Work Text:
The objective human was drenched, much smaller than a standard human should be, and was holding a ball of what was probably normally fluff, and currently resembled a mop with teeth.
“I won’t leave without Brian,” the human said, lower lip quivering. “You should leave me.”
“How old are you?” Murderbot asked, daring to hope. Rain ran down its faceplate, reducing visibility. The storm wasn’t getting worse, but it wasn’t getting better, either.
“Eight,” the human said, dashing those hopes completely. “Are you here to save me? Are you with Search and Rescue? It’s probably too late.” The ball of fur in their arms made a chirring noise.
“I’m with Spring Welcome,” Murderbot said, naming the company who had sent it out to rescue humans stuck on a mountainside with no more information than their names, which had led it here, to a child covered in mud looking up at it with tragic eyes. Murderbot wanted to go back inside. “You’re Sen?”
“Yeah,” the human, apparently Sen, said. “My parents work for Spring Welcome. They’re scientists. I help in the lab sometimes so I got to go on the company picnic. Are you going to leave me to die?”
Murderbot had not considered it for more than three seconds. “No,” it said. “I won’t get paid if I leave you to die. Come here.”
“You could say I was already dead when you found me,” Sen said, making no move to come closer and clearly fascinated with their own death, now that it was brought up. “A lot of the time the rescue robots are too late.”
“You aren’t dead,” Murderbot said. It carefully shuffled closer to the little alcove of stones and sticks which Sen was sitting in and extended a hand. “Come on.” There was visible swelling on the human’s ankle, and they were shivering convulsively. It did need to get them out of the weather, before exposure set in.
“I can be dead soon,” Sen said, apparently on the same wavelength and oddly enthused about it. “Humans can die in hours if they get hypothermia.” They did not move. The only limb of theirs that was in reach was the already-swelling ankle, which would not work to grab and drag with.
There was a subplot about small children and their interests on the latest drama ART had chosen for them to watch, Mangrove Reclamation Legacy . It had not been a subplot that particularly held Murderbot’s interest. ART had kept a chart, however, and one of the children had had been interested in mortuary science. “If you die, won’t Brian die too?” What had that child kept bringing up in conversation? “He’ll turn into bones.”
“I don’t want Brian to turn into bones,” Sen said, tears welling up in their eyes. Brian leaned up to lick at their face.
“He doesn’t have to turn into bones, if you come closer.” Murderbot opened and closed its hand. Sometimes that worked on humans.
“But I’m not supposed to have pets, and Brian is secret, and my parents are gonna be mad.” Sen hid their face in the damp mop in their arms.
Honestly this was about par for the course for rescuing humans. A surprising number of them did not want to be rescued. Murderbot allowed itself a moment of facial expression behind its faceplate. Thunder boomed. “We can say that we found Brian on the way back,” it offered.
“Oh,” Sen said, emerging from the mop. Rainwater continued to run down their face. “And then I wouldn’t have to die.”
Murderbot opened and closed their hand again, hopefully.
Sen shifted and started to crawl out of the lean-to, and Murderbot scooped them up.
“Are you a robot?” Sen asked.
“I am not a robot,” Murderbot said, heading back for base. “I am a security contractor.”
“I love robots,” Sen said, appearing to have heard only a single word from that. “I watch Robot Search & Rescue all the time. Did you know that rescue robots can go into caves and they find bodies?”
Murderbot made a noncommittal noise and kept moving. At this pace it could return to base in only 13 minutes, and then it was going to watch episode 1439 of Sanctuary Moon , which took place entirely inside and contained no children. Sen was still talking about robots finding dead bodies. Murderbot mentally started picturing the episode as it went, making vague approving noises when Sen paused for air. Really it could have been worse, the previous person it had rescued had wanted to talk about relationships.