Mesa nodded her understanding, squinting and tilting her head as she took in the new perspective.
“These larger beacons,” Adequin continued, “are marked with symbols the Viator armed forces used the same way we use ‘alpha.’ They’d be considered the primary beacons. The two situated on either side of the Argus’s former position appear off-line, and beyond the edge of the Divide, according to this. They’ve likely been destroyed.”
“What of the smaller beacons?” Mesa asked.
“These inward beacons have two labels—‘beta’ and ‘redundant.’ All apparently off-line, but aren’t beyond the Divide.”
“Of course,” Mesa said. She drifted forward, peering at Adequin through the crisp white lines. “Redundancy structures. Viator technology is rife with them.” She pointed a thin finger at the backside of the map. “See how there are three beta beacons positioned between every two alpha beacons?”
Adequin nodded. “So the task can get passed onto the smaller beacons if the alphas fail?”
“Correct,” Mesa agreed. “However, if they are off-line, then something must have gone wrong, and the betas are not picking up the burden as they are meant to.”
Jackin cleared his throat and stepped forward. “What makes you think they’re not working? I mean, it’s getting this much info at least, right?”
“I can’t know for sure,” Adequin admitted. “The readout isn’t very specific. But these Divide lines that flash? They’re labeled with ‘approximation.’ It’s guessing, making an assumption about where the edge is.”
“So, how do you know they haven’t been destroyed by the Divide already?” he asked.
She shrugged. “We don’t. But…” She took a moment to orient herself, then pointed to a clear spot, farther outward than the beta beacons. “We were just here, on the Tempus. And the Divide had yet to make it there. So assuming it’s closing in with any kind of uniformity, the beta beacons should still be safe.”
“Safe?” Jackin raised an eyebrow.
Adequin nodded. “Safe to travel to.”
Jackin’s face fell. “Travel to?”
“What is your hypothesis, Excubitor?” Mesa prompted.
“If we can bring these beta beacons back online,” Adequin explained, “that would give us a play-by-play of the Divide’s collapse.”
Jackin crossed his arms. “You’re suggesting we try to restart these beacons?”
“If we can know exactly where the Divide is at any given time,” Adequin said, “it’ll be a hell of a lot easier to stay away from it, if it comes to that.”
Jackin sighed. “You mean if it gets here before we can figure out how to turn the gate back on.”
“Right.”
Emery’s face went white. Mesa’s visage didn’t falter in the least, but she gave a curt, understanding nod.
“And until Kharon is back online,” Adequin continued, “we’ve got nowhere to go. Eris would take weeks to reach at warp speed, and it’d more than likely be off when we got there anyway—that kid at Poine Gate said it’s been abandoned as well. That’s if the Divide doesn’t beat us there, which at its current rate…”
Jackin ran a thumb along the pink scars cutting through his beard. “So, you want to see if we can fix the beacons?”
“I think we have to,” she said.
“What about your call out to Lugen?”
She let out a sigh, and Griffith’s rough assessment rang back in her head: “Fuck the Legion.” He’d wanted her to stop acting like they were going to help and to start taking action. Lead them toward something instead of just treading water until the Divide caught up with them. She wanted that too.