Alex’s Reviews > Network Effect > Status Update

Murderbot really said, yes choices are hard, and wanting/knowing what you want is painful, and caring is fucking terrifying. But what's the alternative?
Not choosing? Not wanting? Not caring?
Any of which is a fate worse than death
Fight tooth and nail for what you want and who you care for, because they'd fight for you. And any assumption otherwise is both cruel and wrong.
Murderbot, you've done it again. Top 5 book

Okay, okay wait. You're telling me that murderbot is trapped in its literal worst nightmare, the thing that it's been terrified of happening since before it was rogue. And the first thing that it decides to do once it can is try to help someone??????
We are who we are in our worst moments. And murderbot is a helper

"Perihelion: 'You are incorrect Iris. I can bomb the colony'"
ART I love you so much. Murderbot is gonna be so awkward about how scared everyone is for it. Didn't I say once that it's greatest fear was being left behind on a planet? And now that its been captured on a planet and left to die, it has to deal with So Many people caring about it So Much

Spoilers

"The helm locks me out. Something else has seized control. The display shows the shuttle is now being pulled towards the transports module dock. That's where I was trying to go so I guess this is good."

Ahhhh! Hi Three! Welcome to the story and also having to make your own decisions! You're gonna get such a good grade in being rogue, something both normal to want and possible to achieve!

Spoilers
"Now here's the code to disable your governor module"
Fucking. Chills. Every time.

"ART replied, only to me, 'it is safer. I've lost my crew, I won't lose you.'
Amena said, not helpfully, 'your face just got really weird. Are you all right?'
No, it was confusing. I was confused"
Murderbot I know that you've grown up not understanding the concept of being cared about, but you had a literal murder out breakdown about ART being dead 100 pages ago. You gotta realize it cares about you too. You gotta

"'surely they won't suspect anything' ratthi was saying to the others at the bulk dock. 'who runs around with a friendly rogue SecUnit? Besides us, I mean'"
Ratthi is the Best. Completely accepts what SecUnit is while also being entirely trusting of it. No wonder murderbot has him tagged specifically as it's friend

"This is my idea of the opposite of being helpful. I am here against my will and you are going to regret that"
ART please god, just tell murderbot that you were scared. It's so mad at you an hour after it had a full burn it all down crash out about you being dead. It cares so Much about you, just admit that you wanted Help.

"I'm not going to hurt your humans, you little idiot"
Hi ART! Welcome back to the story! Please just tell murderbot you were scared and in pain and alone and it'll be So Much Chiller with you putting it and its humans in danger!

So, so far, murderbot has used for its Help.Me files 1. It's relationship with mensah and amena on preservation (and how they treat it) and 2. A session with bharadwaj talking about how it hates logos and won't let anybody know the name of the company that owned it.
Ow