Activation Degradation
{4.5/5} “It hadn’t been tasked with reconnaissance. It had been tasked with termination. It was to kill, not study. Why did so many of Unit Four’s instincts contradict its direct orders?”
Activation Degradation by Marina J. Lostetter, published in 2021
Unit Four is a robot who is periodically reassembled anew. It works at a mining operation at Jupiter. But now it has been awakened to fight off some alien invaders, about whom very little is known. Unit Four has organic parts, and those parts have the urge to run away from the fight. When its communications, weapons, and shields all get knocked out it decides the only thing to do is ram the alien ship.
This novel has a main character you will want to follow wherever it goes.
It’s about living your life while believing incorrect things about yourself and your universe.*
The book has the only bees on a spaceship that I can recall.
This is the 4th book I’ve read by Lostetter. I previously reviewed Noumenon Ultra.
Spoiler alert
*It’s actually a human, and the supposedly alien invaders are also human.