“How so?”
She reached up to the top row of screens that made up the edge of the map and expanded the area. “This first level shows a complete, unbroken border, which trails between these larger, outer beacons seamlessly.”
She pressed both palms into the screens. They flashed once, then a full second set of maps appeared stacked just behind them. They switched places, and the first set disappeared.
“This second level is interesting.” She pointed to a small symbol in the corner that had not been present on the first set, an infinity loop with three parallel slashes through it. “This more or less means ‘current.’”
“As in, present?” Emery asked.
Mesa nodded. “I would theorize that this is the active state of the map. The most up-to-date information. It shows what appears to be the same area as the first level, but with an altered border. See how here, the border now skips between these two larger beacons?”
Emery leaned closer. “And all the inner beacons are now outlined in red.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe they’re off-line?” Cavalon suggested.
“Perhaps,” Mesa agreed, then pressed her palms into the map again to bring up a third set. “This third level is much the same as the second, but labeled with something akin to subsequent, or next. And it shows these…” She pointed to a series of slowly flashing lines that ran between the larger circles. A tiny Viator symbol labeled each one. “And all the beacons on this entire section of the map are marked red.”
Cavalon chewed his lip in silence as he stared at the crisp, red circles and pulsating white lines.
He cleared his throat. “It does sort of make sense, right? That they’d be out of order? Viators have been all but gone for the last two hundred years. I doubt the holdouts in the Resurgence War prioritized running around at the Divide, repairing data beacons for their mythological atlas devices.”
Mesa’s brow rose and her features softened. “I suppose there is some validity to that statement.”
The corner of Cavalon’s mouth tugged up. That must have been Mesa’s way of saying he was right.
Mesa held her palms forward again, this time pulling back instead of pushing, and the map returned to the second level. “I suppose this is the map we should work from, if it is marked as the ‘active’ state.”
Cavalon had to wonder what that made the others. Past and future? Was this a 4D map? He almost let out an audible laugh, but managed to hold it in.
Emery cleared her throat, leaning her chair on its back legs and feet up on the table. “So you’re telling me this thing can track ship movements?”
“In theory, yes,” Mesa said.
Emery gave a stilted grin. “You really don’t need to give the theory disclaimer every time.” Her chair banged back down to the floor, and she stood, reaching over the wide table to point at a tiny, stationary mark from the back of the map. “This guy…” She dragged her finger to the left. “Was here a couple minutes ago. I betcha this is our fearless EX. Only thing moving in this whole giant sea of nothin’。 And if it can show ship positions, I bet this is how our Drudger friends found the Tempus earlier.”
Mesa nodded. “Very astute, Miss Flos.” Emery glared at the name, but Mesa remained unfazed. “It may also be how they knew of your arrival aboard Kharon Gate, and our subsequent return.”
Cavalon shook his head in disbelief. “This is absurdly powerful,” he said. “If the Viators had access to this kind of tech, how did they lose the war?”
“Well,” Mesa said, clearing her throat and drawing up her chin. This was clearly a topic she felt more comfortable lecturing on. “As you can see, the scale is such that it is not precise.” She enlarged the screen that showed the mark Emery had pointed out. “This ‘ship’ will not appear to have changed positions until it has progressed into another grid of the map, which could be billions of kilometers. Also, we cannot view any details about the vessel. It could be anything from a fighter pilot, to a dreadnought…”