Solmera Credits

What are Solmera Credits?

Solmera Credits are the money of Aurin, the system the settlers live in. The short form is CRS, and on the street people call them “creds”.

• One currency. The Zenith and the Nadir, the two rival factions, both use it. So do the Guilds, five trade organisations that take no side.
• No exchange, because there is no second currency.
• No decimals. One credit is the smallest unit, and it buys a single loose round. A capital ship costs several million.
• No borders. A Zenith can buy from a Nadir’s board, and the other way round, though each prefers their own circuit.

Why are they called that?

The name comes from Solmera, the lost galaxy the settlers fled. It is the last of Solmera’s accounting systems still in use. Neither faction bothered to change it, for two reasons:

• Neither wanted to be the first to admit that the past no longer matters.
• Neither has had the political capital to impose a new currency and get the other to accept it.

Why is no vendor bottomless?

It is the golden rule of Aurin’s economy: trade with the machine runs out. Every guild vendor has real stock and a real cash box of credits.

• Selling empties the warehouse.
• Buying empties the cash box.
• When either is gone, the vendor stops trading in that direction: sold out, it sells nothing.

Each vendor lives at one physical post. It might be a guild colony on Ithera, the neutral planet. Or a dock at El Pináculo, the Zenith station. Or a workshop at El Fondeadero, the Nadir station. Emptying one post does not empty the system.

Its prices track its warehouse. When it is overstocked, it charges 0.85 times the normal price. When stock is critical, it goes up to 2.5 times.

How does a warehouse fill up again?

Stock comes back by two routes. Either a settler sells the vendor something, or someone fulfils a Supply Contract: a restocking job posted by the Guild itself.

A typical one comes from the Refinería. It is the vendor of The Forge, the producers’ guild, on Kharsis, next to the Refinería Yermo:

• When the refined metal runs out, it asks for 150 units of raw VibroSteel (one of the system’s ores) and pays 900 CRS.
• If nobody delivers within forty-eight hours, the contract goes back up asking for 180.

The rarest goods do not change hands between settlers. For those, a contract is the only way in.

And nothing is teleported: goods travel in ships’ cargo holds. Crossing the Cementerio de Aura or the Anillos de Kaldrek, two zones full of wreckage, puts the freight up.

Where does trade happen?

There are three circuits, and all three run on the same money:

Where	How	Friction
El Pináculo, the Gran Subasta	Regulated bidding with an escrow deposit	Faction tax; surcharge for those from the other side
El Fondeadero, the Tablón de Trueque	Direct deal between people	No tax; no guarantee, unless the Tejedora’s commission is paid in kind
El Fulcro, the Mercado Global	Single listing, visible equally to both sides	The Guilds’ frontier tariff: 22% remote, 15% in person

The Tejedora is the go-between at the Tablón de Trueque. In return for her commission, she answers for the deal being kept. The Mercado Global is run by the Guilds from El Fulcro, the midpoint between the two stations.

The differences between stations are only shopfront. Underneath, the engine is the same for everyone.

Why does money disappear?

Aurin’s economy is built so that money can cease to exist:

• Whatever overflows a vendor’s cash box is destroyed.
• Auction fees, contracted freight and insurance premiums go back to nobody.

That way nobody can flood the system with credits. And no settler or colony can corner a critical resource outright.

Away from the counter, some people keep a different set of books. Sable Okoye runs The Pioneers, the settlers’ guild. In a paper logbook she notes every favour the Zenith and the Nadir owe the guild. She uses nothing digital, because “digital can be erased with an Axiom” (a decree of the Zenith high command). And she calls each favour in at the worst possible moment for the debtor.

What are the Guild vouchers?

They are a form of pay that sits apart from money. Each Guild pays for its highest-trust work in a voucher of its own. That way trust still counts, even for someone with a full wallet.

A voucher cannot be exchanged for CRS. It can only be spent in its own Guild’s catalogue:

• The Pathfinders, the explorers: Datos de Navegación.
• The Vanguard, the military guild: Créditos de Servicio.
• Apex Syndicate, the hunters: Marcas de Caza.
• The Forge, the producers: Vales de Producción.
• The Pioneers, the settlers: Sellos Comunitarios.