Bell, short for Belmetazephyleer (bell-MET-a-Zeff-uh-Leer), is a Neptunian tunneler and a member of the Red Raven crew. He has two jobs aboard the ship- his primary role is the gunnery operator, controlling the Jackrabbit's array of plasma turrets, rail cannons and missile salvos; and his secondary role is he's the ship's cook. Bell does not collect two paychecks for serving these two jobs because "if we ever need you to do both jobs at once we'll pay you triple for saving our bacon". Because his species doesn't have thumbs, Bell's cooking tools have been modified with special rings he can lift up with his sharp claws, and while he can prepare anything just fine he does like to make things that are chopped, mixed and fried in a big pan. He is pretty easy-going, but somewhat aloof- he's in the middle of learning Terra's common language so he doesn't always get the idioms and parts-of-speech his crewmates use, and if its too much of a bother to ask he'll just try to figure it out from context. He still gets confused when people ask if he is the mascot of the ship, as he's never been to Terra and has never seen a Jackrabbit before; they are probably pretty tasty, he'd imagine.
Neptune is a unique planet in the Sol system in that it has produced two dominant sentient lifeforms where most other worlds culminate in one. Bell is a member of the subterranean Neptunians, able to dig tunnels through hard terrain with his sharp claws and squeeze his body into tight spaces; a Neptunian tunneler's shoulders are set forward rather than on their side like Inner Belt hominids. His long ears and long tail are very sensitive to vibrations, allowing him to rest either one or all three appendages against a solid surface to get a clear picture of his surroundings based on the small vibrations of movement in the walls or ground. Like Slug and their Europan family, Bell and his Neptunians have excellent low-light vision, although he has one remaining eye to see it with that eye has almost 180 degrees of range, which lets him see ahead and behind himself in a cramped tunnel. These traits lend themselves very well to Red Raven's illicit sidejobs, as one can bypass a lot of security measures by simply tunneling beneath them, and sensing the footfall of guards means there's no unwanted surprises waiting just above a crime tunnel.
Bell's true professional expertise comes from his work on Neptune. A member of the "Lake Breakers" engineering outfit, Bell operated large orbital cannons from a ground control station, firing the huge guns needed to break up Neptune's iceberg-crusted lakes of liquid diamond, making them easier to process. He's got an impressive resume of controlled demolitions, bulk cutting and big gun operations. Neptune's carbon exports bring it untold wealth, the Lake Breakers being personally responsible for producing most of the transparent material used in pressurized space windows throughout the Sol system. Titan Garden's large panoramic dome was, in fact, supplied by Neptunian diamond breakers, and they were paid well for their work. Bell might not get paid separately for his two jobs aboard the Jackrabbit, but he's got enough squirreled away that he doesn't really need it.
The Red Raven crew came to meet Bell while they were out on Neptune sourcing material for a new window after the Jackrabbit's gunnery deck took some minor damage in a scuffle with bandits operating in the asteroid belt. Keera was handling negotiations with a diamond pane vendor since he both spoke Neptunian and also Scarlet refused to fly out to Neptune with a broken windshield on the ship. It was clear he was getting hustled a bit by the much smaller Neptunians when Bell overheard the deal, intervening to ask how the crew's diamond windshield took that kind of damage. Keera explained the firefight they had and Bell insisted on inspecting the damage himself, almost taking offense to the product of his work being defective. They went to the ship and Bell climbed up the front hull unaided, sniffed around the glass, put an ear to it and determined it was, in fact, Neptunian diamond glass that something put a scuff in. He arranged to have a full glass replacement job done on the Jackrabbit and then requested to speak with Keera's captain. Acting as a translator, Keera brought Bell and Amy together, and Bell insisted on joining the ship's crew. Amy explained what Red Raven does and Bell determined he was more than qualified to cut shipwreck bulkheads and blast asteroids, but what he really wanted was to find the guys who made his handiwork look bad and make them pay. Keera wasn't sure how to convey this need for revenge, but Amy was happy to have someone other than Slug man the ship's weapons array while she was busy captaining, so she welcomed him aboard. She explained that the Jackrabbit's plasma cutter turrets had a pulse firing mode for self-defense and the missile bays were linked up to the bridge's tracking computers; Bell insisted he was comfortable with using these systems but it was the two big guns on the front he'd like to use the most, as those were just like his beloved orbital diamond-busting cannons. Bell told his foreman he was heading out, his foreman said okay, and that was that.
Bell never tells the rest of the crew just how many credits he already had prior to taking the job and his initial intentions were pretty narrowly-focused, but he eventually warmed up to the crew as something more than a means to an end. He's been studying his Terran with Keera and making good progress, and he can dismantle a shipwreck for salvage more efficiently than Amy or Slug can. He will find the ship that scuffed his handiwork, however, and defend the good name of the Neptunian Lake Breakers. After that's done he may stick around with his new group of friends, it's nice to see what the rest of the system has been building with his carbon.