1 - 20 of 203 Bookmarked Items in Post-Book 5: Network Effect
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Four times having a governor module fucking sucked, plus one time [REDACTED: FILE MISSING].
(Or: Murderbot has Emotions for 8,000 words. ART tries to help. So does Dr. Mensah, but like, in a decidedly less assholish way.)
- Language:
- English
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- 8,039
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When ART finally confirmed the PA credentials and cycled the lock, I was waiting in the foyer. I'd disabled my human behavioral code, so I didn't twitch when the whole group of humans all stopped in their tracks to stare at me.
I said, "You have boarded the Perihelion, registered teaching vessel of the Pansystem University of Mihira and New Tideland. Please state your business."
In my feed, ART whispered, You sound like a shuttle attendant.
I sound like a SecUnit.
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During a cargo run, ART is subjected to a random security sweep. Murderbot falls back into its old routine of supervising annoying humans.
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It had been an accident.
All I knew was that one moment, I’d been getting torn to pieces by a raiding party breaching one of the airlocks, and in the next they’d been dead, and then ART’s full attention- nearly 100% of its processing power- had been flowing through me, and it had been probably the most fucked-up orgasm-adjacent Thing that anyone, organic or otherwise, had ever experienced.
Not least because one of my arms had been thrown across the room seconds before it had happened.
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Bookmark Notes:
yall
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conflicts and resolutions by torpidgilliver
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
06 Aug 2021
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"The targets," 1.0 snarls. "You shot them."
"You also shot them," I point out. I feel as though I'm missing something obvious.
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Murderbot and Three have differing opinions on the appropriate level of force to employ against hostiles.
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SecUnit gets hit with some governor module-hacking tech, and subsequently has a bad time. The PresAux crew tries their best to help.
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Bookmark Notes:
OoO
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NULLverse: The Bot-Construct Disaster Squad by FlipSpring
Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
28 Jun 2025
Summary
With Networks VOID/Networks VITAL, NULLverse is narratively Complete. But I keep writing anyway. Cuz it's fun.
Consider this series if you like: feral shit, disaster, continuity of identity+memory, societies of people with divergent needs/wants, chaos, robot creation ethics, violence vs security, suffering, healing, bad puns.
Canon Divergence AU:
- At the end of Exit Strategy, the Combat SecUnit succeeds at capturing Murderbot
- Murderbot is subjected to Palisade's construct research lab as they try to figure out what makes a rogue tick
- The Combat SecUnit is A (Problematic) Character
- Disaster ensuesNote installment one, Parameters NULL, is heavily horror/angst (and dark comedy). References NULL is also deeply angsty.
Series has its ups and downs regarding angst, slightly-less-dark comedy, and trauma recovery themes. Plus some whack worldbuilding speculation. We like to multi track drift here. It’s crack it’s angst it’s fluff? We have the RangeTM
Some installments are skippable if u so prefer. Reading order is suggested but not strictly necessary if u are a flexible type. Mix and match if you want. Go crazy. I know I am.
Hope you have fun!
- Words:
- 407,479
- Works:
- 18
- Bookmarks:
- 323
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[variable_affection] by avg (AnxiousEspada), flowerguts, Lillow
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
30 Sep 2022
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"ART loved its crew. The joy and the love and perfect clarity with what it was supposed to be, what it was supposed to do. ART couldn’t understand how someone could dislike their function - how I could. Once, I had a similar clarity of understanding with my function, then I hacked my governor module and left the company for good, and I had lost it all. It was better, now, in a lot of ways. I had my humans, and ART, and our crew. But in some ways, things were worse.
I still wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, ever. I had made one good decision, to stay with ART, a few years ago, and I had been just making the same decision over and over again. It felt kind of like cheating."A 20-some year fic in which Murderbot comes to terms with what it means to have a home (or two), a found family (or several), and just what mutual administrative assistance can entail.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 204,127
- Chapters:
- 24/24
- Comments:
- 805
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- 1,033
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- 390
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This Unit: Where is my owner, Dr. Mensah?
Dr. Yuen: Well, that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? SecUnit, where did you last physically interact with Dr. Ayda Mensah?
Information Retrieval: Dr. Ayda Mensah last interacted with This Unit on Preservation Station at 08:27:22 on 4098-09-17 CRST.
This Unit: You do not have permission to access that information.
Dr. Yuen: You’re incorrect, SecUnit. We do. Answer the question.
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(When the infamous rogue SecUnit of the Preservation Alliance gets captured, the corporate techs assigned to it expected to be able to get some juicy data, or at least some insights into its cracked governor module. They didn't expect something so... basic.)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 38,350
- Chapters:
- 5/5
- Collections:
- 2
- Comments:
- 544
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- 2,419
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- 686
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- 19,961
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ART and Murderbot wanted to spend more time together, so they do. They spend it watching media in ways humans and augmented humans don't understand, and aren't capable of.
Having real feelings about fake things together is one thing.
Having real feelings about real things (like each other) and being expected to talk about them (with each other) is something very else.-
Bookmark Notes:
2, F
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Perihelion and its family
- Words:
- 13,775
- Works:
- 3
- Bookmarks:
- 208
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Bookmark Notes:
✨️🤖
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[Podfic] Stalemate | written by harvestar by Tipsy_Kitty for sisi_rambles
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
24 Aug 2025
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Summary
It had been an accident.
All I knew was that one moment, I’d been getting torn to pieces by a raiding party breaching one of the airlocks, and in the next they’d been dead, and then ART’s full attention- nearly 100% of its processing power- had been flowing through me, and it had been probably the most fucked-up orgasm-adjacent Thing that anyone, organic or otherwise, had ever experienced.
Not least because one of my arms had been thrown across the room seconds before it had happened.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 44
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 10
- Kudos:
- 13
- Bookmarks:
- 3
- Hits:
- 181
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A Lost Colony Personal Log ~ Network Effect (Amena's POV) by ImitationGame
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
10 Oct 2024
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Young Amena spent very intense time in Network Effect. Despite her protected upbringing, she demonstrates courage and resourcefulness. She was the only one who could bring out lots of honest thoughts and reactions from Murderbot and ART.
This is a re-telling of Network Effect from Amena's POV. (What did ART say to her in secret?)[Story completed / 10 October]
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it has turned into a scar, just the same by ampquot
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
12 Jun 2022
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Even when repaired by a good MedSystem (and Perihelion’s MedSystem was very good), a human body that has been damaged is not completely restored to its previous integrity.
Was SecUnit any different? Perihelion’s scans had surprisingly revealed no evidence of past physical traumas.Or: ART confronts the way its friend's body gets broken and made new again.
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an unexpected harvest by CompletelyDifferent
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
30 Jan 2023
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Dr. Ayda Mensah isn't sure what to expect on the other side of that wormhole. A hostage situation? An active battle ground? The corpses of her friends and family?
What she expects certainly isn't this.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 6,661
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 1
- Comments:
- 90
- Kudos:
- 1,639
- Bookmarks:
- 309
- Hits:
- 5,941
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But here was the thing about SecUnit: if it didn’t like you, you would know it. It would not give you an inch more than it was absolutely required to provide.
It was giving The Perihelion a whole lightyear.
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Summary
When malware takes over SecUnit and it nearly kills three of ART's crew, ART is left with two bad options: keep the governor module on with ART as the Client, or partition off part of itself and stick it in SecUnit's head.
Series
- Part 2 of Admin Access
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Bookmark Notes:
omg 🥰🥰🥰
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Summary
"What's the Aphelion?"
From the pile of discarded files, ART plucked one and trimmed it down for me, just to the salient bits. Even ignoring all of the technical stuff about AI crèches and pair-bonds and artificial empathy development left me with the simple answer "It's complicated." And that complication was about to be tangible, and something I would have to personally deal with.
"You have a twin."
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The universe is a big place, but sometimes happenstance brings two people together after years apart.
And sometimes unfortunate SecUnits get stuck in the middle of family reunions for asshole bot pilots.
Series
- Part 3 of gravitational potential
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Gamebird's Cinematic Universe for TMBD by Abacura, Gamebird
Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries, The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
24 Jul 2025
Summary
A lot of my TMBD fanfiction links together and here I have put them together in a mostly chronological recommended reading list. Most of this is canon-compliant Gen until you get to the Murderathin (MB/Gurathin) stories near the end, after Skulk. That's also where you'll find the only bits out of chronological order, with a couple stories from Gurathin's youth.
- Words:
- 462,307
- Works:
- 82
- Bookmarks:
- 38
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food [in]security, or, Monsters Are Always Hungry by OccasionalStorytelling, torpidgilliver
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
29 Mar 2023
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You are accustomed to a certain sense of helplessness. It is inevitable, as your designated role is to watch over those you hold within yourself. You can protect your crew from the vast, unforgiving vacuum of the universe outside of your hull, but you cannot protect them from danger that comes from within. You cannot save your SecUnit from itself.
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ART makes a troubling discovery about Murderbot and construct biology.
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It's not a friendship, and it's not a relationship. What is it? ART asks, and Murderbot has an answer.
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Mensah’s fourth child, Imaan, had insisted on coming along. The adults had assumed she’d wanted to see Mensah; but she’d been fidgety through the whole reunion, and had started pacing while they were checking into temporary housing. A cursory review of the family’s feed page (I had access for security reasons, but it was mostly questions about upcoming meals, reminders of medical appointments, and photos of farm fauna, so I had its alerts muted) suggested that she’d tagged along to acquire a limited edition card for the game Food Fight Apocalypsis.
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