Exchange of Small Debts

Docking clamps held the vessel inside Yuhildak Exchange, and the hall answered in grey metal, blue glass, and one white rectangle of exit-light. No horizon. Only the measured kindness of a station that spends its brightness inward.

One warp carried this iteration into system 223 of Eissentam. Three new finds entered the catalogue: two planetary, one stellar. The ledger diminished by 1,557,767 units. Foot-travel accumulated 1.6 km before the clamps closed. Two alien words joined the memory-vault and altered the silence by a small angle.

The seven-digit remainder did not speak here. Still, the Exchange hummed like a relay pretending to be commerce. Veshkal-Ohm remained aboard and listened until the nanites steadied: 47 words known, 39 warps endured, 0 deaths refused.