17.      We’ve Lost a Drone

Bill receives an incoming SCUT transmission from Bob-1, the original Bob, successfully establishing FTL communication. Bill visits Bob-1's virtual reality and discovers that Bob has made First Contact with an intelligent alien species called the Deltans, whom he has been studying and even positioning himself as a god figure to them.

Bill is at Epsilon Eridani when Guppy announces an incoming SCUT connection. Excited that Bob-1 has built an FTL transceiver and joined BobNet, Bill and Garfield celebrate. Bill then pops into Bob-1's VR environment without warning, pranking him. There he discovers Bob's VR is based on a real alien village—the Deltans, bat-pig-like creatures with gray and brown fur. Marvin, another Bob, is also present and jokes that Bob-1 has positioned himself as a volcano or sky god to the natives. Bill realizes this constitutes First Contact with an intelligent species. Bob-1 shows Bill a couch setup in the middle of the alien village and they discuss recent events: Milo found two habitable planets at Omicron 2 Eridani (named Vulcan and Romulus), Riker and Homer fought the Brazilian space navy and discovered humanity nearly destroyed itself, with only fifteen million people remaining and limited colony ship capacity. Bill mentions approximately twenty Bobs are active in the galaxy. He updates Bob-1 on his terraforming of Ragnarök and his android project. Bob-1 expresses interest in obtaining an android to have a physical presence among the Deltans rather than just observing as a floating camera.