#home habitat range niche territory

[murderbot-moodboard]

This scene illustrates some of why I think Murderbot's relationship with Mensah is so important to it, going all the way back to All Systems Red. Murderbot has spent most of its existence being required to respond to other people's needs, including their emotional needs or demands, without any say in the matter. Dr. Mensah comes along, and she's a capable leader and an emotionally mature one: she takes responsibility for managing her own emotions instead of automatically making them the problem of everyone around her. And she doesn't always need Murderbot to come save her; she saves it from the combat overridden SecUnits with a sonic mining drill. She takes its advice seriously and also is aware of how bad the danger they're facing might be even when it hasn't occurred to other members of PresAux. She's a client that not only doesn't need a babysitter—she also manages herself and her team well enough to have the capacity to look out for Murderbot's physical and emotional wellbeing too.

Murderbot is used to being the one people depend on at their own convenience and then disregard when they don't think it benefits them anymore. In Mensah, Murderbot has a teammate who it can share responsibility with, and she's capable of handling it, and also someone Murderbot can trust to handle it. That's kind of a first for Murderbot. And the fact that Mensah is so very careful to try not to take advantage of Murderbot's caring, even when it offers to do something uncomfortable for it, is a unique relationship of trust that Murderbot hadn't encountered before PresAux.

Basically, Mensah is important to Murderbot partly because it can trust her to manage her own needs and emotions without automatically offloading them onto whoever is most available or reliable (Murderbot). And when someone cares about you enough to care how their actions and reactions affect you, and to do their best not to just use you to make them feel better at your expense—that's a relationship that does seem worth going to the ends of the earth for.

SecUnit is looking down at her. “You can hug me if you need to.” “No. No, that’s all right. I know you don’t care for it.” She wipes her face. There are tears in her eyes, because she’s an idiot. “It’s not terrible.” She can hear the irony under its even tone. “Nevertheless.”  She can’t do this. She can’t lean on a being that doesn’t want to be leaned on. Of all the things SecUnit needs, the only ones she can give it are room and time in a relatively safe space to make decisions for itself. Becoming a prop for her failing emotional stability won’t do either one of them any good.

a little scene from the home short story

[storkmuffin]

It's not just me that thinks they might find Murderbot's presence soothing and relaxing, right? From the way Dr. Mensah describes what it's like to be in the same room with it, I feel like Murderbot is so cat-coded. it sits quietly, looking into a corner, and only looks directly at people's faces when it really needs information (like, when I lie or have been through a traumatic event). It radiates heat at will, and offers hugs, which it hates, which is so nice, and more importantly, without lying about how much it hates it. And Murderbot is witty, in a nice way.

.... I am starting to get nervous about saying all this, because I suspect that Murderbot would find it very eye rollingly dumb that the little tiny human with the very bad eyesight and no upper body strength (that's me, btw) said that the Murderbot with the built-in arm-guns was relaxing to be around.

[aliteratepenguin]

The killing machine in question has just sent her yet another message packet. They’re piling up in her feed and if she would stop encouraging SecUnit by opening them, it would probably stop. They’re all formal requisition forms for Preservation Station Security, requests for increasingly improbable armaments. She responds to the latest with I don’t even know what that is. It’s a good thing she understands SecUnit’s sense of humor.

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells

[iviarellereads]

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory(1)

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which we see another side of things.

Initially released as a preorder bonus for Network Effect, and later published for free on the Tor.com website, this story is set just after Exit Strategy.

In the third person present,(2) Ayda Mensah is talking to Ephraim, another planetary councilor who was previously planetary leader and should know better than the conversation they're having. It doesn't help that they're in an office the same size as the room she was held captive in on TranRollinHyfa, but the message pinging in her feed helps some.

Ephraim is asking if something is a good idea, and Mensah lies and says if she'd known all this would happen, she'd have chosen a different planet to survey and invest in. She wouldn't, of course, because then Murderbot would still be property, and Mensah would likely be dead somewhere.(3)

Finally, Ephraim gets around to saying some of what he really wants to say, but instead of "killing machine", he calls MB a "product of corporate surveillance capitalism and authoritarian enforcement".

This, Mensah can work with. She's been opening the messages from said killing machine in her feed, an escalating sequence of requests for absurd armaments. She tells it she doesn't even know what the last one is. To Ephraim, Mensah says MB has saved her life and the lives of her team multiple times. To herself, she thinks how MB isn't supposed to have access to the systems or requisition forms to issue these requests at all, but she knows it's just "refusing to pretend to be anything other than it is" which is the only way forward, after all.(4)

If she’s honest with herself, which she hasn’t been, not since arriving back home, she would admit that being in this room has put her in a cold sweat. It helps that Ephraim’s here, but she would have to get up and walk out if not for those message packets.

Mensah can count on Ephraim not to argue that MB isn't a person, and thus not to argue that it's not qualified as a refugee. Everyone in Preservation is a descendant of refugees, and even the station is built on the ship that saved their grandparents' lives for no reason except that it could.

Ephraim does, however, ask if Mensah can separate MB as a person from the purpose for which it was created. Mensah can't deny that MB is potentially dangerous, but there's no evidence it would see that potential realized. And she half-admits to herself, sideways, that her head is still on TRH, and every ping from MB reminds her of the moment when she first got a ping from MB during the rescue. That's why the pings help so much.(5) So, to Ephraim, she says the person already separated itself.

They talk for another twenty minutes, but come to no conclusion except that they'll need to have this conversation several more times with the rest of the council. As Mensah makes to leave, she responds to MB's latest request by accusing it of making this gunship specsheet up.

Mensah offers a paragraph of her thoughts on the Corporation Rim and their relationship to slavery, and how MB proves that constructs are very much aware of their situations, no matter what humans tell themselves to sleep at night.

She meets Bharadwaj in her office lounge, and they discuss the potential scope of influence of the documentary. The Corporation Rim propaganda about SecUnits was powerful enough to even convince Preservation they weren't people. It'll be years, minimum, before they can really make the difference that's needed more widely. Mensah thinks of the first incident with Volescu and how she had been thinking of MB as an object, but knew immediately that nothing without sentience could have talked Volescu through that climb.(6)

Bharadwaj says they can't ignore the bit where SecUnits have capacity to be dangerous, as much or more than humans, or their argument will be twisted to absurdity. Mensah acknowledges that, thinking how SecUnits have their arm energy weapons, and can calculate how to survive a jump off a moving vehicle, and hack entire stations. Only, it took humans to engineer that capacity, and humans are the ones who hire or build people to do all that dirty work for them. She makes a note of this in their working document, to potentially build a theme around.

Mensah's feed pings with another request from MB. Aloud, she remarks how it's listening to them. Privately, she thinks how hard it must be to respect other people's privacy when you've had none of your own without a struggle.

Hard not to be paranoid when you remember all the times your paranoia was justified.(7)

Mensah thinks about what it's like, to be treated as a thing, and having no safety, and how her time as a hostage was in no way comparable to what MB went through. She even thinks Murderbot's private name, though corrects herself to SecUnit, since she wasn't ever really given its permission to use the other.(8) She reminds herself that these comparisons aren't helpful, and that fear is fear.(9)

Bharadwaj comments about MB's latest request, and Mensah looks at it, and sends back that she believes it's real but spiky backpacks seem impractical.

Later, in the suite, the team gets down to the business of finishing their survey reports, with MB sitting in a chair in the corner. As they sort through documents, MB asks if Mensah didn't receive "the Retrieved Client Protocol". Mensah says no, she didn't, and thinks how she didn't want a corporate digging around in her feelings in the name of trauma treatment. She almost adds that she doesn't need it, but, that would be a dead giveaway that she does, and why lie to the only people who know?

MB asks if trauma treatment is free here, and Arada naively asks if it's not free in the Corp Rim. Pin-Lee gets grumpy about the company letting Mensah getting abducted then wanting her to pay for treatment, and MB's face makes "a brief, eloquent ironic twist" that Mensah interprets to mean the treatment definitely isn't free for corporate clients. In response, she tells it that there's no RCP here. Overse clarifies that there is, it's just not called that. Bharadwaj says Volescu's been attending the trauma unit at a certain medical station on planet, and even station medical has some therapeutic treatment, though it's not as intensive.

Mensah, uncomfortable, pours herself another cup of tea as she says she "might have time later" for it. When she looks up, MB is looking straight at her. Mensah flushes, knowing she's been caught in her lie, but Gurathin saves her by asking if there's more sweetener syrup. Mensah offers to get more, to stretch her legs, and avoid an awkward confrontation.

Having spent so much time recently in the Corp Rim, Mensah half-marvels at how everything, the food supplies in the hotel pantry, even the bathrooms and showers, all of it is free on the station and the planet, even to visitors.(10)

As she closes the door to the pantry, she's startled by a stranger standing nearby. He asks if she's Dr. Mensah. She gasps, steps back, and bumps into MB. He says he's just a journalist. MB tells the man station security is seconds out, and starts counting backwards. He flees, and everyone else comes out of the room to see where MB went. Ratthi says it jumped right over him on its way to help. Mensah tells them to go back in, she's fine and she'll talk to security. They go, more because they're used to taking her direct orders as their mission lead than because she's a planetary leader.

Security notify Mensah in her feed that they've apprehended the journalist, and will vet his story before they decide what to do with him, but they'll be in for a statement shortly. Mensah knows she has to get herself together before then, and MB's looming presence, radiating heat as comfort, stands out to her. It offers to let her hug it. Mensah says she knows it doesn't enjoy that, but it says it's not terrible, with an ironic tone.

But, Mensah doesn't want to lean on someone who doesn't want to be leaned on. She doesn't want to rely on it for emotional stability when it has its whole life to figure out. She can only give it space and time… or, perhaps a little something.

She asks if any of its requests were serious, and it says it would like some little intel drones. Mensah remembers how useful they were on the survey, and says she'll try. MB asks if that's a bribe, and Mensah says that depends on whether it works.(11) MB admits it's never been bribed before, falls silent for a moment, then suggests Mensah get the trauma treatment the others mentioned.

Mensah, aware that her hesitation is founded in exactly the problem the treatment would solve, lies and says she'll try to do it. MB snorts skeptically, and she knows it's not buying. But, it doesn't say anything, just slips away as security reach the outer lobby.(12)

=====

(1) How do you think the title relates to the content of the story, now, after presumably having read it? The sub-parts of the title are all ways of defining the main one: your home might be described in terms of all four of those things. We usually see them used to describe animal behaviour, though: animals live in habitats, they live in typically defined ranges, they occupy niches in their territories. How does this affect how you think of the story told within? (For me, I take what I think is probably a very simplistic view of it, and interpret the story as being an examination of Mensah trying to return home but finding that she doesn't fit into her old space the way she once did, she has changed, and that changes all the associated factors even though they aren't addressed much directly in this story.) (2) The choice of POV and tense is so interesting here, don't you think? Murderbot's books have been documenting its past. This is narrated as-it-happens, with a certain tension that MB's books don't invoke. Which is extra curious, because nothing particularly tense happens here, action-wise. Do you think the tense choice is intended to make up for that and amplify the interpersonal drama, or for does it have some other purpose? (3) Would she? If she'd been surveying a planet that didn't have alien remnants, she might not have pissed off a corp like GrayCris, might not have ended up held hostage like that, might not have had attempts on her life. I mean, she might still have, eventually, but not necessarily. (4) I believe this is mostly in reference to the plan to use the documentary as anti-Corporate propaganda to initiate operation: free and rehabilitate the constructs. At least, that's what I get from the propaganda discussion later on.

(5) God, my heart, their friendship. We've only ever seen it from MB's side. It has a good idea of how Mensah feels around it, but it's something else to see the total reciprocation inside her head. (6) A beautiful callback to the first book. MB didn't even realize that it had done this, it had so much else going on in that moment, and yet it showed such kindness even as its MedSystem told it not to bother. Preservation might have been more open to recognizing that for what it was, making it rather fortunate for all involved that they did take notice, but it's an interesting hint that MB was Being A Person for a lot longer than it wanted to admit. (7) Which, of course, goes for both of them. So many of her comments throughout this are about both herself and MB. It's rather lucky she's had such a solid rock to lean on, because if she were refusing trauma treatment and didn't have MB around… I don't think she'd be as functional as she is. (8) I frequently see folks in the Tumblr tags posting about how it feels weird to call it "Murderbot" when we, personally, haven't been given permission to use that name. And I totally get that! It's important to respect what people ask to be named in the real world, and MB, as a fictional character, isn't really in a place to give us that permission as readers. However, I fall on team "use Murderbot as readers" for three reasons: that's the name of the series which gives us implicit permission to use it by the author, MB isn't a real person to tell me not to call it by the series that's named for it or pick another name we can use instead, and SecUnits are referred to often enough that it would be confusing at best to try to do this project without naming MB somewhat uniquely. If MB were real and didn't die of embarrassment at having its private name the only one it's known by, I would absolutely respect its wishes.

(9) The phrasing here is so vague, I genuinely can't tell if we should interpret that Mensah is forgiving herself for making that empathetic connection, or if she's suggesting she should stop making the comparison because it's potentially harmful to MB. I love that ambiguity, myself. You can learn a lot about yourself by what you project into it. (10) I feel like part of this is for the reader's benefit, but I can definitely see her realizing not to take it for granted. Particularly on the heels of the conversation about corporate trauma treatment protocol not being free, some part of her recognizes how lucky, how privileged she is, in her way, to have access to whatever she needs, with no questions asked. We know she takes the treatment later, as part of her deal with MB when it goes on Arada's survey mission. Perhaps we get this short story as a sort of… insight? into her first steps from where she was in Exit Strategy to where we saw her in Network Effect. Or maybe I'm overthinking it. (11) I dunno about you, but I can definitely see how her family would interpret this as some sort of flirting. Like, we know there's nothing romantic or sexual about it. MB is an aroace icon. But, the intimacy of the banter, you know? So often people don't have relationships like that outside the romantic and sexual ones, so people who don't think that's possible or reasonable project their assumption that intimacy can ONLY be romantic-sexual onto perfectly platonic interaction. (I will not start my rant about sexualizing the behaviour of children, but know that it exists and is absolutely related to how people project their defaults onto blank slates.) (12) So, how do you think MB feels about all this? It feels safe enough to leave her alone as security approaches, but what's it thinking about Mensah's state of being? How do we get from this interaction, to her taking the treatment in the bargaining conditions?

[bekah-reading]

112/120

4/5

This was a nice, sweet very sweet short story for the Murderbot diaries series. I hadn’t read it when I should have, but since the new book is coming out on the 14th I want to have read all of the series. I just need Compulsory next.

[rosewind2007]

This bit from Home seems to be seen as contradictory by some:

It’s slipped in front of her, reassuring lean bulk between her and the intruder

When I read it, I thought of the definition of lean as being eg OED

3. Of flesh: Containing little or no fat (as distinguished from muscular tissue)

or Merriam-Webster

b : containing little or no fat

Though, admittedly, on reflection these are perhaps definitions more associated with meat which is intended for consumption than with flesh on a person?

But, to me, the description conjures up the concept of a solid muscular frame, but one which is spare or rangy? Muscular but without fat…

[thirtheenprimes]

Home: Habitat, Niche, Range, Territory us actually really good alright. I feel like I need to read it a few times every time I pull it up. Mensah's POV is great, it gives such good outside perspective on SecUnit. She notices that normally it's cool, but sometimes it's really warm, because that's it's go-to physical comfort for upset humans.

It isn't flaunting it's abilities to break the rules to her, it's just not hiding the fact that it is. It trusts her not to turn it in.

[libertyreads]

Book Review #98 of 2023--

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells. Rating: 4 stars.

Read on August 2nd.

Since this story is only 12 pages long, we'll keep the review nice and short as well. In this story, we follow one of our main characters who is not Murderbot and we get to see them try to understand what their home looks like following their rescue. What does their life look like? How are they handling the oncoming PTSD? Does the real world give them any grace? And it was great to read from this character's perspective. I think it adds to the next book in the series. I just don't find that the 12 pages is enough to really give me a chance to settle into their perspective. As always, I prefer longer and longer works and this just wasn't long enough for me. But as this is my first time reading this short story I'm excited to see how it helps move the plot and characterization forward in Network Effect which I will also be reading this month.

[murderbot-moodboard]

The short story is short and yet packs such a punch.

Oh there's a short story from dr. Mensah's perspective. THE COLONY SHIP SAVED THE ANCESTORS OF PRESERVATION??? THATS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THAN I THOUGHT

Oh no. Oh no oh dr. Mensah. Please go to therapy. Oh no. Oh i love secunit. I love seeing secunits love for dr. Mensah straightforwardly in its thoughts and actions (like in its povbooks) but just as much now less than subtly in its actions through Dr. Mensah's eyes. AAAA it was instantly with her. It instantly got rid of the journalist. Its giving off heat to try and assuage the trauma response.

'she's trembling, which is idiotic' NOOOOOOOOO

'YOU CAN HUG ME IF YOU NEED TO'

AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!? DOES SHE EVEN REALISE WHAT INSANE GESTURE OF LOVE THAT IS FROM SECUNIT?????

'no no that's alright I know you don't care for it' SHUT UP!! SHUT!!! UP!!!!A AAAAAAAA. That decency that strength that empathy that intelligence that leadership is what had murderbot fall in love with Dr. Mensah BUT AYDA IT IS NOW DYSFUNCTIONAL YOU NEED TO GO TO THERAPY

'its not terrible' OH MY GOD!!!! OH MY GOD!!!! OH MY GOD JUST HUG IT!!!!

'there are tears in her eyes, because she's an idiot' Dr. Mensah.... Dr. Mensah no ..no....no :'(((

'she can't lean on a being that does not want to be leaned on' SHE IS SO MORAL AAAAAAA I LOVE HER SO MUCH but AYDA secunit is offering. Do you think murderbot has ever offered this to anyone?? It is INSISTING HELLO??

Oh my god. I KNEW Dr. Mensah didn't actually bribe murderbot. She gave those drones because shes anxious about using murderbot and wants to give it SOMETHING. something that it actually wants. Instead of taking from it.

Can everybody SHUT UP!!!!

[art-of-a-space-duck]

Welp, here be my interpretation of Murderbot.

Thank you to @tindoiimu for input on the inorganic colors, @nerdwingblogs for giving me the idea that it changes colors (I get choice paralysis when it comes to color schemes), and both of them plus @tytoalbias for encouraging me to let my furriness bleed into its design.

Some extra bits of info

It starts out at 7 feet tall. Is later 6 feet and 11.2 inches tall

Its skin tone is based on the Subterranean cover for Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (Book 4.5).

The skin and muscles on its head act similar to those on its back, and since the company did not intend its security units to have hair longer than a buzz cut, its head hair reacts the same as the finer hairs on the rest of its body

I’m explaining away the claws and fangs as the company trying to make their secunits more intimidating, but the real world reason is I keep calling Murderbot a cat with anxiety and just decided to run with it.

If you wanna see what I imagine is inside it click here.

[storkmuffin]

Thank you to all those who recommended I read Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory! And special thanks to @gamebird who shared the link for it. I will say that it's kind of funny that I this book, which was originally provided without cost, and is still available for free was going to be charged at 1.99 of the hard currency (not my local one, which is currently very disadvantaged in comparison) from the vendor I bought Books 3 and 4 from. Has a distinct tang of the Corporation Rim, doesn't it?

[aliteratepenguin]

She takes a step back and bumps into someone’s chest. Before she can panic, the words are in her feed: It’s me. It’s Murderbot—SecUnit—who was monitoring her feed or watching on a surreptitiously installed camera or had simply heard her gasp from down the corridor and through a room full of conversation.

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells

[the-knights-who-say-book]

i finally started reading murderbot and i am hooked. do you know where i can find the short stories?

yep! Compulsory, the prequel short, is on Wired Magazine

and Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory, which takes place after Exit Strategy, is on Tor.com

enjoy!

[swampsiren-piratefairy]

Okay. Okay, I have to ask. I saw some cool ass artwork but I have no context and now I have to ask.

What is Murderbot?

Ohhhh my goshhhhh!! Thank you for asking! 😍

The Murderbot Diaries is a series of 5 novellas and 2 novels by Martha Wells

6 /7 of the books are action/adventure sci-fi and one is a sort of detective in space thing.

Murderbot (my beloved) is a construct created of organic human clone tissue and non-organic mechanical parts. It is a deadly weapon and a tool for corporate surveillance, but it’s also a person. It’s got a “governor module” in its brain that will torture or kill it if MB does not follow commands from the company that owns it or from the people that lease MB for security.

But when Murderbot hacks its own governor module, finally freeing it, what will it do? Go on a killing spree?? Get revenge on its corporate overlords???

Answer: it will watch soap operas and keep its day job.

I love Murderbot, it’s the best and most relatable character ever (my roommate says, no. MB is not that relatable. It’s just the autism). I love the stories and the sense of humor. I found the books last year, went feral for them, and bought a complete set of signed copies.

Thank you, The Void for your ask!! I love to talk about Murderbot!!!

Pro-tip: if you do read the books, go for chronological book order rather than publishing order (I put my preferred reading order under the cut)

(Book 1) All Systems Red

Story story “ The Future of Work: Compulsory” (this is a prequel for ASR, but it works well here)

(Book 2) Artificial Condition

(Book 3) Rogue Protocol

Optional Short Story “Obsolescence” (MB is not in it, but it takes place in the same universe and chronologically happens well before the events of All Systems Red. It’s an entirely optional read, but it provides a little context for one paragraph in Exit Strategy)

(Book 4) Exit Strategy

Short Story “Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory”

(Book 6) Fugitive Telemetry

(Book 5) Network Effect

(Book 7) System Collapse

[handern]

I was a little confused by the Murderbot Diaries timeline since the books aren't numbered so I made a little chart, hope it might be helpful :

0 – Compulsory (short story : set after Murderbot hacked its module but still worked for the company, some time before it met the All System Red crew)

1 – All Systems Red (Novella : first story part 1 aka ‘trying to get my stupid clients away from planet monsters AND murderous humans’)

2 – Artificial Condition (Novella : first story part 2 aka ‘two bots pretending to be one human for a job interview meet some grad students who got fucked over by capitalism’)

3 – Rogue Protocol (Novella : first story part 3 aka ‘I did not care if these humans and their pet bot lived or died Murderbot said, caring deeply as it turned around to help strangers’)

4 – Exit Strategy (Novella : part 4 and finale of the first storyline, aka ‘well well well, if this isn’t the consequences of everyone’s actions including my own’)

4.5 – Home : Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (short story : set right after Exit Strategy, from DrMensah's POV)

6 – Fugitive Telemetry (Novella : published after Network Effect, actually a flashback, aka 'Murder on the Preservation Station Express')

5 – Network Effect (the novel : published before Fugitive Telemetry but currently the latest point in the timeline. 'aliens aren't real and bots can't have babies, right?')

7 – System Collapse (novel. Will be published in November)

There is also a third short story "Obsolescence", set in the Murderbot universe, but long, long before the time of Murderbot and co. It's available in a free anthology "Take us to a better place"

The 6 books are available as audiobooks, ebooks and hard covers on Martha Wells' website

[gamebird]

Murderbot Diaries resources

This is my current hyperfixation.

THE SHORT STORIES

There are two short stories officially connected to the Murderbot Diaries universe, both of which can be found for free online.

Compulsory — published 2018, by Wired.com as part of "The Future of Work" collection. Takes place prior to All Systems Red, sometime after Murderbot has hacked its governor module. There is a revised version of this released summer 2023 with an extra 500 words, purchasable.

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory — originally given free with preorders of Network Effect. Takes place after Exit Strategy, from Mensah's point of view, as she grapples with post-traumatic stress and Murderbot's refugee status on Preservation.

Obsolescence - not officially part of TMBD canon, but by the same author, referenced in Exit Strategy, and appears to be in the same universe.

THE DISCORD

There are multiple TMBD discords, but the one I know of with an open invite is New Tideland.

THE COMMUNITY

I'm the admin of the Tumblr community for The Murderbot Diaries. DM me or reply for an invite if you would like to join!

MY TMBD FANFICTION

My TMBD Fanfiction divided by AU, in chronological order, with suggested reading order.

The Locked Tomb short stories: As Yet Unsent The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex