Compulsory (The Murderbot Diaries, #0.5)

by Martha Wells

Nobody likes SecUnits. I am one, and even I don’t like us. We’re part human, part bot constructs, rented out as part of the company safety bond, and we’re creepy and we make everybody nervous and uncomfortable, and if we didn’t have governor modules to flashfry our brains if we refuse an order, we’d rampage and kill all the humans and augmented humans. Or maybe we’d just watch entertainment media for the rest of our hellish existence. Personally I could go either way.

You would think dealing with this would be my job. But no, my job is 1) prevent the workers from stealing corporation property, everything from the tools to the disposable napkins in the messhall, 2) prevent the workers from injuring/killing corporation management, no matter how tempting the prospect might be (and it was really tempting, trust me on that), and 3) prevent the workers from injuring each other in ways that might diminish productivity.

Since I hacked my governor module, I sometimes do things and I’m not sure entirely why. (Apparently suddenly getting free will after having 93% of your behavior controlled for your entire existence will do weird things to your impulse control.)