Yes, everybody loves the "third mom" conversation, but sometimes I just stop to admire and dwell on the literary beauty of it. I don't mean beauty in the traditional poetic sense (except I sort of do) because the language isn't arranged with rhythm or meter or or any of the other literary devices that elevates a passage to that; but in the sense of being written with such skill that you don't realize till later exactly how masterful it was.
Consider: Amena, who has been traumatized to hell and back, including being traumatized by Murderbot ("never touch me again" + what it did to the Targets right in front of her), follows it to the shuttle to ask about the Marne incident, confirming that Mensah (Second Mom) didn't know about it and asking why, lacking Mensah's direction, it interfered. "You didn't -- you don't -- care about me. You didn't really even know me then."
So Murderbot explains about protecting Mensah, including her family and associates, and how Marne registered as a threat, and goes back to the work its doing while Amena thinks about that. This leads to an actual brief Feelings Conversation, both about Amena's teenage insecurities that made her a target for Marne and about where Murderbot stands in relation to Second Mom, in which Murderbot acquits itself well and doesn't panic even a little bit, thank you.
And then ART butts in, and the reader can tell, if Murderbot can't, that it's been stewing over that "You didn't -- you don't -- care about me" since Amena said it. It flexes its superior experience with adolescents to instruct Murderbot: Tell her you care about her. Use those words, don't tell her you'll eviscerate anything that tries to hurt her.
To which Murderbot replies Fuck off.
Causing ART to double down: Tell her. It's true. Just say it. Human adolescents need to hear it from their caretakers.
Murderbot denies being her caretaker, finishes its job, checks its drone view of Amena leaning her head on the seal buffer, and tells her she needs to sleep.
"Okay, third mom," says Amena, no doubt in the most sarcastic long-suffering teen voice she can muster, unaware that she has just proved both ART and Murderbot right and wrong in the most succinct way possible. Because yes, Murderbot is her caretaker and no, she doesn't need it to say so in so many words. Because regardless of how "just ordinary" she thinks she is, she's Dr. Ayda Mensah's daughter and she can hear what is said to her even if it's said indirectly.
Okay, third mom. It's gorgeous.
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