FC

The Wound

Chain

also: anchor chain · chains

First in The Cairn

Fixed shore plant that holds a damaged wound corridor open. Not needed for ordinary travel.

In full

Damaged geography will not hold a passage open by itself, so a chain does it: cradles, take-ups, brakes, load pins and tell-tales in bays, walked on a round by people who can hear when one is wrong. ⚠ The distinction that matters, and that the books demonstrate rather than explain: <strong>a hull does not need a chain for ordinary traversal.</strong> A chain is for damaged wound geography, and a station with one serviceable chain has exactly one way to reach anybody on the far side of it.

Key facts

  • Fixed shore infrastructure, not shipboard equipment.
  • Holds a damaged wound corridor open; ordinary roads need no chain.
  • Cradles, take-ups, brakes, load pins and tell-tales, walked on a round.
  • Serviceable chains are the binding scarcity of the Guttering age.

See also

GlossaryCorridor GlossaryChain-hours GlossaryBasin GlossaryThe Wound

Where it appears

BookWho Holds the Standard BookWhat the Station Keeps

More in The Wound

GlossaryBasin GlossaryBottleneck concentration GlossaryBoundary cascade GlossaryChain-hours GlossaryCorridor GlossaryGain-band GlossaryGuttering stars GlossaryJunction scar GlossaryMetric noise GlossaryOver-push GlossaryThe Brief GlossaryThe cooling

Elsewhere in the archive

Drawn from what this entry actually names — not a curated list, so it grows as the record does.

In the glossary

Road

Eras

The Guttering Age