Bot dilemmas

Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas.

Martha Wells, Rogue Protocol

When Murderbot, as it calls itself, freed itself from human control by disengaging its governor, it hoped to spend its time watching the thousands of hours of media stored in its system. But this SecUnit has enough human cells built into its machinery to not just look human but also, sometimes, to feel human.

And thus at the end of Rogue Protocol, the third installment of The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, we find Murderbot saying, "I hate caring about stuff. But apparently once you start, you can't just stop."

This time Murderbot finds itself on an abandoned space station with helpless humans. All humans are helpless, in its view. But not all are innocent. Murderbot hopes to remain out of sight but must reveal itself to protect the humans from killing machines left to guard the station. Then it discovers that two of the humans have killing on their minds, as well.

The short novel offers plenty of action, yet the heart of the story involves Murderbot's relationship with Miki, one of the human's pet bot. The two bots work together, forming something like a friendship. Could it even be more than friendship?

Murderbot wants to get back to its videos, but once you start caring about stuff, you can't just stop.