Fugitive Telemetry is Murderbot’s bottle episode. Murderbot is adjusting to life within PreservationAux, and has been asked for its help in judging the extent of a security incident. Murderbot is forced to interact with people who know about sec units but haven’t had the chance to learn about this sec unit yet, and as such there is the usual prejudice and the attempts to make it seem like just a killing machine, which it also thinks it is, after all.
This book is primarily just an opportunity to explore the book universe more. We get more of Murderbot being an excellent investigator, we get more of what life is like on PreservationAux, and we also get more glimpses of the reality in the Corporate Rim. That last part is especially terrifying, and occupies my thoughts as a certain sociopathic billionaire plans to send people to Mars. Corporate indentured servitude is intense, with some characters in this novel desperate to leave corporate life behind, as it has defined the lives of their parents and grandparents. I don’t like thinking about a future like that, but I also think that’s the closest future we have on the current trajectories with corporate consolidation and lack of consequences for anything.
I don’t have much more to say, it’s a bottle episode and I don’t want to spoil anything. Go read it, 10/10.