And yet we have also stopped in highly advanced systems -- systems with their own networks, technological marvels, the like. Perhaps if these planets were more removed from another, if they didn't have an obvious and thriving intersystem economy...? I might believe it.

[ peggy's tone has fallen into a professional patter. although it's not exactly cold, it's certainly not friendly either -- it focuses on delivering information rather than warmth. ]

After all, we are rewarded in the same currency that nearly every planet accepts. That suggests a kind of common denominator that we have yet to discover.