39 pages • 1 hour read
Rogue Protocol
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Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of cursing and enslavement.
An AI SecUnit (short for Security Unit) that thinks of itself as “Murderbot” laments having “the worst luck with bot-driven transports” (6), though it thinks fondly of a previous transport it called ART, short for Asshole Research Transport. (ART appeared in Artificial Condition, the second book in The Murderbot Diaries.) Murderbot purchases its current transport in exchange for giving the bot access to its stored media, which mostly consists of television dramas.
Murderbot laments listing itself as onboard security and then responding to requests to provide security assistance. It travels to the onboard cafeteria to disrupt a fight between two passengers, pleased that it adopted a human alias, as SecUnits are normally prohibited from yelling “shut up” at humans. Murderbot has adopted the alias “Rin” to hide its identity as related to previous deaths (as recounted in Artificial Condition). It considers listening to the humans’ reasons for fighting a downside to pretending to be human.
The humans’ quarrels are mostly petty distractions from their imminent arrival at “a labor installation on some shitshow world” (11), where each human has sold 20 years of labor for a large payout, which they will only receive at the end of their service. During the service, laborers must pay for food, shelter, and other necessities. Murderbot considers this a worse bargain than their previous existence, which, unlike enslavement, did not mandate that they pay for their own needs.
Murderbot had boarded the transport because it was the only ship headed toward Milu, a place outside the Corporation Rim. (Murderbot fled the oversight of the Corporation Rim after the events in Artificial Condition, in which it killed several assassins sent to murder humans with whom Murderbot had developed a relationship. This took place on RaviHyral, the site of a mass murder that Murderbot perpetuated years prior, something it learns it was programmed to do as part of an act of corporate espionage.) After fleeing RaviHyral, Murderbot confirmed that nobody had located it; it saw an interview with Dr. Mensah, its mentor from All Systems Red, who first encouraged Murderbot to seek its freedom. Dr. Mensah intended to send Murderbot to a planet called Preservation, where Murderbot would have had a “guardian.” Instead of having what it views as simply a new form of ownership, Murderbot escaped. It hopes that Dr. Mensah is not being penalized for this escape.
Dr. Mensah’s interview directed Murderbot to Milu, where GrayCris (one of the large, corrupt companies that rules the Corporation Rim) failed to terraform a planet, leading to the destruction of the local ecosystem. Murderbot suspects that GrayCris’s interest in Milu has to do with recovering alien remains, something normally governed by considerable political and corporate oversight. GrayCris’s supposed terraforming project, Murderbot suspects, is a coverup for accessing these remains without restriction. Murderbot concludes that if it can prove Mensah’s claims, then Mensah can “go back to Preservation where it was safe and [Murderbot] could stop worrying about her” (16). This scheme landed Murderbot on the transport with the “bunch of contract-labor-bound idiots” (17).
After breaking up the humans’ argument, Murderbot returns to its quarters, where it laments that its current television program is unrealistically lacking in SecUnits to save the hapless human cast from death. It seeks transports that will take it the remainder of the way to Milu but finds nothing, which causes concern; the longer it remains on the small way station, the more likely it is to be noticed and its identity discovered. Murderbot decides to investigate a transport whose destination is unlisted and whose schedule has been delayed, though it cannot learn more without inquiring in person.
Chapter 2 Summary
Murderbot departs the ship without saying goodbye to the humans. It hacks the station’s weapons scans, something it can do because of code provided “so the company can rent [SecUnits] to as many different clients as possible” (23). It purchases memory cards and confirms with the transport that it is headed to Milu. Murderbot hacks the transport to feign authorization for going aboard, then erases the memory of itself from the transport.
Murderbot finds itself a bunk and settles in to watch shows, enjoying its “human-free vacation.” When life support mechanisms begin working, it realizes, to its dismay, that human passengers are boarding. It uses the transport’s (which it calls “Ship”) security feeds to observe the two humans, Wilken and Girth, who are humans armed for combat. This surprises Murderbot, as SecUnits are more common in combat than human soldiers, as their compliance can be mandated by their programming. Murderbot plans to record and analyze the humans’ conversations to determine their purpose in going to Milu.
Murderbot spends 20 days (or “cycles”) in Ship’s transport. It has become unaccustomed to long stints in transport boxes and grows frustrated with the inability to move as it pleases. It is relieved to land on Milu but surprised to find the planet’s station signal entirely silent. It consults its analysis programming to learn that Gerth and Wilken work as security consultants for GoodNightLander Independent (GI), a research group taking over GrayCris’s abandoned terraforming project. Murderbot is surprised that the project lacks SecUnits but is relieved, as its disguise would not fool another SecUnit, which would immediately report Murderbot’s presence.
While Ship docks, Murderbot adds the memory clips it purchased to its arm, which also contains an energy weapon. It programs Ship to need Murderbot’s permission to depart Milu. It follows Gerth and Wilken using security cameras, which are mostly shut down. The station, too, is only operating essential services. Very few humans live there. Murderbot finds a dark corner to hide so it can dedicate its attention to spying on Gerth and Wilken, who meet with two other humans and a “human-form bot” named Miki. The humans, Don Abene and Hirune, have been hired to assess the abandoned terraforming facility for GI. The need for in-person security arises from a problem with scanning the facility.
Wilken worries that “active organisms” might still be present in the facility, but Hirune dismisses this concern. Wilken’s questions reveal that she knows little about terraforming. Miki observes the drone Murderbot hacked and sends out “a directionless ping” (37), which Murderbot does not answer. Murderbot checks its signal security, wondering how Miki could have sensed its presence.
Murderbot assesses the station, surprised at how few security cameras are present. It learns that the humans will spend 12 hours assessing the terraforming facility; this is enough time for Murderbot’s search, but it cannot access the facility without working with Miki. When it pings Miki, the human-form bot is friendly and gullible, though it worries over the safety of Don Abene, whom it considers a friend. Miki is surprisingly astute, noting that the name Rin doesn’t “feel like” Murderbot and, therefore, cannot be its real name. Even so, it agrees to go along with Murderbot’s plan and request for secrecy. Murderbot wonders if Miki, who willingly grants full access to its systems, has been programmed for compliance or has been treated so kindly by humans that it genuinely believes they are friends.
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
The different installments in The Murderbot Diaries do not stand alone, as each novella, particularly in the first arc of four, relies heavily on the events that transpired in the previous installment. Even so, the first two chapters reintroduce readers to Murderbot’s personal stakes in its quest and the overall world-building that Wells does to establish the corporate dystopia that reigns in the Corporation Rim. Murderbot’s experiences on the first ship it takes to Milu, where it is accompanied by a series of humans who have sold their indentured labor to GrayCris. These humans, who Murderbot refuses to like as it fears being disappointed by their foolish decision-making, emphasize the Corrupt Labor Practices in Corporate Dystopias. This corruption is underscored when Murderbot reflects that the indentured workers have to pay for their own needs, demonstrating that GrayCris is exploiting them in more than one way. The humans on the ship are a reminder of Murderbot’s own history as enslaved construct labor as a SecUnit when it was compelled via its programming (now hacked) to obey human commands.
The Corporation Rim’s world is totalitarian, GrayCris’s control so complete that Murderbot struggles to believe rumors about what life might be like outside the Corporation Rim, including on Preservation, the planet that Dr. Mensah comes from, where using SecUnits is prohibited. GrayCris’s security state—it uses constant surveillance on its own people to suppress and eliminate dissent—is so robust that, when Murderbot arrives in Milu, it is surprised to find how few surveillance cameras are in place to monitor human workers. Though this lack of security ultimately reveals another form of GrayCris’s criminality—they have sought to destroy evidence of their illegal harvesting of alien remains—Murderbot’s offhanded reference to seeing humans in their personal quarters, including bathrooms, highlights how omnipresent (and also how normalized) GrayCris’s surveillance is inside the planets it controls.
Though Murderbot recognizes that the conditions inside the Corporation Rim are more controlled than life outside the Rim, it is not necessarily optimistic about places like Preservation. This doubt comes in part from Dr. Mensah’s promises to “civilize” Murderbot if it moves to Preservation, something that Murderbot notes comes with a human “guardian.” It notes that the positive promise of another world beyond GrayCris’s control is not nearly as beneficial for AI constructs as it seems to be for humans. The novel, therefore, argues that the prejudices and limitations of capitalist dystopias still persist, even outside the direct control of that corporate power.
Although this power differential—in which humans are given more autonomy and agency than AI constructs or bots, even if they are still exploited by GrayCris and the other corporate entities in play—presents numerous Challenges Facing Authentic Relationships Between Humans and AI, both organic and non-organic sentients are framed as capable of connecting with each other. Because Murderbot itself likes to watch television dramas, it offers its recorded media to the humans aboard the first Milu-bound ship to reduce their interpersonal problems. However, Murderbot seems to have only one connection that might be considered authentic in so far as Murderbot wants to spare Mensah from worrying about it and hopes that Mensah is not penalized for Murderbot’s escape. Despite its concern for Dr. Mensah, Murderbot views the other humans encountered thus far as beings to be managed, as is the case with those on the transport, or observed, as is the case with Don Abene or Hirune. In both cases, though, the SecUnit remains task-focused more than relationship-focused.
The extent to which Murderbot and humans have things in common introduces the novel’s theme of Artificial Intelligence and Personhood. AI constructs, in the text, have the kinds of likes, dislikes, and emotions that humans experience, thus illustrating their value as people, no matter their manufactured origins. Even so, Murderbot most commonly finds itself growing frustrated with humans, which it finds to be too emotional and insufficiently logical. By contrast, Miki views Don Abene as a friend, leading Murderbot to wonder if this is the result of programming or the consequence of having experienced human kindness and tolerance. This indicates that there are differences in the relationships between AI and humans and between AI and AI, but such differences do not necessarily disregard AI constructs’ personhood. Indeed, variety and nuance among different AI constructs may make the case for their personhood.
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