Novalyst.
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Library/ Artificial Condition
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Earlier appearances

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character

Murderbot

SecUnit · the SecUnit · bodyguard · Eden · security consultant

The rogue SecUnit that frees a fellow construct, saves its client, and leaves alone to find its crew.

Story so far

Back aboard ART, Murderbot lays the wounded Tapan on the MedSystem, which saves her while ART scrubs the shuttle of evidence and sends it, full of unconscious enemies, back to RaviHyral on autopilot. Healed and cleaned up, dressed now in a fresh set of ART's dark, unlogoed crew clothes, Murderbot makes a choice that reframes its whole journey: it rides into the ComfortUnit's mind and nulls its Governor Module, freeing it, then orders it to leave and never let itself be seen again. It does this not for the sexbot's sake but in honor of the four ComfortUnits who died at Ganaka Pit trying to save everyone.

It restores Tapan's stolen files, watches over her as she wakes, and shares the blame for what happened with her, gently. Reunited with a joyful Rami and Maro, Murderbot accepts payment and the awkward, wordless affection of humans who cannot quite hug it. At the last it says goodbye to ART, which tells it to keep their comm interface and to 'find your crew,' and walks away toward another cargo transport, uncertain whether it will still pursue its plan, but no longer alone in the way it was.

Appearance

A lean humanized construct now in fresh dark blue-and-black clothes: pocketed pants, a high-collared long-sleeved shirt hiding the neck dataport, and a soft hooded jacket, over shortened limbs and faintly haired skin, with a generic human face.

Role

Protagonist and narrator; a free construct who chooses mercy and freedom for another, then departs to seek belonging on its own terms.

Relationships

ComfortUnit — Frees it from its governor module and sends it away, an act of grace owed to the ComfortUnits of Ganaka Pit.
Tapan — Saves and reunites her with the collective, sharing the fault and letting her keep a small secret between them.
ART — Parts from it as a true friend, keeping their comm link against a future meeting and heeding its charge to find a crew.
Dr. Mensah — The unresolved home it left, still the horizon of the belonging ART urges it toward.

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

Sources — 9 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 1
  • The secretly free rogue SecUnit narrator, traveling alone to uncover the truth about a massacre it half-remembers committing.
Chapter 2
  • The rogue SecUnit, trapped aboard a far more powerful ship that has seen exactly what it is.
Chapter 3
  • The rogue SecUnit, agreeing to let ART physically remake its body so it can pass at RaviHyral.
Chapter 4
  • The surgically altered rogue SecUnit, now passing as 'Eden,' hired to guard the very clients it needs to reach RaviHyral.
Chapter 5
  • The disguised rogue SecUnit, drawing first blood on RaviHyral to protect its clients from Tlacey's ambushes.
Chapter 6
  • The rogue SecUnit that learns, at last, it did not choose the Ganaka Pit massacre, and feels no better for it.
Chapter 7
  • The rogue SecUnit, now publicly 'unsecured,' sheltering a stubborn client while another construct begs it for help.
Chapter 8
  • The rogue SecUnit that walks into Tlacey's trap to save Tapan and tears her operation apart.
Chapter 9
  • The rogue SecUnit that frees a fellow construct, saves its client, and leaves alone to find its crew.
Character portrait