Quest Deception and Interception bugged

The quest Deception and Interception from Gurtrude in Mechanotus Fortress is bugged, it is not possible to get the non agro robot to respond to the password in any of the forms that have been suggested. I am the only character in the zone, I suspended my pet, I have no mercs, I dropped my aura and all illusions, I did not hail first, and said "FizznogginBubblebottom" with and without a space between the words. I tried hailing and saying it. Nothing works. I cannot complete this task at this point without some kind of intervention.

Oh, yes, and I cleared all the mobs on the level he is on and on the level above him.

And then suddenly, randomly, it worked. It's still buggy as all getout though.