“I’m really sorry,” he says, eyes downcast. She’s not crying anymore, but she’s still a lady who is very upset, and stuck in a serious situation. When she’d first told him about the robots, he’d been unable to fully process what it was she was saying. His mind had automatically gone to corny, stupid stuff.

He’s worked on that since then.

“When did this happen?” he asks, and then clarifies: “I mean, when was it that you guys found Earth?”

He doesn’t add that it’s not surprising that they found it a fucked up shithole, given what he knows about his Earth and its likely trajectory over the next couple hundred years. That wouldn't be very comforting.