“The beacon, right?” Griffith put in. “Is this how we fix it? Power it back up?”
“I guess, but…” Cavalon began, then let out a scoff. “It’s kinda overkill just to collect and send out some data.”
“Data across light-years,” Rake pointed out.
“True, but, still … this thing could power a friggin’ solar system.”
“Mes, what’s this?” Griffith pointed to a series of symbols in the highest right corner of the atlas’s display, resting even above his eye level.
Cavalon realized then that even though Rake had updated Griffith on what the atlas was, he had yet to see it in person. Having him take a look probably would have been a good idea, considering he was at least as schooled as Rake in the Viator language.
“I can read most of this,” Griffith continued, “but I don’t recognize this word.”
Mesa took a step closer, craning her neck to look up. Griffith palmed the screen and pulled it down to her height. She tilted her head as she stared at it.
“The structure of this software looks a lot like what they would use for industrial planning,” Griffith continued. “I think this is part of the project name.”
“Dilachia carthen…” Mesa’s voice withered away as concern creased her brow. She shook her head. “I did not notice that before. It is the Viator word for … well, we call it quintessence.”
“And that’s what?” Rake asked.
“Dark energy,” Cavalon answered.
Mesa nodded. “It is one of the fundamental forces. Such as gravity or electromagnetism.”
Rake exchanged a look with Griffith, and though it was difficult to tell through their visors, Cavalon was pretty sure they had no idea what that meant.
“It’s like repulsive gravity,” Cavalon offered. “Sorta. Where gravity pulls things together, dark energy pushes them apart. Quintessence is a form of that. Kinda an old-school term, actually…” He trailed off as he looked to Mesa for help. But she faced away, staring back at the bronze door that led out to the platform.
“Repulsive gravity…” she mumbled.
“What’s up, Mesa?” Rake asked.
Mesa still didn’t turn to face them, and continued to speak low as if conversing with herself. “What if it is the opposite?”
“Uh…” Cavalon looked to Rake and Griffith, though they appeared just as lost as he was. “What if it’s the opposite of what?”
“This gravity generator you theorize,” Mesa said, as if she hadn’t heard him at all, “which houses the containment chamber for the power source: What if that existed on a large scale? What if the outside hull…” She pointed to the exit door. “Was the same thing?”
“You think this whole station is a gravity generator?” he asked.
“Well, no. I mean, yes. That is what I thought. However, now, I think the opposite.”
Cavalon gaped at her, though he knew she couldn’t fully appreciate his incredulity through his visor. She’d concocted and supported a whole hypothesis, then discredited it and moved onto another, all in the same amount of time it’d taken him to figure out how to explain dark energy to Rake and Griffith.
“The opposite, but on a grand scale,” Mesa continued, her tone filling out, sounding more confident than it had since they’d decelerated from warp. “And there are many of them, correct? All along the Divide? If these ‘beacons’ are not, in fact, beacons.”
Cavalon tried to focus, tried to process her words, at least well enough to ask an informed question, but he could find nothing to grab onto.