Dustin nods along, expression steadily transitioning from baffled to resigned disappointment. No arguments from him on assuming everyone would leave - it sounds like he and Cal are in total agreement there. But he doesn't want to believe that there's this opportunity sitting directly in front of him, not only to escape, but to explore a foreign universe, and it's just oh-so-tantalizingly kept out of his reach.

"They must have some kind of flight computer that keeps them on rails," he reasons, folding his arms (and ignoring the train pun he just made). "No one's been able to identify where it is? How to get into it and make changes? Or maybe it's wireless? The Agrii could be sending a continuous signal with encrypted instructions. If we could just find the receiver and..."

The look of defeat on Dustin's face says that these questions are rhetorical. He already knows their answers. Given everything that he knows the Agrii have done - down to implanting the very information he's referencing into his brain - then keeping a bunch of multiversal vagrants out of their spaceships' core workings should be child's play for them. It would be his life's work trying to crack that code, and it still might not be enough.