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queried with Teacher, we were informed that only the Medic could make an accurate selection of mates to ensure the correct mixing of genes.
    While I can see the sense of this, there are a few dissenters in this generation who, for some reason unknown to me, cannot understand this need, and have gone to great lengths to try to override the system. So far, they have been unsuccessful due to the clever way in which the system has been set up.
    Although some couples have tried to mate of their own choosing and conceive children thereby, they have been unable to produce any offspring. Only couples selected by the Medic can conceive, and then only when instructed to do so. The chosen couple are requested to visit the Medic’s room where something takes place, but we do not know what it is or how it is done, and then a child is born to them after the appropriate time.
    The sex of the child is predetermined in some way to suit the needs of the project, and this sometimes causes dissent among those who want a child of the other sex. Fortunately, there seems to be nothing they can do to outwit the will of the ‘ship’, as they see it. The other matter of concern to some of us, but not me, is the way in which the bodies of those who die are disposed of.
    They are taken to a little room where the last farewells are said, and then the body which has been placed on a table like structure disappears into a hole in the wall, to be broken down and its materials recycled somehow.
    A small quasi religious body, luckily with few members, object to the recycling system, and are in constant argument with Teacher about it, but to no avail. I do not understand their reasoning, and I suspect there is none that will stand up to close scrutiny.
    It is said that it takes all sorts to make a world, and that rule seems to apply here on our little world!
    Yesterday there was a commotion in one of the hydroponics chambers, but I only heard about it. A team of three were gathering fruit when it was discovered that one tree had produced several fruits which were twice the size we were used to, and they had a somewhat distorted shape.
    When this was commented on the Captain must have overheard it, and ordered the fruit and the tree to be destroyed, or I should say recycled.
    One of the team objected, saying that he thought it was a good idea to keep the extra large fruit and even breed new trees from it.  This did not go down well with the Captain, who then reinstated his earlier orders and threatened to destroy the whole chamber of trees if they did not comply at once.
    When I heard about it I asked Teacher why the Captain had acted this way, and Teacher said it was important to keep every growing thing pure in a genetic sense, as no one knew what effect a mutated life form would have on us if we consumed it. It makes sense to me, but I wonder why the Captain did not explain it at the time.
    I have often thought it strange that we still use the old Earth time, hours, days, weeks and years, when we have the chance to make a new and more rational time marking system.
    Teacher said it was to give us a feeling of continuity with the past, I suppose it’s right.
    We are kept busy most of the time, doing things which I sometimes suspect are not really necessary. There is a machine shop where those who have been taught the necessary skills are called upon to manufacture spare parts for the ship, but I sometimes wonder if this is only a means of keeping us occupied, as I am sure the ship could make anything it requires.
    We still have a seven day week, Sunday being the only day when we are not called upon to do something, unless there is an emergency.
    Everyone is expected to go to the Sunning room on this day, and bathe ourselves in its light. Anyone who misses more than two sessions is soon detected by the Medic, who then instructs that person to take a light bath, and checks that he does!
    I sometimes go to the observation room, where a view of the star field