Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
Few of the museum staff members and visitors who stoop over the cases and gaze are aware of this lost item. In earlier times, it powered the mechanism of existence. It has a bloody history, one in which many people were killed. Its history led it to rename itself “Murderbot.” But it is curious about the massacre that gave rise to that title and only has hazy recollections of it. Murderbot travels to the mine where it went rogue with the help of a Research Transport ship called art. Its manner of thinking will be permanently altered by what it learns.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
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A corporation that provides insurance for miners and explorers owns the Security Unit (SecUnit) known as Murderbot. She is a poorly defined natural construct. Both organic and inorganic parts make up her brain, the organ through which she thinks. She is almost impossible to kill and exceptionally skilled in fighting and spying by nature. She has her own goals and motives, and she is very much a person. Her interests and motivations are, for the most part, those of a Good Person. She went crazy on a contract with the mining business RaviHyral about four years ago (35,000 hours), killing a number of human customers. But did she? Her inorganic brain’s memory was partially wiped by the company.
She still has memories in her organic brain, but they are hazy. She then altered her own governor module, giving her the power to defy commands and conduct herself in a manner uncharacteristic of a SecUnit. She helped keep six client researchers alive in All Systems Red. In recognition, they bought out her contract with The Corporation and freed her to the extent that a SecUnit is permitted by law.
She ran away from her new owners in search of more total freedom and is currently free to roam. She is, then, by virtue of her history of mass murder, her malfunctioning governor module, and the fact that she escaped her owners, a rogue SecUnit and hence a fugitive.
She is now on a mission to get the truth about what occurred at RaviHyral. She offers every TV episode she’s downloaded as payment for passage on a Research Transport moving in that route. After Murderbot is on board the research transport, she passive-aggressively presses her friendship and advice on him. The research transport approves this arrangement.
