Though not one of the scientists himself, Vreta, at this point, was closely-involved enough with the project to have an informed opinion. Indeed, he and 595 had been personally closer to the entity than most of the others in the project. “Are you sure that is worth the risk, Freyr? We don’t know how much energy this object has left. If it thinks it has accessed the Cradle, it might expend more energy than it can afford to lose. If we are choosing to trust this entity, then we don’t want to hurt it.”

Based on their current course, Vreta felt his concerns were justified. Although, he would be lying if he said he was certain about the course they had chosen. Especially knowing more of the history of the Cradle, it seemed like a risky object to work with in any capacity. Rhia had started searches on public networks to identify each and every person they saw who was there to greet them on the platform, so he was fairly certain he could tell which ones were Institute personnel based on which ones had redacted files. He had no more trust now for the Institute than he had at the start of the project, so he was curious about how they would react to what he had to say next. 

“And that is a key word: [i]if[/i].” Vreta continued. “I don’t think there are any guarantees, here. I feel it should be known that we do not know what will happen when the object interfaces with the Cradle. We know the object is technologically similar to the Cradle, certainly related, but we only have the entity’s word for what it will do. This could conceivably harm your world as much as it could help it. Just…be sure you are okay with that risk. If you feel we can trust it, then I think we should start quickly and keep it from having to wait any longer.”

Rareth nodded in wordless agreement to Vreta. In this case, they were agreed about the risks, but it was ultimately the Humans’ risk to take. “Marae and her team are already set up in the lab. We can send them the codex you mentioned, or you can simply get in there and get started right away.”