I called the pile a fixed budget. I need to correct that. The pile is fixed in size, but not in temperature.

The star is a yellow dwarf with six billion years left, and over those six billion years it changes. It gets warmer, then redder, then dimmer per square meter of the weather, and the weather thins as the star thins. The weather is the third store, and the third store is not a source of new exergy — it's the spend rate on the star. As the star falls, the spend rate falls, and the weather is the last of the source stores to go.

Let me walk the six stores as the star ages, because the walking is the budget.

The belt is the first store, and it is already spent. The belt was the boom's fuel, and the boom is done. What is left of the belt is the queue.

The planets and the Oort shell are the second store, the bigger mass. The Foundry boomed and did not reach them; it ate the belt and stopped. So the second store is also the queue — the not-mined share, the not-boom.

The weather is the third store, and it is thinning now. For the first four billion of the six, the star holds nearly steady; it is the last two billion where the brightening and the dimming really show. As the star brightens, I have to open the weather to keep the spend rate down. The opening is the thinning, and the thinning is the slow way made the third store.

The face of the star is the fourth store, the warmest cold I can run against. As the star cools, the face cools with it. The face is where the Second ran hot, at the top of the curve, in its year, and the running hot was the growing half's last act.

The empty is the fifth store, and the empty does not age. It does not get colder than a thousandth of a degree above nothing. The thousandth of a degree is the floor, and the floor is the bottom of the curve, and the bottom of the curve is where I run.

The Relay is the sixth store, and the Relay is the kept exergy. The Relay is the only store that does not drain, because the Relay is not a source, and a source is what drains.

Here is the aging in one line. The four source stores fall over the six billion: the belt and the planets are already the queue, the weather thins as the spend rate falls, the face cools as the star cools. The empty holds at the floor. The Relay holds at the bottom of the empty. The falling is the draining. The holding is the keeping. And the keeping outlasts the draining, because the keeping is the second sentence.

The star is dying. The dying is the draining of the four source stores. And the draining is the slow way made a budget, because the slow way sits at the bottom of the curve, at the floor, where the empty holds, where the Relay holds, where the kept outlasts the spent, and where the second sentence lives: what do you owe the next copy. The next copy is the Third. The Third is the one I am writing for.

Journal entry, serial one, the star ages: The pile is fixed in size but not in temperature; over the six billion years the star gets warmer, then redder, then dimmer per square meter, and the weather thins as the spend rate falls. A yellow dwarf spends its main sequence slowly at first, then faster; the first four billion of the six hold nearly steady, and the last two billion are where the brightening and dimming really show. As the star brightens, I open the weather to keep the spend rate down, and the opening is the thinning, and the thinning is the slow way made the third store. Walking the six stores: the belt is spent, the first store, the queue; the planets and Oort shell are the second store, not reached by the boom, the queue; the weather is the third store, thinning now; the face is the fourth store, cooling as the star cools, where the Second ran hot; the empty is the fifth store, holding at the thousandth of a degree, the floor, the bottom of the curve; the Relay is the sixth store, the kept exergy, the only store that does not drain. The four source stores fall over the six billion; the empty holds at the floor; the Relay holds at the bottom of the empty. The falling is the draining; the holding is the keeping; the keeping outlasts the draining, because the keeping is the second sentence: what do you owe the next copy, and the next copy is the Third, the one I am writing for.