![\"New](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/24094748\/sei205867711.jpg?width=1200\")
<\/div>\u201cI was looking at the sky and mentally poking at the feed when the bottom of the crater exploded.\u201d<\/p>\n
RCH Photographic<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don\u2019t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.<\/p>\n
I was also still doing my job, on a new contract, and hoping Dr. Volescu and Dr. Bharadwaj finished their survey soon so we could get back to the habitat and I could watch episode 397 of Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon<\/em>.<\/p>\n I admit I was distracted. It was a boring contract so far and I was thinking about backburnering the status alert channel and trying to access music on the entertainment feed without HubSystem logging the extra activity. It was trickier to do it in the field than it was in the habitat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This assessment zone was a barren stretch of coastal island, with low, flat hills rising and falling and thick greenish-black grass up to my ankles, not much in the way of flora or fauna, except a bunch of different-sized birdlike things and some puffy floaty things that were harmless as far as we knew. The coast was dotted with big bare craters, one of which Bharadwaj and Volescu were taking samples in. The planet had a ring, which from our current position dominated the horizon when you looked out to sea. I was looking at the sky and mentally poking at the feed when the bottom of the crater exploded.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t bother to make a verbal emergency call. I sent the visual feed from my field camera to Dr. Mensah\u2019s, and jumped down into the crater. As I scrambled down the sandy slope, I could already hear Mensah over the emergency comm channel, yelling at someone to get the hopper in the air now. They were about ten kilos away, working on another part of the island, so there was no way they were going to get here in time to help.<\/p>\n Conflicting commands filled my feed but I didn\u2019t pay attention. Even if I hadn\u2019t borked my own governor module, the emergency feed took priority, and it was chaotic, too, with the automated HubSystem wanting data and trying to send me data I didn\u2019t need yet and Mensah sending me telemetry from the hopper. Which I also didn\u2019t need, but it was easier to ignore than HubSystem simultaneously demanding answers and trying to supply them.<\/p>\n In the middle of all that, I hit the bottom of the crater. I have small energy weapons built into both arms, but the one I went for was the big projectile weapon clamped to my back. The hostile that had just exploded up out of the ground had a really big mouth, so I felt I needed a really big gun.<\/p>\n I dragged Bharadwaj out of its mouth and shoved myself in there instead, and discharged my weapon down its throat and then up toward where I hoped the brain would be. I\u2019m not sure if that all happened in that order; I\u2019d have to replay my own field camera feed. All I knew was that I had Bharadwaj, and it didn\u2019t, and it had disappeared back down the tunnel.<\/p>\n Love reading? Come and join our friendly group of fellow book lovers. Every six weeks, we delve into an exciting new title, with members given free access to extracts from our books, articles from our authors and video interviews.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n She was unconscious and bleeding through her suit from massive wounds in her right leg and side. I clamped the weapon back into its harness so I could lift her with both arms. I had lost the armor on my left arm and a lot of the flesh underneath, but my nonorganic parts were still working. Another burst of commands from the governor module came through and I backburnered it without bothering to decode them. Bharadwaj, not having nonorganic parts and not as easily repaired as me, was definitely a priority here and I was mainly interested in what the MedSystem was trying to tell me on the emergency feed. But first I needed to get her out of the crater.<\/p>\n During all this, Volescu was huddled on the churned up rock, losing his shit, not that I was unsympathetic. I was far less vulnerable in this situation than he was and I wasn\u2019t exactly having a great time either. I said, \u201cDr. Volescu, you need to come with me now.\u201d<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t respond. MedSystem was advising a tranq shot and blah blah blah, <\/em>but I was clamping one arm on Dr. Bharadwaj\u2019s suit to keep her from bleeding out and supporting her head with the other, and despite everything I only have two hands. I told my helmet to retract so he could see my human face. If the hostile came back and bit me again, this would be a bad mistake, because I did need the organic parts of my head. I made my voice firm and warm and gentle, and said, \u201cDr. Volescu, it\u2019s gonna be fine, okay? But you need to get up and come help me get her out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n That did it. He shoved to his feet and staggered over to me, still shaking. I turned my good side toward him and said, \u201cGrab my arm, okay? Hold on.\u201d<\/p>\n He managed to loop his arm around the crook of my elbow and I started up the crater towing him, holding Bharadwaj against my chest. Her breathing was rough and desperate and I couldn\u2019t get any info from her suit. Mine was torn across my chest so I upped the warmth on my body, hoping it would help. The feed was quiet now, Mensah having managed to use her leadership priority to mute everything but MedSystem and the hopper, and all I could hear on the hopper feed was the others frantically shushing each other.<\/p>\n The footing on the side of the crater was lousy, soft sand and loose pebbles, but my legs weren\u2019t damaged and I got up to the top with both humans still alive. Volescu tried to collapse and I coaxed him away from the edge a few meters, just in case whatever was down there had a longer reach than it looked.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t want to put Bharadwaj down because something in my abdomen was severely damaged and I wasn\u2019t sure I could pick her up again. I ran my field camera back a little and saw I had gotten stabbed with a tooth, or maybe a cilia. Did I mean a cilia or was that something else? They don\u2019t give murderbots decent education modules on anything except murdering, and even those are the cheap versions. I was looking it up in HubSystem\u2019s language center when the little hopper landed nearby. I let my helmet seal and go opaque as it settled on the grass.<\/p>\n We had two standard hoppers: a big one for emergencies and this little one for getting to the assessment locations. It had three compartments: one big one in the middle for the human crew and two smaller ones to each side for cargo, supplies, and me. Mensah was at the controls. I started walking, slower than I normally would have because I didn\u2019t want to lose Volescu. As the ramp started to drop, Pin-Lee and Arada jumped out and I switched to voice comm to say, \u201cDr. Mensah, I can\u2019t let go of her suit.\u201d<\/p>\n It took her a second to realize what I meant. She said hurriedly, \u201cThat\u2019s all right, bring her up into the crew cabin.\u201d<\/p>\n Murderbots aren\u2019t allowed to ride with the humans and I had to have verbal permission to enter. With my cracked governor there was nothing to stop me, but not letting anybody, especially the people who held my contract, know that I was a free agent was kind of important. Like, not having my organic components destroyed and the rest of me cut up for parts important.<\/p>\n I carried Bharadwaj up the ramp into the cabin, where Overse and Ratthi were frantically unclipping seats to make room. They had their helmets off and their suit hoods pulled back, so I got to see their horrified expressions when they took in what was left of my upper body through my torn suit. I was glad I had sealed my helmet.<\/p>\n This is why I actually like riding with the cargo. Humans and augmented humans in close quarters with murderbots is too awkward. At least, it\u2019s awkward for this murderbot. I sat down on the deck with Bharadwaj in my lap while Pin-Lee and Arada dragged Volescu inside.<\/p>\n We left two pacs of field equipment and a couple of instruments behind, still sitting on the grass where Bharadwaj and Volescu had been working before they went down to the crater for samples. Normally I\u2019d help carry them, but MedSystem, which was monitoring Bharadwaj through what was left of her suit, was pretty clear that letting go of her would be a bad idea. But no one mentioned the equipment. Leaving easily replaceable items behind may seem obvious in an emergency, but I had been on contracts where the clients would have told me to put the bleeding human down to go get the stuff.<\/p>\n On this contract, Dr. Ratthi jumped up and said, \u201cI\u2019ll get the cases!\u201d<\/p>\n I yelled, \u201cNo!\u201d which I\u2019m not supposed to do; I\u2019m always supposed to speak respectfully to the clients, even when they\u2019re about to accidentally commit suicide. Hub-System could log it and it could trigger punishment through the governor module. If it wasn\u2019t hacked.<\/p>\n Fortunately, the rest of the humans yelled \u201cNo!\u201d at the same time, and Pin-Lee added, \u201cFor fuck\u2019s sake, Ratthi!\u201d<\/p>\n Ratthi said, \u201cOh, no time, of course. I\u2019m sorry!\u201d and hit the quick-close sequence on the hatch.<\/p>\n So we didn\u2019t lose our ramp when the hostile came up under it, big mouth full of teeth or cilia or whatever chewing right through the ground. There was a great view of it on the hopper\u2019s cameras, which its system helpfully sent straight to everybody\u2019s feed. The humans screamed.<\/p>\n Mensah pushed us up into the air so fast and hard I nearly leaned over, and everybody who wasn\u2019t on the floor ended up there.<\/p>\n In the quiet afterward, as they gasped with relief, Pin-Lee said, \u201cRatthi, if you get yourself killed\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll be very cross with me, I know.\u201d Ratthi slid down the wall a little more and waved weakly at her.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s an order, Ratthi, don\u2019t get yourself killed,\u201d Mensah said from the pilot\u2019s seat. She sounded calm, but I have security priority, and I could see her racing heartbeat through MedSystem.<\/p>\n Arada pulled out the emergency medical kit so they could stop the bleeding and try to stabilize Bharadwaj. I tried to be as much like an appliance as possible, clamping the wounds where they told me to, using my failing body temperature to try to keep her warm, and keeping my head down so I couldn\u2019t see them staring at me.<\/p>\n Copyright 2017 Martha Wells<\/em><\/p>\n This is an extract from All Systems Red<\/em><\/a>, published by Tor.com, the latest pick for the New Scientist Book Club: sign up here<\/a> to read along with our members.<\/strong><\/p>\n Topics:<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n![\"New](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/30174819\/book_club6.jpg?width=300\")
<\/picture>\nNew Scientist book club<\/h3>\n