My name is Khadijah Ramli and this is my star log —

Erase last recording. Re-record.


My name is Khadijah Binte Ramli and this is my start blog —

Apasal lah aku macam gini?¹ Erase last recording. Re-record.

My name is Khadijah Ramli. This is my star log number one.

Log BeginsIt has already been a week since the SCV 421 Ark docked with the Cosmopolis Space Station, just inside Deimos’ orbit.

The Cosmopolis is a massive structure that I am convinced was designed by a group of Star Wars fanboys because it closely resembles the cross-section of a TIE fighter. The two living towers on the port and starboard sides are connected to the ring-shaped main training centre, shaped like a ring with a diameter measuring two skyscrapers stacked one on top of the other, by four link bridges, two on each side. Apart from being a training and interim living facility, it also serves quarantine and acclimatisation purposes for the specialist mariners who had just arrived after a nine-month journey from Earth. Of the journey itself, I remembered little, except being strapped into a life capsule and my eyelids getting increasingly heavier.

Time here, simply put, has been an extension of space academy with less time spent with a Chinese-to-English dictionary. Day in and out, I attend preparatory classes keyed to the occupation that I have been assigned after a series of health checks and psychometric tests on Earth. Not to mention some three rounds of interviews with three ...