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Generic faction illustration for The Company
faction

The Company

the bond company · Murderbot's ex-owner

Murderbot's cheap, half-assed ex-owner bond company, whose suspended gunship rescue reveals Mensah's captivity.

Story so far

The Company is the bond company that once owned Murderbot and provided the safety bond for Dr. Mensah's planetary survey, and which Murderbot never tires of calling cheap, stupid, and half-assed. In book four it operates offstage but crucially: it has dispatched a gunship to TranRollinHyfa to retrieve Mensah under an extension of her original survey bond, only for the operation to be suspended when GrayCris got the station to deny docking. Murderbot dupes the gunship's bot pilot in stealth mode—still recognized as company property because it holds the decryption key—to learn the contract status ('Retrieve: Suspended,' 'Secondary Clients: Recognizance').

The Company, having been paid and taken Murderbot off inventory, still smarts over the equipment and bond losses from the GrayCris debacle; without Mensah, Murderbot has no legal standing in the Rim and the Company could seize or dismantle it if it realized it was there.

Appearance

A corporation represented by its logo—etched into Murderbot's inorganic parts—its bond contracts, and an armed gunship.

Role

Murderbot's ex-owner; a wary offstage power whose failed rescue confirms Mensah's captivity.

Relationships

Murderbot — Its former property, still identifiable by its logo and decryption keys; it could report or dismantle Murderbot if it knew it was here.
Dr. Mensah — Its bonded client, whose survey safety bond funds the stalled gunship retrieval.
GrayCris — The rival that blocked its rescue at the docking level and that it might be bought off by, if GrayCris could afford it.

Earlier in this series

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

Sources — 1 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 2
  • Murderbot's cheap, half-assed ex-owner bond company, whose suspended gunship rescue reveals Mensah's captivity.
Character portrait