40 pages • 1 hour read
Martha WellsAll Systems Red
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
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BetaChapters 3-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary
Murderbot accompanies Mensah, Arada, Pin-Lee, and Ratthi to explore the new area. Mensah tells Murderbot to sit in the cabin, which makes Murderbot anxious because it will have to interact with the team members. Fortunately, Murderbot is the co-pilot and does not have to talk to anyone. It reviews its logs from the previous day’s conversation and realizes that after it left the crew area, the team agreed to not “push [it] any further than it wanted to go” in terms of social interaction (39). Knowing that the crew is being considerate makes Murderbot even more uncomfortable, and it decides not to take its helmet off again.
The mission confirms that hazard warnings are missing from the maps. Murderbot tells Mensah that it is likely due to a damaged software package rather than sabotage. Back at the habitat, Murderbot completes its security checks and retires to its cubicle to watch media while the crew analyzes its data. Murderbot has found ways to avoid doing its updates: “I have a trick where I make HubSystem think I received it and then just put it in external storage” (46). Murderbot takes every opportunity to slack off on its duties, blaming its lack of interest on its shoddy construction.
When it taps back into its feed, it hears that the crew cannot contact DeltFall Group and worries something happened to them: If they were in distress, they would have deployed their emergency beacon, but with all the malfunctions, Mensah worries that they were unable to. DeltFall is on the other side of the planet, so the crew decides to go on an overnight mission to reach their location. Murderbot surmises that the DeltFall members have been killed though the team members are slower to draw that conclusion. Mensah tells Murderbot to stay at the habitat to protect the crew members who are not going on the mission, but Murderbot says it will go with Mensah. Gurathin asks why; he does not seem to understand why the mission might be dangerous. Murderbot notes that Gurathin is the only augmented human and tends to keep to himself, even though the other crew members like him. When they depart, Mensah again tells Murderbot to sit in the cabin instead of the cargo area.
Chapter 4 Summary
During the flight, Ratthi initiates a conversation with Murderbot. He says that even though Murderbot is partially a robot, it’s clear that Murderbot has feelings. Overse tells Ratthi to stop talking about Murderbot’s feelings because he’s upsetting Murderbot. Ratthi continues that he thinks the practice of having SecUnits and other cloned bots work for them is slavery. He compares Murderbot to Gurathin, making the point that they are both humans. Murderbot gets upset and leaves the cabin. Murderbot realizes this is not something a SecUnit with an intact governor unit would do. Under normal circumstances, it would remain no matter what its clients said or did to it.
That night, the satellite feed goes out, and the group loses contact with the habitat. They decide to continue the mission though Murderbot would prefer they return to the base. They arrive at DeltFall’s base in the morning, and all is quiet. Murderbot tells Mensah to land outside the perimeter and explores the scene alone. Inside the habitat, Murderbot finds DeltFall’s team members and one of their SecUnits dead. SecUnits are not supposed to attack humans unless those humans are endangering the SecUnit’s clients, and Murderbot knows there is no one else on the planet. Based on the team’s size (one SecUnit is required per ten humans), two SecUnits should remain, and they will be hostile. Murderbot contacts Mensah and tells her to retreat. Murderbot sees that DeltFall’s drones and equipment are still there, but their HubSystem is down.
Murderbot’s drones detect that the two SecUnits are waiting near the medical unit to ambush Murderbot. Murderbot uses its weapons to take out the two SecUnits but sustains heavy damage. It contacts Mensah to tell her it needs to explore the rest of the habitat to check for survivors. Something hits Murderbot over the head, and it passes out.
When Murderbot comes to, it realizes that someone is implanting something in the back of its neck. Murderbot is in tremendous pain: “That’s organic material and with the rest of me down there was nothing to control input from my nervous system. It felt like they were sawing my head off” (72). Murderbot comes back online and manages to subdue the SecUnit but finds there is another one guarding the door. It aims its projectile weapon at Murderbot, but before it can fire, someone shoots it from behind, leaving a gaping hole in its chest. Mensah steps forward. Back in their ship, Murderbot does a system scan and realizes that, like the DeltFall SecUnits, it has been implanted with a combat override module. Soon, Murderbot will become a “gun puppet” (74) for someone controlling it from the outside. Murderbot tells Mensah that Mensah will have to kill it before it turns on them. Mensah and the rest of the crew say no, they will try to repair Murderbot, but Murderbot knows they will not have enough time. Murderbot shoots itself in the chest.
Chapters 3-4 Analysis
Chapter 3 is a transitional chapter that sets up the pivotal events at the DeltFall habitat in Chapter 4. Chapter 3 also accomplishes more character development for Murderbot because it reveals how the other crew members see it. Prior to this, Murderbot only guessed at how the others saw it, and because of its self-loathing, it assumed that the team had negative feelings toward it. Now, Murderbot can see that the crew wants it to feel comfortable, even if that means they must interact with it less frequently than they would like. Wells uses Murderbot’s ability to record data and view it later as a device that gives the first-person narrator access to scenes in which it does not directly participate. This device is especially important in Chapter 3 because it shows Murderbot that the team has a stake in its well-being even if Murderbot has not yet accepted it. Murderbot has already proven that it cares about the team’s safety with its behavior at the crater site, but its decision to accompany Mensah on the mission rather than staying at the habitat to protect the remaining scientists shows its affection for Mensah in particular.
Chapter 3 introduces Gurathin as an antagonist. He is the only other augmented member of the team. Like Murderbot, Gurathin minimizes his interactions with the rest of the group; Murderbot thinks Gurathin might feel different because he is augmented, but it observes that the crew does not exclude Gurathin based on his augmented status. Rather than developing an affinity for one another, Murderbot and Gurathin develop a rivalry. Murderbot wants Gurathin to understand that it could hurt him if it wanted to, but it doesn’t due to its free will rather than its governor module.
Chapter 4 completes the first narrative arc with a resolution of the situation at DeltFall. The chapter focuses on action rather than characterization though it does contain poignant moments that reveal details about how SecUnits function in society. At the beginning of the chapter, Ratthi broaches the subject of slavery because he realizes that Murderbot has feelings. Everyone shies away from this topic because they know it upsets Murderbot, but Ratthi is determined to make his point: “The practice is disgusting, it’s horrible, it’s slavery. This is no more a machine than Gurathin is—” (53). Though Murderbot is willing to sustain painful physical injuries in the line of duty, it flees from psychological discomfort. Though Ratthi means well, he puts an emotional strain on Murderbot and heightens its anxiety. Later in the chapter Murderbot reveals that some clients entertain themselves by making their SecUnits fight each other. Murderbot has described that SecUnits are programmed to maximize damage to their adversaries regardless of the harm they suffer in the process.
Murderbot’s first-person narrative reveals that its injuries are incredibly painful, even though it can regenerate. These details make the demand for SecUnits to fight each other for their owners’ pleasure a cruel, sadistic act. While the novel focuses more on Murderbot’s interior journey, this chapter introduces the theme of The Humanity of Artificial Intelligence and Bot Ownership as Slavery.
