"It means you won't starve, well, once we get it working again." Surely that's good news. "And with any luck, I can use it to monitor your other systems, those error messages you're getting." You are a mechanical problem, Alex Murphy, the first almost-familiar thing Dennett's encountered since arriving. He perhaps can't be blamed--too much--for throwing himself headlong into problem solving, even with a little loss to, well, bedside manner.