The Wound
Thermodynamic depletion signature
The readable trace a spent region leaves in its own ambient emission.
In full
A region whose endowment has been drawn down carries the fact in its emission profile, and it can be measured to a fraction of a percent. Dead worlds carry it for tens of thousands of years. On the page it arrives as an instrument reading — a small number, stated flatly, by somebody who has not yet worked out what it means.
Key facts
- Measurable in the ambient emission profile.
- Persists on the order of 80,000 years.
- Reported as a routine figure long before it is understood.
- A depletion scar, at regional scale.