James read over the message several times, though of course there was no place in her mind for doubt. Forerunner probes could do many things, but write convincing letters were not one of them. She shouldn't have been surprised—it was foolish to assume the probe would be content doing nothing for years while she studied the language. It would still be advancing towards its goals in other ways. It doesn't have other linguistic teams, right? At least the probe gave me somebody who cares about our lives... The way the Pioneering Society Handbook sometimes talked about them, they were just resources. Organic tools sent across the void, like the probes Earth had once used to explore its own solar system. They didn't really have a purpose beyond the one they were sent on.