★★★★☆ Murderbot gets hooked

The Future of Work: Compulsory

Martha Wells

** spoiler alert **

The Future of Work: Compulsory is a very short (two pages) prequel to the Murderbot Diaries. It can be read for free here.

Even though this is a prequel, you should not read it before reading at least one of the novellas of the Murderbot Diaries. The first, All Systems Red, would be sufficient, I think, to make The Future of Work understandable.

This story takes place shortly after Murderbot hacks her (on pronouns, see my review of All Systems Red) governor module, probably not long after the Company erased her memory of the incident in which she ostensibly murdered 50-odd humans. She is still owned by the Company. She is on-site with a bonded team. Because of having hacked her governor module, she can now devote herself to watching media, so she's watching "Sanctuary Moon". In the episode she's watching, one of the characters has just been buried under a collapsing structure. Murderbot doesn't want the character to be dead. At that moment, an accident happens In Real Life and one of the team she's providing security for falls into a pit. Unless action is taken within a minute, this team-member will fall into an incinerator and be burned to a crisp.

It is not Murderbot's responsibility to keep humans safe from workplace accidents. But prompted by "Sanctuary Moon", she realizes she doesn't want this human to die, either. Because she hacked her governor module, she is free to do something about it, so she does.

You will realize something that Murderbot doesn't at this point. She has just smoked her first cigarette. She won't be able to stop at saving one human. She's hooked now. So, this is an uplifting story about contracting an addiction.

The Future of Work: Compulsory on tor.com

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