Even after the new network was built, getting used to this smaller universe would be difficult. They'd lost so many worlds.
Allen gripped the bridge's railing and stared down into the early morning Dammerung traffic. He'd had a lot of friends on the planets that had vanished.
But he wouldn't miss Michtam.
He remembered a plateau at the top of a green crystal slope, where a man tried to convince the woman he loved—the same woman Allen loved—that she was all alone.
Allen found it monstrous.
He'd miss his lost friends, and their worlds—but Michtam could go.