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The hug with Mensah is short-lived.
Gurathin spots SecUnit laying on the ground before Pin-Lee does. It's always been pretty still and unmoving, but that was in a rigid way. A deliberate one. Now, it's just still. The kind of still that has to be checked for–it's not breathing. Did it ever breathe?
Pin-Lee crouches on one side while Gurathin struggles to lower himself on the other. Pin-Lee puts their hand on its shoulder and shakes it, just a little.
"SecUnit? SecUnit, come on." They jostle it harder. "M–Murderbot?"
Behind them, Mensah says, "It doesn't like to be touched."
Pin-Lee removes their hand like SecUnit's covered in more alien eggs and not a number of colorful fluids. It still hasn't moved, hasn't reacted since Pin-Lee and Gurathin first stumbled down the slope toward it and Mensah.
Gurathin is studying SecUnit. He looks haunted in more ways than one.
Pin-Lee looks over their shoulder at Mensah. "What happened?"
Mensah shrugs. She has blood across her face. Pin-Lee isn't sure if it belongs to her or SecUnit.
"It jumped. We fell," she says matter-of-factly.
The comm connected to Pin-Lee's shoulder crackles.
"Hey, uh, ground team? We're not getting anything from the feed from SecUnit anymore."
The confirmation that something is wrong with SecUnit–not just temporary shutdown wrong but really wrong jumpstarts Pin-Lee and Gurathin into action. Gurathin unzips the pocket he'd stored his hardwire in after the GrayCris habitat and connects it to his augment port. He struggles to connect the other end to SecUnit with its helmet still up, and Pin-Lee reaches around the other side of its neck to help. Gurathin's fingers are shaking and cold. Pin-Lee wants it to be the lingering effects of the infection.
Mensah stands where they left her, not even sniffling. Pin-Lee doesn't look back.
The end of the hardwire clicks into place, and Gurathin gets the unfocused look that comes with digging deep into a network. Pin-Lee flicks a switch on their comm to keep the channel open.
"I can't–I can't ping it." Gurathin doesn't sound panicked, exactly, but it's not a good tone either. "When was the last time it recharged? Maybe it's just–"
"Gura. Darling." Mensah has finally joined them. She sounds sad. No, worse–Mensah sounds tired. Hopeless. Mensah is never hopeless. "There's nothing left to ping."
No one says anything. The comm doesn't click. Even the local fauna have gone quiet.
Pin-Lee is furious.
"Don't say that," they force out.
Mensah gives her a sad, pitying smile. "It sacrificed itself to save me. To save all of us. It knew what it was doing."
Gurathin is silent, contemplative in that way he is, brow furrowed and staring at a random spot on SecUnit's armor.
"But… that's not fair." Pin-Lee knows it sounds childish, but that doesn't make it any less true. "Everything we went through–everything it went through. It can't… that's not fair."
The three–no, four–of them are silent again, but this time it doesn't last. Ratthi's voice blasts from Pin-Lee's arm.
"What's going on? Is everyone okay?"
"No," Gurathin snaps. "Everyone is not okay."
Mensah places a hand on his shoulder and gives a gentle squeeze.
"Pin-Lee, Gurathin, and I are safe. SecUnit is… shutdown."
"Shut down?" Pin-Lee erupts. "It's fucking dead!"
The comm is quiet, and then Arada says softly. "Babe."
Pin-Lee throws up their hands. They don't care if that sent a bunch of fabric feedback through the comm. "I'm sorry, okay! But there's no way to sugarcoat this or reframe it or make it sound any better than the absolute shit it is!"
"Is there any way to repair it? Like before?" Bharadwaj asks.
Gurathin looks more uncomfortable than normal. Mensah breaks the silence.
"I think… I think it knew this could be it. I think it was ready."
"That doesn't mean the rest of us were." Pin-Lee can't keep the bitterness out of their voice.
There is silence. Pin-Lee refuses to call it a moment.
Quietly, Gurathin says, "No."
"What?"
More firmly, "No. I don't think it was ready."
Gurathin detaches the hardwire from SecUnit, then himself. He coils it up neatly and tucks it back in his pocket. He pulls himself up slowly, using his improvised cane as leverage. Pin-Lee watches from the ground.
"And I know I'm not either. The five smartest, kindest people I know once told me they don't leave anyone behind–I'd say that includes Murderbot, wouldn't you?"
Pin-Lee shoots up so fast they feel dizzy. "Damn right it does."
Over the comm, Ratthi whoops so loud the speaker crackles.