That makes enough sense to me, I guess. It'd kind of make sense that if you were in the control room you'd be protected so that if you're on Halo when you fire it you aren't killing yourself. It just seems like a colossal mistake on the Forerunner's part to leave Flood behind at all after all the losses they went through, especially when they can be easily set loose(Installation 04) or escape(Installation 05). I think the Ark was meant to keep species around as the rings fired and reseed the galaxy..

Another thing I've been wondering is why humans can activate Halo but Covenant can't? The rings didn't seem to be designed at a time when the Forerunner had much love for humanity, except for the Librarian who I doubt had much control over the details of how Halo worked.

I hope it's not sounding like I'm trying to knock Halo, Bungie or 343, I love the series.