Long answer: Not really, in my opinion, and I want to try and explain why.
Definitions
The term unreliable narrator has become somewhat watered down here on tumblr and in pop cultural discussions in general but I am working with what I learned at uni here. (Disclaimer: In academia too there are different definitions and approaches to unreliability but I'm going with the basics here)
For Wayne Booth, who first coined the term, "an unreliable narrator is one who tells lies, omits or misrepresents important information, or presents inaccurate interpretations of events as objective truth." Peter J. Rabinowitz says "An unreliable narrator however, is not simply a narrator who 'does not tell the truth' – what fictional narrator ever tells the literal truth? Rather an unreliable narrator is one who tells lies, conceals information, misjudges with respect to the narrative audience." (emphasis mine)
In other words, an unreliable narrator deceives the narrative audience (that is the implied in-universe audience), knowingly or unknowingly, in a way that significantly changes their interpretation of the narrative.
According to Greta Olson, there is "a differentiation between fallible and untrustworthy narrators" and "all fictional texts that employ the device of unreliability can best be considered along a spectrum of fallibility that begins with trustworthiness and ends with unreliability."
That means: It is not a binary of reliable vs. unreliable narrator. It is a sliding scale, a spectrum, and I would argue that on that spectrum, Murderbot falls closer to the trustworthy side than the unreliable.
General Thoughts
By and large, Murderbot presents the facts of the story to us truthfully. It does not withhold information from us that impacts our understanding of the events (see below for exceptions).
Are there moments where Murderbot's narration is fallible? Sure. It makes mistakes, particularly with judging people's intentions and their opinion of it. It consistently assumes people (especially "its" humans) think worse of it and trust it less than they actually do. It considers itself not important, and therefore assumes it is also not important to others. It also often rates it competence as much lower than it actually is.
But, and this is crucial: It does also tell us when it makes mistakes and often tells us the objective events in addition to its subjective assumptions or interpretations. By that I mean: It tells us its assumptions about the humans not thinking much of it and considering it expendable. But it also tells us the humans' words and actions that prove the opposite is true. It tells us about how incompetent and useless it is (especially in System Collapse) and then also tells us the sequence of events showing it actually is still capable of doing its job. It learns alongside us that its negative thoughts about itself aren't always true.
That's not unreliable narration.
Now, Murderbot's refusal to admit/discuss its emotions is the most common argument I've seen for MB being unreliable, and that is the one that probably bothers me the most.
Because
a) A narrator isn't obligated to discuss everything equally with the audience. MB refusing to discuss its feelings is a characterisation choice, but it's not keeping any vital information from us that we need to understand the story. There's gonna be narrators that focus more on outside descriptions and some that focus more on internal thoughts and perceptions and neither is inherently more unreliable than the other.
b) that being said imo MB's narration actually focuses A Lot on internal perceptions and feeling, in spite of it being so reluctant to talk about them. I think MB gives us a lot more emotion than we give it credit for. I would argue it doesn't actually hide all that much. It may often not be able to state its feelings outright, but that doesn't mean it doesn't tell us about them
As an example, let's look at the moment when Gurathin reveals its name to the PresAux group because that's always one that sticks in my mind with regard to MB and how it communicates its feelings
I opened my eyes and looked at him; I couldn’t stop myself. From their expressions I knew everything I felt was showing on my face, and I hate that. I grated out, “That was private.”
Murderbot doesn't actually tell us anything about what it's feeling here. It only tells us it's feeling something intense, and that it shows in its face, that the others can perceive it and react to it, and that it hates it. We can extrapolate what it's feeling of course: it's feeling betrayed and exposed and embarrassed and vulnerable (and angry but that's a given for MB). But I would argue it's not hiding that from us. It's given us the context we need to extrapolate what it's feeling because a) it doesn't want to talk about it directly so it does it indirectly and/or b) it wouldn't even know how to name the emotions it's feeling in that moment.
So I would say that MB does the best it can given its limitations (in experience and willingness to talk about feelings) to give us the most accurate view of its emotional state without having to talk about it. After all, we almost always know how it feels, or can at the very least guess at it. If it really was trying to hide its feelings from us (not from the other characters, it probably is actually pretty opaque to them most of the time) the narration would be reading very differently.
Looking at it from a Doylist perspective for a second: This is also stylistic choice on the part of Martha Wells, it's basic "show, don't tell": She doesn't simply tell us what Murderbot is feeling, she is showing us through its thoughts, actions and reactions and the reactions of other characters. That doesn't make Murderbot untrustworthy.
Now, I want to look at a few other passages and examples that are often brought up in this debate.
"the company"
Murderbot censoring the company name is not unreliable. Once we know that it does this, through Dr. Bharadwaj's mention of it, it is quite a telling characterisation choice imo, it tells us so much about MB's feelings towards the company and itself in relation to it. But, crucially: knowing the company's name would not at all change our understanding of this story. The company's name is completely irrelevant, UNLESS it suddenly turned out that the company was GrayCris or Barish-Estranza or some other corp we already know all along. We can say with some certainty that's not gonna happen, so: substituting the company for its actual name would change absolutely nothing about the story except to give us one less piece of characterisation for Murderbot. Therefore: not unreliable.
[redacted] in System Collapse
Here is another example of Murderbot deliberately concealing information from the audience, but I would still argue it doesn't make it unreliable because a) it doesn't hide from us the fact that it's concealing something. We know something has been redacted. It's the equivalent of a narrator saying "I can't talk about that right now." b) While the information is redacted, we are given enough context clues to have an idea of what [redacted] is. We know it's an incident that occurred recently that is likely trauma-related and that has caused Murderbot to lose confidence in itself and trust in its system/mind. c) Murderbot reveals the information to us voluntarily fairly early on in the book (exactly 40% in, thanks ebooks), when it becomes relevant for us to understand what's happening going forward. It does not in any significant way change our understanding of the events of the book up to that point, since we could already see the effects the incident had on MB all along. Therefore: not unreliable.
Murderbot refusing to admit it and ART are friends
What are you even talking about?
In Exit strategy it tells us "my friend ART had changed my configuration". In Network Effect is says to Amena "my friend is dead" and it thinks to itself "It’s my friend. It helped me because it wanted to, because it could."
So it later objects to the term friend when ART uses it after reinitialising and when Ratthi tries to talk to MB about their "friendship", and gave us "mutual administrative assistance" why? Because it's angry at ART. It feels betrayed and used and it's rightfully pissed off, so it can't think of ART as a friend in that moment. That's genuinely how it feels right then, and even if not: it's not uttering that refusal to us as the audience but to the characters in the story (ART and Ratthi). A character lying to other characters is not the same as the narrator lying to the audience. Therefore: not unreliable
MB not talking about/refusing to notice the relationships of the humans around it
I don't even know where to start with this one. Murderbot also routinely skips over descriptions of survery work and other things it finds boring because it simply does not care about them. As I said above, a narrator isn't obligated to discuss everything equally with the audience. In fact, a narration by necessity needs to limit a narrator's perception to what is relevant and important, because it is simply not possible to describe absolutely everything in equal measure. If Murderbot paid a lot of attention to human relationships, this would be a different kind of story. Therefore: not unreliable.
Murderbot has no emotional intelligence
Again, this isn't really a question of being unreliable at all, but I've seen it brought up in this context and it pissed me off so I wanna discuss it.
Literally one of the first things that happens in the series is MB talking to a terrified and in shock Volescu with gentleness and empathy and understanding, knowing exactly what it needs to say in order to keep him calm and get him out of danger, to the point that everyone in the survey is amazed at how well it handled this very emotionally fraught situation... only for some people to turn around and say Murderbot has no emotional intelligence?? the gall tbh
Having a negative self image (and a shitton of trauma) does not equal having no emotional intelligence. And let's not forget that Murderbot's bad opinion of itself and SecUnits it completely justified by its experiences and informed by a lifetime of being enslaved, objectified, abused and de"human"ised/having its personhood denied. Pretty much everyone it's ever met up until ASR has been either afraid of it or treated it as an appliance/toy, or both. It has limited education, very restricted life experiences and almost no actual interaction with other people, outside of receiving orders. Given all of that, I actually think it's shockingly sensitive and emotionally intelligent and regulated.
Murderbot didn't tell us about Ganaka Pit
Now this is the one instance where I can see the argument about Murderbot being unreliable applying.
With the very first sentence of ASR ("I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module ...") it at least implies that it hadn't done any mass murdering. It never tries to hide the fact that it and SecUnits in general are dangerous and murderous (see: murderbots), but iirc it doesn't give us any hint of Ganaka Pit until Gurathin brings it up about halfway through the first book (unlike the TV show where I think there are indistinct flashbacks from the start).
It does admit to the narrative audience at that point that it hasn't been entirely truthful and gives more context/information. It also admits that its memory of the incidence is unreliable and its conclusions about what happened are largely conjecture ("I think that’s what happened. ... And it makes a better story that way.")
I wouldn't say that this information significantly changes the story as we experienced it thus far, but it does change the way we perceive Murderbot. Personally I would call it more of a backstory reveal than an instance of unreliable narration, but an argument can definitely be made. You could say that Murderbot represented itself as safer than it was for the first half of the book (although I don't think it represents itself as very safe at all; it does keep emphasising how dangerous and horrifying it is.)
Therefore: Possibly unreliable.
Conclusion:
Murderbot is a fallible but mostly trustworthy narrator. It may underreport and misevaluate some things, but mostly those that are subject to subjective interpretation anyway (emotions, internal and external perceptions). When its assumptions or interpretations are incorrect, the audience is often made aware of that. As far as we can tell (i.e. unless there is a major plot twist coming up in the next book) there is no narrative or authorial intent of deceit or obfuscation.
Interpretation of narrative texts is not an exact science, and there are scholars who would say that narrative and authorial intent matters less than generic readers' assumptions, but this is what I, as a reader, believe given the information we receive from the text.
If you believe that Murderbot is an unreliable narrator, I likely won't change your mind. But I think what I and others are wary of in this debate is people using the "unreliable narrator" label as an excuse to pick and choose which parts of canon to believe and which to dismiss in order to reinforce their own ideas/preferences, rather than engaging with what the text actually gives us.
Take this as food for thought, if you want, and maybe sit with it for a while.
Or not, I can't make you.
Sources:
Here and here for a general refresher on Unreliability
For the direct quotes
And credit where credit is due: All of this is built around my contributions to a discussion on the topic on the MB 2.0 discord. I only used my own words for this essay but of course my analysis was partially informed by thoughts and arguments brought up by others involved in that conversation.
I think it's also important that using "the company" is a very deliberate authorial move as part of her efforts to avoid there being one big bad or the true villain behind everything that can be defeated for happily ever after. It's such a brilliant move to me because it's both an excellent piece of characterization and a way of emphasizing the kind of banality of evil through the series; the way a system and set of cultural operating procedures lead corporations and individuals to do horrible things to each-other and the ways it impacts everyone from people neck deep in the hierarchy to oppressed non-persons at the bottom rung to people outside the CR but still impacted by it. So the author is deliberately concealing something from us, so maybe that's whatever the author version of unreliable narrator is, but it's a small detail that is pretty load-bearing narratively.
I think Ganaka Pit is also a little like the does Murderbot have emotions or [redacted] bits, because the story leading up to the reveal is very clearly centered in its mind and emotions and self-perception. ASR starts with what is retroactively an allusion to its thoughts and fears about having been a murderbot there, and from there until it learns the truth (and then through the recovery after its' confronted that, really) there's this raw, gaping [redacted] feeling in the story around what we learn is Ganaka Pit in so much of what it says and how it acts and what it thinks about itself.
I agree it's probably the most unreliable narrator we get in the series, but I also think it's similar to how lack of a decision is still sometimes a decision. Ganaka Pit is everywhere in what Murderbot doesn't say about it. It doesn't want to think about it or talk about Ganaka, but can't help having that trauma inform its perceptions and actions, and we get the reveal as it continues to come up against the fact that it can't move on to being free or knowing what it wants until it confronts what happened and decides who it is and wants to be. The way Murderbot moves through time and the amount of data it's navigating second by second, the Murderbot diaries are such a small amount of its full experience with sensor input, scan results, threat/risk assessment alerts, diagnostic reports, audio and camera input, hub or sec or station systems, etc. If we're going to go with 'but it's deliberately concealing something from the reader', it's arguably an unreliable narrator all the way down because we're not getting most of the information and timeline it has. The series reads to me like the report it gives Gurathin, or the result of one of its queries: it takes all the data, filters what we need to know and gives a concise report. Yes, it is deliberately not talking about Ganaka as much as it can get away with for a variety of reasons, but it's still present in the story enough we're not betrayed by an unearned plot twist or blindsided by the fact there's big trauma in its past and one big event in particular; it's been telling us that since page 1.
I hadn’t expected Balin to be able to smash through that window so fast but wow I was wrong. Falling with the shattered transparent material through the air wall and toward the transit ring floor, I jammed the projectile weapon right up against the undercarriage where Balin’s lower limbs connected and fired over and over again. Then we hit the floor.
This is probably going to be my last post about Murderbot tv - because I don’t think I can bring myself to watch any more episodes of this show -, but I really want to get something off my chest about an issue that’s been increasingly concerning to me throughout these first five episodes, on the topic of the representation of queerness and the changes the show has made from the book.
And maybe, if I can, I will give you all a new prospective to consider, since I’ve seen many people praising the writer’s representation of Murderbot’s asexuality and aromanticism, just because they said they respect it in an interview. But I encourage you to instead look at what they have actually written in the show, and not just what they claim to believe in, when it comes to queer representation.
There are a few different but interconnected examples I want to talk about, starting what I’ve just mentioned,
1) Murderbot’s asexuality
First of all, Murderbot in the tv show is still asexual and aromantic, there’s no doubt about that. My issue comes with the way the show has decided to represent it, and the many, many scenes where Murderbot is actively tormented and harassed because of it.
In the books, Murderbot expresses its disgust and disinterest for sexual and romantic relationships plenty of times. It is an important part of its personality, and a constant source of exasperation for it.
But nobody else, human or bot, is ever concerned with Murderbot’s lack of romantic or sexual interest (with the exception of Amena in Network Effect, but even then she is talking about MB’s queerplatonic relationship with ART, using relationship terms because that’s what it she knows best and what best describes the situation (and even Murderbot has to begrudgingly admit her examples apply)).
Meanwhile, in the tv show, Murderbot’s asexuality is mostly shown through the perspective of the human characters, and/or as a reaction to being constantly sexualized. Mensah’s shocked stares at its lack of genitals, Ratthi calling it handsome, Leebeebee’s ogling, her focusing – once again, unnecessarily - on Murderbot’s penis or lack-thereof, and her kissing it without its consent.
In the show, Murderbot’s asexuality and aromanticism became an otherness, something that separates it from the humans, and something that has to be challenged, again and again and again. Murderbot is punished for it, by the same characters that even this early on into the story were supposed to be respectful of its boundaries and its personhood.
(But let’s not get into the completely butchered dynamic between Murderbot and the PresAux’s humans, that’s a whole other depressing mess I really don’t want to explore right now.)
Even the narrative and the plot focuses a lot more on romance and relationship drama than it ever did in the books, which brings me to my second point,
2) The Throuple
In a book series that contains plenty of healthy, established polyamorous relationships, the Murderbot tv show has for some reason elected to take one of the few monogamous relationship of the whole story, a relationship between two women, and add a man to the mix. This decision is…….. questionable.
And equally questionable is the way this throuple comes to be, with Arada having to literally beg her spouse to consent to it, Pin-Lee more than once throughout the episodes appearing to be awkward, uncertain, and uncomfortable about the situation. Just like for Murderbot’s asexuality, polyamory is not a normal part of the world-building and the characters life anymore, but it becomes a source of comedy and of unnecessary conflict.
(And I can already hear people’s objections to this, telling me that Well, the show is expanding the story and showing other people’s points of view, these are things that could have been happening all along and Murderbot just wasn’t paying attention to them.
And to this I will respond that No, Murderbot’s job is literally for the most part to stop the humans under its care from killing each other, so it is always paying extra attention to this kind of things. And at the beginning of All Systems Red, it specifically comments on how pleased it is that the PreservationAux team aren’t having any stupid relationship drama.)
Oh, speaking of stupid relationship drama!
3) Gurathin and Mensah
All I really want to say about this is why, but I am going to elaborate because once again, my personal discomfort with this plot point aside, I think there’s concerning undertones with the decision of having Gurathin be in unrequired love with Mensah.
In the books, Gurathin is the only human main cast member not to show any interest in sex or relationships. The narrative never says that he is asexual and/or aromantic (just like it never uses labels for any other character, as society has by this point evolved past its need for labels), but it is still something that could be easily argued to be true, especially once we consider that Gurathin is similar to Murderbot in many other aspects, like his paranoia, his awkwardness, and his bluntness.
The show didn’t have to explore this, as, again, it was never canon, but it is definitely a missed opportunity considering how much it connected Murderbot’s asexuality with its lack of genitals and its not being human. Having an asexual human characters would have helped to underline that asexuality isn’t something alien or robotic, just a natural part of the human experience.
But actually what bothered me most about this plotline, having Gurathin be in love/obsessed with Mensah, is unrelated to whether Gurathin is asexual or not. There’s a bigger issue, something that connects all of the points I have talked about so far, which is,
4) Men and women
Before I get into this I want to clarify, so please don’t misunderstand me, I am not trying to devalue bisexuality or to say that is not queer enough or anything like that. Arada and Pin-Lee are bisexual, and that is queer, and I appreciate the show including it, just like I appreciate them respecting and adopting Pin-Lee’s actor’s pronouns.
What I do want everyone reading this to think about, is the fact that of the three big romantic/sexual addiction the tv show has made from the book, 1) Leebeebee’s attraction to Murderbot, 2) Ratthi joining Arada and Pin-Lee, 3) Gurathin loving Mensah…
… All three of those involve adding attraction between men and women where before there was none.
(Again, I know Murderbot isn’t a man, and if it was played by a nonbinary actor instead of recognized male sex symbol Alexander Skarsgård, I would not bring this up at all. But Leebeebee’s comments, her focusing specifically on Murderbot having a penis, didn’t give me the impression she was considering it to be genderless.)
In the books, romantic/sexual relationships between women and men are so much rarer compared to relationship between same sex partners or nonbinary people that it would be funny, except that - in a world and a media landscape saturated with heterosexuality -, for a queer reader like me, it’s actually just…. Refreshing. It was comforting.
And the show changed that not once, not twice, but three time.
Started writing this in response to a post in the Murderbot tag and then realized that it was really its own post:
I think that Mensah’s “I think you can learn to do anything you want,” in the first book and Art’s “You dislike your function. How is that possible?” from the second are descriptions of two ways of being: human, infinite possibilities and no “purpose” but to exist; and bot, form follows function and identity follows form. MB is always saying that gunships “want” to shoot things simply because they have guns - you can to an extent pre-determine even a high level bot’s personality and priorities based on what you build it to be able to do. Whereas humans can drop out of Oxford to form the band Queen and then go back decades later to finish their thesis in Astrophysics because we don’t have “functions” except those we choose for ourselves, and we can always change those.
MB’s character arc over the whole series really but especially the All Systems Read-Exit Strategy story arc is figuring out that these are actually two ends of a spectrum that, as a construct, it is somewhere in the middle of - it’s not so defined by its function that it can’t have independent opinions and unhappiness about what it was built to do, but you can’t separate the person from what it was built for in the way that a human can change a job.
The first four books’ arc is about it figuring this out and articulating it to itself - realizing that it wants to keep protecting humans from danger, but it wants to do that on its own terms with full autonomy over who it protects, and how, and when (and with what compensation). Every book since then has involved it negotiating and renegotiating what those terms are and where it wants to be on that spectrum.
shotgunned all of murderbot diaries in the span of what was objectively a week but felt like a subjective 3.2 seconds and now in desperate need for more
our relationship is indescribable. people who don't get it think we're in love. fools. i would kill for you. but not in a weird way. thank you for the music recommendation. you can hold my hand if you need to. thank you for helping me grow. i want you to live a life that makes you happy whatever that looks like but i hope i'm in it. let's start a movement to fundamentally change my country's legal system for you.
I think about SecUnit 003 fairly often... mostly how it will always be a part of a set.
Some clean versions below -- warning, there is gore.
[Image Description. Two fanart drawings for The Murderbot Diaries, Network Effect. The two are split into three panels, each showing a SecUnit from the book. The first set is Barish-Estranza Units 001, 002, and 003. Each are in identical armor with the B-E logo on their chest piece. However, over 001 and 002 there is an orange overlay and the message ' WARNING - Security Unit Sustained Critical Damage - Fines Will Be Issued - Return Unit to Recycler After Supervisor Approval.' Their bloody remains can be seen under the effect. 001's head has a missing chunk, and 002's face plate leaks blood and fluids. 003 has blood splattered on it from 001. The second drawing features Three, Murderbot 2.0 and Murderbot 1.0. Three is a mid toned east asian person with cropped hair wearing an orange and black Barish-Estranza uniform. There is dirt and blood splattered across its face and bruises under its eyes. Despite this it stands in SecUnit neutral. Murderbot 2.0 is a blackhole in the outline of a person. The message 'WARNING Security Unit Sustained Critical Damage' is glitched across its panel. Murderbot 1.0 is an darker toned south asian person wearing Perihelion's blue enviro-suit. Red and blue blood, dirt and crystal cover it, except its eyes where it wiped its face clear. Its brows are furrowed as it stares ahead. many glitched messages are behind it, warning it over its failing state. Some of the glitches seem to originate from 2.0. END ID]
Bonus beneath read more -cw - gore.
[Image Description: The same set as above, but without messages, glitches, dirt, etc. SecUnits 001 and 002's injuries are easily seen, parts of their skull is visible through the gore. 001's burned brain matter can be seen, and 002's face is peaking out behind the broken visor. the blood is as mix of a red fluid, a blue coolant and a silvery green yellow oil that mixes together as it flows down. Three is east asian person with camera lens eyes and a still expression. It has thin brows and short black hair with a widow's peak. Murderbot 1.0 is a south asian person with camera lens eyes. it has longer, black-blue curly hair, thicker brows and a bigger, hooked nose. it wears Perihelion's enviro suit, a blue space suit with a metal collar and its logo on the chest. Murderbot 2.0 is a silhouette of Murderbot, its curly hair can be seen against the bright orange cloud dust around it. It is a black hole with many tendrils of light around it. END ID]
mensah: here secunit you can hold my newborn baby if you want
secunit: ew that sounds gross why the hell would I want to touch a human infant
secunit, internally: query: how to hold human infant. how to hold human baby. how to hold human baby correctly. do human babies leak. is leaking normal for human babies. is it possible for human infant to explode when holding. can baby explode if held wrong. infant reaction to deadly machinery
#no thank you #like I do see why that would resonate with some but it's kinda critical to me that it's not #not because I want to believe we wouldn't do that or anything #kinda the opposite #I see that planet as both a unique tragedy and a fucking pattern #it's unique because any planet is #but it's a pattern because Milu. because of all those mining colonies Murderbot worked. #because it's the whole use up a whole planet and move on and do it again #it's imitating the planet on the torus rather than PRESERVING it #it's Preservation saving their original colony ship as a museum and refitting their ships repeatedly #it's the fundamental difference in values between the CR and places like GoodNightLander and Preservation #it's the consumerism of the CR #that's not earth to me but my view is that somewhere we probably absolutely did that or worse to earth #and then. fucking. kept. doing it. #but yeah no to me #it's some nameless other place that still deserves the mourning of Sofi #for the naked and utter violence of Greed (tags via @graylibrary)
do you ever think about... murderbot... and its love of children... and how children naturally welcome it in a way older humans don't? the way teenagers are slower than children but far faster than adults to see it fully as a person and warm to it as soon as they realize how much safer they are in its presence?
do you think about how amena, sofi, and the others will someday be full adults? and mensah and the rest of team presaux will be gone? and murderbot will be surrounded by humans who have loved and cherished it seemingly their whole lives? how it'll be surrounded by humans, both in mensah's family and across preservation and the university in general, who don't remember what life was like before their first encounter with a secunit?
do you think about how someday some of these adults who love it will have their own children? and it will see that first gross little bundle of human offspring and be shocked by the size and frailty? it'll resist offers to hold the baby for fear of hurting something so small and frail (and also some other fear it can't name) (and also: gross). but eventually... something will happen and it will oblige and hold a baby for the first time in its whole existence while the parents run around dealing with whatever emergency. and it'll be absolutely rooted to the spot, thinking about how the baby is actually a bit heavier than it had guessed, thinking about how there isn't even any ROOM for bones in such a small body, thinking about how the baby looks doubtful and a little scared of it. until one of the human adults sweeps by and recommends that it smile and coo at the baby. well, it's not sure about "cooing" but it does get woken from its fearful stupor and hurriedly ups its body temperature, softly bounces the baby like it had seen humans do, and smiles — nervously, but it counts. and the baby... melts. the small little mouth and brows and eyes all slip into a delighted chubby-cheeked smile, still looking up into its eyes. and murderbot thinks, okay, maybe i'll try cooing. do you think about that?
do you think about how someday amena and sofi and the others will be known as nannas and grandpersons themselves, and murderbot will still be beset by children who want to watch shows with it and curl up against its chest when they're sad or hurt? and how sofi can still be found napping on its shoulder, though now she has more wrinkles on her face than naja ever had? and how amena's still bothering it for details about its relationships, anxious to see it loved and cared for after she and her siblings are gone?
do you think about how someday murderbot and its creaky old joints and worn ports are only still functioning because of a dedicated team of university researchers who'd put in thousands of hours into determining how to not let living construct consciousnesses become trapped in failing bodies and developed a protocol for training future researchers in proper construct geriatric care? and can you picture how it will have a few dozen children gathered around it at a cultural festival — their families camping in and around the ancestral home, together once again for the holiday — all those tiny voices clamoring to once more hear the story of how it and their great great great great greatnan amena defeated the aliens and saved the colonists, and could they pretty pretty please meet ART the next time it docks at preservation station?
do you think about how the children it loves growing up to become adults would never take away how safe and comfortable it feels around them?
