Book Five, Chapter 28: Bitten
"Hey, you're awake," said Rudy, the only other named NPC on the ship besides Flannery. There were three others, but they were named Ship Assistants 1, 2, and 3.
Rudy was something of a captain, but it was hard to tell what his actual rank was until he said it later. I didn't even know if he would have lines in the actual storyline or if he and Flannery were just here to guide us to where we needed to be.
"We're having a little bit of trouble here with the IBECS," he said.
"Here we go," Antoine said. "What kind of trouble?"
"Nothing big. They're not putting out a mayday or anything like that, but we can't get them to respond. The IBECS itself is responding, but it would appear—well, here, let me just call again."
"Why would you show us the message? Aren't we supposed to be reviewing you or something? Why would you want us to see you fail?" Isaac asked under his breath.
Luckily, Cassie was there to elbow him. I didn't think Carousel would punish him for mocking it Off-Screen, but it might. He was a Comedian, so it wasn't exactly unexpected, but I sure wished that he would vent his frustrations without his little jokes.
As someone who felt they had a disturbingly personal relationship with Carousel, I didn't think he wanted to poke that bear, but I couldn't quite get him to stop completely.
"Here's the IBECS," Rudy said.