Hackworth had brought something back with him this time, when he had 
emerged naked and streaming with cold seawater from the warren of Drummers in 
the ballast tanks of the ship. He had emerged with a set of numerical keys that 
were used to identify certain entities: the Primer, Nell, Miranda, and someone 
else who went by the name of Dr. X. Before he had fully reentered his conscious 
state, he had supplied those keys to the Clown, who had been there to haul his 
gasping and shivering body out of the water. The Clown was a mechanical device, 
but Dramatis Personae had been good enough to allow Carl Hollywood to control 
it—and to improvise much of Hackworth's personal script and 
storyline—for the duration of the show.