Life Tender
An obsolete bag-like rescue vehicle carries Murderbot through darkness and returns six refugees safely to Pressy.
Story so far
The life-tender is preserved in an emergency locker aboard the old colony ship Pressy. Designed before modern EVAC suits, it unfolds into a diamond-shaped flexible vehicle with minimal propulsion, rudimentary navigation, life support, and capacity for six humans. Its transponder still uses the delisted colony-ship comm, now an audio monument broadcasting history, making the otherwise hard-to-detect craft ideal for a covert approach.
Murderbot takes it through the station’s shadow to the hidden BreharWallHan Catcher Ship. The tender seals itself over the refugee module hatch like a temporary airlock, then carries three adolescents and three adults back to Pressy on automatic guidance. Its awkward, low-power design and “blorping” movement look absurd, but it succeeds where a modern emergency suit would have exposed the rescue.
Appearance
A flexible diamond-shaped bag vehicle with a sealable entrance, minimal lights, primitive life support, tiny propulsion and navigation units, and an outer rim that clamps around a hatch.
Role
The life-tender is the forgotten technology that lets Murderbot redefine the assault as a silent client-retrieval operation.
Relationships
Sources — 1 recorded facts, by chapter
- An obsolete bag-like rescue vehicle carries Murderbot through darkness and returns six refugees safely to Pressy.