This fragment is the first in a series of crew logs I'm writing in support of a larger series of stories all set on a generation starship. It's not part of a short story in itself, though it does introduce some concepts that will appear in the stories of the series.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> SYSTEM LOG
>>> EVENT: AWK #39874 Dr. Laura Candless
>>> MISSION YEAR 378:08:27
>>> CAUSE: INSUFFICIENT TRAINED PERSONNEL
>>>>>>>>>>>>> CREW LOG
Awakened again. It’s so eerie. It feels like I walked these halls a few hours ago, but in reality, there’s nobody left alive here from the last time I walked this place. That was almost two centuries ago. I’m treating their great-great-great grand grandkids.
I wonder if you get used to it? Or is this going to happen again? How long will it go on? How many thousands of years can I live at the rate of only a few days per century?
Turns out that the eggheads back home were right, and letting most of the crew live out their lives on board the ship has some pretty big problems to go with the advantages. Something has happened to them over the generations, like they forget what they’re doing here. That’s why they have us, the leftovers of the original crew, here to teach the unmotivated slaggards that live on how to do all the jobs that they’ve slacked on.
It’s beyond me how they let something as important as medical care go untaught. Last generation they only had ten trained doctors. TEN! Out of over 200,000 inhabitants. God, I pity them. It’s no wonder the computer thawed me out.
I’d better get started. They’re not going to teach themselves, apparently.