"Is it particularly hard to destroy?"

"Yes. My primary plan was to arrange a hatching surrounded by metal heads, but I will accept other options. It might survive being thrown into the yellow sun but it is unlikely that it would ever be able to hatch under such conditions."

Cam looks around for a rock, picks one up, interpolates it into dust.

"I am somewhat concerned that if you break the stone open in such a way it would cause a violent release of energy."

"I'm indestructible, but that's good to know, I can bring it into space first."

"I would expect the resulting explosion to reach us from orbit unless the stone was very drained, much more so than I expect it to be by now. I would expect the resulting explosion to reach the suns from here. I would need to have studied more physics to say whether a light year would be far enough."

"...gosh. Okay. Is there a way to usefully capture this explosion since eco is such a limited resource? Or are we talking about a non-eco explosion."

"Both, and I can set my scientists to answering that."

"Exciting, you do that. Do you maybe want to tell me what makes it hatch in case they're on the verge?"

"Contact with one pure of heart. A certain affinity for eco might also be required."

"...'pure of heart'?"

"I am afraid I am a very biased source but I would expect it to mean someone who approves of the Precursors' values."

"Which is the whole, conquest of you for being culturally distinct, thing?"

"...I believe that is simply an implication of the rest of the set. They existed for many ages before we met, and in that time they pursued a number of projects that I am aware of. They were particularly fond of spreading life throughout the universe and particularly against war and chaos. They had an aesthetic sensibility which I'm sure you can discover through conjuring their ruins. They loved science and discovery, perhaps to an unwise degree. And, yes, they hated dissension, destruction, death, dark eco, the appearance of most things we find attractive, the infliction of pain, vengeance, and heterotrophy. I would even go so far as to say they hated change. And we were on our planet warring with each other and enjoying it - we were the only species there that I think you would consider people and we were still decades away from the capacity for interstellar travel."

"You actively enjoy war?"

"An amount of it. It has been many centuries of fighting with aliens who are unwilling or unable to arrange truces and I am... tired."

"How sure are you that the Precursors weren't just - overreacting to a misunderstanding? Enjoying war is weird."

"It has not seemed so in my experience but I am certain our experiences do not overlap much. They didn't ask, they didn't sue for peace when we responded in anger, they they never behaved in any way that gave me the impression that they were trying to understand. But no, I am not sure."

"I'm, like, slightly worried that I will turn out to be pure of heart if I grab the egg, you see."

"I would expect gloves to suffice but if you're particularly concerned you could try tongs. Made of Precursor metal, if you want to be very sure."

"Also it would be a real pity if someone trying very hard with a suitably restricted baby Precursor could get them to cut it out and then instead genocided them, so I would like to do some background reading once I have their language translatable."

"Naturally. I expect recommending any particular titles or helping with translation would only make it less useful to you. But do you have a communicator?"

"A communicator?"

"The people of this planet use them to speak to and hear each other over distances of miles, as if they were face to face."

"Oh, I don't have one and if you mean that literally I don't have anything as good up my sleeve either but I could make something for it. You can also write to me without going to the trouble of sending the letter; just put 'Letter to Cam' on it and I'll get it next time I check."