Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)

by Martha Wells

(There needs to be an error code that means “I received your request but decided to ignore you.”)

there’s the right kind of unrealistic and the wrong kind of unrealistic.

Actually, with my experience in security, anybody who wanted to hang around and live on a deteriorating terraforming facility worried me a lot more than raiders.

Started to feel attacked because it was sounding pretty good to me, and then acknowledged that yes, some valid reasons to be worried about me also thanks.

I defaulted to honesty (I know, I was surprised, too)

I signaled Miki I would be withdrawing for one minute. I needed to have an emotion in private.

I would have evaluated the facility (i.e., made sure there weren’t any unwanted visitors, by walking around as bait waiting for something to attack me)

Ah, classic Murderbot

at the time even I was mostly thinking, Oh shit oh shit.

A highly (highly) relatable internal monologue

We were talking about GrayCris here, whose company motto seemed to be “profit by killing everybody and taking their stuff.”

I mean... are there other business models?

There were cases and racks of environmental testing and sampling tools. One was a core cutter, made to take nice round cylinders out of walls of rock for whatever reason humans need to do that. It was an extension meant to attach to a sampler unit, but they probably had it because Miki was strong enough to lift it and use it; it’s a long tube that uses directed explosive cutters to extract meter-length sections. I slung the ammo bag over my back, grabbed the cutter off the rack, switched on its power pack, and climbed up the access.

Fuck yeaaah - a regular discussion on geology/archaeology field projects is how wildly underappreciated our bog standard tools are a really really quite effective weapons they are...

Priority is to protect my friends. Priority change, Abene sent. Priority is to protect yourself. That priority change is rejected, Miki told her.

Noooooo! Be careful Miki!!! After finishing book: :’(

The core cutter had powered up and accessed my feed to deliver a canned warning and a handy set of directions. Why yes, I did want to disengage the safety protocols, thanks for asking.

_sniggering *very* delightedly_

I guess despite the instructions I had been holding it wrong.

I love you, Murderbot.

Abene had tried to change Miki’s priority to saving its own life, and it had refused her. Which meant she had allowed its programming that option, that ability to use its own judgment in a crisis situation. It had decided its priority was to save its humans, and maybe to save me, too. Or maybe it had known it couldn’t save any of us, but it had wanted to give me the chance to try. Or it hadn’t wanted me to face the bot alone. Whatever it was, I’d never know. What I did know was that Abene really had loved Miki. That hurt in all kinds of ways. Miki could never be my friend, but it had been her friend, and more importantly, she had been its friend. Her gut reaction in a moment of crisis was to tell Miki to save itself.

This, this is where the heart fractures

Well, that was interesting. I hate caring about stuff. But apparently once you start, you can’t just stop.

Big mood.