"Seems to me that whatever sort of operation this is, they've expanded over the years. Those other places are still up and running." Yuri's a layman where universes are concerned. What the stars even really are isn't common knowledge in his world, and all of this goes beyond that by orders of magnitude. "The trouble with comparing notes with the neighbors is they might just decide fresh meat's an easy target, yeah?"

It's difficult to ply any other cities for information when they have to be careful not to tip their hand. Vulnerability is dangerous.