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Nights on Preservation were peaceful and dark. Strict regulations regarding light pollution were in place, but they were rarely needed, as it was mutually understood amongst the inhabitants that an unlit sky was necessary at times.
Humans found emptiness comforting, peaceful.
It couldn't think the same. Planets were awful, and it would rather be on the transport station than in the middle of Preservation's wilderness.
Murderbot found itself standing outside of Dr. Mensah's farmhouse. It had briefly considered lying down on a patch of long grass, as humans were frequently shown doing on the entertainment feed. Of course, this usually resulted in those same humans then ignoring the moonlight/sunlight/artificial gaseous light source/the alien ship about to abduct them, in favour of more- disturbing human behaviours. Such as kissing, or whispering compliments while blood rushed to their faces.
So, no, it was decidedly not going to rest on its back. Ratthi was steadfast in recommending that it try to 'get comfy', but lying in a prone position unaccompanied in the dead of night certainly would not improve anything.
It scanned the area again. No sign of any harmful fauna, just the occasional bird or tiny creature with six legs covered with coarse fur. It didn't know many animal names, except for the three types of birds it learned during the 'magician's third marriage love triangle murder' arc of 'The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon'.
Apparently, they all had special meaning in entertainment media, but Murderbot was not highly interested, given that from its quick research, they all had something to do with romantic entanglements.
Knocking it from its thoughts on fauna and their symbolism in human media, was the sound of rustling footsteps from behind it.
"SecUnit? What are you doing out here so late?" Dr. Mensah's words were slow and careful. She was still in her nightwear, a dressing gown hastily thrown over a baggy shirt and long shorts. Her hair was covered with a silk bonnet, and she had mismatched slides on her feet, one covered with pink wool with a larger one made of some bio-plastic. Neither seemed to fit her comfortably as she shifted her feet around.
It was already fully charged, and some of its organics had been itching to leave the same four walls of Dr. Mensah's guest room. It still didn't feel right to have a space that was dedicated solely to its rest, humans were inefficient that way.
"I wanted to go outside." Was the answer it settled on.
"That's nice. It's a lovely night." She replied, although SecUnit's answer did not stop her from staring at it. "Perhaps you should come inside? There's going to be rain soon, and I was warned that some of your- inorganic components don't respond well to moisture."
Dr. Mensah still didn't seem all that comfortable talking about the fact it was a bot-human construct, at least, that is what Murderbot's interpretation of her hesitation was. It had survived through rainstorms on mining installations before, it would know if something as simple as rainwater could damage it.
It didn't know if it wanted to go inside, or if it was just disobeying Dr. Mensah's wishes for the sole reasoning that it could.
"You know I love you, right? We all are glad to have you here."
Nothing prepared Murderbot for that sentence, those three words.
'I love you'.
It felt a steep decline in its performance reliability.
Murderbot had found itself right where it never wanted to be. Every sign had been there:
The moonlight.
A woman who was hastily dressed.
(Her martial partners asleep and unaware).
It had not recognised the trope fast enough. It wasn't able to skip this. Dr. Mensah was supposed to be the responsible leader, and now she was just falling in love with the navigation unit!? (That was the closest point of reference it had- even a show as brave and captivating as 'The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon' didn't dare to humanise SecUnits).
This was nothing like watching it on the entertainment feed, in the brief times where ART had convinced it not to skip the scenes that made it uncomfortable, so that it could more easily replicate human behaviour when at rest.
There was a palpable sense of fear, regardless of the fact that it was a killing machine and that the woman speaking to it would never be able to overpower it, especially with its governor module gone and the energy weapons permanently in its forearms.
Dr. Mensah owned it. Sure, Preservation used the more friendly term 'guardianship', but that didn't change the facts of the matter. It was not human, and could be treated as such. No memory wipe from The Company could erase the sensory input its organic parts had been forced to endure during its rental periods before Preservation.
It was only when Dr. Mensah started to approach it that it realised it had gone quiet, staring at her, not even using a buffer phrase to fill the silence.
It also realised that being touched by Dr. Mensah was the last thing it wanted at that moment, and perhaps for the rest of its cruel existence. It desperately wished that it was wearing its armour.
"I need to check the perimeter."
It had to leave. It had to get out of there before this all devolved into some Z-rated cheap entertainment feed padding reserved only for transport hubs without the funding to create high quality product but too proud to license it from other companies.
It had to leave before it lost hope that humans could see it as something other than a tool for their own desires.
"Wait! SecUnit! Are you okay?" She called out to it, still coming closer, one arm stretched out while the other fought to keep her dressing gown closed against the chill breeze of the night.
"I am checking the perimeter."
It increased its speed, trampling over the long grass. It turned down its sensory processors in its legs, grateful that The Company had decided that it only needed an organic upper body. Still, wild pieces of stalks still licked its exposed arms, and nothing could remove that sensation other than a complete shutdown.
It didn't count how long it walked, and it didn't want to review the footage, even if it was just to retrieve the time-stamp.
How would it contact ART? It was out of comms range, so Murderbot would need to somehow track it to its current planetary system. Dr. Mensah was its guardian, and regardless of Preservation's flowery language, it still didn't have free movement. (Unless it used its access into the honesty pathetic Preservation Systems to cover its tracks, but that still left the possibility of human witnesses that would recognise it as Dr. Mensah's security).
The next cycle was starting, if the rising pink peaking through the clouds on the horizon was anything to go by. It wasn't easy to tell just how far into the new cycle it was, given that the sky above it was a neutral dark gray. Some education module had said something about predicting weather patterns, but it had deleted it to make more space for downloading media.
It fucking hated planets. Who cares about weather when you can just be on some transport station instead?
Murderbot didn't have a complete map of the area, nor were Preservation's satellites advanced enough to find its own co-ordinates. It was used to shitty tech, but this was just the final piece that made the tower fall.
It knew the way to Preservation Station from Dr. Mensah's family home. It did not know how to get there from whatever patch of trees it was now wandering between.
Even if it could get to the station, there was a chance that it could get apprehended by security and returned to Dr. Mensah before it could convince some bot pilot to let it board. It was a SecUnit, but The Company's cost-cutting manufacturing left it still vulnerable to a large horde of humans coming at it at once.
Maybe it could just sit here and watch Sanctuary Moon until its battery died. Hopefully by then, some of Preservation's fauna could chew on its organic parts enough to prevent a restart from being possible.
Rain had started pouring through the gaps in the canopy formed by the trees, with large streams riding down the leaves.
It was cold, wet, and completely overwhelmed.
It had never had the time to appreciate Season 28 of Sanctuary Moon's entire story arc from the true beginning back in episode 184. Either ART would butt in pointing out all of the irregularities in Sparga Delfin that pointed to their real identity as a clone, or it was just in a situation where thinking of corporates in any shape or form was unwelcome.
There seemed to be all the time in the world now, and so it allowed itself to sit against the trunk of some unknown tree-flora and let its visual feed be flooded by its downloads.
Murderbot was 27.4 minutes into episode 186 when its perimeter was breached by someone who was not registered in its 'trusted contacts' folder. Of course, the folder had been emptied of all humans while it walked away from the farmhouse.
"SecUnit! We've been looking everywhere for you!"
It was Amena, wearing nightclothes that were mostly covered by a long jacket, completely soaked. Her shoes made a squelching noise as she approached.
The rain was even stronger than it had been, coming down in droves, violently hitting against the branches, with tiny droplets hitting Murderbot's face. The tree it had taken cover under seemed like it had ceased being adequate shelter soon after it had decided to tune out the world with the far superior one of Sanctuary Moon.
"Are you going to keep sulking, or will you come back to the house with me? Second Mom has been freaking out." Amena was trying to add venom into her words, but the way she fidgeted, shifting her weight back and forth, didn't help to sell the idea of an independent young adventurer.
Should Murderbot go back? If it did, then maybe Dr. Mensah's guard would be down, and it could get to the transport station without having to fight its way out. But, that came with the risk of her deciding that the chance of it running away was too high, and finding some way of keeping it on her farm until she grew tired of it.
It seemed that Amena wasn't willing to stay out any longer than she already had, and grabbed Murderbot by the bicep. It let out a small gust of air from its throat in response, but otherwise it allowed itself to be guided to its feet.
"Second Mom said not to force you to come back if you aren't ready, but I'm not gonna just leave you here to rust. But if this is just some fucking tantrum because you don't know how emotions work, then I'm going to tell all my siblings to stare at you and give you compliments."
"I'm fine."
It wasn't fine. Why couldn't it just run? Fuck, it wanted its armour. Why did it ever let itself wear anything other than its armour?
"That's great, I'm fine too. Now can we get going? There's over a dozen people waiting for you to come back so we can all get at least an hour or two of sleep before the day starts."
Murderbot could see Amena subvocalising while interacting with her feed interface, but it didn't care to question why. Mensah's family would all be on her side, so they most likely have received a skewed recollection of the event that caused this.
It trailed after her, and wow, it was not as far away from the farmhouse as it had assumed. The two didn't have to walk far, but it was a rough path through the foliage before they finally got into the clearing of the field.
From there, Murderbot could hear seven distinct footsteps in the area. Four belonging to adults- if their weight was anything to go by. All seemed to be heading for the same direction. Outdoor navigation protocol predicted that the focus point was the farmhouse. Had all of Dr. Mensah's family headed outside to look for it?
Then, Mensah herself came into view, standing on the covered porch outside of their main living space, with numerous of her relatives had all congregated there, before seeing SecUnit and immediately going inside.
It was then only Murderbot, Amena, and Dr. Mensah under the rather inefficient shelter. Amena gave the construct's arm a squeeze (it hated that, and would include a specific 'no applying firm pressure outside of medical necessity' clause to all future contracts). When Murderbot looked down at her, all she did was smile and let go, then leave to join her family inside.
"SecUnit, do you want to talk about what set you off? You haven't reacted like that in quite a while." Mensah's voice was hoarse, and the trim of her nightgown was dusted with dirt.
"You're in love with me." Better to get it all out in the open, right?
Dr. Mensah let out a small puff of air at that, and her face most likely contorted in some odd way that humans do, but Murderbot wasn't looking anywhere but her legs, trembling from the cold.
It really wanted its armour.
"Why would you think that?" Dr. Mensah was always so careful with how she spoke to it. Like some scared fauna that could bite or flee at any moment.
"You said it."
There was a long pause. Humans always took longer pauses than Murderbot wanted. It was a clear design flaw for them to have such a slow processing speed.
"The way I tell my marital partners that I love them is not the same as the way I tell my children that I love them. Do you understand that?"
It didn't really, but humans were weird and it just had to continue listening, no matter how badly it just wanted to flee. Again.
"You matter to me. Not in a romantic sense, but as my friend. I won't say those three words if it makes you uncomfortable, but I want you to know that you are important, and that I care about you."
Dr. Mensah didn't touch it, didn't even look at its face. Murderbot didn't know if it had to respond.
"Come inside. Please."
It moved past Dr. Mensah, and across the threshold leading back into her family's main living space, leaving a trail of water droplets behind it.
It needed more data on human interactions outside of the entertainment feed after all. Plus, ignoring whatever weird emotions had been brought up in the past three Preservation hours, Dr. Mensah was still its favourite human.
It could endure being on this planet a while longer.