"Tobias, you said the Monument can bring species to the Bastion. If a whole species is extinct, as dogs would be were Earth destroyed, and it can bring them here..." Whatever the cost, Erek would pay it to bring back the Pemalites. If it were possible... He doesn't even want to hope, not yet. "What are its limitations?"

Tobias should know exactly what Erek's asking, and just how much it would mean to him. It's not that he won't mourn for the world and everyone in it. Earth's loss is exactly that. A loss, and a significant one. Even so, this is the first piece of hope he's ever been given to see the race that created him one more time. He doesn't want to say it would be worth it. That seems unjust and callous.

It doesn't keep him from holding back his joy at even so slim a chance.