I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again:
Why does everyone (Preservation Survey Team and Murderbot Diaries Readers alike) ignore how remarkable it is that Gurathin spots that Murderbot is rogue?
At the start of All Systems Red, Murderbot has been a rogue for 35,000 hours.
That is (even using weird 28 hour cycles) well over three (possibly approaching four) years.
THREE YEARS IS A LONG TIME!
This will include time spent with other SecUnits; “station units”; SecUnit technicians; company employees who know Secunits… Basically people (I’m including bots/constructs as people here) who would be expected to be better able to spot MB’s idiosyncratic behaviour more than some random augmented human.
On the survey Murderbot rescues Bharadwaj and Volescu from the worm . It shows its face (who of the Preservation team didn’t know it had a face?); and everyone hears its (oh so very human) voice coaxing Volescu out of the worm’s antlion-like trap.
In the book we open with the worm scene, but Gurathin has clearly seen through Murderbot’s little charade before then. By the “planning to head and check on DeltFall” scene (page 35-38 my e-copy) Gurathin knows something is up. He can see this SecUnit isn’t obeying its governor module. This is evident to the extent that Ratthi spots that there is something up…with Gurathin:
“Gurathin said, “What situations?”
Ratthi gave him a bemused look. “This situation. The unknown. Strange threats. Monsters exploding out of the ground.”
I was glad I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a dumb question.
Ratthi is bemused by Gurathin’s questions (plural, he also asks “What about your systems?” earlier in this scene).
I would note that Gurathin’s comments in this scene both follow Murderbot explicitly disobeying its governor module:
“I could ignore the governor’s instructions to defend the stupid company”
“It was one of those impulses that comes from my organic parts that the governor is supposed to squash”
Clearly the Preservation Team have all had a shock. Bharadwaj is seriously injured, Volescu has taken psychic damage. BUT despite this Gurathin is still sure there is something off-kilter about their SecUnit and he isn’t letting this drop.
He later takes advantage of Murderbot shooting itself, and proves he’s right—BUT he knew something was up well before this.
How come? What was it he, Gurathin (augmented human, systems engineer) spotted, that everyone else missed? And why?
And how come no one (Team Preservation, Murderbot itself, or the readers of the book) seems to be asking questions about this?
Notes:
Network Effect mentions Preservation 28 hour cycles
Station Units, mentioned twice in All Systems Red, and then never again…
Antlions build hugely sophisticated traps:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.0365