“We will not demand any secrets from you. It shall be your decision what you choose to share. It will be your people who are most impacted by what we discuss here.” Roth’Orsa replied to Freyr, though she remained perfectly quiet while Freyr was giving her answer, to the point that it was as if she was not so much as breathing. 

Roth’Orsa gave a rare pause as her stare somehow seemed to go even [i]deeper[/i] into Freyr’s eyes. “Your facial features are consistent with an expression of…fear, sadness. We are aware that your motivation to preserve the lives of your family drive you. We do not consider this a weakness, but it can make you…predictable. It is possible that certain elements within your society might use that predictability against you. We would recommend trying to pay close attention to how others are treating you. Even the small things, details in how they speak to you, can provide clues to their intentions. The events of that meeting have given us reason to question the identity and motivation of the Cradle Institute, or at least of its members that have been presented to us.”

The Speaker’s words were as blunt as they had been back during the meeting, and her tone remained calm and unchanged. “It is known to us that Humanity has had a presence in the Cradle for centuries. It has been known to you that the Cradle can influence the minds of artificial beings, but only recently has it been revealed that it can most likely claim the minds of Organics, as evidenced by your encounter with the creature that bore your husband’s face. The capabilities of intelligences within the Cradle is an unknown variable, in truth, but recent evidence has placed them as being far more competent than previously assumed. The behavior and judgements of both the Director-General and Agent 595 during the meeting were opposed to the most likely predictions given by our calculations. From our limited data, our impression of the Cradle Institute is that they are an organization with considerable power and control over the Cradle. And the Cradle, of course, is the greatest asset of your people. This plan, which the Director-General agreed to enthusiastically, will inevitably relinquish control of the Cradle to an alien entity. We had expected them to behave in their own self-interest to attempt to maintain control over the Cradle, and that they would require that all other reasonable options be exhausted before they would agree to our plan.”