#MurderbotOCs

[rjalker]

Murderbot fandom Challenge 2023 challenge #1: Escaped large animal on the station

Word count: 3,101

Summary: Somehow, an animal native to Preservation gets loose on Preservation Station. Fortunately, it's not hostile. Unfortunately, it's looking for a mate, and its species has a very inconvenient way of going about finding one -- being deafeningly loud, and exuding a horrible smell that's toxic to humans and robots alike.

OC POV because my brain just did not want Murderbot to be the narrator this time. So here's Grous, completely out of order of her supposed introduction. Oh well. Just roll with it. Or don't, IDC, lol.

As usual, there's zero spoilers for the books because everything mentioned in this fic is just made the fuck up. Because there isn't actually anything (besides Martha Well's casual bigotry) in The Murderbot Diaries that I'd actually want to change in terms of the story or plot.

You are encouraged to use the animal concept here for your own original fiction or fanfiction for other things. Like I said it's 100% original.

Actually ykw no, no read-more because tumblr's stupid. It's tagged long post.

= = =

This was not one of the small, fluffy cubs the SecUnit from Preservation had had the misfortune of running into down on the planet, when it and Evrim had fallen into a nest that had been dug under the supposedly safe path leading through the woods.

This was also not one of the parents, who'd been only a little bit bigger than their offspring, bristling with spines and spitting corrosive acid, but still very easy to run away from.

No, this was neither of those options.

Turns out, adult animals of this species who hadn't found a mate yet were trying really, really hard to remedy that fact. They attempted to remedy this fact by attracting a mate. By being as attractive as possible.

And you know what these animals thought was really attractive?

Animals who were really fucking big, really fucking bright, and reeked to high fucking heaven of the most cloying smell you can imagine, that burned the eyes and nose with its strength, and could even start corroding certain metals if it was in high enough concentrations.

This trait had evolved so that while these animals were running around in the unbelievably giant forests that were their natural habitat, their scent would be dispersed on the wind over a large area, allowing them, with the additional aid of their literally deafening howls, to find eachother and see if they liked what they saw.

This is what was pacing up and down the thoroughfare of Preservation Station, sniffing at every single thing that it came upon, and growing increasingly more obviously confused.

The scent glands that covered its body were constantly producing more of the noxious chemicals that had already caused several dozen humans, only some of whom had been confirmed to have respiratory problems before this incident, to pass out from lack of oxygen, even now that they were in separate sections of the station.

The air filters were working as hard as they could, but they hadn't been designed with a situation like this in mind. Purposefully poisonous gas they could handle. But even the most advanced poison gas wasn't almost infinitely self-replicating the way this animal's smell was. Not to mention it had stuck to people's clothes and skin, and there weren't enough shower or sanitation rooms for everyone on the station to clean the smell off of them at the same time.

And to make things worse, every few minutes, the animal, viewed only by the surviving, most sturdily built cameras in the highest spots of the high ceiling, stopped its pacing to throw its head back and let out a howl so loud it was literally deafening, which had already broken dozens of display surfaces and other fragile items within the thoroughfare where it'd been locked and isolated. Including all the cameras that were further down the walls.

The first howl it had given (once it got out of the landing pod it had arrived in) had instantly incapacitated over four hundred humans and two hundred bots, knocking them violently unconscious and permanently deafening the hundreds that had been closest to it, before anyone had even realized it was there, let alone before anyone could evacuate.

More humans and bots had had to run in to try and rescue the ones who were now unconscious, with a few exceptionally brave and foolhardy ones attempting (and succeeding, to everyone's shock) to distract the animal so it wouldn't howl again until they could get everyone away, even though they were being overwhelmed by the smell.

Fortunately, this was real life, not a dramatic movie, so the animal did not immediately start roaring and howling and leaping to viciously maul everyone it saw. Because that would be counterproductive to its goals - - find a mate, and stay alive.

It wasn't interested in taking a human as a mate, and it also wasn't interested in picking a fight when it was outnumbered by animals who were each almost as big as it was. It also wasn't interested in hunting or eating right now, but even if it had been, it still wouldn't have tried to hunt any humans, because they were way bigger than what it had evolved to eat.

Also, again, it was outnumbered, so even if it was hungry, it wasn't going to pick a fight it clearly couldn't win. Real animals did not just randomly start hunting people for no reason, and especially not when they were in a new environment.

So the successive waves of humans who volunteered to try and herd it back into the landing pod it'd come out of /did/ manage to keep it distracted and busy long enough for everyone who'd been knocked unconscious by its first howl, or the toxic fumes, to be either dragged away to safety further into the station, or dragged to safety into the nearest ship, and then the hatch sealed, without getting themselves mauled.

They also weren't deafened or knocked unconscious by any new howls, because, again, it can not be stressed enough: this wasn't a movie, so the animal reacted like a real animal. And a real animal isn't going to keep performing its mate-attracting ritual while it's being harassed by many large other animals. That's just not the kind of behavior that gets passed down the evolutionary line, because that's the kind of behavior that guarantees you'll be killed before you can pass your genes on in the first place.

Fortunately, no one had died of their injuries yet, and most people were recovering enough that the medics thought that could be avoided altogether.

As for the SecUnit from Preservation?

Well, it wasn't dead. But it had been unlucky enough to be standing close to the pod the animal had come out of, so it'd been knocked unconscious as the internal structures of its ears, as well as a few other crucial systems in its head, literally shattered from the sheer volume of the animal's howl.

When it woke up - - and the medics assured that Grous that it would, hopefully at some point soon - - it would be mostly fine, except for the inability to hear through its ears. But the SecUnit from Preservation usually used drones or cameras for audio anyways, so that hopefully wasn't going to be as big of a deal as it would be for anyone else. Heck, it might even enjoy the fact that humans wouldn't be able to talk to it unless it wanted to be able to hear them.

Yes, Grous was 100% aware that was not the likely outcome of this event at all, but it was trying to keep optimistic. Imagining how devastated the SecUnit from Preservation would be when it found out it'd never be able to hear again without additional augments was not doing anything to help her mood. She'd been far away enough during the initial howl that she hadn't been knocked out, though her ears were still ringing with the after-effects. She'd never been able to smell, not in the way humans or other constructs described it, so the animal's scent wasn't bothering her, since her lungs were able to filter in enough oxygen past it with only a slightly noticeable difficulty. She knew it was there because her chemoreceptor was constantly giving her updates on the percentage of atmosphere it was making up.

Right now she was locked inside one of the spaceships stranded in the port. She'd grabbed as many humans as could hold onto her at once (Which was four when they were all conscious and cooperating) and dragged them all inside. They'd been joined by twelve other humans and five robots, one of which was another construct.

None of them knew how to fly this kind of spaceship, but fortunately the the bot pilot, Thrive, who used fe/ir pronouns, hadn't been damaged, and was more than happy to help, so the whole shipful of them were currently in the process of disconnecting from the station so the pilot could ferry those who wanted to get off down to the planet, before fe'd bring Grous and 6210311, the hauler bot who'd also volunteered to return and help out, who used he/him pronouns, back to the station.

(Fe would have let them off before bringing everyone else down to the planet, except that the animal'd wandered over to where fe was docked by that point, and even if the animal itself wasn't hostile, opening the airlock would let in too much of its smell than would be safe for the humans.)

[Pheromones], Thrive the bot pilot had corrected Grous. Apparently the smell this animal was releasing was specifically called a pheromone, because it was used to communicate a specific purpose. In this case, the purpose was finding a date.

Everyone was grateful that it was not attempting to seduce any humans or robots so far. Grous had heard stories of animals on other planets who were so social and bonded so readily with humans they'd perform mating dances at them, even if humans were dozens of times bigger than them and of a completely different body plan.

Grous wasn't sure exactly what she'd do once she and 6210311 got back to the station, but she figured that with her anosmia and the fact that she required less oxygen than humans would help in the toxic fumes department, if nothing else.

Thrive was talking to one of the systems on Preservation on a channel with a free invite so they could all listen in if they wanted, talking to a bot who studied the species of animal that had somehow gotten onto the station.

Thrive had sent down a description of the animal along with visual and audio recordings, and the bot on the surface, whose feed signature read, “Xeotherial, xe/xir/xirris” sent back a quick summary of the species, highlighting most of what they'd already figured out - - that its territorial howls were dangerous for most life forms not native to Preservation, that its pheromones were toxic to humans, and that it was generally non-hostile in its current state.

All of this they already knew, but Xeotherial also had some new information to share - - like the fact that long enough exposure to the pheromones could start to damage bots as well as humans, by physically clogging filtration systems and corroding some materials, though there wasn't yet enough research to say what effects it would have on constructs. Based on the effects it had on humans and bots, it wouldn't be anything healthy.

And speaking of the pheromone, Grous' scanner was showing that it was still present in the atmosphere inside Thrive, clinging to her skin, clothes, and mechanical parts. It was like it was more than just a smell, it was like a sticky residue. She couldn't see it except with one of her visual overlays, but she could feel it when she experimentally pinched the fabric of her shirt between two fingers. It was making the fabric stiffer, less soft than it should be, and made it stick to her fingers slightly as she pulled away.

All of the humans who'd gotten aboard Thrive had immediately fled to the bathrooms, and Grous could hear them all through the doors they'd left open along the way, very noisily complaining about the smell and trying to wash it off their clothes, skin, and hair.

6210311 had happily accepted Thrive's offer of a charging station, and was in standby mode at the moment while he, from what Grous could gather from his reactions on the open feed channel, watched a documentary about the animals in question.

Which were called mostly just Preservation grey foxes, though the grey part of the name applied to the adult and juvenile forms only, not this bright intermediate stage. Grous had never seen an adult or a baby for herself, just the recording the SecUnit from Preservation had shared with her of its (mis)adventure with Evrim.

She'd had no idea their middle stage looked anything like this. From the complaints the humans were making, (shouting and exclaiming in disgust and horror and confusion and some begrudging humor), she was guessing none of them had, either.

Thrive informed her that it would be at least half a Preservation standard hour before they were able to land, and offered her a charging station across from 6213011 if she wanted it.

But Grous didn't need to initiate a charge cycle for another few Preservation-standard days, so she thanked ir, but declined, showing ir her pantry of full power batteries.

But her chemoreceptor analysis was still showing a high concentration of the animal's pheromones on her skin and clothes, so it would be a good use of her time to try and wash it off, if she could, like the humans were. No point carrying around the smell unnecessarily.

So she left the main area and went to join the humans in the communal bathroom, who'd progressed almost all the way to being optimistic and cheerful and thinking the situation was funny, rather than just being afraid and worried. They'd left all the doors open between them and the rest of Thrive to help keep the air circulating, and most of the pheromones that had been stuck to them had been successfully washed down the drains. That would pose problems in the future if the chemicals weren't easily broken down for re-use, but that would be a problem for later.

Grous had estimated that the amount of pheromones still left hanging around her were at a level humans would find unpleasant, and was proven correct when she stepped into the further bathroom, which was less crowded than the first, and was gratified to be immediately met with a wave of “ewww!!” “aaah!!” and “uughh!!!” as she stepped in and the humans caught scent of her.

One of the naked humans closest to the door, whose short bio was listed as [Jikar, alternating he/him, they/them] in the feed, covered his mouth and nose with one hand, and waved Grous over with the other, saying urgently, their voice muffled by his hand, “Oh, quick, quick come under the water, get that stuff off of you! I'll grab you some more solid soap, we used it all.” They quickly but carefully fast-walked past her toward the door. Grous started for the shower of water that was still running over the tiled floor. Jikar's clothes had been left scattered by the drain in the floor, presumably so they'd keep getting rinsed out.

Grous started to lift her shirt over her head, but was stopped by another human's voice- -

“Don't bother getting undressed yet, just go right under the water with your clothes still on first, it'll be easier to get most of it off that way.” Grous turned to look at the voice, and saw a human sitting on one of the benches in one of the bath-showers, with new water falling down from above and the rest of their body submerged below the shoulders. Several pieces of clothing were floating or had sunk to the bottom of the small pool. A pair of crutches were visible thorugh the water sitting on a small shelf next to the human.

A quick fumble for the feed bio displayed, [Ask for my name, pronouns: sie/syr/syr/(syrs)/syrself. I am part of – ]

The human spoke again before Grous could finish reading, saying:

“When Jikar gets back with more soap, just start at the top and go down, it'll help rinse more off with the soap.” Sie gestured as sie spoke, lifting one hand out of the water and then moving it back down with the palm flat to demonstrate. “Then you can take your clothes off and wash them again. It seems to stick more to natural fibers than the synthetic ones. It shouldn't take long for your shirt, but your pants you're probably gonna have to use a whole bar on.” Sie gestured to syr clothes in the water. “I'm just going to let mine soak until we're almost ready to land. Apparently it sticks really well to dagro.”

Grous knew from her scouring of the information for Preservation that dagro was the name of an animal fiber commonly used for clothes. The species it was harvested from (nunam) were native to the same sorts of ecosystems as the Preservation grey foxes. Which sort of made sense. The foxes' pheromones had probably evolved specifically to stick to the fur of other nearby animals so they'd spread it even further than the wind could.

Jikar returned at that moment, carrying several bags of packaged soap bars. “Here you go!” He said, handing one of the bags to Grous, their nose crinkled up in reaction to the smell still sticking to her. “Ugh!” They exclaimed, “I just can't believe how bad that smells! I've lived here on Preservation for two years now, and I never knew anything that smelled that bad was living here! How can anything find that attractive?” He used their free hand to wave the air in front of his nose for emphasis.

If there was ever a time that Grous was glad for her inability to smell, it was times like these. She gratefully accepted the soap, though, and went to the next empty shower to wash off. She couldn't smell the horribleness like everyone else, but it was creating a weird texture on her skin and clothes, and just because she couldn't smell it didn't mean she wanted to subject everyone else to it.

She set the bag down and took out one of the packages of soap. It said it was clofus scented, with an artistic painting of the bark of the kiius tree on it, dotted with bright purple sap. Grous' chemoreceptor feedout informed her part of the composition of the soap did indeed match what she'd recorded the few times she'd seen kiius trees in person.

She checked the timer Thrive had been nice enough to set in the feed for everyone, and saw that there was still most of an hour left before they got to the planet. And then it would be an hour again before they could get back to the station.

Plenty of time to wash off the pheromones, and maybe start watching that show the SecUnit from Preservation was so obsessed with, to see if it was actually any good.

She sat down under under the warm shower of water, and put on the first episode of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.