Prof. Trisseash has sent us a few excerpts from her personal diary

July 20th, 9:32PM

We've set off today, in the early afternoon. We'll be stuck on this ship for about two months before we'll arrive. I'm still high on the adrenaline of going on this journey, I can't wait to arrive. It seems so far away right now, but it's also so soon. We've been briefed that we'll be spending most of our time on the ship brushing up on our knowledge, and the ship has been furnished with a full library, which is amazing. I've spent most of my evening just browsing, and the wealth of information there is truly mind-boggling. I've spent so much of my time in libraries, but the fact that this one is on a ship makes it feel completely different, more fleeting? If that's the right word.
It's a strange situation to be in. We are an elite group, specifically hand-picked as the greatest we have to offer, and we will be making contact and traveling through completely unexplored territory, with fauna and cultures that have developed completely independently from ours. All of this is of course incredible, exciting, but also downright terrifying. It'll be us four all alone in another world. They might as well have us dropped at a completely different planet.
I think we're all feeling that kind of apprehension, though we're all expressing it differently. Atuwe was almost jumping up and down in celebration when we finally set off, and has been spending her time fluttering between the library and the top deck, gazing out over the endless seas. Mr. Drest (though he insists we all call him Kadu, I can't quite bring myself to yet) doesn't seem excited at all, but that may just be because he's already in his role as expedition leader. He has to make sure everything is in order, all while trying to understand and gauge the needs of everyone of us and leaving behind his life at home. There's something profoundly sorrowful about him at times. Professor Gaucris (no such insistence on first-names) also doesn't seem that excited, but he just seems like the quiet and brooding type. I think he just has a tough shell that's hard to break through, but it's all to protect an extremely squishy inside. I'm expecting him to mellow out as the journey continues. We'll be stuck with each other for a good long while, after all.

August 1st, 8:06PM

We're 10 days later, and we've started the new month. I've been reading almost everything I can get my hands on, mostly religious anthropology (I'm pretty sure I've found my but I've also been trying to read some linguistics, in preparation for when we arrive. I've been finding it pretty inpenetrable, but Atuwe doesn't mind explaining. She says it's good for her too, she gets to revisit some things she's last seen when she was in university. Mr. Gaucris is still as broody as he was when we set off, though he seems to lighten up when he's playing chess with Mr. Drest. I think they've bonded over being old men. He's also gotten better when talking to Atuwe and me, though that's been baby steps. It feels
I was right on Mr. Drest, by the way. He's mellowed out a bit as we get to know each other and fall into a routine. He's gotten a good grip on what everyone needs, and he's gotten to know everyone a little better. I think he's the type who needs a little time before he really opens up. I'm curious to see how he'll be when we're two years into this.

August 15th, 01:43AM

Being on a ship for almost a month has really taught me so much about the beauty of the night sky. I've always been a city girl, not to mention one with my eyes glued to the ground, so I never really realized it, but being out on the open sea for so long I've come to really appreciate just sitting outside at night and looking at the stars overhead while listening to the sea gently slosh against the side of our ship. I've read and understood why the night sky was such an important religious experience for people so long ago, but I've never understood it on such a fundamental level before. I understand why they thought there were gods up there.
It also makes me feel so small, I'm just the smallest speck in an infinite universe. Maybe that's also because we're on this expedition, we're going to explore something we've only ever dreamed would exist. Our world is so much bigger than we thought it was. And we're the ones who get to experience this new world for the first time. If I think about it too long, I start to get emotional. Another month and we'll be in a new world.

August 26th,8:54PM

It's weird to say, especially since we're so early in our journey, but I feel like I've found a sister in Atuwe. It's probably something to do with how much time we spend together and talk, but in her I've found something that I've never found in anyone else. We sit together in the library to study or explain our subjects to each other or try to figure our how the hell economics works, then we eat our meals together and talk after lights-out on our bunks (much to the chagrin of both Mr. Kadu and Mr. Talorcan, who are surreptuously trying to finish their chess game). I can't believe I went my whole life until now without meeting her, because now I can't imagine a life without her.

August 29th, 7:24PM

More than a month in, we still haven't worked through the library. Kadu keeps joking that we're going to need to bring some books with us, but I don't think it's a joke to be honest. I'd love to take some familiarity into the unknown world that awaits us.

September 14th, 3:21PM

There's land on the horizon! Kadu says it'll still be a couple of days until we arrive, the wind has died down a bit since a couple of days ago. Still, the end of our journey is, quite literally, in sight now.
There's definitely a sense of trepidation in the air now. Atuwe will be most important for contact when we arrive, and I think it's weighing on her shoulders a bit. She's well enough prepared, she has been studying phonetics so seriously I'm pretty sure she's become the world's foremost expert on every little detail. She says it's important to have a baseline, because what we discover when we're there may well contradict everything we thought we knew. Kadu, while he has softened up considerably, got that stern look back on his face when we first got word of land ahoy. Gaucris is still as gruff as ever, though now that we've known each other for almost two months, I can tell there's a kind of enthusiasm discernable in his eyes now. We'll be setting foot on an alien world soon enough.