Their claim when we arrived was that "physical contact as a power source" story. They apparently require our willing cooperation, so they aren't likely to kill us, and actually attempting contact does produce a...soothing feeling of sorts, I suppose. So from all that, there certainly seems to be some truth to what they've said. The question is, how much?

[evidently, he's already given a great deal of though to that himself. the smile slips away again while he works through a few theories, a bit too distracted by the puzzle here and he situation as a whole to try juggling both this and keeping up appearances perfectly.]

At this point, I'd say there are a few possibilities. Perhaps they're being entirely truthful about everything they have said. They still have not answered every question, however, so it seems more likely that they're hidig something. If this contact system is indeed helping them in some way, then perhaps they're lying about the backlash that can occur if one doesn't cooperate? A scare tactic to help encourage those here into participating, if their requesting it alone isn't enough. Then there's the question of what exactly they're gaining through this system, and if they haven't been upfront about it because we would be opposed to helping if we knew...