20.      Parasite

Mario (a Bob at Gliese 54) receives Bill's revolutionary SCUT (Subspace Communications Universal Transceiver) plans enabling zero-latency communication across star systems. After successfully building and activating the device, Mario immediately contacts Bill to share critical data about an intelligent alien species being exterminated on entire planets—a catastrophe dwarfing previous threats. Bill promises to broadcast the information to all Bobs and develop weaponized technology, though any physical aid will take decades to arrive.

Mario intercepts Bill's transmission of SCUT plans and suspends all projects to construct the device. The system enables instant connections to multiple star systems and allows Mario to contact Bill directly via VR across 23 light-years. Mario urgently shares data revealing a civilization-scale extinction event affecting entire planets and an intelligent species. Bill, shocked by the severity, notes this exceeds previous crises like Medeiros and mentions that humans are also at risk, directing Mario to his current-affairs blog for context. Bill reveals that another Bob (presumably Bob Prime) has already experienced a friendlier first-contact scenario. Bill commits to pushing the information to all Bobs in the directory and prioritizing weaponizable technology development, though he acknowledges any assembled flotilla would take decades to reach Mario's location. The two discuss Mario's initial cohort of four new Bobs named after Snow White's dwarves (Bashful, Dopey, Sleepy, Hungry), a naming convention that has apparently persisted across fifty subsequent creations. Mario decides to modify plans for new Bob cohorts to include FTL communications upgrades and version-3 improvements, intending to send them in the same directions as the first cohort to intercept return messages and relay them via SCUT.