Rogue Protocol
{5/5} “I considered telling Miki that I was here to collect data on possible alien remnant violations by GrayCris… But if Miki told Abene, she would ask how it knew, and I knew Miki would tell her about me. It wouldn’t lie to a direct question. Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas.”
Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells, published in 2018
Murderbot is trying to get to Milu, because it suspects it can find evidence of GrayCris wrongdoing there that it can send to Dr. Mensah. Supposedly GrayCris was terraforming there and had to abandon it, but Murderbot suspects that they were really looking for artifacts from an alien civilization. When it finds a ship going there, it just convinces the ship that it’s authorized to be on it. When a couple of passengers come onboard, it finds a place to hide — the passengers turn out to be security consultants hired to find out what’s going on.
This is the 3rd Murderbot novella, following Artificial Condition.
Murderbot is a unique character, and worth following wherever it goes. It makes mistakes, gets nervous, and has regrets. And it always does its best to protect the beings around it.
It’s about what happens when you make assumptions about people you’ve just met. It’s about people who have pet bots and people who have combat bots.
This is the 3rd book I’ve read by Wells.