The revelation from Thorne's logs sent shockwaves through the leadership. The enemy was not just "out there"; its ideology was a cancer that had been growing within human civilization long before the first star-farer left Earth.
They decided to broadcast Thorne's logs, not just to the people of First Hope, but on an open channel to the Seeker of Patterns in orbit. It was a risk. It could be seen as a declaration of war. But secrecy had been the weapon of their oppressors. Truth would be their shield.
The effect was instantaneous and profound. In First Hope, there was anger, but also a strange sense of relief. The random cruelty of their history now had a name, a reason. The struggle of the awakened was not a mistake, but a rebellion against a planned obsolescence of the human spirit.
On the Seeker of Patterns, the reaction was even more dramatic. The K'tharr delegation on the surface fell into a silent, unmoving state for nearly a day. When they reactivated, their lead diplomat sought out Elias.
"The 'Architect' faction within the Continuity Council was not authorized to engage in active memetic engineering," the K'tharr communicated, its light patterns agitated. "Their mandate was observation only. This constitutes a profound breach of our core principles. The data you have provided has shifted the consensus. The faction arguing for your re-containment has lost influence. The 'Intrigued' faction is now dominant."
Humanity's painful truth had become a political weapon within the Continuity itself. They had successfully fought a battle light-years away by sharing a dead man's memory.