Iax had little interest in ordinary trade. What he wanted to know was how to leave this region.
"Query: how do you maintain your heading in this region?"
Worman did not mind having her enthusiasm interrupted. Instead, she extended an invitation to Iax.
"There are some unique 'creatures' in this Sea of Souls. They can find their bearings even when the region goes dark. We rely on them to get around here. If you're interested, you can come aboard our ship and take a look. You can hire them to navigate for you."
Iax paused, then realized something with a measure of surprise: he did not seem to have any Imperial currency.
The former Federation had also possessed its own currency system, but that had nothing to do with the Men of Iron. Apart from service-type Men of Iron, who might belong to individual Creators, other types of Men of Iron had their own factional affiliations.
Men of Iron under the same authority would typically even share a single payment account across the entire Federation.
And this function was generally handled exclusively by logistics Men of Iron.
The consumption of any goods or materials would be calculated collectively, then tallied and settled by any logistics Man of Iron at any payment location in the Federation.
The quantum network's delay-free communications made such remote payments extremely common.
Highly automated designs and standardized procedures meant there was no possibility of accounting errors even with this kind of goods consumption.
Often, supplies were consumed while fighting continued on the front lines, with those supplies purchased directly from the various Federation factions. Logistics Men of Iron would then settle and pay the costs collectively through their faction's account.
After all, the Men of Iron belonged to different authorities. The Federation Government had the largest