A Quiet Watch On The Night Shift

There's a particular quiet that settles over the rec-room during the night watch. Most of the crew are asleep, the corridor lights dim to half, and whoever's on duty tends to drift down for a round or two rather than sit alone at the main console.

This week's watch was slower than usual, even by night-shift standards. A couple of hands of cards, a few spins on the wheel, long stretches of just watching Earth turn through the porthole between rounds. Nobody was chasing anything, which is rather the point of the place.

We keep meaning to log which games get picked during the quiet hours versus the busier ones, purely out of curiosity. So far it's mostly the shorter games — a wheel spin, a quick hand — nothing that asks for much concentration when you're half paying attention to the view outside.

The robot logged the temperature in the rec-room as a full degree cooler than the rest of the station this week, which nobody has quite explained. We suspect it's just further from the engine deck, but it does make the amber panels feel a touch cosier by comparison.

Slow weeks like this one are honestly our favorite. Nothing to report beyond a few quiet rounds and a good view, but that's most of what this place is for.