#the public transport here is alright but it just doesn't cut it sometimes so i need to know how to get around via car

[iviarellereads]

Artificial Condition, Chapter 6

(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 get close to some answers.

MB escorts the humans to the private docks. Art found a privately owned craft that seems to be used as a charter, allowing Rami, Maro, and Tapan to leave without identifying themselves. It might be safe enough to take a public shuttle, but MB is paranoid, and this shuttle has an augment pilot as backup for the bot.

As they go to board, Rami asks if MB isn't going with them. It says it still needs to do its research here. Maro asks how they can pay it. MB says they can leave it a note on its social feed, it will find them when it goes back to the transit ring. Tapan is conflicted, tense, and says they can't stay, but can't give up, and their work is so important.

MB says, more forcefully than perhaps necessary, that sometimes you just have to survive the hits and go forward. They all stare at it for a moment, but Maro and Rami nod to each other. Rami says they've started over before.

MB herds them onto the ship, and then makes for the tunnel that should lead to Ganaka Pit. Art says it will mostly be focusing on the shuttle for a while. MB can't quite figure out why it feels so uneasy, besides being near too many humans, without armour or drones, and not even "my Giant Asshole Research Transport"(1) to complain to. And, it failed its last mission, sort of. Alright, the humans are still alive, but they didn't get their data back.(2)

MB gets a transport as far as it can, then spends an hour or so hacking cameras and going into different abandoned tunnels, looking for one that might be connected to Ganaka Pit. As it finds a likely candidate and starts going down it, the feed access cuts out, but it doesn't feel like a suppressor. More like this tunnel is so deep, there are just no boosters near enough to get a signal.

Following the tunnel, it comes to a passenger tube, with power still, though obviously unused for a long time. It checks for security, then activates it, and waits as it travels. Eventually, the tube stops because of a blockage. MB unseals the lock, noticing the signs on the barricade: radiation, falling rock, and toxic biological warnings.(3) It finds a gap, and squeezes through. Onward it goes, into the old installation.

My human parts were experiencing a cold prickling that wasn’t comfortable. This place was creepy. I reminded myself that the terrible thing that had most likely happened here was me. Somehow that didn’t help.(4)

Besides the detritus and the old, damp dust, MB finds the lack of feed access unnerving. It's glad it had Art modify its data port, just in case.

It finds the central hub, but feels no familiarity for the area. The human remains have all long since been removed, but who knows what's been left behind. It goes into the storage rooms, and finds that the SecUnit cubicles are still there. MB's performance reliability drops, and it's frozen to the spot at the sight.

Reminding itself that the SecUnits were too valuable and dangerous to abandon, it slowly opens the ten cubicle doors, finding them all empty. In the end, it's not even sure why it came in here.(5) It finds nothing in the weapons lockers, and heads toward the offices, for data storage.

Finding the feed interface units(6) it thanks human clothes for pockets, something its armour never had, and uses a toolkit borrowed from Art's crew storage to start opening its arm to connect it energy weapon's power to the console's emergency power input. The regular SecSystem files have been wiped, but it finds some cached in MedSystem, a trick MB has used to help make files disappear from company notice.(7)

It skims most of the data, but one conversation catches its interest. Two techs discussing a rogue bit of code, uploaded from onsite, and whether it's malware. The conversation ends mid-word as one tech says she's going to notify the supervisor.

MB wasn't expecting rogue code to be at fault. It had assumed its governor module malfunctioned, but could it really have taken out nine other SecUnits, and all those humans, and any other bots who intervened, by itself?

It saves that conversation to its personal storage, but finds nothing else of interest in the cache. As it leaves, it finds impact markings on the walls, implying quite a confrontation, and wonders if some SecUnits hadn't been affected.

Near the crew quarters it finds four smaller cubicles, for ComfortUnits. The doors are all open already, meaning the ComfortUnits were inside when the emergency hit. MB uses its energy weapon's power again to power the cubicles' emergency data storage. It's meant for error and shutdown information, but it was used, by the ComfortUnits. It recorded the records of communicating with each other.

I stood there for five hours and twenty-three minutes, putting the data fragments together.

The ComfortUnits got a third-party patch, which the techs ordered them to apply despite looking suspicious. The patch was malware, and used the ComfortUnits to jump over and corrupt SecSystem, at which point the SecUnits, bots, drones, "and everything capable of independent motion" had gone violent.

While the mass murder was happening outside, the ComfortUnits were analyzing the malware themselves, and found its true purpose: it was supposed to disrupt the hauler bots, and sabotage the installation, not cause the massacre. They observed that none of the bots were acting in concert, and manually resetting SecSystem to factory default might be their best option.

However, while ComfortUnits are stronger than humans, they're not as strong as SecUnits, with no combat training and no weapons.

One by one the file downloads had stopped.(8) One had signaled that it would try to decoy SecUnit attention away from the others, and three acknowledged. One had heard screams from the control center and diverted there to try to save the humans trapped inside, and two acknowledged. One had stayed at the entrance to a corridor to try to buy time to reach SecSystem, and one acknowledged. One reported reaching SecSystem, then nothing.

MB gets a low power signal of its own, and realizes how long it's been holding the storage active. It unhooks itself and leaves the room, bumping into the doorway.(9) It wonders what arrangement there might have been, if the one who sent the malware paid the damages and bonds, and that company went under, and MB's (former) company thought that was sufficient punishment.

MB goes back to the passenger tube, starts a recharge cycle, and turns on its last interrupted episode of Sanctuary Moon. The tube runs out of power partway, but MB has made it back up to 97% charge, so it runs, even though it takes an hour longer.

One it gets out far enough, feed access resumes, and Art says they have a problem.

=====

(1) Once again, MB claiming people, even constructed intelligences, as its own, but only sideways. (2) And this, this is one of the most telling lines in the book so far. Not just "I took this contract myself, so I can't just abandon them". This is so much subtler than that. It took the job, and got to know, even like the humans. And it feels badly that it couldn't help them achieve their goal. A semi-abstract guilt that it did the job they bought, but not the one it wanted to do for them. (3) Laying it on a little too thick to put almost every warning in the book on this mine. (4) I don't think I'd find that very comforting either, but bless MB for trying. (5) One of the most human things it's done since the beginning of the series, I think. Sometimes you just have to know, regardless of the consequences. (6) Computers, with screens. (7) Callback to the ways it had the humans use MedSystem in book 1 to hide from HubSystem while they analyzed stuff, after its true nature was revealed. Presumably, its knowledge of the trick goes back even further. (8) Their bravery is immeasurable. They were bots. They had no reason to try to help, except the one MB formed after this: they cared. And they were smart enough to use the tools at hand, even if unsuccessfully. (9) I dare say all that information would be a bit disorienting.

[houseofwolvess]

im terrified to turn 18 next year but also i basically just confirmed with one of my best friends that we're gonna find an apartment together and be roommates so suddenly the future doesn't seem too horrible