18.      It’s Getting Worse

Mario and four newly created Bob duplicates (Bashful, Dopey, Sleepy, and Hungry) establish a relay station at Gliese 54 and prepare to investigate the mysterious alien threat that has stripped two other star systems. They plan to spread out and search nearby systems while maintaining constant communication, equipped with self-destruct capabilities as a precaution against capture.

Mario arrives at Gliese 54, finding it untouched unlike the devastated systems at Beta Hydri and Zeta Tucanae. Concerned that the aliens are harvesting metal to build more ships, he constructs a space station over two months to serve as a relay point back to Bill at Epsilon Eridani. To avoid facing the threat alone, Mario creates four new Bob instances named Bashful, Dopey, Sleepy, and Hungry (the last humorously insisting on the name despite it not fitting the Seven Dwarfs theme). The five Bobs gather to plan their strategy. They decide each will investigate outward star systems while maintaining an open communication channel back to Bill, building relay stations as needed and performing regular differential backups. They discuss the philosophical implications of being destroyed and restored from backup, with Hungry and Sleepy bickering over whether such restoration would preserve identity. Mario emphasizes the need for self-destruct capabilities to prevent being captured and dissected by the aliens. The group agrees on their approach and prepares to deploy to their assigned systems.