Alex stood in stunned silence in the metal corridors of his ship, with the dim emergency lights faintly flickering to life around him.
For a long, still moment, he didn't move an inch.
He stared through the nearest window, unable to take his eyes away.
Where once there was a coclossal, swirling mass of gases forming a planet, there was now nothing but the cold void of space.
There wasn't even any sign of its existence whatsoever. One would think that if the planet were destroyed, there would at least be some debris? But no, there was nothing in sight.
Just what had happened while he was away in Mikhail's pocket dimension?
Even though for Alex, it felt like he was gone for a while, in reality it really hadn't been that long. If he remembered clearly, the war against the Lux had ended up with Brontes' awakening and subsequently becoming Alex's tame, but as far as he knew, the New Dawn system should now be under the Federation's control.
