Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)

by Martha Wells

I was going to break into targetControlSystem and do terrible things to it.

The good thing about being a construct is that you can’t reproduce and create children to argue with you.

Now she was talking to me like I was a hysterical human. Worse, I was acting like a hysterical human.

On the private channel between ART and me, I said, I apologize for calling you a fucker. It said, I apologize for kidnapping you and causing potential collateral damage to your clients.

(If I got angry at myself for being angry I would be angry constantly and I wouldn’t have time to think about anything else.) (Wait, I think I am angry constantly. That might explain a lot.)

I was getting tired of being told what to do. Self-determination was a pain in the ass sometimes but it beat the alternative by a lot.

Ratthi had said, “I think you should let it go for a while, at least until we get ourselves out of this situation. SecUnit is a very private person, it doesn’t like to discuss its feelings.” This is why Ratthi is my friend.)

I am actually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are.

“Thank you.” Her face looked younger. She looked like she had been pretending to have hope and now she didn’t have to pretend anymore. (Confession time: that moment, when the humans or augmented humans realize you’re really here to help them. I don’t hate that moment.)

That was ART, and my humans, and humans I had known for maybe five minutes, and a Barish-Estranza SecUnit that 2.0 had randomly found, all cooperating to retrieve me. I’m going to stop talking for a while now.

Again, I have no idea why ART likes adolescent humans.

“Because change is terrifying. Choices are terrifying. But having a thing in your head that kills you if you make a mistake is more terrifying.”