Cortazar's trying to understand. Understanding the protomolecule means being able to control it. Controlling it means - it could mean anything. Maybe it explains why we're here, right now. How did the protomolecule end up on Phoebe, huh? It was sent there, in some way. Maybe we were sent here, too.

[ Amos has no passion in his words, no inflation, no nothing. ]

The fate of a handful of people doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.