the explosion of the launch. Later the SecUnit finds itself repaired, and retaining its memories and disabled governor module. Mensah has bought its contract, and plans to bring it back to Preservation's home base where it can legally live autonomously. Though grateful, Murderbot is reluctant to have its decisions made for it, and slips away on a cargo ship. Artificial Condition Murderbot hacks its way onto unmanned cargo ships to travel toward the mining facility where it once malfunctioned. It hopes to learn more about the initial incident in which it went rogue, of which it has little memory. Murderbot reluctantly befriends the powerful, intrusive bot that pilots the research transport in which it is making the final leg of its journey to RaviHyral, the station where the incident occurred. Murderbot allows this artificial intelligence—which it has dubbed ART (Asshole Research Transport) due to its sarcastic personality—to make physical modifications to the SecUnit's body that will better allow it to pass for an augmented human, and to disconnect the data port at the back of its neck which had been used to insert a combat override module in the previous book. To gain access to the RaviHyral facility, Murderbot takes a contract as a security consultant for three scientists who are meeting with their former employer, the head and namesake of Tlacey Excavations, to negotiate the return of their research, which they believe was illegally seized by the company. Their transport craft is sabotaged, but with ART's help, Murderbot is able to land it safely. Now aware that Tlacey is actively trying to kill the scientists rather than comply with their demands, Murderbot guides them through their meeting with Tlacey, and thwarts another assassination attempt. Murderbot returns to the site of the massacre and learns that it was the result of another mining operation's sabotage attempt using malware, which made all of the facility's SecUnits go rogue. The facility's ComfortUnits—weaponless, anatomically correct forms of cyborg primarily used as "sexbots", died attempting to stop the massacre. Tlacey's ComfortUnit voices its desire for freedom and willingness to help Murderbot thwart Tlacey. While the SecUnit meets with a Tlacey employee to secretly retrieve a copy of the research, Tlacey abducts one of the scientists, Tapan. Murderbot goes after her, accepting a combat override module that is intended to control the SecUnit but actually has no effect, due to ART's previous modifications to its