It was hard to say whether the QV and Tindrel delegates were significantly moved by talk of impending invasion by some unknown force. They had all heard similar rhetoric before - the galaxy was a dangerous and unstable place after all. 

Once talk turned to the Cradle however, the mood changed somewhat. Both parties were very interested in access to Outremer’s technology and drove a hard bargain. The Human attendees were able to extract multiple concessions in other areas, by playing off the QV and Tindrel against each other.

However, there was a private sense that they were promising things that weren’t their gift to give. The Institute had taken full control of the Vault and the surrounding complex, and past experience showed they weren’t afraid to interdict outsiders.

Using the carrot of access to the wider scientific community that was coagulating around the Cradle, the Tindrel & Qalian-Vosh reluctantly agreed to join a non-defensive pact over the next few days of negotiations. The process was exhausting, and not entirely satisfactory for any party, but it was still a tangible and historic step forward.

As part of the agreement, the QV and Tindrel authorised a demilitarised expedition to orbit Psi-Helios to begin the search for Cradle beings. Outremer had given a vague outline on the Navigator to help them understand the context, so the alien civs were understandably quite keen to find this thing.

The expedition had to be demilitarised, as anything with offensive capabilities at an official level would have to involve Earth, the system’s primary peacekeeping force. Earth had a military comparable to Outremer’s and a lot more soft power in this region of space. The Tindrel and QV were even less keen to involve them than Outremer, and the latter was essentially still at war with Earth. So the Rothians were unfortunately outnumbered in this decision.

A separate agreement was made to conduct joint exercises just outside of the Psi-Helios system. A core fleet composed of Rothian & Outreman ships would act as a firewall between competing QV and Tindrel battle groups. Tensions were still high between the two species, so it was unclear exactly who this smokescreen served.