It seems the ending is missing something. In particular, the most depressing ending feels in some ways like the more likely, because it assumes that the characters are just going to run off of knee-jerk "this is wrong" reflexes, and attempt to bash their heads against the brick wall. Hrmmm...
- First of all, if there is reasonable levels of freedom of speech, they aren't just going to die because they tried to convince people that maybe we should try not killing each other. However...
...the uplifting race has almost certainly been tweaking its genome for a while - and the infants they send are likely to be given a few advantages on top of that. After all, uplifting a race with Problems is Bad, and so not uplifting them is a win, but if you can solve the problems first, and then uplift them, that's a double-win. The infants, then, are likely to be smarter/faster/stronger/something as well as mildly telepathic - not at superhuman levels, necessarily, but notably so. If they picked up some intelligence/manipulation (on one or both sides) they're reasonably likely to figure out all of the unpleasant likely ends of doing things in predictable ways, figure out exactly how *they* want the world to work, and play Xanatos (with varying degrees of success).
Also, at some point, you should totally have the bit where each has realized that the specific other person is nifty, but hasn't accepted that their side has anyone worth saving, and each is actively trying to suborn the other.
- First of all, if there is reasonable levels of freedom of speech, they aren't just going to die because they tried to convince people that maybe we should try not killing each other. However...
...the uplifting race has almost certainly been tweaking its genome for a while - and the infants they send are likely to be given a few advantages on top of that. After all, uplifting a race with Problems is Bad, and so not uplifting them is a win, but if you can solve the problems first, and then uplift them, that's a double-win. The infants, then, are likely to be smarter/faster/stronger/something as well as mildly telepathic - not at superhuman levels, necessarily, but notably so. If they picked up some intelligence/manipulation (on one or both sides) they're reasonably likely to figure out all of the unpleasant likely ends of doing things in predictable ways, figure out exactly how *they* want the world to work, and play Xanatos (with varying degrees of success).
Also, at some point, you should totally have the bit where each has realized that the specific other person is nifty, but hasn't accepted that their side has anyone worth saving, and each is actively trying to suborn the other.