[He'd been trying to find an analogue for something like this in his own experience. He pauses, thinking.]

I heard from someone that the foreigners were being assembled for some purposes, something like that. They might expect us to fix it... or they might have just brought us into a trap. [Possibly both.]

As far as I can tell, our minds aren't being messed with. Not significantly anyway. [He holds up the ring.] I'd know.