6.      Contacting Bill

Bob observes a successful pigoid hunt by the Deltans and witnesses a medical breakthrough when the hunters convince the medicine woman Cruella to adopt his boiling-water sanitization technique. After the hunt concludes, Marvin presents Bob with a puzzling archaeological mystery: the Deltans appear to have migrated from a safer region to progressively more dangerous areas, with missing population records that suggest an unexplained disappearance.

Bob monitors a Deltan hunt via observation drone at Delta Eridani. The hunters—Bernie, Mike, Fred, and others—use spears to kill a pigoid, with Fred sustaining a leg wound from a broken spear shaft. Back at the village (which Bob nicknames Camelot), the hunters convince Cruella, the medicine woman, to use boiling water to clean Fred's wound, implementing Bob's hygiene recommendations despite her initial resistance. After the celebration begins, Bob retreats to his VR library where Marvin presents archaeological findings. Marvin has discovered that the Deltans originated in a different region of the continent and migrated to their current location, yet the expected burial remains from the original settlement are missing. The population records don't account for the Deltans who presumably stayed behind or died during migration. Bob and Marvin acknowledge the mystery but lack sufficient data to solve it, given their disadvantage compared to Earth-based historians studying known civilizations.