chapter 6,:127; Wide Sky, chapter 18; Wide Sky, chapter 5,:143